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Things
That Trouble Me
by Doug Chambers
Publisher/Editor
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Some Radical Ideas For A New Year
1/11/2012
As I sat and listened to the republican debates, I kept noticing that I was not hearing what I wanted to hear from any of the candidates vying for the chance to replace Barrack Obama as President of the United States
I have decided to lay out a platform for any candidate who is willing to accept it, be they republican, democrat, libertarian or any other party. If they accept my platform, they will have my support. This platform is as follows.
First and foremost is tax reform. We have seen from the past recessions that the way out of a recession is not to raise taxes but to cut taxes which induces spending and therefore stimulates the economy. Whether this is in the form of cutting the existing taxes or, my preference, trashing the current tax code and replacing it with a national sales tax, the reform needs to be swift and permanent.
Secondly, cutting taxes will not work alone unless the spending is cut along with it. I know that there are those out there who would fight tooth and nail at the mention of cutting anything out of social security, but let’s face it, something has to be done. My proposal would be to leave retirement benefits alone as most of us have paid into this account all of our lives. When social security was put into place by President Franklin Roosevelt, citizens were promised that the money would go into a trust fund solely for their retirement. So let’s leave the retirement alone and do away with the disability and survivors benefits.
I have seen more than one person that has applied for and received disability benefits claiming to be unable to work and then personally seen them out doing heavy labor work and getting paid under the table. Obviously this part of the system is not working so let’s just get rid of it and save the money. Then there are the survivor’s benefits. I have personally known two people who got pregnant without being married and then had their sperm donor commit suicide and now they get survivors benefits until their children are grown. I mean, really, just because their sperm donors were losers that couldn’t deal with life and commit suicide, why should I be forced to support their children?
If these two parts of social security were removed from the system and social security was returned to the retirement only system that we were promised it would be, it would not be in such a funding crisis right now.
Thirdly, Foreign aid should be stopped immediately. It does not make sense to send our hard earned tax dollars to countries that hate America and want to destroy us. Stop sending them money and instead send them constant reports of how we are building our military and defense systems to be ready to destroy them if they even think about attacking us.
The only one that we should be assisting is the country of Israel and that is only because it is Biblically commanded by God. And for all the atheists out there that want to protest that there is no God, get over it. This country was founded on Christian fundamentalist principles and as far as we are concerned, we do not believe in atheists therefore atheists do not exist.
Fourthly, let’s return this country to a sovereign republic that is guided by its constitution and the religious principles that it was founded on. It is time to return prayer to our schools and maybe the school shooting, teen pregnancy, gangs and other unruly aspects will all disappear. It is time to do away with Planned Parenthood and stop our children from having abortions. Then maybe we, as parents, can see our way to teach our children that sex education means not having sex until you are married.
It is time to stop trying to take away citizens guns and maybe start encouraging the best form of gun control, which is to own a gun. If every citizen in this country owned a gun, imagine how far the crime rate would drop.
It is time to stop giving our elected officials royalty status. They are servants! We are the boss! Elected officials work for us. If they are not doing their job, we need to fire them. We need to demand that Congress live by the same laws as we do. No more special retirement plan. They pay into and live with social security just like we do. No more special medical plan, they buy insurance just like we do and pay their deductibles and copays just like we do.
Then comes unemployment. How much sense does it make to pay people to not work? If you lose your job, maybe we can assist for one or two months, but if you cannot find a job in that amount of time, then you are on your own. We are not going to go to work every day and work hard so you can sit at home while we pay your bills. We have our own bills to pay and we do not need any more to pay.
This is followed by welfare on the same basis. Now there are some cases where someone is truly unable to work and need assistance and for those we should provide assistance. But when I hear someone complaining that they cannot work because their back hurts and then see a quadriplegic rolling down the sidewalk on their way to work, I realize that there is something wrong with this system. It is time that we forced our citizens to stand up for themselves and provide for themselves instead of depending on someone else to take care of them.
This is America, the land of the free. That does not mean come on in everything is free. Our fore fathers came here to start a new life that was based on hard work and religious freedom. We need to return our country to those principles.
In case you haven’t heard, there is an election coming up this year. It is time to make some changes. Let’s get it started.
Remember in November. I Vote!! Will You?
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the Midwest. You may reach Doug at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2012, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Term Limits, Why We Need Them
01/04/2012
We hear a lot of talk these days about term limits for our elected leaders, not only in Washington but in our state and local governments as well. There are pro’s and con’s to this argument and I have always been of the opinion that the people decide the term limit by of their elected official by voting to keep them or by voting to get rid of them.
I believe that this system is no longer working now and needs to be replaced by across the board term limits for every elected office.
The problem with allowing the citizens to decide how long an elected official’s term should be is that everyone knows that the longer an elected official is in office, the more power they gain and that gives them the authority and power to wield against some of the newer officials. In past times, this may have been a good thing when the power brokers in Congress used their power to gain what their constituents wanted and they generally tried to make our great country a better place to live/
However, as with all good things, the goodness in wielding all of that power eventually went to our elected officials’ heads and they began to use it to advance their own agenda and do what was best for them instead of our country and its citizens.
Now we sit in a day in time where it is almost impossible to un-elect an official who has built up many years, or in some cases, decades of power because they can fundraise millions with that power and simply swamp any challenger and sweep them under the election rug.
This has become evident in the ongoing budget battles in Congress where our elected officials used to compromise with each other and get a budget put together and passed that was good for two years. Now they do not even try to work with each other to get e budget that is good for the country and they end up passing umpteen stop-gap measures to keep the bills being paid.
The latest two month bill to keep the social security tax cuts going is another good example. What good does it do to pass a bill to keep this going on for two more months. One side screams that the other side is going to raise taxes because they won’t pass this bill. First of all, they are not going to raise any tax. The social security tax was cut in a bill that specifically said the cut would be ONLY for one year. Secondly, this was a stupid move by the other side to only extend the tax cut for two months. Come on, people. There are more important items that need to be dealt with than having to constantly deal with a tax cut to a bankrupt government agency every couple of months. Put a bill out there to extend the tax cuts for a year, or two years, or better yet, five years, then pass it and let’s get on to the business of America’s leadership.
Term limits would eliminate almost all of this because then our legislators would not have to worry about getting re-elected for the next thirty or forty years. They would know that they would only be there for a limited amount of time and then they would have to go back to work in the private sector.
I would propose a limit of two consecutive six year terms for United States Senators and six consecutive two year terms for the United States House of Representatives. I would also propose that they would not be able to run again until they had sat out the same number of years that they were in office.
This would allow us to get rid of those who were elected to office and then decided to advance the causes of special interest groups as well as those who decided to advance their own causes. It would also allow the opportunity for a greater amount of our citizens to run and serve in public office so that America had the best creative ideas to work with instead of just recycling the same ones over and over again for thirty or forty years because it is impossible to get fresh blood into the process.
Public Service was never meant to be the lifelong career that it has become and it was never meant to be a place for certain members of the elite to go to become even richer that they already are. I find it interesting that as the Obama administration pushes tax increases for the rich that they always seem to find a way to exempt themselves from those increases. These are the people who are the richest after being in Congress for a few years and they can retire after as little as two years with a pension that is equal to one hundred percent of their salary and they are given FREE medical care for life, both while in office and after they retire and yet they are the ones that want to limit the healthcare that us ordinary Americans are allowed to give.
Therefore I would further propose that all elected officials that are empowered to vote on any laws or rules on ordinary Americans be required to live by those same laws and rules.
Term limits are the only way that I see to get rid of the stagnant Congress that we have today and revive OUR Congress with some fresh blood and ideas. Let’s give some others a chance to be creative and see if they are able to come up with some different proposals that could save our nation.
Term limits are the only way to go. Let’s do it and do it now. We are only a little over ten months from Election Day. Let’s get together and make our voices heard. Let’s let them know that we do not care if they are Republicans or Democrats. We do not care if they are male or female. We do not care if they are black or white or red or yellow or any other color. We do not care if they are Catholic or Christian or Jewish or Muslim. If you do not vote for term limits and any other proposals that YOUR constituents want, then WE will vote YOU out of office.
Remember in November 2012. I Vote!!! Do You?
OMG! = Obama Must Go!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the Midwest. You may reach Doug at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Where Is “Merry Christmas” Going?
12/21/2011
A New York school district is taking the merry out of Christmas. The Batavia City School District has told principals to enforce a policy banning Christmas and Hanukah decorations in classrooms. Lucy Hudson has been looking forward to the holiday party at her son's school and thinks this ban is ridiculous. "It's been Christmas all these years and now to a bunch of people that's not politically correct. i think that's a bunch of baloney. The effect is that were having a bunch of kids that are hoodlums growing up because they don't have any morality anymore." In a memo titled "Religious Expression in the Schools", the board lists unacceptable holiday activities. It states that teachers are not allowed to say or write the phrase Merry Christmas.
We seem to have lost the meaning of Christmas as a society. When we as Americans are supposed to go out and buy gifts buy gifts and buy so many gifts we go in debt for Christmas well into next year’s Christmas to PROVE our love.
When the employees in the public sector are not allowed to say Merry Christmas for fear of offending some other group, something has gone wrong. When I say Merry Christmas to someone I am not trying to convert anyone to Christianity, I am only wishing them peace, joy, happiness and love during the holidays. Enough with the politically correct BS! I don’t fly off the handle if a Jewish person wishes me Happy Hanukkah, or a Muslim person gives Kwanza blessings. We are all individuals and will never all believe the same thing, accept this with the tolerance and mutual respect that atheists and Muslims are always preaching. Funny how tolerance only seems to work one way!
As for how I would like to see us celebrate now?? No one buys a gift rule #1. A gift does not show how much you love someone; quality time spent laughing and enjoying each other’s company is the way we show our love. We gather as a family and spend the entire day together, eat dinner, watch football, work a 500 piece puzzle, play cards and games.
The ACLU, in cooperation with our esteemed Government is trying to take God out of everything, including "One Nation, Under God! Not allowed to say the Pledge of Allegiance in schools or prayers. Towns not allowing Manger schemes on public property, {whose property is public property anyway} Stores clerks are not allowed to say "Merry Christmas" they now say "Happy Holidays," and you will notice in store adds, Christmas is not mentioned and even the president would not allow News people to say "Christmas Tree" it was called "Holiday Tree." They can kiss my grits, I will say the Pledge with "One Nation, Under God" in it, and I will pray where ever I wish, and when I wish, and I will force people to say "Merry Christmas" to me, and I will say "Christmas Tree" where ever I see one, and I hope everyone else will too! "God Bless America!"
I constantly hear people talk about how our country is going downhill. I believe that this is a direct effect of allowing the ACLU the power that judges have given them to take God out of everything. This is not the “holiday” season, it is the Christmas season. Christmas is the season because this country was founded on Christian biblical principles and that included God! Christmas contains Christ because the season is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
As for me and my family, this government is not going to tell us that we cannot say Merry Christmas. I will say Merry Christmas to everyone I see during this season and hopefully, most or all of them will return the gesture. This is in no way a slam to any other religion but this is America and we have the freedom of speech here. If we go to a Muslim country, we are told that we have to obey their customs and religious practices and if we do not, we face their penalties, which may include death.
When foreign people come to America, we do not force them to follow a certain religious path. They are free to practice whatever religious belief they choose so why is it that they feel that they have the right to come to our country and tell us we have to change our laws and customs to align with theirs?
Religious freedom works both ways and NO ONE in America should ever be told that they are not allowed to say Merry Christmas. When I go to a store and hear happy holidays, you can bet that I will loudly reply Merry Christmas. If I see a store advertising holiday trees, I make sure to stop by that store and tell the manager that I am offended by their lack of respect for Christmas and will not be doing any “holiday” shopping at their store
The only way that we are ever going to be able to get our country back on the right track is by standing up and doing it. We cannot depend on our government, especially the Obama administration, to stand for us and our rights any longer. They are usually the ones who are trying to take away our rights and freedoms. We need to start standing up for what is right and quit backing down from the political correctness guru’s. Then we need to look for new leaders who are conservative, freedom believing, constitutionalists and elect them to lead our country back to Republic that it once was.
We can start all of this with the election in 2012. Look for the leaders that will vote for the way of life that you and I want with the freedoms that we want and leaders with the courage to stand up and tell those foreigners that want to change our country that it simply will not happen and if they do not like it they can go back to their own country and change it.
Remember in November 2012. I Vote!!! Will you?
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the Midwest. You may reach Doug at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Let’s Stop The Shooting At The University
12/14/2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011 was the day that Radford University student Ross Ashley gunned down a university police officer on the campus of Virginia Tech University. Ashley then abandoned the stolen Mercedes he was driving and ran on foot across campus killing himself when he probably realized what he had done and that he would not be able to escape.
April 16, 2007 was the day of the Virginia Tech University Massacre that killed thirty-two people in two separate attacks approximately two hours apart on the campus by the perpetrator Seung-Hui Cho. This attack was quickly realized to be the worst ever massacre in United States History on a college campus.
February 14, 2008 (Valentine’s Day) was the day of the Northern Illinois University shooting, during which Steven Kazmierczak shot multiple people on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, United States, killing five and injuring twenty-one, before committing suicide.
February 12, 2010 was the day that a biology professor opened fire at a faculty meeting after being denied tenure. Dr. Amy Bishop killed three faculty members and injured three others before being arrested by police.
May 12, 2011 was the day that three people were killed in a burst of gunfire at a San Jose State University parking garage in an apparent double murder-suicide, the first shooting deaths in campus history. A man and a woman were pronounced dead at the scene inside a car, and another man, who authorities believe was the shooter, was found elsewhere in the garage and died at 10:30 p.m. at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose.
September 28, 2010 was the day that a 19-year-old mathematics major from Austin, Texas, fired shots from an AK-47 and then turned the gun on himself. Luckily in this case, no one else was injured as the university sophomore apparently was not skilled in how to use the gun.
March 9, 2010 was the day that an Ohio State University janitor who was about to lose his job walked into a maintenance building for his early morning shift Tuesday and shot two supervisors, killing one of them and fatally shooting himself. No students were hurt. Nathaniel Brown, 51, arrived for work at the nation's largest university dressed in dark clothing, a hooded sweat shirt and a backpack. He then opened fire in an office suite using two handguns.
April 10, 2010 was the day that a student fatally shot a female classmate before turning the gun on himself Friday in an apparent murder-suicide that prompted a lockdown at a community college west of Detroit, police said. The bodies of Asia McGowan, 20, of Ecorse, and Anthony Powell, 28, of Detroit, were discovered inside a classroom at a Henry Ford Community College building after police responded to an emergency call of an assault and shortly afterward reports of a shot being fired on campus. As officers entered the MacKenzie Fine Arts Center, they heard another gunshot, Brighton said. Powell apparently used a shotgun to kill McGowan and himself.
What do all of these shootings have in common? They all happened in the last four years on university campuses that have policies that forbid students or faculty to carry a any gun on campus. Most of these policies violate the United States Constitution Second Amendment which guarantees every citizen the right to bear arms in this country. Unfortunately, many organizations have trampled on that right by only allowing criminals to carry guns on university property.
I have often wondered what might have been different at some of these universities like Virginia Tech if the students who had a license to carry a gun had been allowed to carry their gun onto university property. Would one of them perhaps been able to stop Seung-Hui Cho from killing thirty-two people, or at least some of them. There was a two hour wait in between the two attacks by one person on this campus. During that entire time students were forced to hide and wait for police and hope that the killer did not find them next. If the students had been allowed to carry guns on campus, my guess is that a few would have had them and maybe one of them would have seen the shooting in progress and been able to stop it. They may have saved a thirty lives, or twenty-five, or ten or even if they had saved one life, it would have been worth it.
Indiana State Senator Jim Banks of Columbia City introduced legislation on December 7, 2011 that would change Indiana law by allowing licensed gun owners to carry firearms on campus at public universities in Indiana. Banks said he proposed the bill so that students could protect themselves. "Almost every gun crime that's ever happened has occurred with people who aren't licensed," Banks said. "This is a constitutional issue, your Second Amendment gun rights.” Currently, universities in Indiana ban firearms on campus through their own policies. Under standard campus rules, students could face sanctions and non-students could be banned from campus if they are caught carrying a gun. Despite the standard policies, Banks said zero-tolerance of guns on campus is unconstitutional. "These are taxpayer-funded entities, subsidized by you and I as taxpayers, and for college campuses to restrict gun rights on campus is just plain wrong," Banks said. "I think we're behind on this issue and we need to pass a law allowing students to carry guns on campus if they're licensed to do so."
I know that the organizations that fight the rights of gun owners tooth and nail and would like to have all guns taken away from every law abiding citizen with a license to carry a gun will be all over this legislation. I ask you to counter them with the questions about the safety of our children that are on campus for an education and watching a shooting spree should be left for the movies or television. Our children and students at our universities have the right to defend themselves. This is a right guaranteed by the United States Constitution and should not be taken away from them by a few liberal, only criminals should have guns touting university administrators who already think it is all right to teach that the Constitution no longer matters.
I support State Senator Jim Banks in his effort to return the constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms and defend yourself to our university students and hope that they never have an occasion to need it but know that if they do they will be armed and ready.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the Midwest. You may reach Doug at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Where is American Freedom Going?
12/7/2011
I watched an episode of “Harry’s Law” recently in which the star of the show “Harry Corn” (Kathy Bates) rented a German made vehicle to go on a hunting trip. As she passed through the small town of Langford Ohio she was stopped by a local policeman, arrested and taken to jail and had her rental car impounded. What was the reason for the arrest? She entered the city limits driving a foreign made car in violation of a city ordinance that outlawed foreign cars being bought, sold or driven in the town of Langford.
Now some might say that this was a great law that protects Americans. At first, I was one of those. But as the show went on, Harry presented many reasons why a law like this is in violation of the United States Constitution and actually would be harmful to the protection of American freedom and rights.
Among these points were Freedom of Expression which is guaranteed to us by the Constitution and the choice of what car we drive is definitely an expression of who we are. Secondly, in today’s automobile industry, foreign cars are made in America, American cars are made in foreign countries and many cars are made and assembled in a mixture of both America and foreign countries.
While the spirit of this city ordinance was in the right place it is obvious that the process was on the wrong end. As pointed out by the Judge, who made the right decision in overturning the law, American citizens give up more and more of their American rights and jobs by refusing to spend an extra nickel to buy American made goods. It would be so easy for all of us to spend a little more here and there to bring American jobs back to this country and it could be done so easy by us refusing to buy any product made in a foreign country. The Judge also made the comment that the giving up of American Freedom is not the place for Americans to start giving up.
It is time that the citizens of America began to stand up for what is right in this country and fight what is wrong. Eighty-six percent of the Citizens of America believe that abortion is wrong yet we sit back and allow politicians and judges be bought off by the American Civil Liberties Union to rule in their favor and allow the fourteen percent to rule. Eighty-six percent of the Citizens of America believe that prayer in school is good yet we sit back and allow politicians and judges be bought off by the American Civil Liberties Union to rule in their favor and allow the fourteen percent to rule. Eighty-six percent of the Citizens of America believe that saying Merry Christmas, setting up Nativity Scenes at Christmas time on public property is the right thing to do yet we sit back and allow politicians and judges be bought off by the American Civil Liberties Union to rule in their favor and allow the fourteen percent to rule. Eighty-six percent of the Citizens of America believe that illegal immigration is wrong yet we sit back and allow politicians and judges be bought off by the American Civil Liberties Union to rule in their favor and allow the thirteen million criminals to stay and rule.
Until the eighty six percent begin to stand up for what is right, nothing in this country will change. In the words of Edmund Burke “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing” What has become of our country today is that there are many, many good men and women out there that have the right beliefs but have taken up the attitude that we cannot change it so there is no point in trying. It is a good thing that the forefathers of our country did not think like that. They were willing to stand up for what was right and fight for it. That is why we have the freedom that is being taken away today.
In another instance of our freedom being trampled on and the ideals of foreigners being held above ours comes an incident a couple of weeks ago at one of the biggest corporations in this country. Castleton Mall, which is owned by the Simon Company, an American company owned by the Simon family, has apparently decided that the wishes of foreigners in their malls come before the Constitutional rights of Americans. As a woman entered the Castleton Mall in Indianapolis Indiana wearing a hooded sweatshirt, commonly referred to as a “hoodie”, she was stopped by security and told that she was not allowed to wear the “hoodie” on her head inside the mall. As she argued with the security personnel, employed by the Simon Company, three Muslim men entered the mall through the same door as the woman and walked right by the woman and the security personnel. When she very heatedly asked the security personnel why they were allowed to enter the mall wearing clothing on their heads which were much more concealing than hers, she was told it was because that was part of their dress.
After several minutes of heated discussion, the woman left the mall and the three Muslim men were allowed to continue to their shopping. This is a clear sign of what is wrong with our country. If we were to go to a Muslim country, we would be expected to honor their customs and traditions and laws and we would not dare to protest and demand that we be given special treatment because if we did we would probably end up dead or in jail. Even our armed forces have at times been told to dress differently in Muslim countries to respect their customs. Why do we allow them to come to this country and demand better treatment than our own citizens are given? Because no one stands up to fight for what is right.
