Keep It Pithy Part 2

Clue: Were tax hikes an issue in the last national election?

Another clue: Did the election results affect the decisions made to avert the so-called fiscal cliff?

Crazed ideologues on the right who laugh off environmental concerns are just as stupid as crazed ideologues on the left who have somehow determined that human life in the womb is expendable.

Just as with global warming, no one knows exactly when life begins. Only the deity knows. You can believe anything you want, but you DON'T KNOW. We do know one thing, however: Scientists have proven that upon conception, human DNA is present. Get it? The fetus already has the codes in place from its biological mother and father. So the "ma.s.s of nonhuman cells" argument goes right out the window if you're an honest person.

In my opinion, the "compa.s.sionate" liberal cadre that supports abortion on demand-for any reason at any time-is guilty of gross human-rights violations. Worshiping at the altar of "reproductive rights" is wrong. Abortion should be rare, regulated, and discouraged. Human dignity demands it.

So you can see that the bold, fresh guy has some problems with both sides of the ideological spectrum. But unlike Judy Collins, who sang about not knowing life at all, I am more confident in my views. Independent thought based upon greater good, realism, and, yes, compa.s.sion drives my agenda and dictates my a.n.a.lysis.

More on taxes in today's political climate ...

Politicians take your tax dollars and give them to their friends and patrons. How corrupt is that? Well, they get away with it because politicians know that you won't notice that you're being stiffed as long as the malls stay open late and your cable system provides twenty-four-hour sports coverage.

In other words, the political climate in the USA has changed in favor of the crooks and incompetents. How can you guarantee yourself a future in public service? Be willing to sell out for campaign money. And if you're an especially talented liar, you can go very far. Both major parties would be happy to have you join the hustle. (But get in line quick. It's only the first few who will be allowed on board. Any more than that, and the bandits get nervous.)

Am I being too harsh?

Simple answer to that: no.

(photo credit 1.3)

But there are, and have been, exceptions.

The politician I most admire is Abraham Lincoln. The reason is simple: He was kind. He showed his concern for everyday Americans while trying to lead this country through its greatest crisis so far. Failure to act wisely and courageously at the height of the Civil War would have destroyed the nation, which was founded at such risk barely a hundred years before.

Even so, Lincoln devoted one day a week to reading mail from the people and answering with notes on the reverse side of the page. Not surprisingly, many letters were written to seek jobs or other favors. The president often tried to help these ordinary people, even though they were strangers to the corridors of power and influence....

I have seen a number of these letters from mothers who wanted to visit their wounded sons, from older men who needed work to support their families after all the young relatives had gone to war, and from children worried about their fathers in uniform. Lincoln's replies are amazingly compa.s.sionate. He reveals himself as a great man who used determination and humility to save the Union. Neither vain nor vengeful, he had no spin guys or bagmen and took no money. Because he loved his country, he suffered greatly at the loss of life on both sides of the conflict. Despite the tremendous personal stress and the nationwide chaos, Lincoln still helped individuals while working to keep the country whole.

Where are today's Honest Abes?

Dunno, but we should keep an eye out. Might happen again.

The above sketch was written years before I wrote my recent bestseller, Killing Lincoln. Good in the world is too often matched by evil, as in the person of the a.s.sa.s.sin John Wilkes Booth.

Am I serious about that observation?

Yes.

Evil is a constant presence throughout the world. I've seen soldiers gun down unarmed civilians in Latin America, Irish terrorists kill and maim their fellow citizens in Belfast with bombs, and heroin addicts with AIDS knowingly share needles with other addicts without telling them about the infection. Evil.

Once, I stood in the cellar of an abandoned Italian church that had been used by Satanists in rituals that included murder. The feeling of evil permeated this room. I had never felt anything like it.

But then I felt it again in Africa at Victoria Falls in Zambia. I stood where human sacrifice was practiced years before by tribes native to the area. Victims were tossed off the cliff into the thundering falls. I got out of there quick.

So I know that true, unrepentant evil exists. And I firmly believe it will be punished, just as good will be rewarded. That is part of the order of the universe, if we only take the time to recognize it.

CHAPTER TWO

I'VE QUESTIONED EUROPEAN SOCIALISM FROM THE BEGINNING

h.e.l.lo France, Next Stop-G.o.d Forbid-Greece!

Europe is on such an economic roller coaster that no one, certainly not your humble servant, could reliably predict what will be going on when this book comes off the presses.

(photo credit 2.1)

Chaos? Collapse?

Don't point your finger at any one or two countries alone. The whole European way of thinking about social and economic matters has been a shared lunacy and a dangerous misreading of human reality.

You only have to travel to Europe to see the difference that an ent.i.tlement culture makes. While the United States is a vibrant, creative, and exciting place, Europe today is largely stagnant. Workers there have little incentive to move ahead, because the rate of taxation is punishing and the governments guarantee a certain standard of living. In France, young people demonstrated for weeks because the government wanted a new law that would allow employers to actually fire them during the first two years of employment if they screwed up on a regular basis. But nooooo, we can't have that! The French sense of ent.i.tlement basically says, "You owe me prosperity, government. You owe me."

Yes, this was written before 2008.

All the more reason why Europe is in such deep trouble even as President Obama seems to be taking us exactly in its direction.