bnuckols

New York Governor: “Free” Abortions 

​Cuomo wants no co-pays,   no deductibles,  and abortion business doctors to decide whether the abortion is “medically necessary.” And there are lots of taxes on the poor,  as well as the rich, to pay for it. 

What a perfect example to give as a rebuttal to those who tell me that as a Christian,  I have to support every social spending plan by government. 

That duty to help the poor is my personal duty to Christ. I don’t see any command to turn it over to someone else. 

The US Government spends and taxes –  doesn’t even dedicate  Medicare and Social Security taxes for the supposed purposes –  and hasn’t proven a trustworthy steward for my duty to Christ.  In fact,  Jesus said to give Caesar what is Caesar’s.  He didn’t tell us to take from our neighbors to give to Caesar!

But there are many scriptures addressing our duty to use well what we are given and to give credit to the One Who blessed us. And many more admonishing us to protect our fellow humans. 

Proverbs 24:11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

​”Na-na Naa-na, Hey Hey, Good-bye!”

#NeverTrump -ers & inauguration protestors claim the Right protested Obama from day 1. No, the protest rallies began in February, 2009, with the Tea Party actions against the “Stimulus.” 

According to the New York Times,at the time, the few protestors were against outgoing President Bush and there were the members of Code Pink and Amnesty International, etc., who wanted O to move farther to the Left.

But let’s don’t forget that chant, okay?

Don’t regulate plants!

​Ridiculous! It’s a plant. Which literally grows like a weed – or house plant – and doesn’t require manufacturing or processing to use. What business does government have in outlawing a plant?

Marijuana laws are in the news in Texas, once again. I hear and read plans to make money from taxes and autocratic demands to”protect” people from the plants. The same Republicans who demand legalization of the sale of raw milk and think gambling dollars should stay in the State argue against any decriminalization of marijuana.

Even if you don’t have sympathy for the thousands  jailed for use while the plant is illegal, the raids on gardens, seizures of farms or the arrests of people because owners are suspected of growing illegal *plants* should make you consider the harm from draconian narcotics laws. 

In fact, my trouble getting poppy seeds for the hard, back in the’90’s is what changed my mind about these laws. The Clinton Administration was arresting people for selling seeds and dried pods used in crafts:

“Somniferum is the only poppy species mentioned in the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970, where it is listed as a Schedule II drug, the same as cocaine. The entire poppy plant, not just the opium that oozes from its green seedpod, is considered contraband.

“But the law specifically exempts somniferum seeds, those blue-gray dots you find on your bagel. So chew on this: Seed companies can legally sell opium-poppy seeds, but gardeners who buy those seeds break the law by planting them.

Republicans are advocates of personal responsibility and remind others about the words in the Declaration of Independence. We should know that legitimate laws are intended to protect us from the infringement of inalienable rights by third parties — and the government. Laws are not meant to protect us from ourselves.

In a liberty-minded, Republican-controlled State and Nation, there shouldn’t be any laws against growing seeds from your grandmother’s heritage poppies or your new neighbors’ marijuana plants.

Addendum: a 1992 article about poppies at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello:

“Thomas Jefferson planted white opium poppies at Monticello. They grew in the historic garden near Charlottesville, Va., until last June, when they were yanked up.

****

“The center even sold the seeds. Until its governing board — “which has a mania for being legal,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said — decided to press the issue.”

Honk if you love pizza and abortion!

​Perfect pro-abortion slogan: “Honk if you love pizza and abortion!”

Because, equivalent, yes? And illogically proud of it – see the young woman in the left lower quadrant. That sign certainly is evidence that “reproductive rights” advocates are, indeed, “pro-abortion.” 

The Texas Tribune is providing its usual biased coverage of the Texas Legislature. The editors allowed the banality of a pro-abortion sign equating the love of abortion and pizza to creep into their report on the fears of the groups who make a profit from ending the lives of the most vulnerable humans and their advocates. 

There’s no logic in claiming that an abortion doesn’t end the life of a human. With current science and technology, it’s anti-science to make such a claim. Proponents of elective abortion deny that every human is endowed with inalienable rights. Instead, they defend the falsehoods that embryos and fetuses are less than human and definitely not human-enough to possess inalienable human rights. 

As to the complaints about insurance coverage for abortion? It’s called, “Elective abortion.” Insurance shouldn’t pay for “elective” procedures. And seriously: “a rider” to pay for elective abortion?  How fiscally responsible is that?  