If we got together, especially here at the Christmas shopping season, and boycotted all Simon malls until they changed this policy, I am willing to bet that it would change pretty quickly. They would rather deny access to their Muslim shoppers until the head gear was removed, than to have their hundreds of malls empty during the Christmas shopping season.
It is time for us to begin to stand up my fellow Americans and fight for what is right in OUR country. If we don’t fight for our freedoms now, we won’t have them to fight for later.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the Midwest. You may reach Doug at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Strike Over; Let’s Start A New One!
11/30/2011
Supposedly the National Basketball Association has ended their lockout with the players and will begin the 2011 season shortly after Christmas this year several months after the scheduled start date. For some, this announcement is an early Christmas present. For others, such as myself, we could care less.
For many months we heard about the National Football League lockout and the devastating effect that it had on the players who were not earning their millions of dollars for playing a game. Then the National Basketball Association apparently decided that the NFL was getting too much attention and decided to pull the same stunt.
The difference between the two was that the NBA players decided to make themselves look much worse that the NFL players did. The NBA, whose players have been inundated with arrests for gun and drug crimes, took on the attitude that they were more important than anyone else involved and demanded a much larger share of the revenue that anyone else.
After negotiations broke off early in the process and the players walked out of the talks, the owners offered a fifty-fifty split of the revenues. This meant that the owners would get fifty percent of the revenue and the players would get the same. The difference was in the risk. The owners were taking all the risks by putting their money up to finance the teams and hopefully their fifty percent would cover their expenses. The players put up their talents which meant if they did not perform well enough, they might lose their job but the owner of the team would still lose the money he put up to finance the team and its salaries.
Of course, none of those involved had as much at risk as those who were not involved. The taxpayer had the most at risk since they are the ones who are paying for the arena’s that these millionaire crybabies are playing in rent free. If they do not play their games, there is no income from the arena to pay the bills and the taxpayers get hit again to make up for the loss. Then there are the local businesses that depend on income from these games to keep their doors open. Their income comes largely from sports fans eating in their restaurants, drinking in their bars and staying in their hotels. Without these games, these businesses suffer a tremendous loss and maybe their viability to keep their doors open.
None of these people mattered to the owners, certainly not to the players and not to the arbitrators as they apparently considered them to be inconsequential casualties of the war between the owners and the players. When the owners offered fifty percent of the revenue to the players and the players turned them down and walked out, that was the end of it for me. I think that this amounts to unbelievable greed on behalf of the players and if it were up to me, I would have closed down the entire season right then and advertised for players for next season who wanted to play basketball.
I also think that if these sports teams are going to hold cities and states hostage for taxpayers to pay for stadiums and arenas, then those cities and states should have some say so in the teams. When it comes time to negotiate, we should have representation and some say so in where and how the money is being spent since it has now become our tax money that is being put at risk. Remember the Boston Tea Party? That was all about taxpayers being taxed without any representation on what they were being taxed for. The same is true with these sports teams. The taxpayers are being taxed with absolutely no representation at the negotiating table and that needs to stop.
I think we need some new rules regarding sports teams. While I am not a fan of government being involved in business in any way, I think if you take money (Stadiums or Arenas) from the taxpayers, there need to be rules attached to that money. For instance, rule number one; if you are a player and you get arrested for any reason, you are immediately suspended until your case is resolved. Rule number two; if your case is resolved by you being found guilty or by pleading no contest, your suspension becomes a lifetime expulsion with no opportunity for reinstatement. Rule number three; if you refuse to play games that are scheduled (if you go on strike) you are hurting our businesses and fans and will not be allowed to play for one full year (not remainder of season) after you agree to play again. Rule number four; As an owner, if you lock out the players and refuse to allow them to play you will reimburse the taxpayers for all lost income for unplayed games and also reimburse all businesses within a five mile radius around the stadium or arena for their loss of income they would have received if the game had been played. Rule number six; twenty-five percent of all television revenue shall be returned to the taxpayers as a return on their investment for building your stadium or arena at taxpayer expense.
If these six rules were put into effect, it would seriously cut down on the number of player arrests, it would cut down on the strikes and lockouts and it would provide a return on the investment of the taxpayers that spend their money to keep a team here so they can go spend more money to see them play only to make all the players and team owners wealthy and greedy at our expense. Who needs wealth redistribution more than these sports players and owners?
I think to bring our platform to light; we should all go on strike against all professional sports teams and let them see what happens to their wallets when we stop showing up and spending our hard earned money to make them rich. Let them see how they hurt the local businesses that depend on those games for their livelihoods. Let them see how they hurt the taxpayers who built their playhouses only to be told they were not going to play so taxpayers would have to pay again to maintain the playhouses.
Let’s all go on strike against them and let them see what it feels like and let’s start today!!!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the Midwest. You may reach Doug at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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What I Am Thankful For!
11/23/2011
This is the time of year when everyone is thinking about what they are thankful for. Ministers are preaching sermons about what we all have to be thankful for. Media outlets are asking followers what they are thankful for. Families are sitting down at the Thanksgiving table and saying what they are thankful for.
I am amazed to hear some of the answers to that question. Many are sincere and thoughtful. Many are very self-centered and downright greedy. Many people that are put on the spot with that question do not know how to respond and are at a loss for words. I am never at a loss for words so I would like to name a few of the things that I am thankful for.
First and foremost, I am thankful that we have a loving and forgiving God. Without Him, this would be the end of this column for there would be nothing to be thankful for. Everything that I have to be thankful for comes from God and is given to me by Him. I am thankful that He created my ancestors Adam and Eve. I am thankful that He gave us His Son Jesus Christ, whose birthday we will celebrate in about a month. I am thankful that He gave us His word in the form of the Bible so that we may learn about Him and how He wants us to live for him.
Secondly, I am thankful that He gave me such an amazing and wonderful wife that loves me no matter how hard I am to live with. I know that she came into our marriage expecting a fairy tale marriage and learning quickly that there is no such thing. I am thankful gave me someone with the strength to stick around and work on our marriage instead of taking the easy way out like so many of today’s married couples. My life is so much better today because of whom she is and because she has helped me to become a better person to walk on this earth. Few men are lucky enough to be blessed with a wife that will stand by him through everything no matter how bad it gets and wait for the better times to come.
I am thankful that He gave me such wonderful parents that raised me to be who I am and loved me through thick and thin. Parents who had the audacity to discipline me when needed as it says in the Bible instead of giving in to the wishes of those feel good idiots that tell us that it is wrong to discipline our children. Parents who taught me what a good work ethic is and to work hard to get ahead in life instead of sitting back and expecting the government to take care of me. Parents who show respect to their children for their accomplishments and want them to have a better life than they did.
I am thankful for the three children that God has given me and for the adults that they have turned out to be. Children that have not been perfect but they are all working on their lives and families and I hope that I have done as good a job raising them that my parents did with me. I hope that they all realize that what they have in life has come from working hard and living the way they should but mostly what they have has come from God.
I am thankful that God has given me the three most amazing grandchildren that anyone could ever hope to have. They are all healthy, beautiful and smart. For the most part they are all very well-mannered and are usually a joy to spend time with. For the times they are not, I thank God that we can send them back to their parents for further training.
Those are the important things that I am thankful for but there are a few items that are not as important that I am nonetheless thankful for.
I am thankful to God for providing us with a roof over our heads and food to eat. That seems like such a trivial thing but I feel very fortunate when seeing all the people around the world who are not as fortunate as I. While I know that have a roof over your head and food on the table comes from hard work, I am equally aware that without the Grace of God, I may not have the ability to work hard and get ahead. Without that ability, I would not have the opportunity to get ahead in life and have the “things” that I have.
I am thankful to God for providing me with the opportunity to work in a career that I love and for the creativity to be able to continue to produce week after week. So many of God’s children end up working in a job that they do not like or even hate in order to get by and make a living that I just thank God for giving me this wonderful opportunity.
I thank God for giving me a country where we have freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press, even though these are quietly being taken away from us by our socialist leaders, and for giving us the right to worship Him whenever and wherever we choose.
I am thankful that God has given us our men and women of the military who are out there putting their lives on the line each and every day so that we may continue to enjoy the freedoms that we currently have and to keep our country safe from those who are jealous that we have those freedoms and want to take them away. I pray to God daily to watch over and protect them each day as they do the same for America
I pray that the leaders of our country will open their eyes one day soon and realize that when they took God out of our country is when things started to go wrong and I pray that these leaders will have the wisdom to realize the mistake this has been and turn back to God and stop all the nonsense.
This Thursday is thanksgiving. Stop and take a few moments to think about the answer to the most important question you may ever answer. What do you have to be thankful to God for?
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the Midwest. You may reach Doug at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Stop Band Tradition, Start Crime Tradition
11/16/2011
It is Sunday morning at approximately 5 a.m. when most people are asleep in their beds and most kids who are under the age of eighteen are either home in bed or if they are outside the home they are probably doing something that they shouldn’t be and most likely illegal.
However in Greenwood Indiana there is a group of kids who are gathering to create some minor respectable mischief. This group has been doing this on one Sunday morning each year for more than thirty years. The group consists of anywhere from fifty to one hundred teenagers. They gather together at 4 a.m. in the morning with the intent to drive their cars to three different neighborhoods in the city of Greenwood, park their cars and gather together to wake up the entire neighborhood.
I know by now that most of you are thinking that this is a horrible thing to do and all these punks should be thrown in jail and their parents charged with neglect for letting their sneak around and do something this horrendous. But wait! Let me tell you the rest of the story!
What we are talking about here is a tradition that started way back in the seventies. The three neighborhoods are the residences of the Greenwood Middle School Band Director, the Greenwood High School Assistant Director and the Greenwood High School Band Director. The Sunday morning in question is the morning after the band has qualified for the Indiana State Marching Band Finals. This means that they were one of the top ten high school marching bands in the State of Indiana which is a fantastic accomplishment. Even more fantastic is that they have qualified in the top ten for the state finals each and every year for more than thirty years.
What about those parents, you ask? Why would they allow their children out at that time of the morning to create a disturbance? Shouldn’t they be charged with neglect? I say, how about we award all of them with “Parent Of The Year” awards for raising such fine, respectful, gracious children. Oh, I forgot to mention that most of these parents are standing out there with their children in what is usually close to freezing weather while their children wake up these three neighborhoods!
These kids are continuing a more than thirty year tradition of waking up their band directors with a serenade as a celebration and thank you for making them the winners that they are. What a wonderful thing that these kids and their parents want to continue such a wonderful gesture in a time when crime is rampant and many kids are out creating a tradition that is likely to land them in jail.
This year, however, in one of the neighborhoods, several neighbors called the police and put a stop to the celebration. Police showed up at the assistant band directors house to find approximately fifty students along with hordes of their parents and stopped the celebration of something GOOD in today’s age and sent the kids home.
SHAME ON THOSE NEIGHBORS!!! This is a wonderful tradition that has been going on for more than thirty years and is one of the most positive things I have seen from our kids in a long time. Yes, I have been out there on several occasions to witness this celebration along with the parents of the kids and even, at times, the Greenwood Police Chief, and several Greenwood Mayors have been in attendance.
These kids from the marching band lug their instruments from their cars at 5 a.m. and drag all the equipment up to the front door of each band director’s house. They then line up and bang out a drum cadence until the director and his family come to the door and then they play the ten minute show that they have worked on all year in order to get to the state finals. These kids are in and out of the neighborhood in about twenty minutes from start to finish. Usually, several of the surrounding neighbors can be seen coming out of their houses and watching the performance and applauding as the band members are leaving.
The police have never been called in more than thirty years until this year when several GRINCHES decided that they no longer wanted to support their local marching band in their stretch their winning streak to forty years. I wish that one of the band directors would move into MY neighborhood. I would welcome these kids and would even have hot chocolate ready for them after their serenade. I sure would never think to call the police. I can afford to lose twenty minutes of sleep ONE TIME EACH YEAR to support our kids in doing something wonderful.
I am a bit shocked that the police even responded instead of telling the GRINCHES to go back to bed, but I suppose they had to stop the celebration due to the calls. I remember several times that the police have escorted these students around and directed traffic at the school and in the neighborhoods to make it safer for the kids.
Now I ask all of you. Would you rather live in an area where the kids woke you up one time every year to share with them in celebrating a great accomplishment, or would you rather live in an area where the kids allow you to sleep through the night as they were breaking into your cars and stealing anything of yours that they could get their hands on. I think most of us would choose the celebration.
I hope that the neighbors that called the police have not stopped this tradition from continuing. These kids deserve to be congratulated for working hard to bring home championships for their city. Maybe next year you could get up and go outside and say thank you for a job well done instead of calling the police. Maybe next year, our Police Chief can be standing their alongside the Mayor as these neighbors call the police and they can tell these neighbors that these kind of traditions are keeping our kids focused on doing good instead of breaking into their cars or worse. If this really bothers you to give up twenty minutes of sleep to celebrate our kids doing a wonderful thing, then maybe you could move to another city because we certainly do not need you here where we respect our kids for doing such a wonderful job and staying out of trouble.
Thirty plus years in the Top Ten! WOW! What an accomplishment. I commend the Greenwood Marching Woodmen and want to tell you that you can come to my neighborhood and wake us up anytime you want.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the Midwest. You may reach Doug at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Drug Test Me, Please
11/09/2011
Almost any job that you may apply for these days will require you to submit a drug test. This includes anything from a government job all the way down to working in a fast food restaurant. The thing is, I do not have a problem with this and think it is a fabulous idea.
Anyone who wants a job should understand that a potential employer accepts a lot of responsibility when hiring a potential job candidate in today’s litigious society and the employer needs to limit their liability as much as possible. Hiring someone who uses or abuses drugs drastically increases an employer’s liability as this person may come to work under the influence and with reduced comprehension or reaction skills and end up getting hurt. This would leave the employer liable because an injury happened while this person was on the job. Even worse is if this employee that is under the influence happens to injure someone else, which could leave the employer liable not only for the injuries but also leaves them open to lawsuits for allowing an employee that is under the influence of drugs to work and create a dangerous work environment.
Personally, I do not think that any law-abiding job applicant would object to a drug test as a requirement and if someone voiced an objection to taking a drug test, I would have very serious objections to hiring them for any type of job. Drug testing is quickly becoming the simplest and most effective tool for employers to use to lessen their liability and create a safer work environment.
The only problem that I have with drug testing is that it is not used on a wider basis. While it is true that most employers now require a drug test prior to employment, I do not think that random drug testing after employment is a bad idea either. However, few employers utilize this program which would identify those who quit using drugs for thirty days to in order to get a job and then started again or those who started after they were employed.
Also, I have a problem with the government requiring potential employees to submit to a drug test in order to gain employment with the government while at the same time taking my hard earned money and giving it out to ANYONE who has not submitted to a drug test.
We the taxpayers are forced to submit to a drug test to show that we are clean and are law abiding citizens while those that are not clean and refuse to submit to a drug test or fail a drug test are getting handouts in the form of welfare, food stamps, unemployment or other government programs that reward certain classes of citizens for not working.
Who in their right mind would give money to an alcoholic that is lying in the gutter on the street in the downtown area so that he could go and buy more alcohol and keep him in the same situation that he is in? The answer is very few people would do this because most people understand that if they give them money they will just go buy more alcohol and never change their circumstances.
The same goes for unemployment compensation. I am not against helping someone out who really needs the help but giving someone two years of unemployment compensation as simply paying them to NOT work. This allows plenty of time and money for those who could not pass a drug test to sit at home and afford their drugs and watch television.
The simple fact is that any government program should require a drug test each time a check is handed out. If you pass the test (along with some other requirements) you get your check. If you fail the drug test, you lose your check for that month and you can reapply in thirty days to begin the program again. How many freeloaders would that knock off of the handout list? Think of all those who are fraudulently drawing disability checks while working jobs under the table that would cost them their eligibility for a disability check. Think of all those who go and apply for jobs knowing that they will fail a drug test and be allowed to sit at home and draw an unemployment check every week. Think of all those who would no longer be able to collect their food stamps to trade for drugs to their dealers. And think of all those apartments in Section Eight housing that the taxpayers would not have to pay rent on if the tenants had to pass a drug test in order to keep getting free housing.
A simple drug test that is required by most law abiding citizens in this country that work and pay taxes would go a long way towards rebuilding this country if it was suddenly forced upon the freeloaders in our society that have become accustomed to letting you and me work to give them a place to live, food on their and provide money for their drugs and gas for their Cadillac’s.
Let’s write letters and emails and make phone calls to our Senators and our Congressmen and even our president and tell them that we are tired of supporting the drug habits of these people and we want them to start a drug testing program for those requesting public assistance. Tell them that we are not being unfair, we just want them to submit to the same simple drug test that we are forced to pass in order to support them. And those who refuse to listen or do not wish to vote the way their constituents request them to, then we should vote against them in the next election and replace them with someone who will vote for the fair thing to ALL Americans.
There is an election coming up in November 2012. Be there to vote. I will!!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the Midwest. You may reach Doug at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Who Wants To Be Mayor
11/02/2010
There comes a time when we elect the leaders of our communities. Next Tuesday, citizens of Johnson County will go to the polls to elect the Mayors of Greenwood and Franklin, Johnson County’s largest cities.
This election could be the most important election for local residents as Greenwood residents will elect a new mayor facing a flurry of financial problems left over by Mayor Charles Henderson who was defeated in the May primary after sixteen years leading the city into a financial disaster.
The citizens of the City of Franklin will also have to choose between the current Mayor who has disregarded several laws regarding open door policies and government transparency and a newcomer with a financial background.
Beginning with the city of Greenwood, Charles Henderson has been the Mayor for the past sixteen years. Charlie has always had one goal in mind and that has been to make Greenwood bigger and better than Carmel. The problem for him has been that the people who wanted to live in Carmel already do. The citizens of Greenwood moved into the southern suburb because we wanted to live in a small town atmosphere that had good schools, low taxes and little crime.
In the most recent Henderson years, we still have good schools but the taxes have been climbing and the crime rate has been out climbing the tax rate. It is unusual for the city of Greenwood to have even one murder in a year and this year alone there have been three. A lot of this comes from taking away the small town atmosphere and trying to turn us into a big city.
The Planning and Zoning Department under Henderson has made it almost impossible to own and operate a small business in Greenwood by limiting signage and forcing a horde of zoning regulations upon small business owners as well as property owners. It has gotten to the point where property owners in Greenwood no longer have any rights and must seek permission in a very high cost process to make virtually any change on their own property. A single homeowner or small business may be forced to spend thousands of dollars to get permission to erect a fence on their own property.
Now that Charlie is on his way into retirement, the question is, who is the best candidate to replace him? There are three choices on the ballot. Republican Mark Myers, whose father was Mayor in the seventies and who is the nephew in law of Charlie Henderson, Independent David Payne, who is a business owner and previous candidate, and Libertarian Jeff Spoonamore, also a local businessman.
Of the three, Myers may seem to be qualified on paper but has been absent from any involvement in City Council meetings or public meetings that have concerned the future of Greenwood. With that in mind, the question also comes up of leaving the control of the future of Greenwood in the hands of a family member of Henderson, knowing that they would probably continue the spend, spend, spend policy of Henderson along with the policy of shoving major and costly projects down the throats of taxpayers when those taxpayers are shouting loudly that they do not want them. For these reasons, we chose to knock Mark Myers out of the endorsement process. That leaves Spoonamore and Payne. While they both are business owners and have extensive business backgrounds in business, we looked at the fact that Spoonamore has worked throughout the United States in various jobs and has not been involved in city politics, attended meetings or public hearings until announcing his candidacy while David Payne has been attending those meetings for several years and was on the committee that studied the merger between Greenwood and White River Township.
We are inclined to believe that while either of these candidates would be a good possibility for the Mayor of Greenwood and definitely better than continuing on with the Henderson family, we have decided to endorse David Payne for Mayor of Greenwood due to his business expertise and involvement in city politics will better enable him to hit the ground running and correct the failings of the Henderson era.
While the endorsement for Mayor of Greenwood was a difficult decision that has required much research and study into the candidates, the endorsement for the Mayor of the City of Franklin was much easier.
The City of Franklin has had Independent Candidate Fred Paris as Mayor for four years now and we feel that this has been a disastrous four years for the citizens and taxpayers of Franklin. From holding illegal closed door meetings to give away city owned property behind the backs of taxpayers to attempting to eliminate any transparency from government by refusing to follow the legal requirements to advertise city budgets and spending. This administration has virtually spit in the faces of the guardians of public trust and flatly refused to follow the law ignoring the advice of well-versed attorneys and even the public access counselor for the State of Indiana. In addition, are the recent allegations of using his position as Mayor to enhance his real estate company by obtaining a rental property that was in the flood damage program administered by Paris as Mayor of Franklin for a rock bottom price that would not have been available to anyone else and was never offered for sale at any price to anyone else.
