J. D. Pendry

J. D. Pendry

I suppose it is not a revelation that politicians often portray themselves as someone they may not be. Some can pull it off while others cannot. It is life experiences and associations that decide who a person truly is and not the stories they tell. We have seen embellished military records, padded resumes and humble beginnings that were often as much fiction as fact. At some point, the façade crumbles away leaving us with a true view of the weak character supporting it. It may be an oval office tryst or failure to simply live up to claimed values, but it is always something. Unfortunately, the façade often holds up long enough to fool too many of us into making a poor choice.

Remember John Edwards’ my Dad was a mill worker? I do not question that his father worked in a mill and I expect there are some values his father taught him, but Senator Edwards was a millionaire trial lawyer far removed from the hardships a mill worker might have endured. He needed that image, however, because we commoners have more respect for mill workers than we do trial lawyers and he knew that. We have had others who flaunted themselves as war heroes with paper records to back their claims. Americans truly admire their heroes, but true heroes do not speak of themselves like that. I have personally known some who deserve the title including a Medal of Honor recipient. The truth is, they rarely bring up their war records in conversation casual or otherwise and appear genuinely uncomfortable about it when others do it.

My Father was a coalminer from the time he was a teenager. He was the oldest sibling in his family and supported them after his own father was killed in the mines. He also spent some time in FDR’s new deal Civilian Conservation Corps and in the Navy in World War II. Dad was a die-hard Democrat, but he would not recognize that party today were he still alive. As we sometimes describe people over here in the hills, he was rougher than a corn-cob, but honest to a fault. He never asked for nor expected anything from anyone most especially the guvmint. He never viewed himself as being in that class of people that the politicians always profess the need to protect. He left me with some important values about faith, hard work and family, but thanks to him I did not endure the hard life that he did and I would not use his life to attempt to paint a portrait of me. To do so would be dishonest.

I recall from the multitude of seminars that I have had to endure one called “who you are is where you were when” or something similar to that. The bottom line is that if you were from the Great Depression, WWII era as my Father was your world view and approach to life might differ greatly from that of the Jane Fonda generation. It is also true that who you are is where you were at the important stages of your life. Where you were and what you have experienced will determine the decisions you make when the situation is stressful and your true character emerges. That is an assessment every one of us can and should make of politicians who seek national office.

When it comes to politics in and of itself, politicians are not stupid. On practical matters of leading our country, however, that argument does not always stand up. What politicians do know is that everyone is not from San Francisco, New York city, Chicago or Las Vegas. It is love of country, working class values, self-reliance, independence, religious faith, strong moral values and professed willingness to challenge the status quo that generally gets a politician elected or at least placed on a national ticket. That describes every politician to which I have ever paid any attention. Or, at least it describes the façade he or she wishes us to see and accept.

The question is when the façade crumbles away, as it inevitably does, who will we find standing behind it? While you contemplate that and study the important relationships of our Presidential contenders, I will be in the back yard working on the bunker.

Copyright © J D Pendry 2008 All Rights Reserved.

J. D. Pendry

I have a short administrative matter that requires your help. Truth or Fiction emailed me 2 years ago in September 2006. From what I can see, the website is similar in nature to Snopes. They wanted to know if I actually wrote this article. Last week, they emailed me again and asked the same question only this time the article they sent identified me as a Marine and someone had added cartoons to it among other edits. I searched their site and didn’t find mention of it anywhere so I do not know the purpose of their emails. I will be grateful if you will take the opportunity to correct the article with the senders and point them towards the original if an edited version of it turns up in your mail box – again. - JD

******************Does it concern you that all three of the major television network news anchors accompanied a presidential candidate on an international tour? I do not recall them doing that for any of the numerous trips that the other candidate has made.

I have always been a follower of news as it is broadcast and provided to us in print. I consider it necessary, personally, to be informed about what is happening. The difference is that nowadays I do not see how I can believe anything that these allegedly objective journalists read to us from their Teleprompters or print for our consumption in their papers. Factual information providing appears non-existent. Instead of being good news men or women they seem more inclined to promote a position, ideal or movement of some sort. They no longer provide a service that Americans need. I am not sure if they ever did.