“Heart” if you (heart) graphic proof of illogic and irresponsibility

Command and Control . Documentary Film

Might want to watch this, remembering that it’s a combination of history and speculation.

http://www.commandandcontrolfilm.com/

Narcissist or “Professorial?”

​​Dinner party with new acquaintances: one more lesson about bias on the Left.

 After we all agreed that Trump is a narcissist, I  reminded the group about Obama’s “Office of the President Elect,” with the signs and logo that appeared on every podiun, every time he spoke after first elected. Then I told them about the drinking games based on 44’s use of the words “I” and “me.”

One dinner companion laughed and said, “Yes, he can certainly be professorial!”

Okay, I  admit that I sort of lost it!

Gene editing human trials begin (CRISPR)

Bioethics news, from Nature.com

“A Chinese group has become the first to inject a person with cells that contain genes edited using the revolutionary CRISPR–Cas9 technique.

“On 28 October, a team led by oncologist Lu You at Sichuan University in Chengdu delivered the modified cells into a patient with aggressive lung cancer as part of a clinical trial at the West China Hospital, also in Chengdu.”

The focus of the article seems to be a possible competition between scientists in China and the US for locking down the therapies for lung, prostate, and other cancers.

Earlier reports describe the technique used in the Chinese experiments:

“Lu’s team will extract immune cells called T cells from the blood of the enrolled patients, and then use CRISPR–Cas9 technology — which pairs a molecular guide able to identify specific genetic sequences on a chromosome with an enzyme that can snip the chromosome at that spot — to knock out a gene in the cells. The gene encodes a protein called PD-1 that normally acts as a check on the cell’s capacity to launch an immune response, to prevent it from attacking healthy cells.

“The gene-edited cells will then be multiplied in the lab and re-introduced into the patient’s bloodstream. The engineered cells will circulate and, the team hopes, home in on the cancer, says Lu. The planned US trial similarly intends to knock out the gene for PD-1, and it will also knock out a second gene and insert a third before the cells are re-introduced into the patient.””

The CRISPR gene editing experiments have been on going for a while, in research on fighting bacteria and viruses, attempts to study specific gene function, and even experiments with pluripotent cell lines. And this is not the first time cells that have been manipulated with the CRISPR technique have been used. Here is a report about successful use in the United States to treat a little girl with leukemia.

As it’s being used, it appears to be ethical. Like any tool, CRISPR could be used unethically.  Scientists in the UK have gotten permission from their government regulators to conduct unethical experiments on human embryos using the techniques.

“Niakan’s team is interested in early development, and it plans to alter genes that are active in the first few days after fertilization. The researchers will stop the experiments after seven days, after which the embryos will be destroyed.

“The genetic modifications could help researchers to develop treatments for infertility, but will not themselves form the basis of a therapy.”

Besides the concern about killing human embryos in research, many scientists and ethicists are concerned about the consequences of the potential misuse of human embryos in experiments with gene therapy in general and CRISPR, specifically:

“Guoping Feng, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, hopes that with improvement, the technique could eventually be used to prevent genetic disease. But he argues that it is much too soon to be trying it in the clinic. ‘Now is not the time to do human-embryo manipulation,’  he says. ‘If we do the wrong thing, we can send the wrong message to the public — and then the public will not support scientific research anymore.'”

Nature.com has produced a graphic outlining the laws that regulate human embryo experimentation across the world.

My immediate fear is we don’t know enough about the long term effects of the therapy. Will new disorders be created or unmasked accidentally? Will the genes in the gametes (sperm and egg) be changed, affecting the future children of recipients?  Even the discovery of penicillin had its side effects, after all.

One frequently mentioned concern is the possible use of gene modification to produce designer babies, including designing *down* for workers or slaves. These would be expensive and far in the future – since we still need mothers to gestate those babies.

Taxpayers voted Republican

Here’s the New York Times graphic description of voters by income. Clearly, voters who pay income tax were more likely to vote Republican. This explains the support for T’s down ballot from the vote for President.

Pay attention: it’s policy, not bias

The consensus of media pundits and bloggers, as well as quite a few liberal and even Conservative op-ed authors, is that Donald J.Trump was elected President out of some misguided national populism and anger at Congress, fueled with a lot of racism, misogyny and hate. The fact that those same voters elected a Republican majority in the House and Senate  – sending virtually every eligible Republican incumbent back to DC – is glossed over.