The opponent running against Paris is Joe McGuinness is a true Franklin citizen born and bred in Franklin that wants to serve his city. McGuinness has lived in Franklin all of his adult life, graduated from Franklin College. He is a financial planner and co-owns and operates a business in Franklin and is married to a Franklin attorney. This is about Franklin through and through.
We believe that McGuinness is a highly qualified candidate that can lead the City of Franklin through the tough times it has fallen into recently and can plan for the future of Franklin far better that the current administration has shown and ability for. For this reason, we endorse Joe McGuinness for Mayor of Franklin.
Now that we have made our endorsements for mayor of Johnson County’s two largest cities, we would like to remind taxpayers and citizens that these endorsements mean absolutely nothing unless YOU get out and vote on Election Day. This is the most important responsibility that a taxpayer can have as these people will be the ones taking YOUR money and deciding how to spend it.
Election Day is next Tuesday, November 8th. Get out and vote!! I will!!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the midwest.
© 2010, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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He Said She Said He Said
10/26/2011
It seems that every time a new election season comes along, we get the notion that we are going to hear the candidates for the political offices that are up for grabs tell us what they will do and what we can expect from them if they are elected. Invariably, we are disappointed when the name calling starts and the mudslinging begins.
You see, the era of clean campaigning has been gone for a long time. No longer do candidates for office tell us what they are going to do if they are elected. No longer do candidates tell us why we should vote for them. No longer do candidates give us (the voters) their qualifications to hold that office.
Today, when a candidate announces that they are running for almost any office, it seems that there is a perquisite that they must do so by telling the voters why they should not vote for the other guy or what the other guy is or has done wrong.
Take the case of the candidates running for Mayor of Indianapolis. I pick this case because I cannot vote in this race as I do not live in Indianapolis. The Incumbent is Republican Mayor Greg Ballard. Ballard is not a career politician but was a marine that thought he could do some good for his city. He was not backed by the Republican Party four years ago and was shunned instead because the Republican Party did not believe that he could knock off Incumbent Democrat Bart Peterson.
I believe for the most part that Greg Ballard has done good for the City of Indianapolis and will continue to do so. The one exception is that I believe he made a mistake in the hiring of Frank Straub as Public Safety Director and I believe that if he wins reelection he should seriously look at replacing that position.
In the beginning of the election season, Mayor Ballard started off his election commercials with very simple and straight forward commercials that put his record out there. His commercials explained the programs that he had started and the advances he has made in the past three years. They told us what he planned to do in the next four years if he was reelected. This is the kind of campaigning I like to see. Tell me what you have done and are going to do in the future.
Then the commercials began from Melina Kennedy. The very first one I remember was blasting Greg Ballard because he did not care about education and our kids. It blasted him because of the condition our schools are in and the ISTEP scores in the Indianapolis Public Schools were too low. It told us that Melina Kennedy was going to change all that.
The interesting part of this is that Greg Ballard has no control over the Indianapolis Public School System or any other school system in Indianapolis or anywhere else. If Melina Kennedy were elected, the same would apply to her. She could do nothing to improve the schools or ISTEP scores. This is because ALL schools fall under state control. This means that if Melina Kennedy plans to fix all the school, she is running for the wrong office. She should be running for State Director of Education against Dr. Tony Bennett.
The other commercial out there that I remember was the one that states that Greg Ballard lost the support of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. While technically there was a vote taken that allows Kennedy to state this as a fact, it is one of those items where the voters are not being told the whole truth and the facts are being twisted to fit the claim.
The truth of the matter is that there seventeen hundred Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officers on the force. The meeting where the vote for mayoral endorsement was taken was not announced to all officers and notice was never given that this vote was going to happen at that meeting. The result was that there were ONLY one hundred twenty-four officer that were at the meeting to vote. That means almost sixteen hundred officers were never given the chance to vote on who they wanted to back for Mayor. To put this in perspective as politicians do in a poll, that is seven percent voted to back Melina Kennedy for Mayor and ninety-three percent were not allowed to vote. This has created quite a controversy within the police department to the point that some police officers have personally come out with their own commercials stating that Mayor Ballard has not lost the support of the police department. Included among these were Spencer Moore and his wife, the parents of officer David Moore, who was killed on duty during Mayor Ballard’s term. These people despise their Fraternal Order of Police Union for doing such an underhanded thing like holding a vote behind officers backs.
These commercials finally led Mayor Ballard to attack back with some negative advertising showing Kennedy’s record of what she supported while she was Deputy Mayor under Bart Peterson just before Ballard took office. I was sad to see Mayor Ballard resort to this but realize that with all the untruthful negative advertising the Kennedy was doing, I suppose it was unavoidable.
It was interesting to see, however, that the Kennedy campaign responded with a criticism of Mayor Ballard saying that he must be doing things wrong because he only talks about Melina Kennedy. It seems to me that it is exactly the opposite and Kennedy did nothing but negative advertising while Ballard was talking about HIS accomplishments and HIS goals for the city and HIS plans for the next term.
Unfortunately, negative advertising left untouched usually bring down the better leader and gives the office to the person not qualified to be in that position. In this case, I find Melina Kennedy not the best qualified person to lead the City of Indianapolis and throw my support behind Mayor Greg Ballard for reelection as Mayor of Indianapolis.
Agree or Disagree, the election is November 8, 2011. Be there and vote. It is your civic duty and probably the most important one you will ever have short of joining the military. Show up and VOTE! I Will!!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across the Midwest.
© 2010, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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We All Have To Tighten Our Belts
10/19/2011
Doug is out of the office this week so we decided to reprint one of our favorite columns from February 25, 2009 Enjoy!
According to our new President, Barrack Obama, it is time for us all to tighten our belts. We are told that now that the new stimulus package has passed, everything is going to get better.
It will take time and we all have to tighten our belts is the constant rhetoric we hear. After hearing this, I did a little research to find out exactly WHO had to tighten their belts and HOW tight they would have to be.
The results are in. If you are a legal citizen of the United States, you abide by the laws of this country, you have a full time job that you go to every day, and you pay your bills on time, then you must tighten your belt VERY, VERY TIGHT.
You are going to be told to pay money to the bank that won’t give you a loan, credit card or mortgage because they are mostly bankrupt.
You are going to be told to give money to pay for the medical care of those who are in this country illegally when you cannot afford medical care for yourself.
You are going to be asked to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage because they did not pay their bills on time.
You are going to be told to give money to auto companies they are essentially bankrupt and they need your money even though you did not buy one of their cars.
Most importantly, you are going to be told to give money to your government so they can administer the program to pass out all the money you are being told to give. Laughably, we are supposed to believe that only the government can do this with efficiency.
I am all for doing something to stimulate the economy, but come on, let’s get real here.
If you were the CEO of a major corporation and you needed to do something to stimulate your company’s growth, would you seek out the top four bankrupt companies and hire the CEO’s that ran them into bankruptcy to run your company. Certainly not!
You would seek out CEO’s that had a record of strength and growth and had their companies on solid financial footing and hire them.
If I were the President, I would have a much better stimulus plan.
First of all, before I ever asked anyone to tighten their belts, I would set the example by tightening my own belt and that of the government I had taken charge of.
In his first thirty days in office, the President has made four trips that I believe were completely unnecessary. His trips to Elkhart Indiana, Denver Colorado, Phoenix Arizona and Canada could all have been handled by TV or phone without the unnecessary expense of Air Force One.
The cost to operate the Flying White House is $57,000 per hour. Round trip flying time to these locations were, Elkhart 4 hours 38 minutes, Denver 5 hours 58 minutes, Phoenix 9 hours 20 minutes, Canada 3 hours 12 minutes. This is a total of 23 hours 8 minutes for a cost of over $1.3 million. In the first thirty days in office, just for an airplane!!! How many homeless people would that feed or house?
The second order of business I would do as President would be to stop all the wishy washy stuff with immigration. Hire enough busses to haul the 13 million illegal immigrants in this country back to Mexico and tell them they are welcome in this country when they decide to do it the legal way. The medical, welfare, and education savings alone would be enough to save states like California from bankruptcy.
Third order of business; let’s do things the way they were supposed to be done with our own people. We try to teach our kids to save and not spend more than they have. If banks loaned money for mortgages to people who could not afford them, then let the banks foreclose and be stuck with the real estate.
Don’t penalize those who pay their bills on time by making them pay the mortgages of those who don’t.
Don’t bail out the banks with my money when they were too irresponsible to run their business with good financial foresight.
Don’t bail out the automakers with my money because they to irresponsible to cut overhead and tell the unions no once in awhile.
The time has come for the Americans that are still left in this country to speak up and tell the Government NO!
In the immortal words of one of the framers of the Constitution and former President Thomas Jefferson; “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers across central Indiana.
© 2010, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Dr. Phil and Stupid Parents
10/12/2011
I watched an episode of Dr. Phil while on vacation recently. I am always amazed at the quality of absolute idiots that Dr. Phil is able to find and convince to appear on his show. It is a little unsettling that these people know who Dr. Phil is and they still agree to be on his show and make complete fools out of themselves on national television.
This particular episode was about parents who spoil their kids. Now I have written about this subject before but what I saw on Dr. Phil were a few examples of parents not spoiling, but destroying their children. The whole idea of parenting is to raise your children by teaching them how to survive on their own, what is right and what is wrong and give them the basis for raising their children when they are grown.
I have known, seen and heard of parents who are abusive with their children and those parents, in most cases, should be arrested and have their children taken away to be raised by someone who will nurture them and raise them with love and compassion. I have also known, seen and heard of parents who go in the opposite direction and only want their children to like them so they never say no and they never discipline them. Although the intention is different in these cases, the result is just as bad as children who were raised in an abusive household.
Abuse tends to make children scared and have very low self-esteem. They feel as though they cannot do anything right so they tend to shy away from doing anything they are not required to do. They grow up without friends in many cases and they end up in minimum wage type jobs because they do not have the self-esteem to think that they can do anything better.
Never-say-no parenting is raising your children to believe that they never do anything wrong so that as they get older and have to live in the real world, they tend to set themselves up for failure and then begin to lose all of their self-esteem and confidence because they have never been told no before. Some of these children ended up committing suicide because they are bullied at school because they were never taught what real life was like and how to deal with it. Some of these children are likely ones that are planning on columbine type actions because they were never taught what is right and what is wrong. They were never told no by their parents so therefore any choice they may make should be right in their mind.
Never-say-no parenting can be as bad for society and these children as the abusive relationship some parents have with their children. Either way you look at it, never-say-no parenting and never-say-yes parenting will produce children that at some point in their lives will end up at the same point. Some will be saved by circumstances in life but most will end up in a situation that they will not know how to handle and will make the wrong choices simply because they were not taught how to make choices correctly.
Then there are the parents that end up on the Dr. Phil show for spoiling their children. Most of the children that I saw on this program will never have a chance in life because of parents that think that giving your children everything on a silver platter is a good thing. Let the stupidity begin.
The first parent out of the gate had this idea that children should be rewarded for meeting expectations in school. I agree that on the surface this sounds reasonable and based on that simple statement I would probably agree. Children should always be rewarded for good behavior and meeting expectation and other accomplishments. However, the reward should be compatible with the reason it is being rewarded. In the case of the Dr. Phil parent, she felt it was a good thing to reward her child for bringing home a report card with all “A”s. This is a wonderful achievement and I agree that it would be proper to reward a child for this accomplishment. This mother rewarded her eight year old child with a trip to Paris France EVERYTIME she brought home a report card with all “A”s. How ridiculous is that? What is that teaching this child and more importantly, what is she going to reward this child with when she is fifteen and really needs a reward system?
The next mother wanted to insert GPS tracking devices under her children’s skin so that if they were ever kidnapped they could be tracked. This was not a family that was very wealthy and the children went to public schools. When the father said absolutely not, the mother hired two bodyguards for each child to protect them twenty-four hours every day. This was one flipped out mother, but then, that is what gets them on the Dr. Phil show.
The other mother on the show was probably the most normal but was facing a crisis in her future that is surely common in more families than we will ever know. This mother was raised in an abusive household with a mother that had several father figures in the house during the years that she was being raised. Some of these father figures were better than others and some did things to this mother that should NEVER happen to a child. But this child was raised being treated badly and always being told “no”.
Now that she was grown up and had children of her own, she decided to reverse the trend and raise her children in the complete opposite manner. Therefore, she never tells her children no. She wants them to be happy and never sad so no matter what these children do, she never tells them no and she never disciplines them because she wants them to always be happy. It is great that she wants her children to always be happy and most of us parents feel that way. But in cases like these, parents are not realizing that children cannot always be happy and they can never be truly happy unless they know what happy is. In order to know what happy is, you have to be unhappy or sad sometimes.
Children need to learn as they are growing up. Among the things they need to learn are right and wrong, what the different emotions in life are for, and that everything is not always good and it is not always bad. Children need to experience both in order to grow up and be a well-rounded adult and parent. Only then will we be able to stop seeing these stupid parents on the Dr. Phil Show.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Customer Service Always Leaves First Impression
10/05/2011
I love to travel and enjoy all the benefits that go along with it. This week we are traveling because our son is getting married and we are attending the wedding in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although we have been here several times before, this was planned to be a special experience as we were to show our son and soon to be daughter in law the sights and sounds of Vegas since it was their first time.
We are staying at the beautiful Paris Hotel complete with the replica Eiffel Tower. We have been here for two days already and it has been pretty uneventful until today. The kids flew in this morning and we have heard so much about the Carnival Buffet at the Rio hotel and Casino, and saw that the advertised price was nine dollars, that we decided to take them there for breakfast.
To let you know upfront, we will NEVER set foot in the Rio Hotel again. We were immediately met with hostility and about the most unfriendly of attitudes from the beginning of our visit. Being hungry, we entered the Rio and went straight to the Carnival Buffet and entered with a party of ten.
We were met by a sign informing us that the price for breakfast was sixteen dollars. When we approached the cashier and asked the obvious question of why they advertised breakfast for nine dollars and then posted sixteen dollars when you arrived. We were told that the nine dollar advertised price was only available if you had a Nevada driver’s license because that price was only for the locals. I would think that you would want to keep the tourists that were pouring millions of dollars into your local economy happy and not penalize them because they came from out of town to bolster your economy.
Then came the next item of complete stupidity on the Rio game plan. We were all hungry and breakfast only had one hour left. As we tried to pay the sixteen dollar price we were met with a request for each of us to show a picture identification card along with a players card issued by the Rio Hotel and Casino. Apparently we were going to have to have to be qualified to gamble in order to be allowed to eat their food.
As our son and soon to be Daughter in law had just arrived in town, they had not yet even thought about getting a players card and simply wanted to eat breakfast as did we. But this was not to be allowed. As I explained to the cashier that they did not have player cards yet and we just wanted to eat breakfast, her reply was “that is not my problem”. WOW. Now there is an example of rich and fresh completely wonderful customer service that we all desire to see in these times. If one of my employees was heard saying that to one of my customers, they would have been fired on the spot.
But wait, it gets better. When I asked to speak to the manager about the customer service issues that we were facing, another cashier called him to the cashier stand. When the manager arrived he informed us that his name was John and asked what the problem was. When we tried to explain the issues over not having player cards and the fact that the time was running out for the Breakfast Buffet and that we did not have time to go and get player cards and that the attitude of the cashier was that it was not her problem, we were told by John that she was quite right, that it was not her problem that our son and daughter in law did not have player cards and that if we wanted to eat in his buffet, then they should leave and go get them. I explained that we wanted to eat breakfast and would be happy to go get them after breakfast and John replied that if we wanted to enter his buffet without player cards, they would charge us an additional five dollars per person. John also told us that we had plenty of time to go to the players club on the other side of the casino to get the cards and come back to breakfast. John said we would still have about twenty minutes before the breakfast and if we hurried to the Players Club and back we could still eat fast and get breakfast. If not, we could eat the lunch food that they would be putting out.
At this point, I could see where the attitude of the cashier came from and decided that if we wanted any chance at breakfast, we would have to run to get player cards. Also at this time we made the decision that we would eat breakfast at the Carnival Buffet at the Rio Hotel and Casino, but would be changing our plans to leave immediately following and would never be returning there to spend any money in their Casino or on any other shows, sights or for any reason.
Although the food itself was adequate and abundant in supply and they had the best coconut gelato that I would have paid to enjoy again, it is sad that the customer service was so bad that it ruined what could have been a wonderful experience for two kids on their first trip to Las Vegas. Instead, the complete lack of customer service was the first impression that Vegas left on them. And as any of you who read my column every week will know, customer service is number one in my book. If it is horrible, it is the equivalent of signing a death warrant to get me to return to patronize your establishment. On future trips to Las Vegas, My wife and I, our family and the friends that were with us will never set foot inside the Rio Hotel and Casino again.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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How Not To Cut Your Budget
9/28/2011
It was announced last week that the Center Township Board in Indianapolis had approved a plan to move the Center Township Small Claims Court from the downtown City-County building, where it has been since the building opened in 1962, into the Julia M. Carson Government Center.
The court is the oldest of nine township small claims courts and the only one located in the twenty-eight story City-County building.
Small Claims Court Judge Michelle Smith Scott was not consulted by Center Township Trustee Eugene Akers about the plan to move the court and has strong objections against the move. Trustee Akers took office nine months ago and cites the plan to move the court as a cost saving measure. Akers plans to move the court prior to the end of the year when a five percent rent increase will take effect.
Judge Scott has objections to moving the court because her court has the highest caseload of all nine small claims courts in Marion County, fourteen thousand in 2010. She cites the number of litigants coming into her courtroom and given that numbers feels the City-County building’s security is a critical part of running her courtroom.
Akers cites the plan to move the court as a cost saving measure because the court currently pays $16,701 per year to lease the space in the basement of the City-County building and would see a five percent increase at the beginning of the year. This would bring the annual rent for next year to $17,536 per year. The trustee has said that the Carson Center will not charge rent from the small claims court and therefore the court will save the annual rent that it would pay at the City-County building. This was stated in the form of a true liberal who would have no conception of how to cut costs or spending.
The problem with this cost saving measure is that the Trustee Eugene Akers is very slow to enlighten anyone as to the cost of moving the court into Carson Center site of the out of business 300 East restaurant space. The estimated cost to move the court and renovate and furnish the space is $459.000. This means that at the upcoming rental amount in the City-County building, it would take twenty-seven years before the court would see one penny of savings from the move. That means that the Township will be in the hole for twenty-seven years before it gets back the money that it put into this move and start saving money.
Compare that twenty-seven years to the fact that the RCA (Hoosier) Dome and Market Square Arena were only around about twenty-five years and were torn down because it was cheaper to rebuild than to maintain the buildings and that means before this move ever saves one penny, the Township will probably foot the bill to build or buy a newer building to house the court.
This is reminiscent of the outrageous move a couple of years ago by White River Township Trustee Jay Marks, who was newly elected to that position and sold out the township by trading the township government building, estimated to be worth approximately 4 million dollars, to Center Grove Schools for a football park that was later sold for a mere two hundred fifty thousand dollars. This was pushed on the public as a cost saving move to save taxpayers because the school system would have to build a new administration building and the move would save taxpayers that expense because it was the same taxpayers and the building would serve their needs without the taxpayers incurring a big expense.
The kicker: shortly after the trade was finalized, the school system announced that they would have to spend seven million dollars to renovate the building to meet their needs. Seven million dollars to renovate a five year old building that cost less than three million to build. What a savings for taxpayers.
This is the problem with our government today. Very few government officials that are given the power to spend OUR money do so with restraint or responsibility. They know it is not their money and they do not have to figure out how to live on a tight budget. They will just raise our taxes when they run out of OUR money to spend.
The planned move of the Center Township Small Claims Court to the Julia M. Carson Government Center over the objections of the small claims court judge is a perfect example of the liberalism and reckless spending of former Center Township Trustee and Congresswoman Julia Carson as well as Andre Carson, Current Congressman and son of Julia Carson. As these liberals spend us into bankruptcy, those of us who have jobs and work for a living have to keep on giving and then give some more to support the spending habits of these liberals.
Maybe we should start a new help group and make it a condition of election that they must attend weekly meetings of this support group. We could call it Spenders Anonymous, or perhaps, Liberals Anonymous or even Socialists Anonymous. They would have to get up and tell everyone that they are a spender or a liberal or a socialist and that they are trying to reform and they have been off the spending wagon for however many weeks. That would probably be tax money well spent.
Of course, the easier way would be to just throw them out of office at the earliest available point and elect conservatives to office that would serve our needs and cut the spending. That would eventually cut our taxes so that we could start spending our own money again and start hiring more employees into our businesses again. That is what is needed to get our economy moving again.
There are elections coming up soon and a big one coming in November 2012. Let’s change the way our country is run and get our economy back on track by putting conservatives into the leadership that will stand up for America both nationally and locally. It is up to us. We The People. That is us. If we don’t do it, nobody will.
Remember in November 2012!! I VOTE!! Do you?
