J. D. Pendry

J. D. Pendry

I managed another uneventful stealth trip into Northern Virginia this weekend. I infiltrated and ex-filtrated unscathed, although my fire engine red pickup truck did break the first rule of camouflage, which is to blend in with your surroundings. It would have been better had I been driving an SUV of the Lexus, Mercedes, or BMW varieties lacking the highway salt that covered my truck or any other evidence that it had ever touched actual dirt and with a cell phone in one hand, offering the commuter salute with the other and steering with my knees.

Since I first lived in the Northern Virginia, DC Metro area in 1992, there has been continuous highway construction especially around malfunction junction. If you are not familiar with the DC Beltway, malfunction junction is where I-395, I-495 and I-95 merge into a spaghetti bowl of on and off ramps. Right where all three merged, on ramps crossed exit ramps and mixed with road rage at 70 miles per hour. I am happy to report that in 2008, I saw no evidence of construction in malfunction junction. Exit ramps and on ramps do not cross so much as they once did, but there is more traffic so the odds of getting clobbered by a cell phone talking bird flipping driver is still high.

My bride and I make the trip periodically. We go there to acquire items we like that are not readily available here in Wild and Wonderful. Now for the gentleman that likes to call me a bigot because I believe that people who want to immigrate here should do it legally, learn English and our laws, I need to share a tiny bit of my private life. My bride of 35 years is Korean and a naturalized United States citizen. Please spare me the tolerance emails.

That aside, as you travel the Northern Virginia DC suburbs, you find rather large enclaves of immigrants. For example, there are many Korean owned businesses ranging from bookstores and restaurants to supermarkets all with apparently good business. I notice each time we are there, however, that the customer base is largely immigrant as are the employees. It is not uncommon to enter a Korean restaurant or grocery store and find that many of the workers are Hispanic immigrants. It is human nature to want to be where the people, language and customs are familiar to you and the problems are shared ones. These businesses located right outside the United States capital undoubtedly make significant contributions to the local economy. Still I wonder, as I eat like a pig at our favorite restaurants or while pushing the grocery cart behind my wife in the supermarket and at other shops, what kind of stampede would I cause by yelling ICE. This is not a small issue for our country and it cannot be solved with partisan political rhetoric.

With our mission completed and the pickup truck filled with stores, the wife and I headed for the hills. There I was, cruising through the Shenandoah Valley on Interstate 81. The road was dry so I had the cruise control set near the speed limit. The satellite radio was playing classic country. The sky was blue. The sun was shining. My seat was ever so slightly reclined. I was wearing my Thundering Herd baseball cap to honor those five Marshall players that are on Super Bowl rosters. Cruising along there and listening to Merle Haggard I was thinking that I was not yet in Redneck Heaven, but I had to be getting doggoned close. That is when I had to confront one of life’s annoying little realities - that being that you must expect people to do some dang dumb things and then never know quite why they did them.

I moved over into the fast lane to let a young woman driving one of those odd looking little cars merge onto the highway. It was purple. After I passed, I dutifully signaled my intention and drifted back into the right lane and went back to enjoying the music, the sunshine and the comforting sounds coming from my snoozing wife over in the shotgun seat. I glanced up and saw something strange. Through the rearview mirror, I could only see a portion of the top of the little purple car. For those of you who have not driven a vehicle such as a pickup truck that sits up higher than the average car this means that she was tailgating me so closely that she could have reached out and wiped the highway salt off of my taillights. No reason for her to be there that I could tell, since the passing lane was clear and I after all was traveling very near the speed limit. Suddenly, she darted into the left lane and shot around me as if I were sitting up on blocks. I honestly didn’t think one of those little biddy cars could go that fast. Just as suddenly, she cut back in front of me and then slowed. She slowed slower than me actually, which caused me to have to pass again rather than switch off the cruise control. We played this game several more times until she finally floored her windup toy, belched out cloud of global warming pollutants and disappeared over the horizon. I certainly do not know why. Maybe it was my truck. Or my Army Retired license plate. Maybe it was Al Gore. Who the heck knows?

I was again enjoying the music and the surroundings as I moved out into the passing lane to go around an 18-wheeler that was chugging along. That is when the truck driver, who was moving considerably slower than me and as you may recall I was traveling very near the speed limit, reinforced to me that there are a percentage of people who should be in occupations other than the one they have. I was about a car length behind the truck, the one that was traveling considerably slower that I was, when the driver made an abrupt lane change in front of me. Needless to say, I stood momentarily on the brake pedal and offered some kind words to the truck driver.