The idea that Conservatives really believe in small government and equal opportunity supported by personal responsibility is rarely voiced. That we might actually vote, not only for President but consistently down ballot, in order to defend the Bill of Rights and the right to life is ignored while we are accused of xeno-, homo-, and poly-whatever-phobia. I read that I am “afraid” of other lifestyles, religions, and losing my “privilege” based on being a White Christian.

Personally, I approve of most of the Republican Platform, especially where it addresses core Conservative issues, such as low taxes and equal treatment under the law. I want a Legislature that will uphold the Constitution as it’s written and defend against the infringement of inalienable rights. I don’t want activist judges nominated or confirmed at any level of the Federal Court system, especially the Supreme Court. I hope President Trump and the Republican Congress majority will decrease the hassle factors and threats placed on the practice of medicine and business in general by an overreaching Federal bureaucracy.

And, yes, my sense of fairness hopes that our existing immigration laws will finally be enforced, as an outcome of the”equal treatment under the law.”

Instead of facile clichés fed by cherry-picked sound bites and the latest talking points from the Left, try looking at and listening to the 59 Million voters across the country who elected a Republican candidate for President, and ensured a Republican majority including all those “establishment” candidates in both the House and Senate. 

It’s the Republican platform and Conservative policy that we Conservatives voted for, not one man.

The day the Rule of Law died 

November 6, 2016 – a Sunday afternoon – FBI Director Comey announced that his agency’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s selfie-server is closed, still without recommendation to charge the former Secretary of State. He destroyed any confidence that the United States is a nation of laws.

From the New York Post:

” From within the SCIF, Santos — who had no clearance — “collected documents from the secure facsimile machine for Clinton,” the FBI notes revealed.:

“Just how sensitive were the papers Santos presumably handled? The FBI noted Clinton periodically received the Presidential Daily Brief — a top-secret document prepared by the CIA and other US intelligence agencies — via the secure fax.”

Among the FBI notes on their investigation into those once-deleted emails from Clinton’s selfie-server were some indicating that Clinton regularly required her Washington, DC maid to print out official State Department documents, including classified information.

That’s right: her maid, a woman without any security clearance at all.

Again, while these emails and the access by the maid present new information to most of us, the FBI knew that they existed and that they were among the 30,000+ emails that were deleted *after* Congress had served Clinton with a subpoena.

We can assume that the emails had been marked as personal by the (again, no-security-clearance-) lawyers to whom Clinton delegated the task of dividing the contents of the selfie-server into those that were not and those that were State Department business.  Clinton claimed that neither group of emails contained classified documents, so she saw nothing wrong with turning over a memory stick containing the emails to the lawyers.

Media Matters covered the maid stories. The point that they made was strictly on Conservative bias and the timing of when the classified emails became classified. There was no coverage about the President’s morning briefing from intelligence sources or on the illegality of giving access to the SCIF. There was certainly no insight into the fact that the documents could later be determined to be classified is the EXACT reason that a person without the appropriate clearance should not be given access!

I’m disgusted. I’m angry. I want to commit felonies of my own – felonies yet to be determined, but of my choice and according to my own schedule.

But since I do believe in the Rule of Law and its benefits, I want to know what my Senators Cruz and Cornyn and my Congressman Lamar Smith intend to do clean house in the Federal  government.

And I don’t mean, “with, like a cloth.”

(Edited @ 7:05 PM on November 7, to add comments on Media Matters and to correct the cloth comment. BBN)

I hope you can recall this

The future includes so much more than a 10 year old video, for people who don’t have memory problems.

Forget the Clinton’s sale of nights in the Lincoln Bedroom and misplaced furnishings from the White House and, later, the State Department offices. Go ahead, laugh at the “Reset button.”

But don’t forget the pay-for-access that continues to this day. Please don’t dismiss Clinton’s complicity with the sale of US uranium and her own dismissal of the deaths of four Americans at Benghazi or of “our posterity” in the case of the unborn children whose lives are ended by elective, intentional abortion.

These recollections make a difference today and for the future.

What place will there be in a Clinton II Administration for people who oppose abortion or who prefer to continue to include “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Can we tolerate another 4 years of IRS discrimination against conservative non-profits? Do we need to have more lawsuits against nuns or regulations forbidding Christians from praying in the name of Jesus?

We certainly won’t be invited to any closed door meetings on HillaryCare. And there’s no telling how many boxes of FBI files and billing records will disappear never to be “recalled” if Clinton gets another shot at the White House.

I would much rather hold Donald Trump to his promises than watch Hillary Clinton keep hers.