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
*********************************************************************************************
How Not To Cut Your Budget
9/28/2011
It was announced last week that the Center Township Board in Indianapolis had approved a plan to move the Center Township Small Claims Court from the downtown City-County building, where it has been since the building opened in 1962, into the Julia M. Carson Government Center.
The court is the oldest of nine township small claims courts and the only one located in the twenty-eight story City-County building.
Small Claims Court Judge Michelle Smith Scott was not consulted by Center Township Trustee Eugene Akers about the plan to move the court and has strong objections against the move. Trustee Akers took office nine months ago and cites the plan to move the court as a cost saving measure. Akers plans to move the court prior to the end of the year when a five percent rent increase will take effect.
Judge Scott has objections to moving the court because her court has the highest caseload of all nine small claims courts in Marion County, fourteen thousand in 2010. She cites the number of litigants coming into her courtroom and given that numbers feels the City-County building’s security is a critical part of running her courtroom.
Akers cites the plan to move the court as a cost saving measure because the court currently pays $16,701 per year to lease the space in the basement of the City-County building and would see a five percent increase at the beginning of the year. This would bring the annual rent for next year to $17,536 per year. The trustee has said that the Carson Center will not charge rent from the small claims court and therefore the court will save the annual rent that it would pay at the City-County building. This was stated in the form of a true liberal who would have no conception of how to cut costs or spending.
The problem with this cost saving measure is that the Trustee Eugene Akers is very slow to enlighten anyone as to the cost of moving the court into Carson Center site of the out of business 300 East restaurant space. The estimated cost to move the court and renovate and furnish the space is $459.000. This means that at the upcoming rental amount in the City-County building, it would take twenty-seven years before the court would see one penny of savings from the move. That means that the Township will be in the hole for twenty-seven years before it gets back the money that it put into this move and start saving money.
Compare that twenty-seven years to the fact that the RCA (Hoosier) Dome and Market Square Arena were only around about twenty-five years and were torn down because it was cheaper to rebuild than to maintain the buildings and that means before this move ever saves one penny, the Township will probably foot the bill to build or buy a newer building to house the court.
This is reminiscent of the outrageous move a couple of years ago by White River Township Trustee Jay Marks, who was newly elected to that position and sold out the township by trading the township government building, estimated to be worth approximately 4 million dollars, to Center Grove Schools for a football park that was later sold for a mere two hundred fifty thousand dollars. This was pushed on the public as a cost saving move to save taxpayers because the school system would have to build a new administration building and the move would save taxpayers that expense because it was the same taxpayers and the building would serve their needs without the taxpayers incurring a big expense.
The kicker: shortly after the trade was finalized, the school system announced that they would have to spend seven million dollars to renovate the building to meet their needs. Seven million dollars to renovate a five year old building that cost less than three million to build. What a savings for taxpayers.
This is the problem with our government today. Very few government officials that are given the power to spend OUR money do so with restraint or responsibility. They know it is not their money and they do not have to figure out how to live on a tight budget. They will just raise our taxes when they run out of OUR money to spend.
The planned move of the Center Township Small Claims Court to the Julia M. Carson Government Center over the objections of the small claims court judge is a perfect example of the liberalism and reckless spending of former Center Township Trustee and Congresswoman Julia Carson as well as Andre Carson, Current Congressman and son of Julia Carson. As these liberals spend us into bankruptcy, those of us who have jobs and work for a living have to keep on giving and then give some more to support the spending habits of these liberals.
Maybe we should start a new help group and make it a condition of election that they must attend weekly meetings of this support group. We could call it Spenders Anonymous, or perhaps, Liberals Anonymous or even Socialists Anonymous. They would have to get up and tell everyone that they are a spender or a liberal or a socialist and that they are trying to reform and they have been off the spending wagon for however many weeks. That would probably be tax money well spent.
Of course, the easier way would be to just throw them out of office at the earliest available point and elect conservatives to office that would serve our needs and cut the spending. That would eventually cut our taxes so that we could start spending our own money again and start hiring more employees into our businesses again. That is what is needed to get our economy moving again.
There are elections coming up soon and a big one coming in November 2012. Let’s change the way our country is run and get our economy back on track by putting conservatives into the leadership that will stand up for America both nationally and locally. It is up to us. We The People. That is us. If we don’t do it, nobody will.
Remember in November 2012!! I VOTE!! Do you?
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Supply and Demand
9/14/2011
Throughout history there has always been a supply and demand basis for the American economy that has decided the price of most items that are for sale in our country. It is a system that has worked pretty well throughout history as long as the system has not been abused.
The one segment of this supply and demand system that has been open to abuse is the oil system that most of this country depends on. For many years, America has been dependent on the powers of other countries to get the gasoline that we depend on to drive to work, school and any activities that we participate in. This dependency has put us in the situation where we depend on being in the good graces of leaders of foreign countries and agreeing to their terms and conditions.
This allows the foreign Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to control how much oil is given to America and at what price. How comforting is it to know that these decisions are in the hands of some of the terrorist countries that want to destroy us. OPEC is made up of a group of twelve countries including Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. We know that Iran and Libya are training and support locations for terrorist groups like Al Quaeda and that Iran is in the process of trying to bring onboard nuclear weapons that will be sold to terrorist groups with the intent to destroy America.
Let’s also not forget that Saudi Arabia provided fifteen of the sixteen terrorists that were on the four airplanes that attacked us on September 11, 2001. This puts them in the same basket with Iran and Libya in my eyes.
So now we have these foreign countries deciding how much oil we get and what price we will pay for it. I could understand why the price of gas was so high at the pump if this was the reason but the price of oil has dropped in the past few months while the pump price has not.
The price of oil last year was right at ninety dollars per barrel and the price of gas at the pump was an average of $2.69. This week, the price of oil is two dollars less than a year ago at eighty-eight dollars per gallon and the price of gas is an average of $3.73. This is because the oil companies are now almost all foreign owned and they along with the American owned companies have become deluged with greediness and have found all kinds of different ways to hike the gas prices to gouge the American public beyond belief. Every time there is a forecast of bad weather, we hear reports of these companies shutting down refineries and that causing the price of gas to rise. The problem with that theory is that these companies have loss of production insurance that pays them for the money they lost from the shutdown.
So they get paid for the gas they do not sell and they do not have to pay the wages and expenses they would normally have to pay. This means they make a larger profit than normal and still they raise the price of gas to make even more.
Another ploy is when the price of oil goes up, they raise the price of gas at the pump saying that they have to raise the pump price because they have to sell gas for the replacement price that they will have to pay to replace the gas that is currently in the tanks in the ground. If this were true, then when the price of oil dropped, the price at the pump would immediately drop the same thirty cents that it rose when the price rose. Instead, the price at the pump jumps thirty to forty cents and will drop a penny at a time until reaching the lower amount it was at earlier.
None of this explains, however, why the price of oil is two dollars less than a year ago and the price of gas at the pump is over a dollar higher than a year ago.
On top of all that, we have more oil in this country than all of the OPEC countries combined and the projected cost of mining that oil has been put at a little over sixteen dollars per barrel. This means that if the United States government (We the people) disbanded the likes of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and started to mine the oil that we have in this country, the price of gas would drop to about ninety-nine cents per gallon and our cost of living would drop tremendously so companies would have to start hiring to keep up with demand and that would drastically lower the employment rate and our economy would be thriving again within about a year.
We would also enjoy some other benefits from this n country production such as no more depending on foreign countries and we could tell all of them to get lost and stop bowing down to them. We would have more income to this country instead of sending it to other countries which would lower our tax rates and allow citizens to keep more of their hard earned income.
Does this mean that the Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for the high price of gas today? Well, I believe this is a very good possibility. I also believe that the blame also falls on our government officials that have allowed the EPA to gain the authority to do this and also the people of America because ultimately, we are the ones who elect the persons that are supposed to represent us.
We need to stop the trend of political correctness and phony protection of the atmosphere and wild animals in this country and start doing what needs to be done to protect this country from foreign powers and terrorists. We need to start producing our own oil and other merchandise in this country to put Americans back to work and keep our money in this country instead of spending it in other countries that will eventually take us over.
Remember this on Election Day and make sure you know who you are voting for and get out and vote. Vote for those who will represent us the way that we want to be represented and let’s get out the politicians who disregard our wishes and vote only to gain some kind of profit for themselves.
Remember in November 2012. Get out and Vote. I do!!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Was 9/11 The End Of America?
9/07/2011
Now that the Labor Day holiday has passed and we are all back to work after the long weekend it is time to focus on the upcoming tenth anniversary of the most horrific and tragic to ever occur in America. That, of course, would be the attack by the radical Islamic Muslims who declared Jihad (war) against America many years ago and have been attacking our country and our culture ever since.
I recall that terrible and tragic Tuesday morning of September eleventh 2001 like it was yesterday. My wife and I were getting ready for work and watching Matt Lauer and Katie Couric on the Today Show when Matt broke in to say they were getting breaking news that an airplane had just hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City not far from the Rockefeller Center where they were broadcasting from.
You could hear the concern in their voices as the network cameras were re-focused to the World Trade Center so that all could see the smoke and wreckage billowing out of the upper part of the tower. As Matt Lauer was talking about the emergency response to the accident and the evacuation that was ongoing at the Trade Center, millions watched live as the second airplane crashed into the other tower. You could hear Matt Lauer as he muttered “oh my God” in the middle of his sentence and then went quiet as I am sure he was searching for the next words to come out of his mouth.
Thus was the beginning of a very long day that saw the collapse both towers of the World Trade Center, an airplane crash into the Pentagon and a group of very heroic Americans that took an airplane down into a cornfield in Ohio rather than let a bunch of Muslim terrorists crash it into the White House of Congress.
Air travel was grounded for nearly a week, for the only time in my life that I can remember, television came to a halt except for coverage of the attack on America, New York City residents, previously branded as rude and uncaring, lined the streets into and out of the Ground Zero Area to applaud police and fire personnel going to and from Ground Zero and to salute those who did not make it out alive, the citizens of this country pulled together, ready to fight but not clear on exactly who the enemy was, and the cheers were heard around the world as newly elected President George W. Bush announced from Ground Zero that we would find who was responsible for this attack and we would hunt them down like dogs and bring them to justice.
As time passed, President Bush tried to bring the leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden to justice and spent billions on the war on terror. While we give him great credit for his handling of the aftermath of the attack, we also acknowledge that he nearly spent us into the poorhouse by funding two wars on terror and that he also was responsible for the taking away of many of our freedoms that have always been guaranteed in this country.
I was sad that President was not able to get bin Laden during his Presidency but just as glad that President Obama was able to continue the hunt and eliminate the terrorist leader.
As we approach the tenth anniversary of this tragic event in America, I continue to hear debate on how many freedoms we should be forced to give up to feel secure, the TSA security personnel at airports around the country and whether or not they are a deterrent and many other arguments over the safety of Americans in this country and how to provide that safety.
Sadly, however, I feel as though the terrorists won on that fateful day in September of 2001. This used to be a great and mighty country that would stand up to anyone at any time and no one shoved us around for any reason! Today, thanks to those 9-11 terrorists, Americans are losing their rights and freedoms at an alarming rate, Liberals have taken control of this country and latched an unbelievable amount of citizens into government assistance programs in order to retain their votes and thereby causing a complete loss of any type of work ethic.
We still have nothing at Ground Zero except a huge hole with a Muslim Mosque across the street and a declaration from the New York City Mayor that there would be no prayer allowed at the tenth anniversary program at the big hole.
What should have happened after the attack was to round up all known Muslim terrorists that were on watch lists and have them deported back to their country of origin, the borders of this country closed down and monitored closely for illegal aliens that were sneaking into the country and a new law prohibiting ANYONE from taking flying lessons at any flight school without a thorough background check for ties to terrorism.
Then we should have broadcast to the world that American citizens would not be subject to any additional screenings at airports, but anyone who was NOT an American citizen or wore any traditional Muslim clothing would be subject to any search necessary to ascertain that they were not carrying any type of weapon whatsoever.
Then we should have announced to the countries around us and to our citizens that anyone who was caught assisting any illegal alien into America in any way would stand trial for treason and if convicted receive the death penalty.
Then we should have hired a construction company and had the World Trade Center Towers rebuilt into the glory that they held before and specified to this company that the project must be completed within two years.
Instead of bowing down to these terrorists and electing a President that is one of their faith and therefore afraid to stand up to them instead of bowing in apology to them, we should have rebuilt and left our country intact as a national monument to the greatness of this country.
There is still time! Let’s replace the politicians in Washington with men and women of faith, integrity, spiritualism, and backbone and start to get the Trade Center rebuilt and our country put back together. Let’s all get a copy of the United States Constitution and frame it and hang it on the wall next to our framed copy of the Ten Commandments. Let’s all be able to point that in the Declaration of Independence, the document that founded this country, it states that our Rights are Endowed by our Creator!! Let’s all be ready to point out that these rights that are Endowed by our Creator cannot be taken away by the government!!
We MUST get back to WE THE PEOPLE, or All will be Lost!!
Remember in November 2012. I vote!! Do You???
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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What’s Wrong With Losing?
8/31/2011
When I was just a wee kid playing in the backyard or at a neighbors house, we always got all the kids together and chose teams to play different games. It might have been baseball or it could just as well have been cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers. The point was that we always chose teams which meant we were playing a contest that would have a winner and a loser. That was life. That was the way it was. In life, both decades ago and today, there are winners and losers. My question was “what is wrong with losing”.
I don’t know if anyone else is asking this question or not but it seems that it is a question on everyone’s mind and that way too many psychobabblers have gotten into the fray and voiced way too many idiotic opinions.
As a kid playing those innocent games with my friends, I learned the importance of winning and also learned the importance of losing. It is important for kids to grow up and learn the difference between the two and how to accept each with grace and dignity.
In today’s world, this is not happening. All of the so called experts and especially school administrators have decided that the correct and proper way to raise our children is to coddle them and make sure that they never get their feelings hurt or have to suffer any disappointment as children and then throw them into the real world at the age of eighteen and expect them to know what to do.
For instance, many little league organizations around the country have decided that the word losing should not be in any kids vocabulary so they have gone to this system of play where they choose teams at the beginning of the season and assign coaches that hold practices and then they go out on their day to play a game. Sounds pretty ordinary doesn’t it? The catch is that they no longer keep score of these games because they don’t want the kids on one team to think that they are losers just because they did not score as many runs as the other team.
The downfall of this thinking is that the first thing the kids ask their coaches when the game is over is who won, what was the score. Telling them that everyone won is not only a lie but detrimental to their maturing and growing as well as their thinking. At the end of the season, they all have a get together program and league officials hand out the same trophy to every kid who played a game. Now we have taught our kids how to be socialists. They will grow up thinking that in order to get ahead in life all you have to do is sit back and collect whatever is handed to you. They have now learned that the kids that try harder and excel get nothing more that the kids that stand in the outfield and pick their noses.
When I was a kid and played on ANY team in ANY game whatsoever, there was a winner and a loser. Sometimes I was the winner. Sometimes I was the loser. Whichever I was, I learned a very important lesson. If I was the winner, do not gloat and act like I am better than the others because if I did, the next time I was the loser they would do the same thing to me. If I was the loser, I learned that I had to work harder and practice more to get better so that next time, I might be better and be the winner. But either way, I learned an important lesson.
In today’s society we see this type of non-committal thinking moving into our educational systems and then we wonder why our schools are failing. Again, when I was in school, you strived to get an “A” in your classes and if you got an “F” you failed the class and had to take it again. More and more school systems today are moving to what used to be called “outcome based education” which was simply the above little league effect put into our schools. Administrators do not want to hurt the little children by actually doing their jobs and teaching them so they move into a system where they do not issue grades, they simply teach their class and then give every student a pass and no one ever knows whether they actually learned anything or not. The other side of this type of education is that no one ever knows whether or not the teachers are any good or not. If you have a class of thirty kids and you teach them for a year and then pass them all on to the next grade without any grades, there is no way to judge the teacher or the kids and they may be learning nothing because there is no incentive to learn or for the teacher to teach.
If you had a class of thirty kids that were taught by a teacher and given tests that were graded and all of the kids received “D’s” and “F’s”, then you could reasonably ascertain that there might be a problem with the teacher. If you had a class of thirty kids that were taught and twenty-five of them received “A’s” and “B’s” and the other five received lower grades, then you could reasonable ascertain that the teacher was doing their job and there were a couple of students who needed some additional help.
This newer system of giving everybody the same “grade” whether or not they deserve it is what will eventually lead to everyone in that class to the food stamp line. Why should they try harder if they get nothing for it?
A local high school has now decided that this is the last year that they will have a valedictorian and salutatorian. They do not want to discourage the other kids by glorifying one or two kids. Instead, they have decided to appease those who do not try and pick their noses, so to speak, and make them as good as the ones who work their butts off to try to get good grades. Sooner or later in this system, the kids who work hard will quit working at all when they get no recognition for their hard work and that is when the school will start to fail.
This is the reason that parents should have access to a voucher system, so when a school starts this type of socialist teaching and the parents want their kids to do well, not mediocre; they can send them to a private school.
There is nothing wrong with teaching our children that there are winners and losers and those who work the hardest usually become the winners and those who slack off and take the easiest road in life become the losers. That’s what this country was built on and that is what we should all be teaching our children. America has always been the land of dreams. We used to teach our children that the American dream was that if you work hard, you get ahead in life and that if you take the easy way early in life it will be much harder later on. We need to get back to teaching this valuable lesson instead of substituting this important lesson with slack off now and the government will support you for the rest of your life.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Road To Recovery Leads To Mexico
8/24/2011
I have noticed lately that the Latino population has been increasing at an enormous rate over the past couple of years. This is not a phenomenon that is restricted to those states that border Mexico. It includes every state and most towns across America.
Before I begin with this educational column, let me say that I have nothing against the Mexican people that are law abiding citizens and contribute to society. But I do have something against the criminals that cross the border illegally. These illegal aliens are NOT undocumented guests or undocumented workers. That would be like calling those uncaught pedophiles that molest your children “undocumented sex education teachers” or calling the Islamic Muslim terrorists that enter this country to kill American citizens “undocumented guest soldiers”.
The point is that we have many jails and prisons in this country to hold those that commit crimes and are citizens of America. Why on earth do we allow criminals from other countries to come here and live freely? Anyone from any country should be welcome here as long as they meet certain criteria. Among those requirements should be; no criminal behavior or you get sent back to your country, you work and provide for you and your family and if you don’t, you get sent back to your country.
Illegal aliens have become a big problem in this country, mostly because of the way they are treated with kid gloves as though any politician, Republican or Democrat, are afraid to stand up to them.
During the presidency of Ronald Reagan there was an estimated two and a half illegal aliens in the country. That number grew under George H. Bush to three and three quarter million and under Bill Clinton to seven million. Then the George W. Bush administration saw this number grow to twelve and a half million and then fall to eleven million, mainly due to the stance of the State of Arizona and their efforts to stop illegal border crossings and deport those who were here illegally. Under the administration of President Obama, the newest estimate that was recently released shows that the illegal alien population could have grown to as many as twenty million.
Now some of you will say that these people are Mexicans but they are not criminals. This is hogwash. When you break the law, you are a criminal. If you are a Mexican citizen and you cross the United States border in such a way that is not legal under United States laws, then once you step foot on American soil, you are a criminal.
This illegal alien problem may not be such a problem if these people were just coming into America to get a better way of life but that is not the case in most instances. They are coming into our country and getting on many different public assistance programs and requiring me and my fellow Americans to work and give up a large part of our paychecks to support them and even worse, for them to send our hard earned money back to their country. I don’t know about you but I do not come to work every day to support the country of Mexico and its citizens.
In 2010, the most current estimates of the education cost for illegal aliens is a little over one hundred twenty two billion dollars in this country. On top of that the government spent another thirty-three billion to send illegal aliens to college.
The government, through various agencies spent slightly over twenty billion dollars of taxpayer dollars on providing translators at no cost to illegal aliens because they refuse to learn our language while demanding that we support them.
We, the taxpayers, gave illegal aliens another two hundred eighty-five billion dollars in free food stamps, welfare, free housing, free utilities and other government services. Then we, the taxpayers, added to that one hundred twenty-five billion in social security benefits for which these illegal aliens paid nothing into the system and another one hundred twenty-five billion in free healthcare benefits.
The sad part of this is that we treat these criminals with more dignity and respect that we treat our own citizens from our own country that have been here and paid into these programs. I know that if I had not worked and paid into the social security system, then tried to draw benefits from that system, I would be denied because I had not paid into the system. Yet, we allow these people to draw social security without paying into the system simply because they broke the law when they entered this country.
All of these programs add up to a lot of money and a huge burden on us, the taxpayers, who have to work to pay the bills. If we closed the borders to those who were entering illegally and deported those who were here illegally, the unemployment rate would drop somewhat but more importantly, our tax requirements would drop drastically, there would be no need to raise debt ceilings, the companies that are hit hard by the cost of illegal aliens could afford to start hiring more Americans again and this would be the road to our economic recovery and taking us back to being the prosperous nation that we once were.
