The Bagpiper

A friend sent me this one.

As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Kentucky back country.

As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost and, being a typical man, I didn't stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late.

I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man. And as I played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept,I wept, we all wept together.

When I finished I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head hung low, my heart was full. As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."

Apparently I'm still lost....

Prince of Fools and Vast Confederacy of Fools

This came via email.

QUOTE OF THE CENTURY, MAYBE EVEN THE MILLENNIUM


Some people have the vocabulary to sum up things in a way you can understand them. This quote came from the Czech Republic . Someone over there has it figured out. We have a lot of work to do.

"The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America . Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president."

Oil and Red Ink Spills

I received these via email. Had to pass them on. Have to love John Wayne.

Vacation and Deadlines

Hello everyone.

High pressure business deadlines to meet before a scheduled vacation.

Will see you in a week or two.

Take care my friends and May God Bless You.

Radical Left Discovers What Decent People Have Known for Centuries

First, I Wish You a belated Happy Independence Day. Thank God for his divine inspiration of our Founding Fathers and the freedoms we have enjoyed and hope to enjoy in the future.


It seems that a very few of the radical leftists running many of our state governments and many counties and cities within other states have discovered a cause and effect relationship between crime and punishment. Would that all politicians and bureaucrats discover this, the criminals surely know it.

In short, if criminals are held accountable for their crimes and punished accordingly, they will commit fewer crimes. Likewise, if criminals released on probation are forced to obey the rules of their probation, their recidivism is drastically reduced.

Here are some excerpts from a recent trial period of enforcing probation rules and the dramatic results. And this is from far left Hawaii!

HOPE (Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement), a new program that has been implemented in Honolulu, successfully links the criminal justice system to substance abuse treatment when needed. This program has the potential to command strong bipartisan support and substantially extend the reach of drug courts. HOPE holds the promise of significantly reducing the demand for illegal drugs, crime, and prison populations across the US. This innovative program can be branded and promoted as a high-visibility, high impact upgrading of the nation’s efforts to reduce illegal drug use and crime at the same time that it will reduce the nation’s prison population.

The drug abusers who use the most drugs and create the highest social costs frequently are also criminally active as drug dealers themselves and as property and violent offenders. They are also the most reliable customers of other drug dealers. It is their money that keeps the illegal drug markets in business, thereby damaging the neighborhoods where open dealing takes place. Their recidivism contributes greatly both to the crime rate and to the unconscionably large prison population.

Most of the drug using offenders are on probation, parole, or out on bail. Drug courts harness the leverage of the criminal justice system and the nation’s treatment system to reduce drug use and recidivism in this group, but drug courts are expensive and limited in scope. For example, most drug courts will not accept offenders with a history of violent crime. HOPE, however, extends the best features of drug courts to far larger populations at much lower costs.

Four years ago Project HOPE was started by Judge Steven S. Alm, a dedicated and creative judge in Honolulu, Hawaii. Alm’s vision was related to that of the founders of the drug court movement, but used a different approach, one with the promise of eventually encompassing every active drug user under criminal justice supervision in the community.
SNIP
The current system for handling drug use by criminal offenders under community supervision is akin to ignoring a child’s misbehavior for years and then, at some unpredictable moment, disowning or kicking the child out of the house. That strategy does not work for children and works even less well for criminal offenders released under supervision into the community. In contrast, the HOPE model includes quick, predicable, but relatively mild punishments for continued drug use. HOPE’s results, both in reduced drug use and less time behind bars, are striking.
SNIP
Compared to routine probation, HOPE has been shown in a careful, independent evaluation to reduce drug use by more than 90%1 and new crimes by more than 50% while shrinking the average number of days a probationer spends behind bars. In contrast, violation rates for non-HOPE probationers grew steadily worse over time, with 37% eventually having their probation revoked, compared with fewer than 5% for participants in HOPE. source.

In other words, uniformly enforcing existing probation rules works. Not enforcing them does not. If everyone in the criminal system knows that all violations will be punished, repeat drug use and crime are dramatically reduced. All this resulted from one judge in a very liberal state.

Arizona Is Going to Try Enforcing Probation as they did in Hawaii

Ever since the abominable Gov. Janet Napolitano and her radical leftist veto and obstructionist policies left Arizona to neuter Homeland Security, Arizona has been passing a series of laws expanding citizens' freedom, cracking down on illegal aliens and their crimes, and reversing some of the insane liberal burden Arizonans suffered under.

If conservative legislators work with a conservative governor, then much can be accomplished toward equal justice under law and a civil society.