Beverly B Nuckols, MD

Speculation, accusation, and hypocrisy

Trump’s leaked tax forms (3 pages?) apparently report on *New York State* income taxes and all the comments about tax avoidance are pure speculation: the reports all say that Trump “may” have legally avoided income taxes (Federal or State?), *then *proceed *as *though *he *did.

In the meantime, we have proof that Clinton declared a $700M loss in 2015 & took multi-year deductions on Federal taxes. We also know that NYT, who published those 1995 tax pages, takes deductions, paid no Federal income tax in 2014, received refund.

http://spectator.org/hypocrisy-alert-hillary-new-york-times-caught-avoiding-taxes/

RedState vs. Pro-life

​There is only one candidate on the November ballot for President this year who states that he is pro-life.  Even if Donald Trump is inconsistent – and he is, I’ll admit – the fact is that Hillary Clinton and Gary Johnson are very consistent in their advocacy for legal elective abortion. Trump may have said that Planned Parenthood does good work, but Clinton campaigns with Cecile Richards.

RedState has lost all relevance as a reliable source for conservative commentary, in their zeal to defeat Donald Trump.

First, the moderators began banning commenters who simply questioned RS authors during the Primary. Now,  Discus and comments have disappeared entirely  from the site, and any public feedback  is moved to the ephemera on Facebook. 

The latest supposedly #NeverTrump move is an attack on pro-life
organizations by the editor, Leon Wolf, who once stated that he would vote for Clinton over Trump in a close race for President. 

Yes, Pro-life Bills are often weak, incremental compromises. We face the reality of needing to win at least some Dem votes and the probability of vetoes. The Press invariably paints usas evil. As Wolf pointed out – and the Supreme Court ruling on Texas’ HB2 clearly showed – the current Courts are stacked against us.

One of my friends acknowledged the weak Bills and compromises that our legislative efforts sometimes become, likening our efforts to lifeboats.  Rather than big, shiny, well-crewed ships to use to rescue the unborn, we are forced to borrow any thing that floats. Our crafts are ugly and leak, and we constantly have to worry that we will sink. This is all we have, but we go back again and again, to rescue as many as we can without each trip.

Leon Wolf just shot a few new holes in our efforts, from his safe harbor at RedState.

Obama’s Abortion Cronyism 

Obama’s new Health and Human Services regulations will prohibit consideration of whether a provider does abortions – or sells body parts – or not.

Kansas and Texas, among other States, attempted to prioritize their limited tax dollars, preferring to steer money – and patients – toward continuing and comprehensive caregivers – primary care providers- over  reproductive health “boutiques:”

When PP sued, they lost. But Obama arbitrarily stripped the State’s Title X funds and gave the money to PP, anyway.

The “most transparent Administration ever” went further:

 In New Hampshire, the administration even refused to disclose information about its direct Planned Parenthood grant, claiming disclosure would harm the nonprofit’s “competitive position.”””

What competition??? That’s pure cronyism and blatant support of the Democrat’s  – and Obama’s – pro-abortion political ideology.

Edited 11/12/16: misspelling of Services in first sentence BBB

Trust me, I don’t have a conscience (yes, THAT again)

Speaking of CS Lewis’ “conditioners” in my last post, a small group of “philosophers and bioethicists” got together in Geneva, Switzerland last June and came up with a “Consensus Statement on Conscientious Objection in Healthcare.”

On the “consensus” from less than 20 self-selected individuals, we’re supposed to advocate the move from shaming doctors for objecting (to acts that have been considered shameful by Western society since Hippocrates) to some sort of judgment by tribunals.

From the BioEdge.org blog:

“After a special workshop held at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, over a dozen bioethicists signed a ten-point“Consensus Statement on Conscientious Objection in Healthcare.” The group stated that “healthcare practitioners’ primary obligations are towards their patients, not towards their own personal conscience”. As a consequence, “healthcare practitioners who are exempted from performing certain medical procedures on conscientious grounds should be required to compensate society and the health system for their failure to fulfil their professional obligations by providing public-benefitting services.” They also stated that “Medical students should not be exempted from learning how to perform basic medical procedures they consider to be morally wrong.”

What’s to enforce those guidelines if the physician has no conscience? What place does “should” or “ought” – words that are flung about in the “Consensus” – have if the conscience is to be dismissed?

As Wesley Smith points out  at his blog on National Review, any objectors would be re-“conditioned.” The “Consensus” demands that  doctors not only be forced to explain their rationale, perform “public-benefitting services” (in addition to their jobs as doctors), and teach medical students those morally controversial procedures, they would be sent to re-education classes.

Oh, and they might not be able to get a job in the first place if they aren’t morally pure – excuse me – able to “fulfil (sic) their professional obligations,” according to this little club:

“This implies that regional authorities, in order to be able to provide medical services in a timely manner, should be allowed to make hiring decisions on the basis of whether possible employees are willing to perform medical procedures to which other healthcare practitioners have a conscientious objection.”

I sincerely doubt that any representatives were invited – or allowed – to attend. (At least, that’s my experience.)

More on “conscience” by searching the “Categories” on this page.

Truth and Conscience #SJWs

​Timely still, this essay by CS Lewis on “subjectivism.” Please watch the last few minutes – from about 10:30 in – if not the whole 13.
Lewis asserts that the idea that “good” can vary or is a product of evolution or conditioning will ultimately lead us to a society divided between the “conditioners” – eugenicists, (capital s) State educators,  and producers of mass propaganda – and the conditioned.

Those conditioners sound like our community organizers and progressives, who, in denying the time-tested absolute, ” self evident truths – while demanding that we accept the latest declaration of the “Social Justice Warriors” as . … absolute, self evident truths. 
While questioning the validity of any authority in order to demote conscience to opinion, they assume authority and invoke the conscience of the conditioned to enforce compliance.  How often do we find ourselves shamed  for objecting to actions that have been considered shameful for thousands of years by nearly every society on earth?
And since the SJWs (or their conditioners) de- and re-construct “truths,” their own consciences allow them to believe that they and their allies aren’t bound by the same “truths” that they hold the rest of us to. 
So, the next time yo find yourself the target of ethnic/gender/social conditioners for expressing truths that Aristotle, Hippocrates, the signers of the Magna Carta or the Declaration of Independence –  or even Jesus – would have recognized as self evident, turn their argument back on them. What is their authority, where is their evidence and how valid is it?

Lawlessness for All (A Modest Proposal)

​​Tell me why I should believe that  “Latinos” are a big homeogeneous blob who don’t care about anything else except immigration, including law and order?  

The news yesterday was full of “Latinos” declaring that they have turned away from voting for Donald Trump after his speech on immigration in Phoenix. 

These people on the “news channels” and social networks claimed that an entire group of people, all lumped together because of who their parents are or what language they speak, are of the same mindset, and will vote as a block to ensure that some people – dare I say “their people” –  are treated differently under the law from everyone else 

There’s no justice  in ignoring the law. On the contrary, inconsistent enforcement of the law is injustice:  it infringes on everyone’s rights. Everyone’s liberty is placed at risk by inconsistent enforcement at the whim of whoever has the biggest gun, the most votes or the latest appointees to the US Distric Attorneys offices and Federal Courts.  Whoever has power gets to decide which of us is “more equal.”

Illegal aliens have at least committed a misdemeanor for the first offense. If they’re working, they are probably using false Social Security numbers, possibly committing  identity theft –  not a victimless crime, even if you believe the reports that illegal aliens contribute more than they cost society.

So, here’s my “Modest Proposal,” with apologies to Vicar Swift.

If you think we should just let illegal aliens hide out for 10 years, then self-report (yeah, sure) , sign up for fines and an English as a Second Language class,  how about treating every equivalent infringement the same?

Let us each pick our own tort or crime, to be determined at our convenience. Give everyone a year or 10 – after the fact – to self-report, pay a fine, take a class  and go on.

Start with other cases of identity theft, then move on to Federal offenses like voter fraud, money laundering, Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse, on to failure to pay the IRS, bank fraud, embezzlement.

After all, it’s only fair.

Human cloning fable doesn’t justify abortion.

Sigh . . . There are still people out there trying to justify elective abortion of healthy babies in healthy mothers by claiming that the embryo is nothing special, since liver tissue is alive when it is harvested for transplantation and ” . . . a skin cell contains DNA that could be implanted into a human egg and be developed into a baby.”
​That hypotheticals is, at this time, just that. No one has yet been able to clone humans beyond a very early blastocyst. In some way, these embryos don’t function well enough to maintain organized cell division, development and growth.
However, even if cloning a human were possible, that new human life would not begin at the harvesting of either the skin cell, the liver tissue or the oocyte destined to be enucleated. Just as with gametes in vivo, those cells are end-stage specialized cells that do *not* actually have the potential to be other types of cells – much less a new human – without fertilization or the manipulation that scientists might someday be able to discover.
The natural, in vitro, or someday-maybe cloned human life begins at fertilization or not-yet-achieved generation of functional clones. Each are – or would be, in the case of the hypothetical – verifiable by observing the organized cell function, development and division in the embryo, driven by the nucleus of the new organism.  Intentional, interventional abortion ends that organized development and growth, causing the death of the organism.

I’m sure my explanation won’t stop those who really,  really, reeeally want to abort unwanted humans from  using junk science to justify killing humans. Most likely, they will just go back to those long essays discriminating between which humans are human-enough.

Not-Libertarian Town Hall

Watched the John Stossel “Libertarian Town Hall” from August 26th on YouTube.   I believe I will “discriminate” against these two. Johnson and Weld don’t seem to understand the basic tenets of either the Libertarian Party or their former Republican Party. They have moved far to the Left and openly​  advocate force against anyone who works in the public

Basic Ethics: It’s not aggression ( or harmful “discrimination”)  to refuse service – to refuse to act. In direct contrast to the statements made by these two, religious freedom is not restricted to “the church” or within the church worship service. Integrity requires that people practice their religion in all aspects of our lives. And, business regulation cannot legitimately be used to enslave by forcing future labor or giving the government the power to allocate private property.

Both men argued that the government may force a Christian baker to bake a cake for a gay wedding. Johnson repeatedly refused to answer Stossel’s question about the Muslim delivery owner being forced to sell pork. Such simple question!

Johnson tried to make a distinction between selling a cake and decorating the cake, calling the latter a matter of free speech. The point is that the right to liberty is an inalienable right which gives rise to religious and speech liberties.

In the cases that have been brought against bakers who won’t sell cakes, the cakes have been *wedding* cakes which are, indeed, decorated. Those cakes would have been the result of future labor, and made to order, not cakes already baked, waiting in a display shelf. 

In order to justify Federal interference, Weld said of one program, “The proof is in the pudding.” In other words, the ends justify the means. No, in an ethical world, illicit means are illicit, even if they work.

The bottom line is that neither Gary Johnson nor Bill Weld displayed an understanding of ethics, or the rationale behind Libertarian or Republican policies. 

Olympic uniforms, religion and politics

Either way, these ridiculous outfits – both Nation’s – are demeaning to women.

The extreme body and head coverings are more than a religious statement.  They are at least the proselytizing equivalent of preaching Islam. At worst,  they are political statements – uniforms implying that arms, legs and hair of women are an offence.

The tiny suits have little to do with playing the sport and no protection for the athletes at all.

I very rarely even go sleeveless out of modesty and acknowledgement of my excess weight, but there’s a small part of me that wants to strip to camisole and shorts when I see these families, him in T-shirt and shorts, her covered from head to fingers to toes.

I saw teen girls covered on our recent trip to Europe, which made me ill.  As though their hair could be immodest or impure. Or a shame.

Funny, I just thought it silly for the Amish girls at Westminster Abbey to wear their little bonnets. And I looked on with approval when I saw the young nuns in habits and the Church of England priests in long robes. Having been raised Baptist, I’m convinced that Jesus approves of women’s hair and doesn’t require more than modesty of any of us. He certainly doesn’t require a uniform.  So shouldn’t the latter bother me more than the rules of a non-Christian religion?

Better Deal or Denial

Trump can’t run 3rd Party in Texas?

Read the Texas Secretary of State information page on Presidential candidates, here. (http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/candidates/guide/president.shtml )

I’m not a lawyer, but it appears to me that Texas election laws will prevent Trump from placing his name on the ballot as a 3rd Party candidate in 2016.

Any lawyers disagree?

Primary Nullification (Not)

The common thought is that Donald Trump has enough delegates to win the Republican nomination for President. Trump supporters claim that only an act by “elites,” overriding the “will of the People” at the National Convention could avert his nomination.

The Republican National Convention is absolutely NOT anything  like those super delegates appointed by Dem Party leaders.  Republican National Convention delegates are elected by Republican voters who have a very real opportunity to become delegates, themselves. Beginning at the Precinct,  through the State Convention or Caucus.

However, under current rules – the various State Party rules in place before the individual primaries – there’s a chance Trump will not win the first ballot.  If he doesn’t,  then he certainly won’t win the second.

In Texas, we actually require our delegates to sign a pledge. We elect delegates proportionally, with a “winner-take-most” method for candidates who received at least 20% of the votes.  Cruz, with 44% of the Primary votes,  was alotted about 2/3 of the delegates as bound to him on the first ballot. About 1/3 are pledged to vote for Trump, with Rubio getting 3 pledged to him.

Other States have different methods for electing delegates. Some are winner-take-all for the  candidate with  the most votes, while State Republican Party rules call for “unbound,”  “uncommitted,” “unpledged,” or “available  delegates. Look at the breakdown and explanations here and here.

Why should someone who got 40% of the votes expect the elected delegates representing the other 60% to vote for him against their conscience?

I hope the former candidates can come together before the Convention  to pledge their delegates to one man other than Trump. If they are able, and/or some one other than Trump becomes the Republican candidate for President,  we will see representative democracy in action, not a power play by fictional “elites.”

Posted from WordPress for Android. Typos will be corrected!

Department of Defense Transgender Plans – Bottom Line

United States Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, declared the US military Independence Day from biology and human development. There will be a necessary increase in the military’s dependence on medicine, however.

“In an historic and controversial move, the Pentagon on Thursday lifted its longstanding ban on transgender troops and began outlining how the military will begin allowing — and paying for — service members to transition, medically and officially, from one gender to another.

“Now transgender troops will no longer be considered “medically unfit” for military service. By October, transgender troops may begin an official process to change gender in the military personnel management systems.”

****

“”The most common treatment for gender dysphoria is hormone therapy.”

This shouldn’t be a problem, other than a few hot flashes here and there – wherever.  After all, the American Medical Association has decided that neither genetic nor physical sex – also known as”anatomy,” trump feelings – or official birth records.

”

““Breast implants may be medically necessary” for some individuals, said another defense official familiar with the medical aspects of transgender treatment.

“Cosmetic surgery for gender transition, however, would in most cases be considered an elective procedure and not be covered by the military health system, defense officials said. Many transgender individuals do not opt for a full sex-change operation to include “bottom” surgery that changes genitalia.” (Emphasis mine.)

So, the DOD may buy some estrogen and testosterone and a few “medically necessary” breast implants, they don’t plan to pay for “bottom surgery.”.   In light of current insurance criteria, a huge of ” the standard practice in the civilian medical community,” however, I’m not sure how long that plan will last. (See the excellent and thorough discussion of medical necessity for gender reassignment surgery, provided online by Aetna, here.)

Right now, the question seems to be more about what the well dressed transgendered soldier, sailor or Marine will be wearing next year.

I haven’t served, but it seems to me that the solution is a truly *uniform* we of “grooming standards and uniform-wear,” job descriptions and fitness requirements. If genetic or physical sex is irrelevant to”gender identity,” then they should certainly be irrelevant as to readiness standards.

BTW, this may just be the justification for “access to 100 percent of America’s population” for future drafts.

Primary Nullification (Cruz has delegate count)

Donald Trump didn’t win the Primary. Ted Cruz’ campaign won the majority of National Delegates. That distinction may mean the difference at the Republican Convention.

Trump won 40% of the votes in the Republican Primary, with the help of non-traditional, never-voted, and cross-over votes. The 60% of Republican Primary voters who did not vote for Trump are the ones savvy enough to understand the Caucuses and Conventions at the Precinct, County, Senate District, and State levels.o

We are the people who elected the Delegates to the National Republican Convention.

Forget that Trump has no staff, almost no paid media presence (thank the Lord we don’t have to watch that) and no campaign funds.

Ted Cruz won what may become the deciding vote: the majority of delegates to the National Convention are his supporters, even from States where Trump won.

Push for Primary Nullification

Delegates must vote their consciences!

(Texas is safe: our delegation must vote as bound on the first ballot, but the majority are bound to Cruz.)

Follow Trump’s Example: Support 3rd Party

Trump demands Party loyalty when it’s his campaign, but the only loyalty he’s demonstrated is his loyalty to candidates who oppose Republicans.

If you can’t donate $25,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Committee (and don’t want to donate to Anthony Weiner or Planned Parenthood’s favorite Senators Daschle, Kerry and Schumer, perhaps you could support the 3rd Party candidate as Trump did in 2009, when he gave the newly Independent candidate, Charlie Crist, $4800.

Look, it’s not “go along to get along” when a man donates tens of thousands to the Democratic National Committee, the (Democratic) National Leadership PAC, and the Democratic Senatorial Committee. That’s partisanship.

In fact, as it’s been reported, Republicans can expect Trump to support us about 40% of the time, Dems, 48%.

Donating to Crist in 2009? That’s anti-Republican.