Eventually, the truck moved back over and I got back to listening to Merle Haggard and Conway Twitty. I’m still not sure if it was the rapid deceleration or my oral expression of appreciation for the trucker’s driving skills, but I think one of those woke the wife. For some unexplainable reason, she reached over and tapped the radio present button tuned to the rock and roll oldies channel. I’m not sure if it was her tiring of Merle and Conway or of my singing along with them that caused it. Rock and roll is here to stay blasted from the radio and for some unexplainable reason that flower child picture of the Clintons that is making it around the Internet popped into my mind. Along with it was Obama with a large Afro hairdo and sunglasses – or was it Jimi Hendrix? Then I wondered if any of those youthful indiscretions might have included a taste of Purple Haze.

Purple Haze was in my brain,
lately things don’t seem the same,
actin’ funny but I don’t know why
’scuse me while I kiss the sky

That’s when I deactivated the cruise control and mashed the gas pedal. If I could get home soon enough, there would be some time left in the weekend to work on the bunker.

Copyright © J D Pendry, 2008, All Rights Reserved

J. D. Pendry

It is unfortunate, but I believe Frances Quarles’ verse accurately describes the attitude of too many Americans. I also believe that if it we rewrote it to read, “Our God and Soldiers we alike adore, in times of political campaigns and not before…” it would hold even more meaning for today.

Most Americans, above 80 percent according to various surveys, believe in God and claim the Christian faith. When poll driven people vie for the leadership of our country, it is not surprising that we receive a healthy helping of their professions of faith. I saw an interesting combination of words in my reading this week. Phony religiosity. I caused images to pop into my mind of our collection of Presidential candidates. Not one in particular, but instead, the entire collection. Especially those that we are told to believe have the best chance of making it to the Whitehouse.

We have one candidate who’s Christianity has been heralded by some as his most valuable attribute. That is fine. That is an important attribute from my perspective, but I do have a problem with using it as part of the political campaign. Saying that I am a presidential candidate and also a Christian is quite different from saying that I’m a Christian who is running to be president. That means you are running on an identity more than on your total qualifications for the job. That is not good. It is not unlike saying I am an African American or a woman who is running for president and implying that the identity is reason enough to get my vote.

We have one candidate that belongs to a church who’s Pastor and leader recently recognized Louis Farrakhan with a lifetime achievement award. This is the leader of the Nation of Islam who is an anti-Semite, racist, bigot. We are counseled now that this is the pastor of his church not the candidate himself and that we should not tie the thoughts and actions of one to the other. I think I would call that faulty logic. The pastor leads the church and as such speaks for its membership. Christianity and the hatred and bigotry preached for years by Farrakhan are not compatible. The candidate either embraces the direction of his church or he does not.

We have one candidate that tells us that her faith got her through the hard times. Google “Clinton faith” and you’ll find the story headline on every news link. What is unfortunate is the documented, undisputed, vulgar and abusive behavior [profanity alert] attributed to her. This is hardly the behavior of one with strong faith in God. Maybe she has since repented.

We have one candidate that is having his religion used against him by some. I do not share his theological beliefs, but I’ve seen nothing that convinces me that he is out to change us into a nation of Mormons just as John Kennedy was not out to convert us all to Catholicism. His faith and politics did once allow him to support abortion, but now he seems to have experienced an epiphany. Maybe so.

That is just a glance at some of the so-called top tier, but all of them and some more than others, have highlighted a degree of religious faith to appeal to voters. Study the character of the candidates and what they do rather than what they say if a candidate’s faith is indeed important to you. As for the candidates, they would do well to etch in their minds that “the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts.”

Soldiers and Veterans are a different matter. The politicians view them from the leanings of their political ideologies. If asked directly, all of them will tell you what great people Soldiers and Veterans are and how much they support them, but just as with their religious affirmations their actions regarding support for Soldiers and Veterans do not always match with their rhetoric? They will all insist that our Soldiers get what they need to succeed in their politically assigned missions and then some of them will act just the opposite of what they say. Some will tell us how the war and our neglect has turned Veterans, according to the New York Times, in to homeless, drug addicted, murderers. What they won’t ever share are the facts about veterans that show that as a group compared to their counterparts, Veterans are better educated, have higher median incomes and lower unemployment rates. The facts do not support the ideology they hope to sell.