For many years, when I was fortunate to be home, NBC’s John Chancellor and then Tom Brokaw evening newscast was a nightly ritual for me. When CNN came along, I became somewhat of a news addict having it available whenever I wanted to turn it on. If for some reason I was home in the morning, I watched the Today Show. CBS’s 60 Minutes was required Sunday evening viewing. The radio preset most often selected in my pick-up truck was NPR. I trusted that people who billed themselves as providing objective information for the masses were doing just that.

One of my character flaws is that I believe people are inherently honest so the first time around I accept what they tell me as truthful and that they are who they portend. And, you see, that is the problem with most Americans. We believe, or at least we once did, that the people who deliver the news to us are actually delivering the news- all of it good, bad and ugly. That has changed for me. It was not an epiphany. It was a gradual changed and they caused it.

Do you like movies? I do. I rarely watch serial programming on television anymore, but I do watch some movies. My wife and I will occasionally visit a Saturday morning matinee. Along with a bazillion others, we saw the new Batman movie this week. Heath Ledger stole the show as the Joker. Too bad that he will not be around for the honors that his performance will garner. I only mention the movie and Leger’s performance because it caused me to think that what we are watching in our country now is well performed movie script and the starring role is filled by a very good and well coached actor. He also has all of the big named critics, Gibson, Couric and Williams, pulling for him to get the ultimate prize - the Oscar of politics.

There is a point in time when things stop being what they are billed as being. For eight years we have been told by these major networks what a miserable job George Bush has done. They have said the same about Iraq. Most Americans listen to these three amigos and their other network programming and believe what they hear. It is after all the news and Americans have an expectation that the news it gets is truthful, objective and equally reported from all sides of the issues. When it is not, then it is no longer news. It is propaganda.

Our movie is like one of those political movies of the Michael Moore genre. It is made in reverse of reality. There script writers draw a conclusion then report only a version of the facts that supports their conclusion. The conclusion is that our country needs a rock star savior, new politics, change….

The title of the movie is Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue. It is due out in January 2009.

Copyright 2008 J D Pendry All Rights Reserved Terms of Use

J. D. Pendry

Harry Reid tells us that oil and coal makes us sick. It makes the planet sick. We also hear that we are addicted to oil and use more than our share of the world’s supply of it. It is no great wonder that only 9 percent of Americans believe the Congress that Harry Reid leads is doing a good job. That is not even to mention the brilliance and effectiveness of the Nancy Pelosi led half of it. The Speaker promised us a plan that would reduce the outrageously high $2.91 per gallon gasoline prices. We see how well that worked. Harry and Nan’s genius, I fear, is just the beginning for our country. The beginning of the end of it if we are not careful.

When is the last time you went for a drive on an American highway? Did you see all of the trucks delivering the goods that are needed and desired by you and me? One of the keys to prosperity in our country was the discovery of oil and how to refine and deliver it to industry and consumers. Another is the coal fired plants that power the electric grids and keep most of the lights on in a nation that refused and still does to build nuclear power plants. When you add to that the transportation industry and the interstate highway system you have the keys to a mobile and prosperous nation. Some appear embarrassed by our prosperity and think the rest of us should be too. We are told that we take so much from the world. I am not the arrogant American so often alluded to by American-loathing liberal politicians. I would, however, enjoy listening to a politician, for a change, telling us how proud he or she is to be an American and pointing out to the rest of the world the contributions the United States of America has made to it often at great sacrifice of our blood and national wealth. Science, technology, medicine, agriculture, freedom… Yes, most importantly freedom.

We are told instead to feel bad about the vehicles we drive, the temperatures at which we set our thermostats and what we eat. Somehow, we need the rest of the world to agree that it is okay for us to prosper as a people and we need to feel bad if we do while their failed states regress. That is quite pathetic especially coming from those who hope to lead us – unfortunately in the direction of those failed nations that would be better served to copy our model rather than despise it.

We can lead the world or we can follow it. That is the choice that is given to us. Some segments of our society, it appears, will not be happy until we turn ourselves into a third world nation. Third world status is earned when the middle class disappears. When our roofs are thatched, there are no vehicles in our driveways, we are killing the squirrels out of the back yard for food and are totally dependent on aloof, wealthy politicians for our needs then we will have reached socialist liberal utopia. It will be a great achievement for Harry, Nan and comrades as the saviors of our nation, but not so wonderful for the saved.

