Rocky Mountain Straight Talk

To the Editor
Cortez Journal Newspaper

The charge that Republicans want to see Obama and our country fail is a red herring designed to distract the citizenry from his administration’s unconscionably irresponsible handling of the economy.

Obama decried the proliferation of earmarks and the deficit spending of the Bush administration. Now that he is doing precisely the same thing, only on a vastly greater scale, he wants to keep Americans distracted, hence this flap over Rush Limbaugh.

Anyone who heard Limbaugh’s statement (and it has been played repeatedly all over the country) knows he said, specifically, that he wanted Obama to fail to establish socialism in this country.

Since approximately half our citizens agree that European-style socialism would be detrimental to our national welfare, it is the height of foolishness to pretend they are traitors. This is especially so since Obama’s margin of support among the citizenry is not only narrow, but tenuous.

Voters who can count and have any understanding of compound interest know not even our grandchildren will be able to repay this vote-buying, supporter-rewarding, citizen-controlling spending gusher. Additionally, he is compounding the approaching disaster by raising taxes on America’s hardest-workers, in order to "spread the wealth around."

He is avoiding any mention of the national bankruptcy waiting in the wings if China, Japan and Arab countries stop buying our paper, and the danger of that is real.

Those of us who were furious about Bush’s bailouts and deficit spending are aghast at Obama’s doing precisely the same thing, only worse. Additionally, most Americans are too smart to fall for his attempt to draw attention from his actions by generating this preposterous Limbaugh fabrication.

Do Republicans want Obama to fail? If his intention is to turn us into a European-style socialist nanny state, for my part, the answer is a resounding "Yes!"

Muriel Sluyter

Greetings Gentle Reader,

This stimulus package–and I use the word stimulus loosely–is loaded with garbage, because it’s authors needed decoys. When we citizens scream loudly enough, the politicians "reluctantly" take out something they put in as a decoy. That way we don’t realize they are going to end up with everything they really wanted, all along.

They have put so many decoys in front of their real programs that we could scream for weeks and never get rid of the "toxic" spending they intend to keep. The stuff they will have left is so destructive our economy, indeed our culture, never will recover. We cannot repay the trillions to which they are obligating us, and the programs those trillions finance will change our culture forever, and not for the good.

If I overdraft my budget by $1,000, spending an additional $2,000 is not going to solve my bankruptcy problems.

If I borrow money from Daddy to buy a new car (with interest added), then I borrow from my violent Auntie to repay Daddy (with interest added), then I borrow from my axe-murderer Uncle to repay Auntie (with interest added), I am now indebted to deadly-dangerous people. Soon, they will call in those debts, and I won’t be able to pay. Then what? I will have to pay the price of bankruptcy, and if I am lucky, they won’t slice and dice me in the bargain. What part of borrowing from people who want to harm us does our government not understand?

The only thing that works for an individual (or a government) is responsible money management. We’re getting none of that in this package. It’s nothing but a spoiled child’s wish list and an open manifestation of that child’s malignant desire to control his siblings. (For "child" read Congress and the President.)

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Gentle Reader,

As I opened the steel gates and entered the area where the dairy goats reside, the buck decided to challenge me. He did that odd thing bucks do; he reared up high, standing almost straight upright, then came down on his front feet in a feint, as though he was going to butt me.

Now, I could have dropped to my knees and begged him not to hurt me, but, if I had done that, he would have immediately proceeded to wipe the floor with me. Instead of being conciliatory, I yelled at him, jumped toward him, and told him in no uncertain terms what I would do to him if he so much as tried to attack me. Though he is faster than I, stronger than I, and outweighs me by a lot of pounds of hefty muscle, he promptly turned and ran away.

This little exercise in barnyard psychology applies to people as well as animals. If a group of terrorists threaten us, or attempt to attack us, or successfully attack us, we could drop to our collective knees and beg them not to hurt us, but it would be an incredibly stupid thing to do. That would guarantee not only an attack, but a probable attempt to annihilate us as a country and as a people.

The only thing that works, whether with animals or animalistic people is to make sure they pay a staggering price for their actions, and in addition, make sure they know that the price they will pay for any future aggression is annihilation.

Talking is fine. It makes some people feel exceptionally important to let them talk, but, when dealing with vicious animals or people, it is invariably counterproductive. Why? Because it gives an aggressor a power-rush. They know they have won a round, and they are eager to try for another win.

Let us hope that will not be the philosophy of our new President, because if it is, we are in for a rough four years.