Sadly, word has been released today that President Obama is skipping the legislative process of passing laws and has signed an executive order to stop deportations of the illegal aliens. This means that we are in for a further decline in our economy as we allow the criminals to stay put and further drain the American economy while sending money home to build up their own economy.
I think that this is criminal and that the President should be held accountable for it. It is time to start following the United States Constitution once again and return this country back to the principles it was founded on.
And for those of you who think that Mexican people who enter this country illegally are not criminals, I suggest that you go to the Mexican border and cross into Mexico illegally and see what their opinion of the matter is. And then, by all means, give me a call to tell me about it in ten or fifteen years when you get out of the Mexican prison!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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In The Wake Of Tragedy
8/17/2011
It is amazing what can come out of a time of tragedy. There are always some bad things. There are always some good things. There are always some indifferent things. Last Saturday night was a horrific time of tragedy in Indiana at the Indiana State Fair.
Just minutes prior to a Sugarland concert at the Grandstand Main Stage, with a storm moving in and leaving State Fair Officials in a quandary about what to do, a seventy plus mile per hour gust of wind collapsed the concert rigging onto the stage and the first few rows of VIP seating.
Five people have been confirmed as fatalities and at least fifty people were being treated at area hospitals with injuries that range from minor lacerations to critical life threatening injuries.
The silver lining, as described by Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman at Monday’s memorial service, began before the rigging even hit the ground. Security Guard Glenn Goodrich was crushed by the rigging and pronounced dead at the scene. However before his death he managed to grab a mother and her young daughter and shove them out of harm’s way just seconds before the rigging landed on him.
Among the others that were killed were Alini Bigjohnny of Fort Wayne, recently hired to teach seventh grade English at Wilson Middle School in Muncie, Tammy Vandam of Wanatah, Indiana, Christina Santiago of Chicago, Illinois and Nathan Byrd of Indianapolis, Indiana.
The silver lining is the best news to come out of this tragedy. After the rigging hit the ground, trapping several people underneath, many of the concert goers refused to evacuate the area, assessing the need for help despite insistent pleas for them to leave. Several of the Sugarland fans from the “Sugar Pit” ran to the site of the collapsed rigging and helped rescue workers lift the tons of steel rigging off the injured and trapped.
As Governor Mitch Daniels stated in a press conference, “it is in times of terrible tragedy the Hoosiers come together to overcome the odds by helping out their neighbors. The Governor was not surprised that Hoosiers at the concert ignored orders to leave and instead pitched in to help rescue workers free those who were trapped.
Even though Homeland security issued a Level One Mass Casualty Incident order, there were not enough ambulances to haul all of the injured to area hospitals. Some of the injured were driven to hospitals by good Samaritans wanting to help.
As the goodness of Hoosiers comes out in the time of tragedy so does the bad. Even before all the injured were removed from the scene, the blame game was being provoked by area television stations who were reporting from the scene.
Even though several concertgoers were interviewed, and stated that an evacuation had been started prior to the stage collapse, reporters continued to ask the question over and over. Finally, they found a few patrons who were willing to say that no evacuation had been announced and that State Fair Officials had not asked anyone to leave. There were a couple of videos that were shot beginning before the stage collapse that clearly showed fans leaving the grandstands prior to the collapse. Yet for news reporters, it was not enough to report on the rescue efforts and the injured and dead. They felt it was necessary during this time of grief and rescue attempts to provoke controversy and prepare the ambulance chaser lawyers for what I am sure to be the oncoming courtroom battle as the lawsuits are filed.
Many have said that the fans should have been evacuated sooner with the impending storm coming. According to the official timeline of events issued by the Indiana State Police as gathered from their investigation, fair officials began contacting the National Weather Service for weather updates at five-thirty pm and were told at five fifty-seven pm that a severe thunderstorm WATCH was in effect for all of Central Indiana. The NWS was contacted again at six o’clock and seven o’clock for weather updates.
At four minutes after seven o’clock the NWS contact fair officials with an auto dialer update regarding a severe thunderstorm WATCH. At eight o’clock fair officials again contacted the NWS and were told that a severe thunderstorm would arrive at the fairgrounds at approximately nine fifteen pm and would contain small hail and winds at 40 miles per hour.
At eight thirty, fair officials began moving State Police into the grandstand to assist with an evacuation to the fairgrounds coliseum until the storm had passed. At eight thirty-nine the NWS issued a severe thunderstorm WARNING for Marion County. Indiana State Police moved into position to assist in containing order and calm as the evacuation would begin and at eight forty-five, the announcement was made that severe weather was moving into the area and included instructions on how and where to seek shelter. This was at eight forty-five when fair officials believed that they had thirty minutes until the storm would hit. Four minutes after the evacuation was announced from the main stage, at eight forty-nine pm, a seventy to eighty mile per hour wind gust brought the stage rigging crashing down on the crowd.
In my opinion, Fair Officials did an excellent job with the information that they had to work with. They believed that they had thirty minutes to work with, not four minutes. They believed the height of the storm would contain some small hail and forty mile per hour winds, not seventy to eighty mile per hour wind gusts capable of collapsing a stage. Fair Director Cindy Hoyle was back stage at the time of the collapse and was visibly shaken by the events. Undoubtedly if they had thought that there was any danger of this terrible tragedy actually happening, she would not have been there in harm’s way.
Finally, in remembrance of those who lost their lives on that tragic Saturday night, the Indiana State Fair made the decision to do something that has not been done since World War Two. They made the decision to close the Indiana State Fair on Sunday to allow families, rescue workers fair patrons, fair workers and all Hoosiers the time to mourn and grieve for those who were lost and injured.
The Indiana State Fair opened again on Monday morning with a memorial service attended by more than five hundred people and missing several events that were planned for the rest of this year’s fair.
Our Indiana State Fair has, for years, been proclaimed to be one of the best in the nation. I believe that this is due to the professionalism and dedication of fair officials, from Director Hoyle all the way down to the parking professionals who direct us into the fair year in and year out. I believe that professionalism showed itself many times over on that fateful Saturday night when the emergency plans were put into effect as the worst case scenario came true. In my opinion, these fair officials are to be commended on a wonderful job before and after in the face of tragedy.
There are only a few days left of this year’s Indiana State Fair. Let’s all show our faith and gratitude by visiting the fair and showing our support for the Greatest State Fair in the nation.
I will!!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Eighty-Two Percent. WOW!
8/10/2011
Eighty-two percent.
That is a big number and a big percentage of anything.
If I had eighty-two percent of all the gold in the America, I would be a very wealthy man.
If I had eighty-two percent of all the silver in America, I would still be very wealthy.
If I ran for Mayor of my city and received eighty-two percent of all the votes, I would be Mayor by a landslide.
If I ran for Congress and received eighty-two percent of all the votes, then I would be one of the most powerful members of Congress.
If I ran for President of the United States of America and received eighty-two percent of all the votes, I would likely be one of the most powerful Presidents that this country has ever known.
If I owned eighty-two percent of the stock in a company, then I would control that company.
Eighty-two percent. That is a big number.
That number is big enough that you would think if that percentage of people in any organization were to speak out, the leaders would take note and listen. In most organizations that would be the case. I can only think of two cases where eighty-two percent of the people speak out against something and get ignored. The first case is those who speak out against God. Let’s face it, He is God and does not have to listen to anyone. He can ignore them or reach out and swat them like a fly and He can do that because He IS God.
The other case is President Barrack Obama, an elected politician who THINKS he is God but thankfully is not. His theory of tax and spending us into the poorhouse is currently on track to bankrupt this country before the end of his reign, if not sooner.
I would think that if eighty-two percent of the citizens of this country said STOP, that he would listen but that will never be the case with someone as egotistical as President Obama.
Last week, in the city where the opinion poll is credited for making decisions that affect the daily lives of all Americans, there was a national poll taken with one simple question that was easily understood and answered. The question on this poll was “Do you think Congress should raise the national debt ceiling?” This was a poll taken by the Obama Administration and it is no wonder that the results of this poll were not broadcast all over the mainstream media. The results of this poll were that eighty-two percent of the citizens of this country answered NO.
This means that eighty-two percent of the citizens of this country, or roughly three hundred million people, were able to see and understand what five hundred thirty-five decision makers in Washington were NOT able to see. They were able to see that raising the national debt ceiling is the first road down the road to bankruptcy. Why is it that these five hundred thirty-five Congressmen and women are unable to see the plain facts that three hundred million of us can see so easily. Perhaps it is because they do not live in everyday life the way the rest of us do.
We were told by President Obama that if we were against raising the national debt ceiling that the credit rating of our country would be downgraded and that the stock market would decline. President Obama was right! We, as a country, were against raising the national debt ceiling and the credit rating of our country WAS downgraded and the stock market DID decline. This was because the leaders in Washington did not listen to us, their employers, and went off on their own tangent because they all have this so called god complex and they think that they always know what is better for us that we do.
When was the last time that you decided that you did not have enough money so you called up the bank and said, “I have decided that I need the ability to spend even more money than I make so I am hereby raising the debt ceiling (limit) on my credit cards. I am going to raise my ability to spend by one hundred thousand dollars and in return I am going to cut my spending by one cup of coffee each month.” If you ever try that, when the bank personnel get done laughing and pick the phone up again, remind them that the Congress just did the same thing on a much bigger scale.
All of this tax and spend philosophy is the cornerstone of socialism and it is getting a strong foothold in this country with this administration. We have gone from a country that was once acclaimed as being the land of opportunity, where anyone could come to this country and work hard and become independent and possibly even wealthy, to a country of handouts, where the American dream is no longer work hard and get ahead but has turned into how much can I get in handouts without having to work for it.
We need to find someone strong to run for President in 2012 that can get this country back on track. We need someone who is strong enough to stand up to the socialists and tell them to sit down and shut up. We need someone who is strong enough to tell those looking for handouts that we will support those of us can’t support themselves due to some LEGITIMATE reason but everyone else is going to have to work whether they like it or not.
Sadly, I have not seen anyone that fits the description on the campaign trail for either party yet, but I hope and pray daily that America finds that person and leads them into the arena in time for the next election. It may be our last chance to recover before we go under.
Let’s find that candidate today and support them all the way to the White House.
Remember in November 2012!! I VOTE!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Oh These Changing Times
8/03/2011
It is funny to look back at the way things were when we were kids and compare them to the way things are today. Back when I was a teenager, myself and all my friends could not wait to get our driver’s license and start driving. I am amazed by the number of teenagers and even twenty-something’s today that have never had a driver’s license and have no desire to get one. Times are changing.
Those are the kind of voluntary changes in civilized life that happen on their own because people are free to make their own decisions. Then there are the kinds of changes that people are forced to make because Congress passes laws that take away our freedom to choose. This can be seen in the unconstitutional seat belt laws requiring people to wear seat belts against their will in order to give government agents the ability to collect another tax.
Also along this line, when I was a kid I used to ride in the back seat of our car without a car seat, booster seat and usually even without a seatbelt. Sometimes I even slept on the back dashboard when we were traveling. I made it through those years just fine. Today, however, the government has decided that all children must be restrained in a car or booster seat until the age of twelve and until they reach a height of four feet nine inches. Under these guidelines, my twenty-six year old daughter who is only four feet eight inches tall would be required to drive her car in a booster seat.
But I digress. The whole point of this is to talk about how things have changed not only in the way we look at things but also in the way the government looks at things.
For instance, all the time that I was growing up they had these events called NASCAR races where a bunch of good ole boys would get together on Sunday afternoons and race their cars around a race track to see who could go the fastest and last the longest. As this grew into a major sport, they began to use sponsors for the cars and the racing series became known as the NASCAR Winston cup series, with the entire series sponsored by Winston cigarettes.
This was back in the good old days when cigarette smoking was not the stigma that it is today. Of course, this was also back in the day when doctors were telling everyone that cigarette smoking was good for you and four out of five doctors recommended Camel cigarettes even though the Marlboro Man looked much cooler than the Camel.
The NASCAR series was sponsored by Winston cigarettes until 2003 when the government intervened (intruded) and decided that we no longer had the right to hear anything about cigarettes and prohibited the sponsorship of sporting events by cigarette companies.
Now before we go on let me make this perfectly clear that I do not smoke cigarettes and abhor the use of cigarettes but at the same time I do not think that the government should have the power to tell citizens what they will or won’t do and I do not believe that advertising should be censored by the government any more than speech should be censored.
That being said and regardless of what I think, the government has banned both the sponsorship and the advertising of cigarette companies based on the fact that they are unhealthy and generally not good for you. Yet doughnuts are still advertised daily and are much more the cause of diabetes and other obesity related conditions. When will the government get around to banning the advertisement of those items?
But I digress. The whole reason for this discussion is that for years we have heard this same government tell us about the dangers of alcohol and what it can do to families. We have the Governor’s task force against Drunk Driving, the Governor’s Commission for a Drug Free Indiana, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Drunk Driving and several other organizations that try to educate and prevent alcohol abuse, underage drinking and drunk driving among the effects of alcohol.
In my opinion it is much more dangerous and harmful to one’s self and to others to use or abuse alcohol than it is to smoke cigarettes. I am sure that the vast majority would agree that alcohol use is at least as bad as cigarette use and that would probably include the ones who drink or smoke as well as those who partake in neither.
So I guess the problem that I am looking at is with underage drinking at an all-time high and drunk driving filling our jails to way beyond their maximum capacity, Why is it that cigarettes are banned and we are now going to glorify the use of alcohol.
We do this every year during the Super Bowl, of course, and everyone enjoys the commercials. But the former Winston Cup Series was taken away from the cigarette companies because, we were told, we should not encourage children to smoke. But if this is truly the case, then hoe does it work that we should encourage our children to use alcohol? IF it is bad for a cigarette to sponsor a racing series, then shouldn’t it be just as bad for an alcohol company to sponsor one of the racing events?
This question comes as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is announcing that Crown Royal Whiskey has signed a Multi-year deal to sponsor the Brickyard 400 NASCAR race. This is sending mixed signals to our children telling them that the races cannot advertise smoking because it is bad for you while allowing alcohol companies to pick up the slack left by the banning of the cigarette companies. Even worse, with drunk driving being an ongoing epidemic, we are now mixing whiskey with driving cars fast. Doesn’t that mean that we are telling our children that it is bad to smoke cigarettes, especially while you are driving but it is ok to drink whiskey and drive your car real fast?
I guess this is what we should expect from a government that has the idea that if you can’t pay your bills you raise your credit limit, not cut spending.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Hey Buddy, Can You Spare A Buck?
7/27/2011
As we approach the deadline to raise the National Debt Ceiling in order to send our kids further and further into debt, I ran across some interesting examples of stupidity and wastefulness by our government that could be turned around to stop all the insanity.
While the Obama administration has been hollering loud and clear that HE is not going to send the elderly their social security checks and stop their Medicare because the Republicans won’t allow the debt ceiling to be raised, I decided to take a look at what our government WILL be paying if the debt ceiling is not raised.
There are about thirty-six and a half million elderly citizens currently on Social Security in the United States receiving an average of eleven hundred eighty dollars per month. This brings the total Social Security payout each month to about forty-one billion dollars.
Since President Obama has announced that he will not send the checks out if the debt ceiling is not raised, he will be holding on to about forty-one million dollars in United States taxpayer’s money. That is forty-one million dollars that citizens of this country have worked their butts off to raise and hand to a dictatorial personality who for two years has said it is my way or the highway.
Now let’s look at the other side of this personality. While holding on to and starving our elderly citizens in America, Obama will still be sending nearly nine million dollars to the country of Iran who is actively trying to gain nuclear weapons capable of destroying America.
While holding on to and starving our elderly citizens in America, Obama will still be sending nearly two hundred fifty million dollars to Pakistan who actively hid Osama bin Laden from America for ten years.
While holding on to and starving our elderly citizens in America, Obama will still be sending nearly one hundred twenty-five million to Egypt, a country now controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood that was formed by Osama bin Laden as a predecessor to Al Qaeda, who is currently trying to destroy America.
While holding on to and starving our elderly citizens in America, Obama will still be sending nearly two hundred fifty million dollars to Palestine who is currently and always has been trying to destroy Israel and America.
While holding on to and starving our elderly citizens in America, Obama will still be sending nearly five hundred million dollars to the country of Kenya where President Obama was born and became a Muslim that apparently hates America. It is nice to see that if the debt ceiling is not raised he will starve elderly Americans while making sure to send money to the country of his birth so they can eat.
While holding on to and starving our elderly citizens in America, Obama will still be sending nearly four billion dollars to other middle east countries who are very Muslim populated and have a great hatred for America and are always looking for ways to destroy America because of our freedoms.
The point of all of this is that if the debt ceiling is not raised by the deadline the Obama administration has set, it will not mean our country is broke and unable to pay its bills. It simply means that the country will have to tighten the purse strings like you and I have to do when money is tight.
And just as you and I have to do when the money is tight, the Obama administration will have to make some difficult choices on where to spend our money for us. It is sad to see that the choices that the Obama administration will make is to starve our elderly Americans by cutting off their Social Security checks while sending support and financial assistance to the tune of about eight billion taxpayer dollars to other countries, including his home country of Kenya, to support and feed them instead of Americans.
If I were President of the United States, I would pay ALL American citizens first, then I would stop all payments to the illegal aliens who are drawing assistance without ever paying into the system and send them back home. I would tell ALL the illegal aliens that they would be welcome in this country when they entered legally and worked at jobs where they pay taxes and Social Security like American citizens. Then I would stop payments to those from the Middle East who are allowed to move into this country and given a no tax status and allowed to draw public assistance for five years under various government programs.
After that was done, I would then inform ALL foreign countries that we would no longer be giving handout to countries that want to cause harm to America. I would inform them that we would be taking care of Americans first and if anything was left over, we would be happy to lend assistance to those countries that show respect for America and agreed to support America, not destroy it.
After all this, I would then turn to ALL Americans and inform them of the new policy in America. That policy would be that there were no more free handouts just because they did not want to work. That policy would mean that if you can work, you are expected to work. It may be at McDonalds flipping hamburgers, but if you want any kind of help and you are physically able, you better get some kind of job.
If you are unable to work, we will support you with smiles on our faces until we see you doing something that is as taxing as the work you cannot do. When we see that, you will lose your aid. Period.
Lastly, I would turn to those wonderful people that we elect to make our laws in the House of Representatives and the Senate. I would tell them to straighten up and start representing your constituents in the proper way. This means keep your pants zipped up, quit spending my taxpayer dollars on sending pictures of your genitalia to men and women around the world and do your job. If you cannot do your job and be good guardians of my taxpayer dollars, then you will be replaced at the earliest possible moment.
Wait, now that I think about it. I can do that last one without being President. So can you. What this country needs is not more responsible politicians. They are responsible for enough as it is. This country needs more responsible voting in the elections. So study your candidates in the next election and start voting responsibly. Voting is the most important thing you should do as a citizen. Find out about the candidate you are voting for and make sure they will vote the way YOU want them to.
Remember in November, Vote. I DO!!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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My Cross To Bear
7/20/2011
Is the cross I have to bear as heavy as the one Jesus bore? Well of course not! But sometimes I wonder if it may be coming close.
Jesus had to bear the cross that he was to die upon in order to cleanse the rest of us of our sins. That is a heavy cross to bear, for sure. There will never be another to bear as heavy as that one.
The analogy comes from the fact that I am an American taxpayer that is being burdened with a debt to bear that is becoming increasingly heavier and heavier to bear.
While Jesus had to bear his cross in order to relieve us from the burden of our sins, apparently, President Obama has decided that I (the American taxpayer) should follow that same course and work my fingers to the bone in order to relieve those who have chosen not to work of their burden of supporting themselves.
As the debate in Washington continues and the fingers are pointed, our national debt continues to rise at an alarming rate and we will soon reach our notional debt ceiling. A solution to the problem has been suggested by the credit rating agency, Moody’s, that in order to keep our credit rating the United States Congress should eliminate the debt ceiling entirely.
I am curious as to how they think that eliminating the debt ceiling makes this country creditworthy. I know that as I work day in and day out to try to eek out enough money to pay all the people that have me paying their bills and still have enough left to pay my own, there are times that I wish my local credit agency would call my bank and tell them that I should be given an unlimited credit fund so I could continue to borrow even though that would allow me to end up at a point where I would not even be able to pay the interest on the debt.
The whole point of this would be to let me borrow unlimited amounts of money so that I would be able to afford all the taxes that President Obama says I need to pay to support all of the people who voted for him in 2008 and will undoubtedly vote for him again in 2012. I am sure that all the people who voted for President Obama in 2008 were elated when he was elected and took the oath of office.
I know that shortly after I heard all sorts of comments from people about how glad they were that the American people had finally elected a President that would represent them. I heard a comment from a gay man that he had voted for Obama because he would do what the gay Americans wanted. I heard from a welfare bum that she was thrilled that Obama was elected because now her welfare payments and food stamp benefits would go up. I even heard a comment from a black man that Obama was the first black man to be elected President and now he could show all the white people what slavery was like. (one small note, this man was in his late thirties to early forties and would have no idea what slavery was like, but also was apparently too poor to afford a belt because his pants were hanging down below his crack)
The one thing I noticed more than anything in all of these comments was the fact that all of those comments were made by someone who voted for Obama because of their conception of what he would do for the limited group that they belonged to. I have to say at this point that I did not vote for Obama in 2008 and will not be voting for him in 2012. In 2008 I voted for the person that I thought would do the most for ALL AMERICANS in this country, not just a few.
In the upcoming 2012 elections, I do not yet k now who I will vote for but I can assure you that the person I choose to get my vote will be the person that I believe will do the most for ALL AMERICANS! Those who vote for anyone to an elected office because of what they think that person will do for one small group will obviously be those who do not work a full time job and have to support themselves and a family on that income alone. The problem with this country today is that we have lost our morals and ethics in just a few short years.
We have learned to live on credit and to buy things now and worry about paying for them later, instead of working for the things we want and saving until we have enough to pay for them. This seems like a thin line but it is a very important one for it says in the Bible that if you are indebted to someone you become a slave to them.
With President Obama insisting on raising the debt ceiling, he is bolstering this prophecy to the point that we will soon become slaves to another country because they will hold all of this debt that our country (our children) will not be unable to pay back.
On a closing note, as I listen to the threats from President Obama that if the debt ceiling is not raised, we will go into default and not be able to pay our bills, I ask that you pay close attention to what our supposedly American President is telling you. He says that the elderly will not get their social security checks. He says that those on welfare will not get their welfare payments. He says that those on disability will not get their disability payments. He says that those on food stamps will not get their food stamp benefits. He says the United States Military will not get their paychecks. He says that all of this will be the fault of the Republicans because they will not raise the debt ceiling.
If the debt ceiling is not raised and the government does not have enough money to pay its bills, then you must understand that it is the Obama administration who decides what bills DO get paid. They have CHOSEN to pay themselves; Congress China, Pakistan Iraq, Japan, Haiti and many other foreign countries that they claim cannot survive without payments from the United States. So as I bear my burden to work hard and long to support those who have chosen not to work and therefore voted for Obama, my question is this. As the Obama administration insists on putting us further and further in debt for our children to have to repay and become slaves, when those evil Republicans stop the debt ceiling from being raised and the Obama administration decides that themselves, Congress, Pakistan, China, Iraq, Japan Haiti and all those other foreigners should get my tax dollars instead of the elderly and the poor, here is the question.
You voted him into office and gave him unprecedented power to turn our country upside down for the good of a few people. How’s that working out for you?
Remember in November 2012. Vote for the person who will work for ALL AMERICANS!!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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The New Breed Of Baby Killer!
7/13/2011
As I write this, a new breed of baby killer has been unleashed. It is a sad day when something so awful is unleashed upon the world. As you know, we have discussed in previous writings what I thought was the ultimate baby killers. This was the farce called Planned Parenthood, the organization that promotes that promiscuity and teaches that parenthood planning is killing your babies before they are born.
Today, however, I am appalled by the unleashing of a new baby killer that kills without remorse or even a conscience. It is the cruelest form of a baby killer known to mankind. It comes in the form of a young lady looking devil and is called the Casey Anthony.
As I write this today, twelve jurors (twelve people who were not smart enough to get out of jury duty) have unleashed this Casey Anthony upon the world.
Casey Anthony, for those who do not own televisions, is the young mother who “allegedly” killed her two year old daughter by using chloroform to knock her unconscious and then placing duct tape over her mouth and nose until she suffocated, then placed her body into a garbage bag and dumping it in the woods within walking distance of her home.
After committing this heinous murder, she then went out and partied with her friends for thirty-one days while never mentioning where her daughter was or even mention her at all. Finally, when her mother called and asked where Caylee Marie was, she told her mother that the nanny had taken her and not brought her back. Casey claimed to know only the first name of the nanny and had no idea of where she lived or what kind of car she drove.
Casey told her mother that Caylee Marie had been missing for thirty-one days and she had no idea where she was. But had she been out looking for her. Not unless she expected to find her in a bar or at one of the many parties she was attending nightly. Casey had such great concerns for her daughter that she never even assisted in the search parties that were out daily looking for her daughter. She never assisted the police in the investigation of her daughter’s disappearance. She never told the truth about her daughter to her parents or to the police who were looking for her. Casey Anthony went out and partied! That’s it. She went out night after night and partied!
Three long years later, after listening to mountains and mountains of evidence and testimony, seeing pictures of Casey Anthony out partying with her friends and laughing and dancing, after listening to tape recordings of Casey Anthony lying to police and her parents, after sitting in a courtroom and watching this monster cry at the wrong times and laughing when prosecutors talked about the discovery of her daughter’s body, the twelve jurors found this monster NOT GUILTY.
This is what our justice system has come to. No longer do we have a jury that is made up of our peers for it is way too easy to know what to say to get out of jury duty. Jury duty used to be a matter of civic responsibility and civic pride. Today, it is too bothersome for most citizens to take the time away from work and other responsibilities to serve on a jury. Today’s judges have become way too lenient on letting people out of jury duty. So therefore we end up normally with a jury of twelve stupid people that are way too uneducated to be trying to understand the intricacies of a jury trial and the rules of evidence.
These twelve people have released the party devil upon us and left her out in the real world to continue her partying and left her for us to clean up after. But I pose this question to these twelve jurors. Would you allow Casey Anthony to babysit your two year old for a few days? Maybe as education for future jurors, we can make arrangements for each juror to leave their children with Casey Anthony for thirty-one days and see how they feel about their verdict then. Maybe a little insight into the inner workings of Casey Anthony’s party life would have done them some good in the deliberating room.
Sadly, this could never happen for the verdict has now been rendered and due to the double jeopardy rule in our law, Casey Anthony will now be a free woman and never able to be tried on murder charges again.
Wait a minute, not so fast. There is a possibility that Casey Anthony could be tried again for murder. How is that, you ask? She has been acquitted and therefore by the double jeopardy rule cannot be tried for murder again. This is true.
If most of you watched the news reports of the celebration after the verdict and the insulting interview that Casey Anthony gave, she was asked by a news reporter what she planned to do now that she had been found not guilty and would soon be a free woman. Her reply sent cold chills down my back as I realized exactly what these twelve jurors had unleashed upon the world. Her reply was that she was thinking about having another baby. Maybe this one will be named Damon and be the only way to stop her.
It is obvious to ninety-eight percent of the people in this country that these twelve jurors made the biggest mistake of this decade when they acquitted this monster but we are stuck with their verdict on this case.
I would have to agree with Jay Leno that it is obvious that the OJ Simpson jury has now retired and moved to Florida. Perhaps Casey Anthony could learn to play golf and join OJ on the golf courses to look for the REAL killer. Or perhaps it would be easier for her to just go home and look in the mirror!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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What Is Happening To Our Country?
7/06/2011
What is happening to our country? This is a question that I sat here pondering over the Independence Day weekend. Independence Day is supposed to be the time when we all get together and celebrate the freedoms that we are afforded by the Constitution of the United States of America. Instead, I spent most of the weekend wondering what is happening to our country.
As I look around to see what is going on in our country today, I decided to make some observations about the state of our country.
America is supposed to be the Land of the Free. America is supposed to be the only country on Earth where people strive to come so that they can live out the American Dream. That dream would consist of freedom from political oppression, being forced to work and give all your money to your government, freedom to speak your mind about anything without fear of being arrested or harassed, freedom to work hard and obtain a better life, freedom to raise a family without interference from your government, and above all, the freedom to practice whatever religion you want without being restrained or harassed by your government.
These are the ideals that our country was founded on over two hundred years ago and these are the ideals that are guaranteed to us in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights. These were the perfect ideals for which to begin a great new country. As I look around today, I see very little resemblance to the America that was founded back in 1776.
As for the American Dream, I see a bunch of football players, and now basketball players that refuse to play because they are only paid millions of dollars to play a game. I see a bunch of team owners that refuse to even negotiate with players because they only make billions and do not want to share with the players that help them make all those billions. And I see the working class taxpayers in this country who are ultimately the ones who shell out those billions to the team owners and the players, being assessed new tax burdens to pay for facilities reaching toward Taj Mahal status and given to teams rent free because the burden is on the working class people instead of the one’s who can actually afford it.
As far as the freedom from political oppression, I see certain classes of citizens (mostly the Christians) in this country who are being politically oppressed by a vastly liberal government that refuses to follow the Constitution or even to acknowledge it to the point that we are told what we can do or say by our current administration that is completely liberal to the point of being un-American. This administration wants to continue to tax and spend us into oblivion and can’t even lead the country because they are too busy pandering to special interest groups that support them and hosting their events like the gay pride celebration held recently at the White House.
The American Dream of being able to work hard and get ahead in life so that you have the ability to give your family a better life is quickly going down the tubes as the tax and spend policy and the redistribution of income policy of the liberal administration are taxing those of us who actually have a strong work ethic out of our income and giving it to those who have no work ethic and would rather sit around and watch soap operas all day and drink beer and use their drugs, all of which are bought with the my money that was forcefully taken from me and given to them as a reward for not working. This does, however, guarantee the liberal administration votes for their liberalism in the coming elections because all of these recipients of my hard earned money will vote the liberal way to assure that they can keep not working and receiving my money.
Then there is the case of freedom of speech and freedom of religion, which as I see it, go hand in hand with this liberal government. In the land of the free, we are now told that we are no longer allowed to speak our mind if it is determined to hurt the feelings of the special interest groups of the current administration. Our pastors in our churches are told that they are not allowed to preach against such subjects as homosexuality, abortion, Muslim extremists that daily try to find ways to kill our citizens all because it may offend someone to be told that what they are doing is wrong. On top of that, I see way to many pastors that abide by this rhetoric from our government and refrain from preaching about the sins that they are commanded by God to preach against. Pastors are afraid of being jailed for saying that homosexuality is a sin or that abortion is a sin or even that murder is a sin if it is against a Muslim or other terrorist. Pastor who are afraid of this need to back up and remember that God is the First administration and that they need to follow God’s commands first and those of the political administration are secondary.
As a result of the decline of morality in our country, we see most of our children being banned from learning about God but being forced to learn about homosexuality. We see most of our children being banned from learning about the Bible but being forced to learn about the Koran. We see most of our children being taught that it is wrong and immoral to kill the most despicable of murderers and rapists because the death penalty is cruel, but at the same time, being taught that it is ok for anyone to be promiscuous, even those under age, and to run around barely dressed and have sex with multiple partners without any worry about consequences because if they happen to get pregnant they can just run down to the local Planned Parenthood and murder the innocent baby. How’s that for parental planning?
We are told that we can no longer spank our kids as a form of punishment and then we wonder why they bully kids at school, use drugs and take guns to school for the purpose of killing their classmates and teachers.
Spend a few days pondering all of this and it will make you wonder what is happening to our country. Hopefully it will also make you wonder about what we need to do to stop the moral decline of our country and how to elect some strong conservative leadership that will take the reins of our country and pull it back to the greatness that it used to be.
So how do you feel liberalism is working for you these days. If you feel as though it is NOT working for you, then you must have a job.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Judge Frees Baby Killers
6/29/2011
This past week was a lesson for all that this country is no longer ruled by its citizens or their elected officials. America is no longer the land of opportunity unless your opportunity is something of a destructive nature. We have now learned that no matter what the majority of the citizens of this country want and no matter what laws are passed by any Congress, it does not matter. What matters is how one judge feels about a subject because with the stroke of a pen and the bang of a gavel, a judge makes the law no matter what has been passed by Congress.
This was made apparent when judge Tonya Walton Pratt granted a motion to Planned Parenthood of Indiana to allow it to reopen its baby killing factories and allow us (the taxpayers) to continue to pay for killing the babies of promiscuous women who are not responsible enough to use birth control and too lazy to work in a job with benefits so they can pay for their own abortions.
I have never agreed with using baby killing (abortion) as a form of birth control but that has been a moral choice that a woman will have to answer to God for someday. However, I cannot fathom where the federal government or a judge has received the notion that someone who is totally opposed to abortion should be required to pay for someone else’s abortion against their will.
If any person gets caught breaking into someone else’s home or business for the purpose of stealing from them, a judge will eventually tell them that they will receive punishment from the court because they have to accept responsibility for their actions. That judge will never tell them that I (the taxpayer) will have to reimburse the victim for the value of what was stolen.
If any person gets caught using drugs, a judge will eventually tell them that they will receive punishment from the court because they have to accept responsibility for their actions. That judge will never tell them that I (the taxpayer) will have to pay for them to go into drug rehabilitation treatment programs.
So why does any judge think that if any woman goes out and is too irresponsible to a. not practice abstinence as she should, or b. to use some form of birth control when she decides that she has no morality before God, please tell me why any judge would decide that this woman should NOT be held responsible for her actions and why I (the taxpayer) should be required against my will to pay for this woman to kill her baby.
For that matter, since the Obama administration decided to get involved in this state law and try to bully us into not enacting this law, I have this question. Where does the federal government get the authority to tell me (the taxpayer) that I have to pay for baby killing against my religious beliefs?
If it is against my religion to have my picture taken, then I can get a government issued identification card without my picture on it because that is my right under the First Amendment.
If I were a Muslim that was wearing a Keffiyeh headdress that was large enough to conceal a weapon, I would be passed through TSA at any airport because I would have that right under the First Amendment, which has never made any sense to me.
If I were an atheist that did not want to see the Ten Commandments posted in a courtroom where criminals might actually see them and learn from them, They are taken down because that would be my right under the First Amendment.
So why do I not have the right to follow MY religious beliefs that it is wrong to kill a baby. Why is it that a judge gets the right to tell me not only that I do not have the right to practice my religious belief but instead I am going to be forced to PAY for the very religious belief that it is wrong to KILL a baby!
Why is it that in this country, that was founded ONLY upon Christian principles, does everyone have all of these right to freedom of religion EXCEPT Christians? Why is it that MY religion that founded this country is the only religion that does not receive any of the freedom of religion that every other religion does?
We have Muslims trying to exterminate all Americans and they have the religious right to force teachers to teach the Koran (their Bible) in public schools but Christians not only can’t force the Bible to be taught but now teachers and in some cases even students and parents are being arrested for even mentioning the Bible or Christianity in public schools.
Having Congress pass a law that makes killing babies is one thing. That is leaving the choice to the one who has defamed God and done her own thing. However, to allow a judge to overturn a law that prevents me (the taxpayer) from having to pay for that abortion is a completely different situation. At least under the first scenario, I can express my view to the mother and if she still decides to have the abortion and kill her baby, then she is the one who will have to answer to God on judgment day before the only Judge that counts. By forcing me (the taxpayer) to pay for this woman’s abortion, you have forced me to participate in committing an offense before my God against my will.
When will we get back to the principles that this country was founded on and start repairing the moral decay that is taking over this once great country? Maybe the place to start is to get rid of all the judges and find some good God fearing judges that use the Constitution of the United States and the Supreme law of our God as a basis for enforcing the law as they are elected to do, and get rid of those who think they are a god and can make their own law as they go along.
Maybe we can also start with replacing an administration that is leading the moral decay of this country and put a new one into place in the fall of 2012. Let’s do it!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Did Andy Rooney Offend 14% of Americans?
6/22/2011
In the five hundred or so emails that I receive every day there are a lot of people trying to sell something and even more trying to convince me that their political views are the correct one. Most of these emails are simply junk that gets thrown into the recycle bin. Unfortunately I have to take the time to wade through each one of them in case there is an important news story, an advertisement or public notice that needs to run, or even occasionally an inquiry or comment on this column from a reader. But ninety-five percent of them get sent straight to the recycle bin.
Occasionally, however, I run across one of these emails that are what I consider to be email gold and is so precious that it absolutely must be kept, possibly even printed and framed and in this case, inserted into this column because I feel that it is that important.
CBS 60 minutes commentator Andy Rooney, who is known for his 60 second ramblings at the end of the broadcast, is not someone who I agree with very often. In a recent tirade on the show, he ranted about an issue that I am sure that at least eighty-six percent of all Americans agree with.
I am equally as sure that Mr. Rooney sent network executives scrambling to assure the Obama administration, ACLU, All atheists and the Muslim society that these Mr. Rooney’s words were not the view of the network. It would not matter to any of the above named that these ARE the views of the majority of all Americans.
I will not try to paraphrase Mr. Rooney and put his words into my own. I will simply print his words and let you enjoy them as he stated the issue perfectly.
Andy Rooney and Prayer
Andy Rooney says:
I don't believe in Santa Claus, but I'm not going to sue somebody for singing a Ho-Ho-Ho song in December. I don't agree with Darwin, but I didn't go out and hire a lawyer when my high school teacher taught his Theory of Evolution.
Life, liberty or your pursuit of happiness will not be endangered because someone says a 30-second prayer before a football game. So what's the big deal? It's not like somebody is up there reading the entire Book of Acts. They're just talking to a God they believe in and asking him to grant safety to the players on the field and the fans going home from the game.
But it's a Christian prayer, some will argue.
Yes, and this is the United States of America and Canada, countries founded on Christian principles. According to our very own phone book, Christian churches outnumber all others better than 200-to-1. So what would you expect -- somebody chanting Hare Krishna?
If I went to a football game in Jerusalem, I would expect to hear a Jewish prayer.
If I went to a soccer game in Baghdad, I would expect to hear a Muslim prayer.
If I went to a ping pong match in China, I would expect to hear someone pray to Buddha.
And I wouldn't be offended. It wouldn't bother me one bit.
When in Rome .....
But what about the atheists? Is another argument.
What about them? Nobody is asking them to be baptized. We're not going to pass the collection plate. Just humor us for 30 seconds. If that's asking too much, bring a Walkman or a pair of ear plugs. Go to the bathroom. Visit the concession stand. Call your lawyer!
Unfortunately, one or two will make that call. One or two will tell thousands what they can and cannot do. I don't think a short prayer at a football game is going to shake the world’s foundations
Christians are just sick and tired of turning the other cheek while our courts strip us of all our rights. Our parents and grandparents taught us to pray before eating, to pray before we go to sleep. Our Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Now a handful of people and their lawyers are telling us to cease praying. God, help us. And if that last sentence offends you, well, just sue me.
The silent majority has been silent too long. It's time we tell that one or two who scream loud enough to be heard that the vast majority doesn't care what they want. It is time that the majority rules
It's time we tell them, "You don't have to pray; you don't have to say the Pledge of Allegiance; you don't have to believe in God or attend services that honor Him. That is your right, and we will honor your right; but by golly, you are no longer going to take our rights away. We are fighting back, and we WILL WIN!"
God bless us one and all...Especially those who denounce Him, God bless America and Canada, despite all our faults, and we are still the greatest nations of all. God bless our service men that are fighting to protect our right to pray and worship God.
Let's make 2011 the year the silent majority is heard and we put God back as the foundation of our families and institutions. And our military forces come home from all the wars.
Keep looking up.
In God we Trust
The End.
These are words that are very well written and express an attitude that most of us feel. Let us take the advice of Andy Rooney and stand up and shout that we will pray when we want to, not when we are given permission by the atheists or the ACLU. Let us stand up and shout that the minority are through ruling this country and the lives of the majority of us. Let us stand up and shout that the ACLU, atheists, Muslims, non-believers and anyone else that we are not going to put up with Judges telling us that we cannot pray because we only listen to the everlasting Judge who tells us to pray without ceasing.
The silent majority NEEDS to be heard in 2011 and again in 2012 when we can vote the ones who try to tell us we cannot pray out of office.
Let’s Do It!!!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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People Are Stupid
6/15/2011
I have come to the conclusion that people are stupid. Now this does not include every single person in the world, just most of them. Those who are using social media such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. run an especially high rate of return on the stupid scale.
We have elected officials, such as Congressman Arnold Weiner, who gets caught sexting lewd pictures of himself to women other than his wife. Do these people not realize that anything that you put on the internet for any reason is available to anyone in the world and if someone is looking for dirt on you they will find anything you were stupid enough to put on the internet?
Then we have people who lose their jobs because they were stupid enough to put pictures of them doing something even more stupid on a Facebook, etc. page. This branch of stupidity runs even down to law enforcement personnel who emblazon their Facebook pages with pictures of them doing illegal or stupid things with guns.
Then there the everyday nobodies who watch the evening news and read their newspapers with all the stories about fools who put information on social media, only to end up in trouble for it. These people sit back and laugh at the ones who got caught and say “I would NEVER do something that stupid”. Those words are usually uttered shortly before they get caught with something stupid on their Facebook page.
Consider the case of David Voelkert, a South Bend, Indiana man who was going through a divorce from wife Angela Voelkert. Both parties to this divorce expected it to be a messy divorce. This is the just another reason why when you make a marital commitment before God, you should attack the problems and find a way to work them out rather than disobey God and file for divorce.
In this case, however, David Voelkert decided to carry one part of the marriage vows just a bit too far. That would be the “till death do us part” clause. See David knew that when the divorce became messy that he would have trouble seeing his kids and would have to hide his behavior from his wife and sort of lead a secret life for a while. Problem is, David Voelkert is stupid.
David’s wife Angela Voelkert on the other hand is much smarter than David. She was preparing for this divorce and wanted to find all the “dirt” that she could on her estranged husband. So Angela opened a Facebook account under the name Jessica Studebaker and posted a profile picture of some anonymous teenage girl that was supposed to be her.
Next, Angela (Jessica) sought out her husband on Facebook and requested to be his friend. David (remember, the stupid one) accepted Jessica (Angela) as a friend without ever questioning why a teenage girl would want to be his friend. David then began the process of entering the world of extreme stupidity.
Shortly after befriending Jessica (Angela), David began running his mouth to Jessica (Angela) about the divorce that he was going through. Then he told Jessica (Angela) that he had installed a GPS tracking device on his estranged wife’s van so that he would know where she was at whenever he wanted to know.
David eventually wrote in an email to Jessica (Angela) the he was going to find someone to take care of his wife and now it will be easier because the GPS tracking device will let him know where she is at all times. He even told the supposed teenager that she should find some gangbanger at her school who would take be willing to do the job for ten thousand dollars.
This fool completely spelled out his plot to kill his wife and even asked Jessica (Angela) to run off with him and his kids afterward because they would not have to hide. And he spelled it out right to his estranged wife without ever suspecting that this Facebook acquaintance was anyone other than a teenage girl who was willing to run away with a thirty-six year old man who she had never met.
Extreme Stupidity. He never saw it coming.
David Voelkert, a video and audio-equipment salesman in South Bend, Indiana was arrested last Friday and charged in federal court with illegally installing the GPS tracking device. Officials said he could face more serious charges.
The dopey dad went on to spell out his plan to kill the mother of his children, never once suspecting that the incriminating messages were going straight to her, officials said.
"Once she is gone, I don't have to hide with my kids," David Voelkert wrote, according to court papers.
"I can do what I want and not have to worry about not seeing my family anymore. You should find someone at your school. There should be some gang-bangers there that would put a cap in her ass for $10,000. I am done with her crap!"
David Voelkert asked the "teen" to run away with him after his wife was out of the picture, before signing off the email with a smiley face.
Yes this is the world of extreme stupidity but there is an important lesson to be learned here. Anything, and I do mean anything that is posted on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or any other social media or any website is there for all the world to see.
If you go on your Facebook page and trash your employer, you may arrive at work the next day to find out that you are no longer employed.
If you make plans to something illegal and post it on MySpace, you may find the cops waiting for you when you start your criminal activity.
If you are a Congressman or Senator and you tweet a naked photo of yourself to some man or woman other than your spouse, you will probably find yourself on television trying to lie your way out of it shortly before you find yourself on television apologizing for doing something stupid.
As I said before, people are stupid and I have learned that this brand applies to way more than half of the population. Watch what you put out there on the internet and don’t become one of the stupid ones.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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What Is In A Name?
6/08/2011
What is in a name? That is a question that has been asked all across the world in all sorts of situations. Some couples consider that question when they are choosing a name for their babies. They may even go out and research the meaning of different names before they choose the one they feel comfortable with.
Sometimes, however, the meaning of a name is derived by the actions provided by the named.
Such is the case for a couple of organizations in our beloved country. One such organization is Planned Parenthood of Indiana. While those simply hearing the name of this organization would think that this would be a wholesome organization that sits down with families and help plan out their parenthood strategy so that they have the most successful of families, they would quickly realize how wrong that assumption would be.
Planned Parenthood of Indiana to those who are familiar with the mission of the organization would know that Planned Parenthood’s sole mission is to destroy families and impair women for the rest of their lives. Anyone who is at all familiar with Planned Parenthood would know that they do not sit down and try to plan parenthood with prospective parents, they do not provide any type of family counseling to help families be successful or to help parents to successfully raise their children.
Planned Parenthood has become widely known in the mainstream as the go to place for abortions. That is all they propagandize to the media and anyone else who will listen. They do not provide family planning unless you count an abortion or giving birth control to underage girls without their parents’ consent as family planning.
This is not the type of family planning that we need in this country. Girls who wander into a Planned Parenthood office are bombarded with all sorts of information presented as being the truth and the only truth. They are told that is perfectly acceptable for underage girls to have sex regardless of what their parents think. They are told that they do not need their parents’ permission to get birth control and that their information will be well hidden from their parents.
These young girls are also told that if the birth control provided by Planned Parenthood does not work and the girls become pregnant, they can simply come in for a routine procedure (abortion) to make the pregnancy go away.
The saddest part of this story is that you give money to this organization on a regular basis to assure that they are able to continue to undermine us as parents and destroy our little girls. You give them money, I give them money and the people in your church give them money. We all give them money to perform abortions and undermine our families by telling our children that they should disregard what their parents have taught them about abstinence and that it is okay to go out and be promiscuous.
Most of us may not even have realized that we were giving money to support this abortion factory. It is given through your tax dollars by a government administration that is now trying to tear apart the fabric of this country by doing away with anything that even remotely resembles morals or ethics.
I thank God daily that here in Indiana we have a legislature that was willing to stand up to the federal government and say enough is enough. I also thank God that we have a Governor that was willing to stand up to our cowardly President and tell him that in Indiana, we do not take kindly to threats and if he (President Obama) wants to cut off our Medicaid funding, then so be it. Mitch Daniels signed the bill into law that ended the funding of baby murdering plants with our tax dollars.
Now is where the second organization with a misleading name comes into effect. The American Civil Liberties Union is an organization that has a mission that they state as protecting the civil liberties of all Americans in the United States. As before, anyone who is familiar with this organization would know how far from the truth that mission is. The real mission of the American Civil Liberties Union is to undermine the Constitution of the United States and to fight for a small set of people who seek special rights that are not normally afforded to all citizens. They fight to put restriction on the everyday law abiding citizens that are in this country because they wanted freedom and liberty not knowing that an organization with civil liberties in it name would do everything in its power to destroy that freedom and liberty. So they fight for homosexuals claiming that they have a special set of rights that are just for them because they are special. They fight for the illegal immigrants claiming that they have rights under our Constitution even though they are not citizens of this country and are criminals from the day they enter this country. They run to court every opportunity they get to proclaim that the only people in America that are allowed to practice their religion are atheists and Muslims and to have it proclaimed that we cannot pray in school, we cannot mention OUR God outside our church, cannot post the Ten Commandments or use our national motto “In God We Trust” even though it is in our pledge of allegiance and even printed on our money.
It seems fitting that they should be running to court on behalf of Planned Parenthood to proclaim that Planned Parenthood has a constitutional right to receive our tax money to fund their baby murdering factories.
It is also interesting that the only time we ever hear mention of Planned Parenthood providing Pap tests, Cancer screenings, STD Testing and treatment is when they are trying to avoid losing control of all those tax dollars they receive to keep their baby murdering factories going. I have also read through our United States Constitution once again and I cannot find any reference (not even a remote one) that says that Planned Parenthood has the right to force taxpayers to give them money against our will so they can keep murdering babies.
I would even be willing to bet tyat if anyone had mentioned anything so blatantly against what our forefathers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution, they would have immediately been tarred and feathered before quickly being put to death. Funny how the ACLU seems to be able to read our Constitution and find all sorts of words that have never appeared there.
Let’s tell the judges that we do not want to support these baby murdering factories anymore ands then tell President Obama and his administration that we will not be hiring him for a second term. It is sad that we cannot hire Mitch Daniels to replace him!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Why Should We Defend Israel?
6/01/2011
Many many years ago, long before the birth of Jesus Christ, Our God sent a man named Moses to Egypt with a specific purpose in mind. God wanted Moses to lead His people out of Egypt to the Promised Land. The Promised Land was the land of Canaan, which today is known as Israel.
Moses was not particularly inclined to accept this mission but God can be very persuasive. Eventually Moses agreed and headed for Egypt. Upon arriving, Moses met with Pharaoh and explained that God wanted Pharaoh to let God’s people leave. Pharaoh declined which led God to embark on some very persuasive measures such as plagues and famines until Pharaoh finally relented. As the Israelites were leaving Egypt, Pharaoh had another change of mind and sent his soldiers after them to bring them back. Needless to say, that this was God they were dealing with and there was no way to stop an order from God. God parted the Red Sea and the Israelites crossed on dry land and when the soldiers tried to follow, God released the sea upon them and they all perished.
After forty years the Israelites were led to the Land of Canaan which was renamed Israel. This was the beginning of the Kingdom of Israel. God gave Israel to the Israelites (His chosen people) to be their home forever. God promised that it would be their home until the end of eternity.
Over the years, the enemies of Israel fought to take the land away from the Israelites and at times succeeded because the Israelites had gone through a period of disobeying God. They always managed to get their land back after they repented to God asked Him to help them get their land back and defeat their enemies.
Today, in modern history, The United States of America have always come to the aid of Israel and defended them when necessary. Many people wonder why we do this. Many people do not believe that we should defend Israel and should keep our noses out of there. A small minority of Americans even believe that we should take Israel away from the Israelites and give it to the Arab Muslims to bring peace to the Middle East. Most assuredly the last category are the same ones who fight our right to pray to God or to practice our religion and worship freely where ever we choose to do so.
It says in the Bible in Genesis 12:2-3 that God, speaking to Abraham after promising Abraham the Land of Canaan to him and his descendants that God “will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse”. There are many other points in the Bible where God expresses His desire that this land remain in control of the Israelites and that those who protect and defend the land of His people will be blessed and those who seek to destroy the land of His people will be destroyed themselves.
What does this have to do with America today you might ask? America has had a treaty to protect and defend Israel for many years. Last week, our President took a bold step against Israel by becoming the first American President to publicly call for Israel to give up the land that was promised by God to be theirs until the end of eternity. President Obama called for Israel to give up part of its promised land to the Muslim Arab’s that want it and allow a two state solution to bring peace to the area. Now we all know that is a ridiculous answer to a battle that has been in progress since the days of Moses. We have all watched as time after time, the different American administrations have convinced others to give in to the Muslim Arab’s and each and every time the promised peace is never delivered. Once the Muslim Arab’s get what they have asked for, the war and terrorism starts all over as they try to negotiate even more territory. American Presidents have been trying to convince Israel to disobey God and give up their land since the end of the Ronald Reagan era. It astonishes me that these Presidents have not noticed the serious decline that has taken place in our country since this has started.
I believe that God was serious when he said to the Israelites that He would bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. I also believe that God has a way of sending messages that will assure that He has been heard and understood.
Shortly after President Reagan left office, new President George H.W. Bush, while in Madrid suggested that Israel divide itself into to states and give one of them to the Arab people. The very next day, the “perfect Storm” blew through President Bush’s house in Kennebunkport Maine. Last week, after President Obama called for virtually the same division of Israel and giving half of Israel to the Arab people, on May 20th and two days later the Midwest was devastated by the tornados that dropped out of the sky and destroyed much of Joplin Missouri. Do I believe in coincidence? Absolutely not! Do I believe that our God has the power to let us know when He does not agree with the way we are handling His business. Definitely!
Remember, God has stated throughout the Bible the He will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. When America, represented by President Obama, is telling Israel to directly disobey God, then we are cursing Israel and therefore God has promised to curse us. This has been happening throughout the years as America itself has disobeyed our God by taking prayer out of schools, allowing our religious freedom to be hampered by non-believers, who sue to stop us from worshiping, by allowing the murder of millions of unborn children in direct violation of the sixth commandment of God that says “Thou shalt not murder”.
As with the Israelites over the years though, America has the ability to turn itself around and save itself from our God. When the Israelites have lost their land because they disobeyed God, they repented before God and asked Him to lead them in the fight to get back the land that God had promised them. God was always there to protect them and defeat their enemies. As Americans, we should be repenting before God and asking Him to help us take back our land from those who are trying to destroy it. This means that we need to start standing up to the likes of the ACLU, liberal politicians and anyone else who is out there every day trying to undermine God in our country.
This is our country and we should be the ones who decide how it is run and we should have the ability to turn that power over to our God and make decisions that would please Him.
Think about it. There is a major election coming up next year. That election could be the beginning of the end or the beginning of a revolution of the God fearing Americans who want to take our country back from our enemies and restore the faith in God that this country was built on.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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What’s Wrong With Politics Today
5/18/2011
I hear Americans complain day after day about the economy, the price of gas, the price of food, the lack of jobs, and nearly everything else that is of consequence in our country. It seems as though there is no answer to the question of how to fix the economy. We hear the politicians day after day droning on about how we need to raise taxes on the rich or raise this tax or that tax. People wonder what is wrong with politics that the politicians cannot figure out a solution to all of these problems facing America.
Well I am here to tell you what is wrong with politics. It is the people that we elect to represent us in Washington. These politicians have forgotten everything about what it means to serve the citizens of America. Somehow along the road these politicians came up with the idea that being elected to a term in Washington DC was the equivalent of holding the winning lottery ticket. Most of these politicians go in being one of the upper class in this country and come out being a member of the richest elite millionaires in the entire country. How does this happen if they are going there to serve us?
Therein lies the problem. Most of the politicians are not there to serve the citizens of America. They are there to line their pockets with gold and silver in any fashion they can find. Most of them have forgotten what the Constitution is and that is giving them a lot of credit that they ever knew in the first place. This is the same Constitution that they have sworn to defend and uphold and then turn aroun and trash daily.
Over the years, the politicians have allowed every whining cause in America to come and throw money at them to get them to disregard the constitution and change the laws in our country to the point that the minority of the people now control the majority.
If you took a poll in this country, you would find that approximately eighty-six percent of American citizens want to see prayer returned to school. That is because the majority of us realize that having prayer in school does not interfere with anyone’s religion because no one is forced to pray. Prayer in school does however go a long way toward teaching our children respect and good values. The politicians decided to turn away from the constitution however and outlaw prayer in school in violation of the freedom of religion guaranteed in the first amendment.
If you took a poll in this country, you would find that approximately sixty-three percent of American citizens disagree with abortion and want to see it banned. This is because most American citizens realize that killing an unborn child is not a proper form of birth control. It also is not effective in changing our children from thinking that sexual promiscuity is wrong and that abstinence is the best form of birth control. Back in the times when a teenager getting was an embarrassment and the pregnant mother to be was sent away until the baby was born, there was a very low percentage of teen pregnancy. This was because it was not acceptable. Today however, since the politicians have given every teenager the right to have an abortion anytime they please and usually at taxpayer expense, we have a teen pregnancy rate that has skyrocketed to a whopping fifty-nine percent.
The politicians have decided that the second amendment no longer applies to today’s society so they have decided to ignore the Constitution and limit, with plans to eventually eliminate any freedom for law abiding citizens to own a firearm. The reasoning here may make a little more sense because the initial reason for the second amendment was so that EVERY citizen had the right to own and carry a firearm in order to avoid the government from getting to oppressive against it’s citizens and so that the citizens could overthrow the government if this happens. Is that the reason that the politicians in Washington DC are constantly trying to take away our guns?
It is time for ALL Americans to get together and solve the problems of this nation by throwing out ALL the politicians and starting over. We need to elect people with common sense who think the way that the majority of Americans do and stop letting the whining special interest groups control our country.
Taxes are outrageous because Congress keeps allowing the freeloaders to live off of you and me. We have to take our hard earned dollars and give them to those who are too lazy to go get a job. It unnerves me every time I hear someone say that they don’t mind getting fired because then they can draw unemployment and get paid to sit at home and do nothing.
It get really angry when I am somewhere like the bowling alley listening to someone talk about how they are drawing disability from Social Security because they have a back injury that won’t allow them to work and then seeing a neighborhood quadriplegic in an electric wheelchair puttering down the sidewalk going to a job at the call center. Why should you and I support the guy at the bowling alley drinking beer and throwing a fifteen pound ball down the lane when the quadriplegic is holding down a steady job?
It is time to change the way things work in this country and that starts by getting rid of the politicians that are running it. I would say that we should outlaw lawyers in Congress but that would be discrimination. We should however send a variety of people from all walks of life to Congress so that there is an equitable mixture that represents all walks of life in our country and not just the elite rich.
I certainly do not want the elite rich keeping watch over my rights, my freedoms, and definitely not over my money. That would be like giving it to a bank to use and charge us for the privilege.
But that is a story for another day!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Kids Or No Kids
5/11/2011
I have noticed a disturbing trend in babysitting lately. In an era when electronic babysitting has virtually taken over, it is no uncommon to see children who are babysat by any number of electronic devices.
Television has slowly become the number one babysitter in the electronic family with a majority of parents sitting their children in front of a television show in order to keep them occupied so they did not have to stop what they were doing. All in all, this is most likely not harmful if it is only done once in a while.
The problem comes with parents who see that this is a way to get their children occupied in something that will allow them to proceed with what they want to do without having to care for their children. As this becomes more and more frequent, the television eventually takes over the parenting role of the children and before long we are wondering where our children have learned such rude and controversial behavior. This is reflected in children who never miss an episode of “Sponge Bob, Square Pants” and have parents who wonder where they learned to tell other children that they are stupid.
Back in better times, they children went to school during the day and then came home to do their homework and then go outside to play with friends. At dinnertime, they were called in to sit down at a dining room table to eat the evening meal with their parents and siblings. This was where parents usually learned from their children what had occurred during the day and the family generally caught up on what was going on in each other’s lives.
Soon the television drifted into the kitchen and families stopped talking and began watching television as they ate dinner. As the conversation at the dinner table stopped, the family began to drift apart and family members began arriving for dinner at different times and the younger children were fed in front of the television.
It did not take long before the kids started playing video games instead of playing outside. This was the start of a major childhood obesity crisis that has grown into an all-out epidemic today. More importantly has been the evolution of these games from friendly contests to complete realistic war and criminal games that are teaching some unbelievable things. Released into today’s childhood society are games that top the best seller lists for childhood games and teach the children how to use guns to kill people they don’t like, teach them about violence and how to use it to solve problems, teach them about sex sometimes at a very young age, and many other disgusting behavior. One game in the Grand Theft Auto series even has the child have sex with a prostitute and then kill her to move on to the next level. And we wonder why our children are growing up to treat each other with disrespect and why they are having sex at such a young age.
A huge section of today’s society does not even see their children for days at a time as they have moved into the electronic lifestyle. Parents communicate with their children through text messaging and often do not know where there children are throughout the day or night. I have seen teenagers and even younger sit side by side and carry on a conversation through text messaging without ever muttering a word to one another. Sad to say I have also seen parents converse with their children in the same manner.
As little as twenty years ago it was unusual to see an adult with a cell phone and today nearly every adult has one along with every teenager and as disturbing as it seems, I see a huge section of six to twelve year olds carrying cell phones complete with internet access and all kinds of porn. And we wonder what is happening to our children.
As this electronic society grow even larger with the sharing advent brought on by MySpace, Facebook Twitter and other social media, our children are becoming less and less inclined to exercise, play (in person) with other children communicate with anyone by voice and are quickly losing all social skills that they will need to be successful in life and in the workplace.
Parents often wonder where the years have gone as their children are leaving home and the answer is that the years have gone to your electronics. Parents do not realize that they should spend their children’s lives during the growing up stage talking to them, finding out what is going on in their lives, teaching them important skills like how to treat each other with respect and dignity, how to play outside and the importance of not sitting at the television or computer all the time.
I have heard parents ask the question “how did my child get into all this electronic stuff?” Most of them will ask this question while texting their child about current events. They do not realize that it started when they did not want to take the time to talk to their child so they sat him/her in front of the television. Most of the time, this starts at a very young age with children watching such shows as Barney, the Dinosaur in order to babysit them. I have even seen babies put in a rocker and sat in front of cartoons while the parent did housework, played on a computer or visited with friends.
It starts at a very young age and has become an epidemic of growing proportions. The latest trend is the one that inspired this column. I have seen this twice in the last week while dining out. Parents want to keep their children occupied while dining out so instead of talking to them or entertaining them, they bring a portable DVD player into a restaurant and sit it in front of their children at the restaurant table.
One of the couples was sitting at the table behind me and it was so loud that I could not even carry on conservation with my wife across the table. Any time the cartoon on the DVD player ended, the child would scream a blood curdling scream. The obvious problem here was the fact that these parents were clueless as to how the child became this way. During the entire meal, I never once heard either parent speak to the child. The cartoon would stop, the child would scream and one parent or the other would reach over and start the cartoon over.
So the new question at restaurants will soon be “Would you like Kids or no kids seating” I have decided that the next time I encounter this problem, I am going to approach the table in a very kind manner and ask the parents to please turn off the DVD player and talk to their child instead. Come on parents. It is time to get a clue. Start teaching your children manners, social skills, etiquette and most important, the art of conversation. Don’t leave it up to electronic stimulus to teach your kids everything they know. If you do, it may surprise you what they know by the time they are fifteen.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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It Was A Bad Week For Terrorists!
5/04/2011
Sunday night as I sat with my wife watching “The Donald” getting ready to fire another celebrity and wondering if he would really run for President, a special “breaking news” alert began to scroll across the bottom of the screen. The scroll stated that President Obama would address the nation with some important news in a few moments. That immediately grabbed hold of my attention as I began to wonder what had happened to bring the President to address the nation during a possible presidential opponent’s television show.
My first thought was that it must be something really bad. I had already heard that in Libya, Moammar Gadhafi’s compound had been bombed and that one of his sons had been killed along with three of his grandsons. I wondered if the Libyan Terrorist had struck back against Americans because of this.
I then watched as the news events began to unfold that the Great Evil One who I believe could have been Satan himself, Osama bin Laden, had been shot in the head and killed and that this had been confirmed by DNA testing, followed by his body being buried at sea to avoid any grave that could become a shrine for terrorists. I was stunned, elated, and proud to be an American, sorry that George Bush did not get to make the announcement but glad that President Obama did, and glad to be a Christian instead of a radical Muslim with a religion that says to kill anyone who does not believe what you believe.
I found it interesting that bin Laden died in a firefight with Navy Seals and in the end showed what a true COWARD he was as he pulled his wife in front of him to use as a human shield. Nice to know that the most evil coward in the world put his wife in front to catch HIS bullets instead of protecting her as most American men would have done.
I was glad to see the news reports that the White House was surrounded by thousands of people who ran into the streets to celebrate the death of the most hated man in America, if not the world. Likewise, in New York, thousands of Americans gathered at Ground Zero to celebrate. Across the country, people sent Twitter message at a peak rate that rivaled the Super Bowl while fans at the Phillies vs. New York Mets game stood and cheered as the game was halted at the news. It was good to see Americans having something to celebrate as a country and to gather together with total strangers for the first time since nine, one, one. Back then we gathered together to help our neighbors and to mourn and grieve together. On Sunday, the cause was much more joyous as the end of a worldwide manhunt came to an end.
In a quote to news reporters, President George W. Bush made the comment that “Tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done”. I think this makes an important point. There are those who say that Al Qaeda will attack America in revenge for the bin Laden killing. I would say to any who might try that we did not choose this fight. This was a fight that was started solely by Osama bin Laden when he decided that he was going to attempt to destroy America. I would also tell all other terrorists out there who think they might try to carry on bin Laden’s mission what a poor decision that would be.
It took ten years to locate and eliminate Osama bin Laden. That is what Americans call determination. If we are attacked again, we will hunt down and eliminate the perpetrators again just as we did with bin Laden. Most Americans do not choose to fight and wish for peace. But if backed up to a wall and forced to fight we will, AND WE WILL WIN!! And if we are attacked, we will spare no expense to find you and make you pay with your life.
Along the same lines, the job is done and we need to stop being the world police. We need to bring our military people home and tell them “job well done.” Then we need to put them back to their original mission of protecting America instead of other countries, use them to secure our borders from illegal aliens and also from terrorists sneaking across our borders.
And maybe, just maybe, we can turn the killing of the most evil wanted man in the world into a grand and glorious thing. Maybe we can use this time now to gather together in a time of healing and lick our wounds, restore some friendships and hopefully stop some of the hatred against Muslims that do not believe in killing anyone who does not believe exactly what they believe.
That is what we do here in America. We trust in God and we forgive. Admittedly it has been hard for nearly ten years because of the negative effects of Muslims flying American planes into American buildings. But now that the leader of that attack has been killed, it is time to let the healing begin.
We are God fearing Americans. We will regain worldwide respect. We will stand tall and proud together. We will become strong again. We will do this because we are Americans.
To Osama bin Laden, a final farewell. Enjoy your time where the Son don’t shine but the eternal flames of Hell do!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Does Your Daughter Want A Princess Wedding?
4/27/2011
When my daughter was just a little girl she used to tell me that she wanted to grow up and get married to a prince and have a princess wedding. I always thought that this was cute until all the hype started about the wedding of Prince William and Princess to be Kate. Then I realized what a nightmare a princess wedding would be and I would never want to traumatize my child or doom her wedding with such a glorious nightmare.
Look at the glorious wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. This was a marriage that was doomed from the beginning. From worldwide television coverage to a wedding gown with a twenty-five foot train and eleven train maidens to carry the train, to the wedding parade through London. How was the marriage ever supposed to live up to that kind of standard.
I hope that Kate and William have better luck that Charles and Diana. I hope that Kate never ends up in a divorce from Prince William because we have all seen how that ended up and the controversy surrounding Diana’s death.
Most of the weddings I have been to usually lasted around an hour for the reception and was followed by the wedding reception which usually lasts three to five hours. None of those were Royal Weddings. I can’t remember the last wedding that I went to that had more than one official videographer in attendance. I know that weddings usually have a timetable that is loosely adhered to, such as “We’re getting married at eleven so make sure you are there no later than ten fifty-five” but I do not remember any where there was a precise schedule that was ironclad, detailed and covered such a long time.
The Royal Wedding schedule contains some items that I would never have thought to add. My schedule would be something like “wedding at eleven, doors open at ten-thirty, reception following”. I mean what more do you need to know? Wedding Royal Planners, though, have to earn their pay for the outrageous amount of money they charge. So their schedule for an eleven o’clock wedding includes items such as “eight-fifteen to nine forty-five: the general congregation will arrive at the Great North Door of Westminster Abbey. Now this presents two questions. First, what is so special about this door that makes it the GREAT North Door? Second, are these people so snobbish that they think they are important enough to require people to be in their seats a minimum of one hour fifteen minutes before the wedding starts? And these are the people considered to be the unimportant people, kind of like peons or non-essential government employees. I know this because from nine fifty to ten fifteen is when the distinguished guests arrive.
The bridegroom and best man (Prince Harry) leave Clarence House at ten ten and arrive at Westminster Abbey precisely at ten fifteen. I sure hope they don’t have a flat tire on the way and that Prince Harry remembered to gas up the car the night before.
Then there is the pecking order for the families. Mere members of the Royal Family arrive at ten twenty. The parents of the Bride arrive at ten twenty seven. The Duke of York, Princess Beatrice of York, Princess Eugenie of York, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence arrive at ten forty. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall arrive at ten forty-two. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh arrive at ten forty five. The bridesmaids and Pages arrive at ten fifty-five and the Bride arrives at ten fifty-nine. Talk about cutting it close. At what time do they all get together to synchronize their watches?
After the wedding is the carriage ride to Buckingham Palace for the reception. Now for the important information that most of us will need to know. At one twenty-five on Big Ben is when the Queen and the Bride and Bridegroom will appear on the Balcony with their families for the purpose of giving us one of those famous hand waves. This will be followed at one thirty with a Fly Past by the Royal Air Force and Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
Those invited to the Royal Wedding include a diverse group of people from around the world. Nineteen hundred have been invited to the Royal Wedding. The decisions on the invitations were made by the couple jointly along with members of their families. (Yes, you have to invite Aunt Bertha) From the looks of the Official Guest List, they have invited the leader of every foreign country in the Western Hemisphere except for the President of the United States. What does that say about their closest ally? I have not found an invitation for anyone in the current administration.
Then there are the members of the media. I have heard about very little on the Today show for the last month. It is like all news stopped a month ago because there is a wedding coming up. Meredith Viera has been there two or three times for days on end. She is there for a week before the wedding going over the preparations in gruesome detail and reporting on every little miniscule detail and then flourishing us with many other items that most of us could care less about. Items such as what hat Meredith will wear to the wedding. Who cares!
I have to say that I received my invitation as a member of the media several months ago but I try to avoid weddings like the plague. I think they are boring and would much rather be doing something more pleasant like pulling out my fingernails. Even though this is the wedding to end all weddings I have many better things to waste my time on than contributing to the dooming of a marriage.
I was, however, excited to find out that I was invited to this Royal Wedding, a spectacle to end all spectacles, the event of the century, the grandest party of a lifetime, while hearing that the President of the United States was not invited. It is nice to know where you stand in the pecking order.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Boy, Tantrum, Girl, Why?
4/20/2011
It has long been known that when young children do not get their way they will often throw a tantrum in an attempt to gain power over parents or guardians and get their way. All parents know that there are two ways to react to a tantrum thrown by a child. Number one is to give in to the child and give him/her what they want. Number two is to not give in to the child and be sure to understand that throwing a tantrum is the absolute barrier to them getting their way.
Now most parents know that if number one is the method used, then the child has accomplished what they wanted and gained control over the parents. This teaches them that if they do not agree with the parent, all they have to do is to throw a tantrum and the parents will give in. Therefore, the child loses all respect for the parents, grows up resenting them and more often than not, ends up in trouble as a young adult because they have had no real guidance during their childhood.
A few parents understand that number two is much more difficult to enforce but are willing to NOT take the easy way out and stand their ground. This has a positive effect on the child and teaches them right from wrong and that there are consequences for their actions. This also teaches the child to respect their parents and builds a long lasting relationship between parents and child that will keep them from entering a troubled life when they reach adulthood.
There is a third way to handle your child that only a handful of parents throughout the world would ever use. That is the relationship where the child absolutely rules the parents because the parents have no foresight into what they are doing or what their purpose in life is. These are the parents that should be required to obtain a birthing license prior to being allowed to give birth to a child. These are the parents that would probably flunk an IQ test miserably and their idea of street smarts would be a street that knew it was supposed to keep its asphalt under the wheels of a car.
I found one of these sets of parents recently in Australia.
This is the story of a ten year old boy with a set of two parents who is simply ruined for life because of the decisions of his parents. These parents apparently were not satisfied with the wonderful little boy given to them by God. This father apparently did not look forward to playing catch with his firstborn son. This mother apparently had no desire to cheer on her son at his first basketball game.
Instead, they dressed this little boy, almost from birth as a girl. They claim that they knew from the time he was born that he was a girl that God had stuck in a little boy’s body. This little boys name is Jaime, probably because that is a gender neutral name that can be used when he is dressed as a boy or girl.
At the hearty old age of eight years old, these parents allowed this young boy to start living as a girl, dressing in feminine clothing, using the girl’s toilet at school and “presenting as a very attractive girl with long, blonde hair.”
After two years of living as a girl, these wonderful, supportive parents have decided that their cute little boy needs to permanently become a girl. They have petition and won in the Australian Court system to allow Jaime to start drug therapy to stop male puberty and then to start the second stage of taking female hormones to feminize the body. This, of course, will be followed by a sex change operation so that this cute little boy can lead a normal life as a woman when he grows up.
WHO ARE YOU KIDDING!!!
This child is going to grow up to lead anything but a normal life. It is obvious to pretty much everyone that these parents got a little boy and didn’t want him so they operated on him to get the little girl that they wanted instead. Gee. How much love does that show to the child.
The court made this horrendous decision based on the testimony of the parents that felt like a freak and they wanted to stop the teasing and social isolation at school. HELLO!!! Far be it from these parents to consider the fact that their child was considered a freak because the PARENTS were dressing their little boy as a girl and sending him to school. This is sort of the Johnny Cash equivalent of naming your little boy Sue. Far be it for these PARENTS to realize that the teasing and social isolation at school could be from the fact that THEY were turning their son into the freak they worried about.
As if this was not enough, Jaime has a twin brother who now has to go to school and everywhere else announcing that “I have a sister”. These are two kids that are going to grow up with serious mental problems. They will be so screwed up for the rest of their lives and have only their parents to blame.
Actually that is not quite true. There is a judge out there that is to blame also. This judge should have taken one look at this case and thrown the parents in jail. She should have then put these children into a home where they could get some sort of normal, stable life. This judge could have done something to possibly save these children instead of dooming them to a troubled life of trying to figure out who they are.
Sometimes we wonder what happens to make children act out and do some of the appalling atrocities such as school shootings or killing each other. I think that in this case, when these children grow a little and start getting into trouble, we know where to look.
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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Who Can Trump Obama In 2012?
4/13/2011
Who can Trump Obama is a question that we are all going to hear for the next year and a half until we are completely sick of it. The political season for the 2012 Presidential election is just beginning and there are several hopefuls for the Republican Party nomination that are trying to convince party members to give them a chance to challenge President Obama as he runs for re-election.
Potential Republican candidates include US Representative from Minnesota Michele Bachmann; Governor of Mississippi Haley Barbour; Former Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton; Senator from Massachusetts Scott Brown; Former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush; Businessman Herman Cain; Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie; Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels; South Caroline Senator Jim DeMint; Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham; Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee; Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal; Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson; Gay Rights Activist Fred Karger; Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell; Flight Attendant Tom Miller; Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin; Texas Representative Ron Paul; Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty; Indiana Representative Mike Pence; Army General David Petraeus; Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney; Florida Senator Marco Rubio; Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum; South Dakota Senator John Thune; and Business Magnate Donald Trump.
Potential Independent candidates include the Governor of Florida Charlie Crist and Mayor of New York City Mike Bloomberg along with Computer Technician Becky Rusher and American Citizen Tim Gay Sr.
The Libertarian Party is also looking at a candidacy by Entrepreneur Wayne Allen Root.
In my book that adds up to twenty-seven Republican candidates, four Independent candidates and one Libertarian candidate running against Barrack Obama and the Democratic Party. It sure looks like there are a lot of people who want the current President out of office.
I would say that the Libertarian Party is pretty strong due to the fact that they have only one candidate running on a conservative platform. There is no competition to divide the votes and I think more Americans are looking for something more conservative in these days of four dollar gasoline. The downside for the Libertarian Party is that they have never really caught on and do not typically gather many votes.
On the Independent side of the ballot the strongest candidates are Charlie Crist and Mike Bloomberg. The American citizen and the computer technician will not have the required funding to run a strong campaign and are unknown so will be unable to raise the needed funds. Crist and Bloomberg have their own money to fund a campaign but not of the strength to battle the one billion dollars that Obama is expected to raise.
Of the twenty-seven potential candidates for the Republican Party, up until a couple of days ago, I would have said that the seven strongest candidates would be Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Indiana Representative Mike Pence and Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. But then I turned on the Today show on NBC and listened to an interview that, in my opinion, turned the Republican Party upside down. The interview was with a candidate that I would never have expected to run for President, would never have expected to vote for and would have thought that his candidacy would have been a publicity stunt and embarrassment to the Republican Party.
Then I heard him speak! Yes, I heard “The Donald” Donald Trump tell the world on national television that he wants to go to President Obama and tell him “you’re fired”.
The interview with Trump was conducted by Meredith Vieira in the normal mainstream media fashion of constantly interrupting anyone who does not spout their liberal views but “The Donald” never let her get away with it. He was firm in his views and cut her off every time she interrupted.
I heard this potential candidate talk about the respect that the rest of the world used to have for America and how we have now been turned into the laughingstock of the world in just three short years.
I heard him talk about how we need someone with the audacity to stand up and tell the world that we (America) are back and we are as strong as ever and that we will not tolerate any more crap from terrorists or from other countries that support them.
I heard Trump explain how he could go to Afghanistan and build a road and build a school and then watch them be bombed and destroyed again but we could not go and build a school in New Orleans after a hurricane.
I heard him tell us that if he decides to run and is elected President that things are going to change, but this time they are going to change for the better. I listened to him explain that foreign aid would be handled differently. We would be sending aid to our country and its citizens first and if there was any left over, then we would look at aiding other countries if they were our friends and not trying to kill us.
I heard him talk about the correct way to fix the economy and that is by teaching our citizens how to work and earn a living instead of expecting the government to support them. How we would quit throwing money at problems such as education and find the best solution for each problem and then fund that solution instead of the one the lobbyists are pushing.
I heard how he would tighten up the belt of the government and make it smaller and more efficient and start cutting our spending and live on a balanced budget that allows us to start paying off our debt instead of leaving it for our grandchildren to worry about.
I realize that this all sounds too good to be true but Donald Trump is a master at business spurring success at nearly everything he touches. Even in dealing with his companies that have been through a bankruptcy, he has tightened the belt and steered each one of them out of bankruptcy and into a successful venture. Since our country is bankrupt, both financially and morally, maybe Trump is just the shot in the arm that America needs.
Just perhaps Donald Trump is the one who can become the next Ronald Reagan and turn our country back into the powerhouse that it used to be. Whether or not he is able to do so remains to be seen, but he appears to be better equipped that any other Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or Independent that has expressed a concern for trying. For the time being, I say, “Donald Trump, YOU”RE HIRED”
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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I Agree With The President
4/06/2011
I heard a news story the other day that President Obama had made the statement that he had ordered the United States Immigration Service to only arrest certain persons that were crossing the Mexican border without proper documentation. His point was that he only wanted border agents to arrest those who were criminals and allow those who were not to enter the United States.
I have to say that there have not been many issues that I have agreed with President Obama on but this is definitely one that I agree with.
I am not now nor have I ever been an advocate of keeping ALL Mexicans out of the United States. My entire belief is that we should only keep out the ones who are criminals. It is encouraging to finally find something that I agree with the President on.
Allowing the criminals to cross over into America presents numerous problems in our country. Of course, there are the obvious problems, such as them bringing the murderous drug cartel traffic onto this side of the border and starting their nonsensical killing of innocent people who are in the wrong place at the time they are making an illegal drug deal.
Since criminals do not report their income from illegal sources, we can then expect them to apply for all sorts of government assistance even though they probably make more money than most Americans. It is just common knowledge that criminals do not pay for something legitimately when there is a way they can steal it. That will include, of course, getting free medical care, free educations for their children, including free school lunches, free welfare payments that are given out by the government to those who do not wish to work and food stamps for free groceries.
It is nice to know that the criminals who are already here have the backing of the federal government, which is redistributing our wealth and taking the hard earned money from those who work for it and giving it to non-citizen Mexican criminals. I know that if I had a say-so in the matter, I would not want my tax dollars going to support criminals from other nations of the world.
I guess the only concern that I have with this policy of the Obama administration is where they are getting their definition of the word criminal. You see, a criminal is defined as a person who commits an act that is in violation of a federal, state or local law. Since there is a federal law that says it is illegal to cross any border into the United States without going through the customs and immigration process and providing the proper and legal documentation and identification papers, this means that every person that crosses the United States border illegally is committing a crime and is therefore a criminal. So President Obama’s statement that we should only arrest the criminals that cross the border illegally is correct. That also means that the United States Immigration Service should be arresting EVERY alien that crosses the border illegally because they are criminals.
The problem with the Obama administration is that the President does not want to stop the illegal aliens from crossing the border because, according to his numbers, there are thirteen million illegal aliens in this country already and he would like to give them amnesty and make them citizens. You ask, “Why would our President want to make a bunch of criminals legal citizens”. Well the answer to that question is very simple. If he can get them amnesty and turned into citizens in the next twelve or thirteen months, then they would be eligible to vote for him for re-election. What politician in his right mind would not want to be guaranteed thirteen million votes?
The fact that he would have to make thirteen criminals into legal citizens as a reward for breaking the law is of no consequence to him. After all, we are talking about the citizen of Kenya, Africa that broke several laws and completed a very successful cover-up concerning his birth certificate, in order to become President. We are talking about a man and his wife that both agreed to give up their license to practice law in order to avoid prosecution for breaking laws while using those licenses. We are talking about a man who claims to have gone to college under a fraudulent name to receive a degree and still, no one has been found who ever saw him on campus or in a class. We are talking about a man who has a lot in common with these Mexican criminals. And you know what they say about the criminal brotherhood, they all stick together until they get caught.
In order for a system of laws to be worthwhile and mean something, they must be enforced and they must be enforced EQUALLY. This means that anyone crossing the border illegally is a criminal and should be arrested, prosecuted and returned to their country. It does not matter if they are a member of a drug cartel or someone looking for a better life because a criminal is a criminal. If they are looking for a better life, then they should go to the immigration service and apply for a visa in order to enter this country in a legal manner.
I know that in the past, President Obama has made the statement that. “I think that it is illegal to make illegals illegal” While in some form this statement doesn’t seem to make sense, it is really a sad look at the brain function of our President. I believe he really thinks this way and does not even realize that not only is this statement not true but we do not have to make illegals illegal because they are already illegal. You can call them undocumented guest workers all you want but they are still criminals.
When you add that statement to the mentality that it is against the law to make a law enforcing the law, it really explains a lot with this administration. You do not need to pass a law to enforce the law. The laws are already on the books to enforce the laws. All we need is to find a President that is willing to take a stand and enforce the laws instead of letting all the criminals go free.
We have an election coming next year in November of 2012. Let’s see if the American people can come together and forget political parties and find a President that will enforce ALL of the laws EQUALLY against ALL criminals. That would be the very best election ever for this country.
Remember in November 2012. We Vote!!!
Doug Chambers is the Publisher of Greenwood Newspapers, Inc. which currently publishes four newspapers across central Indiana. His column “Things That Trouble Me” is currently syndicated in newspapers throughout the Midwest. You can reach Doug via email at news@indychallenger.com.
© 2011, Greenwood Newspapers, Inc.
www.challengernewspapers.com
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