Roy Exum
Today I am going to give you proof the Apocalypse may well be right around the corner and, to illustrate my point, I will use some seemingly smart and savvy people. We have before us a school principal, a town mayor, the President, a Congressman, a noted university, and a U.S. Senator who also happens to be a physician. These are all noble people, mind you, but their actions lead me to wonder if we are not right on the edge. This is what I am talking about …
Aiden Stewart, a 9-year-old fourth-grader at Kermit Elementary School in Odessa, Texas, just can’t seem to behave.
The other day he brought a ring to school and told a friend he could place it on his classmate’s head and make him disappear. Aiden was immediately suspended for making such a threat.
The back story is the Stewart family had just watched the movie, “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies” which was fashioned from J.R.R. Tolkien’s series, “The Lord of the Rings.” Aiden thought it was pretty cool that Bilbo Baggins used a magic ring to steal Gollum’s “precious” but school principal Roxanne Greer certainly did not.
Aiden’s dad can’t believe this is happening. “It sounded unbelievable. He didn’t mean anything by it. I assure you my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten a friend’s existence. If he did, I am sure he would bring him right back.”
“Kids act out movies they see,” said Jason Stewart. “When I saw Superman, I remember going out in the yard a trying to fly.”
No, what is more unbelievable is that this is the third time the 9-year-old has been suspended by the principal. The first suspension came after he referred to a classmate as being black. The second came after he brought his favorite book to school to show to the teacher.
At the time the class was studying the solar system so Aiden thought the teacher would be impressed with the section on stars in “The Big Book of Knowledge.” But – whoa! – there was also a section in the “Big Book” on pregnancy that the teacher found and, since it had an illustration of a pregnant woman, Aiden wound up in more hot water. “He loves that book. He thought the teacher would be impressed with what it showed about the solar system.”
But, no, Aiden Stewart has been suspended three times. What are we teaching this child?
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Jonathan Freund, the Mayor of Sun Valley, Wisc, leaned in close to “Jimmy the Groundhog” at the city’s annual celebration on Monday and, instead of a whisper, the animal chomped down on Hizzoner’s ear.
Freund was still able to tell those assembled that “Jimmy” told him there would be an early spring. But Jerry and Maria Hahn, Jimmy’s handlers, told WISC-TV that the mayor misinterpreted the century-old sign that if the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. Freund’s office then issued a statement that only the mayor can translate Jimmy’s prediction.
How do these people get elected?
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President Obama is asking for a $4 trillion budget and, for the record, one trillion $1 bills laid end-to-end would measure about 96,906,565 miles. That's greater than the distance from the earth to the sun. Now multiply by four.
How do people like this get elected?
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There was an emergency bill passed in Washington last summer that provides $17 billion (with a “b”) to shore up our badly-battered Veterans Administration program but Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, whose realm includes Chattanooga, just told WTVC that our upgrades will not be completed until the year 2020.
Are you kidding me? We can deploy a top-flight squad of Army Rangers to anywhere in the world in just 18 hours but our veterans are going to wait five more years! The VA isn’t all that’s broken.
“We provide the funding then they move forward with the logistics. That’s where the problem is. They’ve been a little bit lethargic and slow in terms of getting it done,” Fleischmann told reporter Josh Roe. “Myself and other members of Congress who have approval for leased facilities … are writing a letter to Secretary McDonald at Veterans Affairs to basically say ‘Mr. Secretary, when are we going to see these facilities come into fruition?’”
Perhaps a better answer came last Thursday when the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Committee revealed a 302-page plan that will save the military $26.5 billion (with a “b”) by 2020 and a further $6.7 billion (with a “b”) every year until 2033. If approved, it will shift new veterans onto private healthcare plans and 401(k) retirement plans.
But, as of today, our soldiers must wait … and wait … and wait while some in Congress are drafting a letter.
How do these people get elected?
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The City University of New York has officially just banned “Mr.” and “Mrs.” and “Ms.” from all official correspondence because such honorifics are not sensitive to transgender students. A school spokesman said the ban would not apply to freedom of speech because professors could still call students whatever they liked in the classroom. They just can’t write it.
Another spokesman said the change was made because Title IX bans discrimination but free speech lawyer Ari Cohn was quoted in the New York Daily News as saying, “Title IX is being turned into a Swiss Army knife that can be used by colleges and universities to justify (and provide political cover for) virtually any academic or institutional policy even tangentially related to sex or gender.”
I’m telling you, the end is near.
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Rand Paul, a United States senator who is also an ophthalmologist, told CNBC’s Kelly Evans that he has heard of cases where vaccines have caused “profound mental disorders.” In a testy interview where he yawned and interrupted the reporter, Paul said, “I’ve heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines. I’m not arguing vaccines are a bad thing. I think they are a good thing. But I think parents should have some input.”
When reporters pressed for evidence of the claims, Paul’s campaign chairman (Sergio Gor) said that the Senator largely supports vaccines but many should be voluntary. “Dr. Paul believes that vaccines have saved lives, and should be administered to children. His children were all vaccinated. He believes they should be voluntary and, like most medical decisions, should be between the doctor and the patient, not the government.”
Where do people like this come from? I can’t wait to get my Ebola vaccine and, if taking a vaccine will ward off the measles, mumps, hangnail, psoriasis or diphtheria, get the needle. This is just common sense.
royexum@aol.com