If I hold to my Christian faith and believe in the individual rights afforded me under the Constitution of the United States, I am described as a bitter person. One who clings to his guns and faith and shows antipathy toward those who are not like me. The snootier derisively categorize me as a member of a political group, “the evangelicals.” I can assure you, that my pastor does not stand at the pulpit and damn America or whisper to others about his desire to castrate someone.

Have you spent much of your life outside the United States? I spent 9 years in Europe and 3 in Asia. There is nothing there, anywhere, which can compare to what we have here and take for granted. I just heard the other day that when those people visit our country they all speak English and when we visit theirs the best we can offer is merci beaucoup. That is a load of stier scheise or as we call it here in bitter clinger country, bovine scatology. Actually, we should be as protective of our language as the Europeans and Asians are of theirs. We are not because it is not the politically correct thing to do here in hyphenated-America were we must strive to be all things to all people instead of offering them the chance for freedom and prosperity that their failed cultures could not. Our new national mission it seems is Balkanization, the elimination of anything that is distinctly American. The complete eradication of the dehyphenated-American dream.

I have a question for those among us who are bothered that English is the international language of choice for business among other things like air traffic control. Would they have preferred instead the language of the Third Reich, Imperial Japan or Mother Russia?

I will be in the backyard liberal proofing the bunker.

Copyright © 2008 J D Pendry All Rights Reserved.

J. D. Pendry

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women.” – Thomas Paine, December 1776

Over time, Mr. Paine’s historical statement about patriotism has been used to support every conceivable notion about what patriotism is or is not. I have always thought that his meaning was clear. In difficult times, true patriots will proudly support and defend their country and its way of life.

There has been lots of talk about the subject of patriotism recently. Maybe it is because that is the most relevant theme around the birthday of our nation. Maybe it is because it is an election year. I suspect it is more about the latter than the former. Every politician wants to declare the he is endowed with an unquestionable abundance of it. Questioning a politician’s demonstrated judgment, his lifelong associations, his stated political positions or the integrity issues that arise as those political positions flip and flop in the direction of prevailing political polls, is too often countered with a how dare you question my patriotism. It has always been my opinion that when someone is so adamant that his patriotism not be questioned, especially when no one has questioned it, it is he alone who doubts the degree of it that he possesses.

Do you suppose that is why politicians attempt to define patriotism to suit their character? Remember the Swift Boat Veterans of the Vietnam War? Honorable men, decorated combat veterans with unchallenged patriotism who put forth their honest beliefs only to be ridiculed in favor of one who openly lied about them and used stories of proven liars and frauds who dubbed themselves as “winter soldiers” as his basis to perpetuate those still unproven claims. To bolster a political candidate, patriotism was redefined as having the courage to dissent and protest, or, to disparage those who honorably and courageously served their country. They have continued it right on through the war by calling them Nazis, gulag tenders and cold-blooded murderers among other things. I guess that makes them true patriots.

What exactly is a patriot?

There is no better example of patriotism than the oneness demonstrated by 1,215 members of the United States Armed Forces as they reenlisted on July 4, 2008 while serving our nation in a combat zone. What could possibly account for an act such as that other than truly being proud defenders of our country and its way of life?

“Volunteering to continue to serve our nation, while deployed – is both noble and inspiring. It is, as award citations often state, in keeping with the finest traditions of our military services.” - Gen. David Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force – Iraq. “ Amen to that General.

What about the only people who are in a position to engage in the economic war that is being waged against our country now by oil producing and terrorist subsidizing states and who have refused to take any action to defend the way of life of most Americans? Is that patriotism?

If 535 men and women in Washington, DC could put aside silly politics and act for one week with the single focus, as do our serving men and women, to protect and preserve the greatest country God ever blessed, there would be no more energy crisis. There would be no economic crisis. American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen could spend their next 4th of July with their families and marching in parades in America’s streets rather than on patrol in Iraqi streets or in Afghanistan.

That, ladies and gentlemen of the United States Congress would be a true act of patriotism – both noble and inspiring and deserve the love and thanks of men and women.

Copyright © 2008 J D Pendry All Rights Reserved