Now, Arizona is trying a probation reform based on Hawaii's HOPE. Here are some excerpts from a recent story in the local paper.

Kim Smith Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, July 4, 2010 12:00 am

In one way, at least, it's good to be a drug addict on probation in Arizona.

Probationers are typically allowed to test positive for drugs multiple times before they are finally hauled into court.

If they own up to violating this rule or that rule, and ask the court for a second or a third chance, they have every reason to expect those prayers will be answered.

Not anymore. Starting this fall, punishment will be swift and certain for those selected to participate in Project SAFE, or Swift Accountable Fair Enforcement. Use drugs on probation, and go straight to jail.

Six years ago, officials in Hawaii grew tired of people on probation missing drug-testing appointments, using drugs or absconding, so they developed HOPE, or Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement. source.

There is Hope for Arizona

Unlike California where the radical leftists have pushed the state so far left that it may never recover, there is hope for good government in Arizona. However, we must temper the optimism with the obvious warning. Hope will remain only so long as Arizona voters continue to support the good and the decent among our politicians, the patriotic conservatives.

Red Flag Warning--Mexico may Elect a Communist President

Here is one assessment of the top two candidates for President of Mexico in 2012.

MEXICO CITY — They appear on the covers of society magazines flanked by their partners, soap-opera bombshells. They use street parties, cheerleaders and slick televised productions to tout their state-level accomplishments to a national audience.

Neither the mayor of Mexico’s biggest city nor the governor of its most populous state have confirmed their 2012 presidential ambitions, but already they are seen as the ones to beat. And while there are stylistic similarities between Marcelo Ebrard and Enrique Pena Nieto, the very different directions they propose could set Mexico’s path for years to come.

While similar in age, the 50-year-old Ebrard and 43-year-old Pena Nieto bear little resemblance to the stiff, bespectacled President Felipe Calderon, 47, a no-nonsense technocrat whose term has been dominated by a brutal drug war that has killed more than 15,000 people since he took office in 2006. So far, no one from Calderon’s conservative National Action Party has emerged as a top candidate to succeed him.

“Definitely, this is a new generation,” said Lorena Carreno, president of the Mexican Association of Public Relations Agencies. “They are closing the circle to create an integrated marketing strategy, a prefabricated brand.”

Pena Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party that ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century, is known as “Gel Boy” for the seemingly immovable wave in his hair and his sexy good looks. He appears regularly on the national Televisa network with celebrities who fawn over public works in his impoverished state that rings Mexico City.

Ebrard, of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, is a charismatic politician recognized internationally for greening one of the world’s smoggiest cities, and has created so many subsidies for single mothers, students, retirees and others that some working-class parents jokingly refer to their kids as “the children of Marcelo.”
Both are flamboyant in their pursuit of attention. source.

Here is a brief description of the leftist candidate. This sounds very familiar. We heard how much Hugo Chavez was going to do for Venezuela. He is becoming a dictator and has forged political and military ties with Russia, China, Cuba, and Iran. Chavez has been seeking military alliances against the United States, military hardware, and probably nuclear weapons from Iran. We had our own dose of a stealth leftist in 2008, we seem helpless as Obama, and his handlers, shred the Constitution and march the United States toward socialism and bankruptcy.

Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubón (born on October 10, 1959 in Mexico City) is the current Head of Government of the Federal District since December 5, 2006. He is a Mexican politician affiliated to the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) who served as Secretary-General of the former Mexican Federal District Department, minister of public security and minister of social development of the Mexican capital. He was the successful candidate of the PRD-led electoral alliance to serve as Head of Government of the Federal District in the 2006 Federal District election. source.

We see the dangers of leftist tyrants in Venezuela Cuba, China, North Korea, Iran, etc. Come 2012 we could have another Castro or Hugo Chaves on our border. With no oceans to protect us, no fence, and nothing but an open border policy and a push for amnesty, we are sitting ducks. Imagine a communist takeover in Mexico. We now have a few thousand jihadists and other terrorists crossing our southern border, a flood of drugs and violence, and millions of illegal invaders. Imagine the problems we would have if Mexico's 110 million people fell to communism and its radical government invited our enemies to their country (as Venezuela has done) and we had a possible nuclear threat on our border.

Also, imagine a communist bloodbath of their political enemies in Mexico causing mass illegal immigration of 20 or 30 million fleeing from the violence. Could America protect itself? Would our radical leftists even try? Hard, sad, disastrous days may be coming. Watch the elections south of the border and pray for deliverance from our enemies.