Finally, all of the politicians appealing to the heart strings of America will lament about the poor job that the agencies tasked with delivering benefits to Veterans are doing implying always that it is the fault of the actions of one political party or the other. It is always a popular item for their political campaigns, especially during a conflict. What they never tell Americans is that these administrative agencies struggle at best to “administer” the laws, regulations and bureaucracy created by politicians of all persuasions. No, it cannot ever be the fault of a politician.

After election, both alike requited, our God’s forgotten, and our Soldiers slighted… Count on it.

Copyright © JD Pendry 2008 All Rights Reserved.

J. D. Pendry

I was just perusing one of my favorite books, Reagan, In His Own Hand. It is a collection of essays, as the title implies, written by President Reagan. What President Reagan had and demonstrated with his writing, that I find rare in many of today’s politicians, is vision. He was able to see the impact that today’s political choices will have on tomorrow. He was a popular president because of that and because he believed government should make an effort to stay out of our lives and our wallets as much as possible. It is another philosophy that appears foreign to most politicians

Here in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia, we have been governed by a Democratic political majority for as long as I can remember. In every measurable category that you can imagine, we are ranked 49th or 50th of 50 states. We will not improve in any significant area until we improve our number 50 ranking for business climate, meaning of course that if you were looking to start a business you would be better served to pick one of the other 49 states. It is politics that got us where we are and politics that keeps us there. Our state provides coal that helps provide more than 50 percent of the electric power in our country. If we had politicians with vision, we would also have coal to liquid fuel plants around the state providing clean burning fuel for vehicles and aircraft, jobs for our people and revenue for our state. Instead of policies that attract businesses (less regulation, less taxes, better infrastructure and tort reform) and maximizes the benefit we may get from coal (our plentiful natural resource that is equal to the oil reserves of Kuwait) our legislators believe it is better to run our state from lottery tickets, gambling and taxes. In a state with the nation’s second lowest per capita income, each citizen pays yearly personal property tax on his vehicles, which is above and beyond the sales tax paid at purchase. We even pay sales tax on food. Wal-Mart has become our largest employer. We are the example of what happens when politicians, who lack vision, institute and perpetuate the types of policies President Reagan opposed.

I don’t know if you have paid much attention to H.R. 6:

‘‘An Act to reduce our Nation’s dependency on foreign oil by investing in clean, renewable, and alternative energy resources, promoting new emerging energy technologies, developing greater efficiency, and creating a Strategic Energy Efficiency and Renewables Reserve to invest in alternative energy, and for other purposes’’

I have no idea what it said either except that this part “creating a Strategic Energy Efficiency and Renewables Reserve to invest in alternative energy, and for other purposes” sounds like a tax doesn’t it? I don’t pretend to channel President Reagan as too many politicians do, but from reading his thoughts it is difficult for me to believe that he would support some parts of this legislation that was signed into law by President Bush.

This is legislation that devotes an entire section to light bulbs. No, that is not a typo. Your tax dollars pay the salaries of politicians who hope to make us energy independent by regulating light bulbs. Do you feel like you are getting your money’s worth? Eventually, they want to ban incandescent bulbs.

What perfectly safe and efficient product will they choose next to ban? Have you ever made a cost comparison between incandescent light bulbs and compact fluorescent ones? Do you reckon that it will matter to the millionaires who passed this legislation that the cost of light bulbs will eventually triple for us consumers? I know, it is just light bulbs, but it will matter to some people and when you follow policies such as this one to their logical end, you end up with legislation such as that proposed in California where the government wants to remotely control thermostats inside private homes. What follows that? Mandates for types and amounts of insulation, types of windows, roofs… Government needs to get out of our homes and remain so.

Another thing that H.R. 6 does is raise the mileage standards for vehicles. Eventually, all vehicles rolling off the assembly line will have to get 35 miles per gallon of gasoline. What happens, when we arrive at the date when all vehicles have to meet those standards? Gas hog tax or as they now call it, a carbon offset, for those of us still driving old vehicles because we cannot afford to replace them with new ones? Isn’t that the logical progression? The people who dream up these things fail to look down the road because, well, they can afford to pay a carbon off set tax for their fleets of large vehicles and private jets. The rest of us will have the choice of coughing up the tax no matter what they name it, or driving one of these jewels.

I perused H.R. 6 until I started dozing. I will wager that no Congressman or woman who voted for this nor the President who signed it, thoroughly read and studied it or took a look down the road. It looks to my untrained eye like this is well short of the Manhattan project that we need to make us truly energy independent. Instead, it gives us French fry grease and applies the Jimmy Carter approach to solving our nation’s energy problems. Put on a sweater and turn down your thermostat – and get new light bulbs damn it. You will be comforted to know, however, that Section 1101 establishes the Office of Climate Change and Environment. Ooh, now I feel really energy independent. Don’t you?