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

In all my years I have never heard of a candidate for President of the United States failing to produce a legitimate birth certificate. Why would anyone do such as astonishing thing?

Supreme Court Justice Souter has given Barack Obama until December 1st to produce an authentic birth certificate, so he legally can be sworn in as President. It is impossible for me to say whether the birth certificate he has shown online has, indeed, been visibly altered, as it has been reported. I’ve never seen it, and I am surely no expert, but if he has no problem producing a legitimate birth certificate, why has it not yet happened?

It makes no sense to me that his paternal grandmother would have produced a tape in which she stated that, not only was he born in Kenya, but that she was in the delivery room when it happened, unless it is true.

When Obama went to school in Indonesia, where only Indonesian citizens could attend, he was registered as Barry Soetoro, Indonesian citizen.

Many decent Americans have become so neurotic about being called racist, that they would rather have a President, whom they know is foreign-born, and therefore ineligible to be President, than to pursue this issue, because of the risk of being tagged a racist, but it is imperative that this be thoroughly explored. Can you imagine what a stink there would be if he were sworn in as President, only to be proven ineligible, when all the leads have been followed and examined? It is such a horrifying thought that I am overwhelmed by the possibility.

If Joe Biden is correct in saying that Obama will be tested by some power, what would happen if it was discovered that he had no authority to deal with either that power or the attack, whatever it is? One cannot help thinking it might be a terrorist attack, such as the one on the World Trade Center. That was so terrible that we desperately needed a strong, stable President to take charge and deal with the aftermath. Fortunately, we had President Bush and he did precisely that. But he was the legitimate President of the United States. What would we have done if we had been in a situation where we actually had no legal President?

Either this guy is legit or he isn’t, and we citizens have a right to find out without any further delay, because the Electoral College is due to convene on the 15th of this month to confirm him as the new President of the United States of America.

Time’s a wastin’ guys. Let’s get on with it!

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter

Greeting, Gentle Readers,

Thanksgiving Day is often referred to as "turkey day", now. I had never heard it called that until somewhere in the 1980s. Now I hear it all the time.

When my husband heard it called that, he told me how much it hurt him. He was one of those who spent World War II in Europe. He was only a small child when the war started, but he lived in Amsterdam, Holland, and the Germans roared into that city on May 5, 1940. He says he was awakened in the wee hours of that day by the roar of German tanks, as they took over Holland.

That war was a horrifying experience for a young child. He was completely dependent on his mother, since the Dutch men began to be taken captive right away. Any man who fought back was shot, immediately. If anyone took part in any resistance, all the men left in that block of houses were brought downstairs at gun point, lined up against the wall of the building, and machine-gunned down. That tactic worked most successfully to keep the populace docile.
By the time the war was over, those who had not starved to death were, nonetheless, so badly starved it took the Red Cross about six weeks to get individuals to be able eat food, without dying from the simple act of eating.

During the war, especially toward the end, the starvation was so ubiquitous that every morning a flat-bed, horse-drawn wagon came through the streets of Amsterdam, and the people would carry their dead down the stairs of the apartment buildings to be carried away for burial.
When my husband was 21 he came to America. He was so overwhelmed by the degree of freedom we, and now he, enjoyed in this country that Thanksgiving Day was a truly sacred day to him.

The first time he heard it referred to as "turkey day", he was horrified. He couldn’t believe so many of our people had come to recognize and revere their freedom so little, that they would call this day, which was so important to him, anything but Thanksgiving Day.

When he died, I suspect one of his first acts was to visit the founding fathers of this nation and express his deeply-held gratitude for the gift of freedom he had found in this country. He probably spent time with my several ancestors who fought to make this country what it came to be, letting them know how he valued their struggles and sacrifices.

Now, if only those of us left here could come to recognize what an aberration our freedom is in this nasty old world. Perhaps, the only ones of us who can truly do so are those who have served in our armed forces, and especially those who have seen combat.

There is one thing I would love to see, and that is for our people to express their gratitude for their freedom to those who have fought for that freedom. Those who have done so have seen how life really is in the nastier places on this tired old planet. They have seen the viciousness to which a great deal of the inhabitants of this globe are subjected every day of their lives.

Please. This Thanksgiving Day, if you see anyone who has served, thank them. They deserve that and more, but anyone of us can do that much. Next, please thank the God we worship for this gift. That is what the term "thanksgiving" really meant. It was not meant as thanksgiving to anyone else, even the Indians who helped the pilgrims. Only our God can preserve our freedom. No other force on this earth can do so, so lets remember just what this day is really all about.

Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter