Reflections on President Bush

1-20 As President Bush prepares to leave office, Yahoo has posted a news report about different news organizations around the world commenting on his leadership. Although 99% of them are overwhelmingly negative, here's what Erik Kirschbaum gleaned from Canada's Toronto Star.
"Goodbye to the worst president ever," it declared. "Bush was an unmitigated disaster, failing on the big issues from the invasion of Iraq to global warming, Hurricane Katrina and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."

While I will admit I'm disappointed in some of President Bush's decisions, especially ones concerning the recent bailout and control given the Secretary of the Treasury and the Fed, he did some important things to help the United States.

The invasion of Iraq was essential because Saddam Hussein was a loose cannon who proved over and over that he would not cooperate with the U.N. and wanted to attack the United States. He invaded Kuwait because he was unable to keep prosperity in his own country on its own. Hussein also killed millions of his own people. Much evidence was found of WMD's (barely reported in the "mainstream" media), as well as evidence that he was trying to get the nuclear bomb. Add to this the training camps for Al-Queda and you get overwhelming evidence for ousting Saddam Hussein.

Bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq was another plus for President Bush. As freedom hopefully continues to grow in Iraq, other countries around it will hunger for freedom as well. I read last year that Baghdad is experiencing a huge growth explosion from babies being born there. The people are starting to get used to some level of stability and freedom and are rebuilding their lives. And President Bush is criticized for this?

Global warming was the second failure the Canadian paper attributed to Bush. Many reliable observations of global warming and the procedures used to calculate it have proved that global warming is a myth. One volcano spewing millions of tons of debris into the atmosphere does more to affect the ozone layer than man could ever do. In fact, it has been quite a while since I've even heard scientists worry about the ozone layer. They're more worried about "climate change" now. "Climate change" happens every ten minutes here in Ohio! Are they worried about that? We've gone from snow to rain to sleet to sunshine all in one day. Surely scientists are worried about the confusion the world climate is in, just based on the climate data from Ohio!

Hurricane Katrina, also mentioned as a disaster for President Bush, was more a failure of the Democrats running Louisiana at the time and New Orleans than it ever was for President Bush. They ignored the repeated warnings that the dams would fail , and they dragged their feet on rescuing people until five days later.

Although President Bush has not helped the current economic crisis much, as I indicated earlier, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are the primary ones responsible for the housing crisis and the collapse of many banks, not to mention Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (They also happen to be Democrats, but that's not Bush's fault, either.) President Bush gave us a soaring economy for several years thanks to tax cuts, despite the 9/11 attacks.

What really needs to be looked at is how Democrats around the country have screwed up and blamed Bush for it and a liberal press that refuses to look at reality. Of course, some Republicans, John McCain, for instance, have gone along with Democrats in their wacky theories and thirst for government spending, but President Bush can't be blamed for this, either.

The main failure of President Bush (in my eyes) is his lack of communication to the public. He should have reminded people of the Twin Towers and Pentagon attacks more often and reported the successes in Iraq that the liberal press avoided and focused instead on car bombings and soldiers dying. We've lost the anger and desire to stop terrorists and blamed President Bush instead. I think the next four years will open our eyes as a country to all that President Bush really did to help and protect our country.

King Obama

1-18 I keep hearing people in the media, around town, and even in my own house at times (!) talk about what a historic moment this is in America. We can be proud that we finally have a black president. He is a warm, friendly guy who has "reached across the aisle" and had a dinner with conservative columnists. What a wonderful guy!

Possibly. I tell my wife that Hitler was a nice guy, too. That was certainly a historic moment. Who cares that he killed millions of Jews and tried to take over the world? His election was historic!

Now, I'm not calling Prez-elect Obama a Hitler. What I am saying is that we need to take a close look at this man, nice or not. A good place to start is Illinois, Obama's home state, where Gov. Blagojevich is a hair away from losing his job. What horrible thing did Gov. Blago do? He tried to sell Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder and apparently thought he'd have no chance of getting caught because 1. it's Illinois, mob capital of the U.S., 2. he helped Obama get elected in Illinois, and 3. he's a Democrat. Democrats always protect other Democrats. The only exception is when they step on another Democrat's quest for power.

Rahm Emanuel, Obama's right-hand man, told Blago who Obama wanted to fill the seat. Blago reportedly told Obama (using several juicy expletives) that he would make sure he got something out of it. He wasn't doing this for nothing.

Although Obama has publicly backed off from the Blago mess, he wanted to make a point to Blago and anyone else threatening to mess up his plans. Obama is responsible for the Illinois Senate that voted to impeach the governor and put pressure on him to quit. The press also continually makes calls for him to quit, most likely also prompted by Obama. (Is anyone else hearing bits from "The Godfather" right now?)

Look at another example, one that happened during the campaign. Joe the Plumber was an "ordinary Joe" until Obama strolled down his street, talking to people. Joe, who didn't like Obama getting away with all his flowery talk without hard facts, asked him about his tax increase if he were to start his own company. Obama's response was widely broadcast by Republicans and conservatives and eventually the liberal press: "We've got to spread the wealth around." That's the main tenet of Socialism!

And what happened to Joe the Plumber? It wasn't even twenty-four hours before Joe was being maligned in the press for his debts, divorce, and whatever other dirt they could dig up. Joe did not ask for the public attention! Joe did not even attack Obama! All he did was ask a question!

Nevertheless, Obama and the willing press did all they could to destroy Joe, even making it hard for him to continue working. He was not a public figure, not an elected official, just a common person. Yet Obama and many liberals did not want his point to be made and focused on the irrelevant background of Joe the Plumber.

The same will happen to anyone who questions King Obama or gets in his way. That is my honest assessment.

My Grandma Gerig

1-14 I've taken a break from writing in my blog because of my grandmother's recent death. Everything else took a back seat because she has been a very important person in my life.

In her prime, she was a fiesty woman, a woman who put herself through college while raising four sons and went on to teach high school algebra, geometry, and other subjects I struggled with while in school myself.

She taught herself to play the piano and the organ. I remember her playing the organ in church when I was young, and she was very good. When she and my grandfather moved to Galion, Ohio, she was the regular organist in their church.

Grandma Gerig was my last living grandparent, and I will miss her very much. She was a very giving person who loved life and God and all of her family. She loved to joke and laugh and pull pranks on us. She would often give us pj's for Christmas with the sleeves and leggings sown shut. She loved to sing loudly, although she didn't always remember the words and wasn't always in key.

As I conclude this, I dedicate this post to her by using her favorite color for the font, orange.

WARNING: Religious content about Christmas

1-3 I've taken a break during the Christmas rush to avoid anything dealing with politics. It's been great, and as I ease back in, I wanted to review what Christmas means to me.

It angers me, first of all, that some were talking about "holiday trees" this year as an excuse to avoid offending anyone. Christmas is the name of the holiday! Maybe I'm mistaken. There may be a growing segment of the population who have New Years trees.

I also noticed on our local stations that fewer Christmas carols actually had anything to do with Christ than last year (and I'm including a Christian station in that list). The ones about Frosty, riding through a winter wonderland, and Rudolph are great classics, but what about the real meaning of Christmas?

It comes down to Jesus, born of a virgin, lying in a manger. This same Jesus lived a perfect life and died an unjust and cruel death.

However, the most important and incredible part of Jesus' life is none of what I just mentioned. It's that he rose from the dead. No other religion can claim this, and this is what gives Christianity it's vitality. Jesus is alive and seated in Heaven next to God the Father.

That is why so many try year after year to take Christ out of Christmas. When you explore Jesus' life, beginning with his incredible conception and birth, we have to come to the conclusion that he was no ordinary man. Even if you ignore his claims of deity, he was not ordinary.

When I think of our great nation after this Christmas, I hope people remember Who holds it all together.