Copyright © 2008 J D Pendry All Rights Reserved

J. D Pendry

“A sick society must think much about politics, as a sick man must think much about his digestion.” – C. S. Lewis

I should be watching the football game, but this probably won’t take me very long. I will be back in the recliner, which is near the fireplace that is making its contribution to global warming and in front of the wide screen LCD high definition television with digital surround sound in my comfortable family room lit by halogen tracked lighting somewhere about mid way through the second quarter. In the meantime, I thought I would summarize for you how I see the never ending political campaign for the Presidency of the United States of America and the professional politicians seeking the job.

We have a rock star, or so described by a fawning media. John Fitzgerald Kennedy is reincarnated I’m told. For at least the past 8 years, it has been a recurring theme that our serving President would be much better if he was a better communicator, in other words if he could make a better speech. Well, the media ordained rock star makes a great speech - one that is delivered with different accents depending on the audience present. The message? Change? Hope? Change to what? Hope for what? Much style, little substance. Give any actor in Hollywood a good script and he or she will deliver the same moving performance. Is that enough to qualify one to lead the free world?

We have one who is trying hard to show he’s the calm Statesman instead of the angry old man he has allowed to show through at times in the past. He is a war veteran who has sacrificed much for our country and would likely keep the focus on our national security and on our war against the Islamic Fascists. That is important to me, but… He is giving himself credit for the surge strategy that is succeeding in Iraq. He was critical of the Secretary of Defense and insisted that we needed more Soldiers on the ground in Iraq, but I don’t think I can concede credit to him for an on the ground strategy that is a bit more involved than just increasing the number of troops. He is also against tax cuts. He co-authored the illegal immigrant amnesty bill and the campaign finance reform bill that restricts our right to free speech.

We have one populist that insists that he is going to save the country by taking on corporate greed as it is the root of all of our problems. He is going to punish them when he gets to Pennsylvania Avenue. I always find this amusing. Economics 101 teaches us that free markets grow and flourish because individuals seek wealth. They seek wealth by creating things that others need or desire and then selling it to them. Look around the room you are sitting in. Choose any product in the room. How many people have jobs because someone – seeking wealth - had the idea to provide that product for you? Everyone involved from providing raw materials to manufacturing, marketing, transporting and selling that one product gained some measure of wealth. It is wealth that also runs our nation in the form of tax revenues. Now if you are wealthy and have become so by suing others for money you did not earn, then all of that is probably foreign to you.

We have an accomplished, wealthy businessman and former Governor. He is not breaking through even though he appears to have all of the right positions. Some of those positions are relatively new for him however, and they are important ones like abortion. He comes across as too well crafted for most I am afraid. That causes people, deserved or not, to question his genuineness and that could be his downfall. Maybe we are not ready for someone who appears to have all of the right answers. He speaks well, looks good, appears smart and has a solid family life. Whether that will carry him or not, who knows?

We have one that that has lived in the Whitehouse already. She is being upstaged by the so-called JFK reincarnation. She is a socialist and doesn’t camouflage it very well. She has promised more entitlements than all of your tax dollars could ever afford, but that is the least of her problems. With a personality that often comes across as screeching and angry, she is hard to like. That, along with the potential first-dude is a problem for her. Unless something devastating surfaces about her opponents, which would not be out of character for her campaign, she is done. So look for eye-gouging to begin shortly.

We have a Baptist Preacher. I like Baptist Preachers, being a Baptist myself. Being a good Christian is not in and of itself enough to qualify one to be the proprietor of the Whitehouse. One of the worst Presidents in history rode his evangelical credentials into the Oval Office. He was a Southern Baptist too. This one is personable, likable and makes a great speech. I never met a Preacher that could not talk well. He has some questions to answer about his history of raising taxes as a Governor, pardoning a record number of criminals and some of his positions on illegal immigrants. Interesting how the best speech makers are the top contenders isn’t it?

We have an ex-mayor who leads us to believe that he would relentlessly pursue the terrorists. He has a record of reducing taxes and crime and demonstrated leadership in dealing with a manmade catastrophe. Unfortunately, he also supports gun control, abortion, same sex civil unions and has some potential moral issues of his own.

We have an actor with a supposed conservative record, but who can also put you to sleep with one look. He is done I am afraid.