Texas’ Republican Platform 2016

About 300 delegates to the RPT weren’t Republican.The Platform of the Republican Party of Texas is online under “Platform,” here: http://www.texasgop.org/2016-convention/ . The numbering in this version of the Platform is awkward, but the plank-by-plank votes are reported at the 3rd link, below.

110 even voted against Principle #5, “Personal accountability and responsibility”

Just under 300 voted consistently against what should be non-controversial issues, such as the plank against human trafficking.

(Numbering appears to be a typographical error, hopefully soon corrected. The hard copies we had were much clearer.)

https://www.texasgop.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/PERMENANT-PLATFORM-as-Amended-by-Gen-Body-5.13.16.pdf
https://www.texasgop.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2016-Texas-GOP-Weighted-Totals-.pdf

New Braunfels Resident’s River Pass Isn’t “Free”

New Braunfels residents will get to join the crowds gathering along the Comal River every single summer holiday or weekend day, if we want to play in our rivers. (Which are actually State owned rivers.)

Our New Braunfels City Council not only promoted the ancient tradition of queuing up, they made sure we do so while visiting our Parks more often, too!

Even residents who live on the rivers and/or will only be on the Guadalupe will find themselves in Hinman or Prince Solms in order to use their “free” Pass to obtain wrist bands each and every single day if you enter or exit either the Comal or Guadalupe by City land with your tube, kayak or canoe. (noodle, life jacket, snorkel or scuba gear, too?)

Here’s the City Council ordinance info:

Between Memorial Day and Labor Day of each year, all persons in possession of water oriented recreational equipment on the premises known as the City Tube Chute, Prince Solms Park, Hinman Island Park or using public exits on the Comal or Guadalupe Rivers, must be wearing a city-issued wristband. ( http://www.nbtexas.org/DocumentCenter/View/7497)

From the nbtexas.org River Pass page:

Residents

New Braunfels Residents, who reside inside the corporate city limits, can receive a Resident River Pass at no charge to avoid paying the River Management Fee.

Then take your Resident River Season Pass (or your purchased Resident Swim Pass or Resident Family Swim Pass) to one of the three booths set up at Hinman Island Park and Prince Solms Park, or to a River Outfitter, to obtain your free wristband when you tube on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays between Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day.

AND:

Note: If you are resident using private property to enter or exit the river while tubing, but will still utilize public land to get on or off of the river, you will need a wristband to be in compliance with the ordinance. ( http://www.nbtexas.org/riverpass)

Won’t the “last exit” be fun this year?

Just in case you were wondering who and what the “Municipal Code” covers:

Public river exit means Cypress Bend Park, Lincoln Street River Exit, Garden Street River Exit, Hinman Island Park, City Tube Chute and any other City-owned right-of-way or property with frontage on the Comal or Guadalupe Rivers currently not leased to another entity.

Water-oriented recreational equipment means tubes, kayaks, rafts, canoes and all other forms of personal watercraft.

There are going to be three (3) (Yes, 3!) booths where these wrist bands can be obtained.  The 3 booths will be at Hinman Island and Prince Solms Park – none at the City limits or parks along the Guadalupe.

Won’t we all have fun getting to know our neighbors and the visitors to our City as we all line up in front of these three booths on Saturday mornings? After finding parking?

Here’s an idea: The bands may also be obtained from a River Outfitter. Maybe the Outfitters will deliver the wrist bands to our New Braunfels residences?

The City Council and Mayor can be reached, here.  http://www.nbtexas.org/index.aspx?nid=298

You can call 830-221-4000 to try to get more information from the City of New Braunfels. Good luck!

Pennsylvania Judge Rules Cruz Eligible

A judge in Pennsylvania rules that anyone born a citizen is a “Natural Born Citizen.”

 

The judge relies on several pieces of legal scholarship. First,  a memo produced in 1968 by Charles Gordon, then the General Counsel of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, which says: “The Framers were well aware of the need to assure full citizenship rights to the children born to American citizens in foreign countries.”  He also points out a 2011 Congressional Research Service Memo entitled the “Qualification for President and the ‘Natural Born’ Citizenship Eligibility Requirement.” The document concludes:

“The weight of legal and historical authority indicated that the term ‘natural born’ citizen would mean a person, who is entitled to U.S. citizenship ‘by birth’ or ‘at birth’ either by being born ‘in’ the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents.”

Another ruling was handed down March 19 in Utah. This judge dismissed the case due to standing, but also made the comment that Cruz is a US citizen by birth. Other cases in Illinois, Florida and New York have also been dismissed due to legal technicalities.