We had a couple of good ones that never broke through.

We also have a UFO watcher, an isolationist and a few sprayed on hair-dos that we need to be able to thank for their comedic contributions and send home. And, there is the looming billionaire mayor who is considering an attempted purchase of the Whitehouse.

Concerned? Me? Whatever gave you that idea? We are in great shape. Well, it is the third quarter. After the game, I’ll be in the back yard working on the bunker. I have to get satellite TV in there.

Copyright © J D Pendry 2008 All Rights Reserved

J. D. Pendry

I’m a drive-thru fan. If I pull into the gas station and there is no card reader on the pump, I will pull through and go on to the next station. I fear I have bought into the quick and convenient society we have built for ourselves here in the Free United States. We have people hoping to be President who were raised in the generation that saw serious social issues dealt with during 30 minute situation comedies. Not serious problems to a morally relative society, just a demonstration for us abnormal people of how normal it actually is to be homosexual or an unwed mother. Serial murderers and white collar criminals were caught and convicted in an hour, probably prosecuted by a future Presidential candidate. The truly serious problems, those having global impact, we’re solved by Hollywood and that usually required at least a full 90 minutes. Ships in 24 hours, that’s us and you don’t even have to leave the couch.

Sorry to travel off on a tangent there, but it happens to me when I take three weeks off. So, back to my drive-thru addiction. I always use the drive-thru teller or ATM machines at the bank. Worried about the coming global currency? I don’t know why you should be, the new global currency is a plastic card with a number on it.

I was forced recently to disembark from my F-150 to conduct some bank business inside the actual bank. I docked my bright red, full-sized 4X4 with a V8 engine and adorned with U.S. Army Retired license plates in the first available slot that was, as it happened, beside of a shiny black Toyota Prius. On the back of the Prius were an anti-Bush Sticker, an End This War Sticker, and several different environmental ones. My first thought, believe it or not, was what kind of a knot head would put bumper stickers directly on the vehicle’s paint? I returned after completing my transaction to see the occupant of the Prius sitting in her car perusing one of the free real estate guides that you can pick up at the bank entrance. I can’t explain why I did it, but my first reaction was to stop and look down the shotgun side of my truck to see if there were any scratches on it. There wasn’t this time. The Prius’ occupant looked at me over the top of her black-rimmed reading glasses. She had short hair, a peaked face and a brow furrowed into what might be a permanent scowl or maybe it was just a scowl reserved for people like me who are pro-military, anti-environment, uneducated pick-up truck driving rednecks or at least we are so perceived. I am certain that she would have looked down her nose at me if it were not for the fact that the pilot’s chair of my truck was several feet above her pop can on wheels.

So, here we are in another year of never ending political campaigns. Politics, if it hasn’t always been, is now one of our Nation’s major industries if not the major industry. Ask the unions. Politics, or opining about it, have made some people quite wealthy. Ask Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. Ask the big names in the blogosphere. Ask the guy who made the silly bumper stickers plastered all over the back of the Prius.

The Prius lady and I will have to select our Presidential contenders this year so that they can compete for the world’s greatest political prize. We are not likely to make a similar choice. I don’t know what criteria she’ll apply in making her choice. It doesn’t matter frankly, because any of her likely choices in my opinion are dangerous for our country and I am certain she has the same view of my likely pick. I can only be concerned about the criteria I apply to making my selection.

My criteria are not too complicated. I’m interested in what the candidate values. What he or she values based on their actions and not their words. Unfortunate for candidates, it is their past actions that are demonstrative of their character and not their now poll driven words. Unfortunate for us, self included, our quick and convenient society would rather have someone tell us about the candidates rather than scrutinizing them ourselves.

Does your candidate tell you that he/she values life, but is pro-choice? Sorry, but pro-choice is not the opposite of pro-life. Does your candidate value service or does he/she only desire the power of the Presidency? Answer that by looking at how long each candidate has actively, continuously pursued the Oval Office. Does you candidate value individual rights? Where does he/she stand on gun control? Does your candidate value our national sovereignty? What has he/she said or done about immigration, border security and true energy independence? Is your candidate strong on national security? What positions has he/she taken in the war against the terrorists in particular the Iraq front? What has his/her positions been on the size, strength, equipping and funding of our military services? …

Every voting aged American holds one share of stock in our political industry. Make the wrong choice with it and you may not like the dividend it pays.

Have a great new year.

Copyright © 2008 J D Pendry All Rights Reserved