A Voice of Sanity – RobertRinger.com

Another Inconvenient Truth

Guess our national leaders didn’t expect this, hmm? On Thursday, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee. What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful.

They were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well. It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert. These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal. There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying out in the wilderness. Following is a portion of the transcript:

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Sieg Heil!

As I witness the daily events that surround me, I sometimes feel as though I’ve landed on another planet. Or perhaps that I’m having a dream where I’m trapped inside a George Orwell novel. Comments like “We live in an upside-down world” and “The world is standing on its head” have become cliches a result of decades of a dismissive attitude by “social progressives” (or, more accurately, socialist progressives).

It seems as though speech and behavior that was once considered morally wrong, uncivilized, or inappropriate is today not only tolerated, but extolled. Likewise, speech and behavior that the vast majority of people once considered to be morally right, civilized, and appropriate is now reviled.

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On Thinking Before Acting

By Robert Ringer

What a tragedy that Farrah Fawcett not only is suffering from terminal cancer, but that her twenty-four-year-old son, Redmond O’Neal, was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs into a jail to give to a friend. (How comforting it must be to know that your son has buddies in the slammer.)

Then there’s Sarah Palin’s daughter, who got pregnant by an eighteen-year-old punk who not only backed out of marrying her, but decided it would be real classy to go on national television and tell tales about the Palin family. It had to be orgasmic for any viewer coming from the left … oops, bad word choice … make that, “It had to be exciting for any viewer coming from the left.”

These stories of celebrities’ kids screwing up go on nonstop. And they remind all but the luckiest of parents that one of the not-so-fun aspects of having children is that they all too often don’t take into consideration how the results of their actions might impact their families.

Which brings me to my twenty-year-old son. A few months ago, he was in an automobile accident and nearly totaled both his car and that of the other driver. It was nighttime, and the black car in front of him had run out of gas and come to a stop in the right-hand lane. The driver said he had his emergency lights on, but my son — perhaps due to a momentary lack of concentration — thought the car was moving.

In any event, he looked over his left shoulder to make sure he could switch lanes, and, as he looked forward again, the right front of his car slammed into the left rear of the immobilized black car in front him. Though my son was going under the forty-mile-per-hour speed limit, the impact was great enough to trigger his air bag and spin his car around several times.

Of course, you’re always at fault when you hit a car from behind, but, considering the circumstances (black car … nighttime … the other car out of gas and stopped in the road … and my son driving under the speed limit), it didn’t seem necessary for the police officer to charge him with reckless driving. But that’s what he did.

A reckless driving conviction can bring a very stiff fine, the suspension of one’s driver’s license, and, in extreme cases, jail time. But, thankfully, no one was injured, and the other driver was a sympathetic gentleman who was just happy that his wife and small daughter were okay. He even called our house later that evening to see how my son was doing.

And, as with all negative occurrences in life, a lot of good came out of this one. During a recent conversation I had with my son, he told me that he couldn’t believe how much he had learned from the experience.

When I asked him to elaborate, the first thing he said was that it made him realize how easy it is to have a serious automobile accident. He emphasized how much more careful and alert he intended to be in the future.

Second, he said he had never imagined how involved being in an accident could be — dealing with insurance companies, finding an auto-repair shop certified to do the work, having to come up with the $500 deductible for his share of the $10,000 repair bill, finding an attorney and coming up with the money to pay his fee, going to the DMV to get a copy of his driving record for the attorney, making two court appearances, and, above all, the enormous stress of waiting for both his first and second court dates.

Best of all from my perspective is that he said it made him realize what a major effect his actions could have on others — especially his family. Kids normally learn this simple truth the hard way — over a long period of time. But we adults have no excuse. We should already know that virtually everything we do impacts others, particularly those closest to us.

With the government continuing to disregard the way its irresponsible actions affect our lives, I’m reminded of an old adage: Think before you act; it’s not your money. Unfortunately, that’s not the way politicians’ minds work.

Which is all the more reason why we should think doubly hard about the consequences of our own actions — ahead of time. As I told my son, it’s a heck of a lot easier to avoid a serious mistake than to repair the damage caused by one.

In my article “Learning from Saddam,” I said that it’s a good idea to learn to “look backward from the future.” By that I meant that you should make it a habit to picture the possible consequences of your actions before acting. There’s not a person reading (or writing) this article whose family wouldn’t be better off had he/she always applied that rule.

Of course, your perception of reality is a critical factor in all this. If you delude yourself about the odds and the possible consequences of your actions, looking backward from the future is an exercise in futility.

But having an accurate perception of reality is another subject for another day. Right now, a good start is to just think about the efficacy of the “looking backward from the future” principle — and start teaching it to your children at a young age.

What if your children are already in their teens or early twenties, you ask? Answer: Good luck.

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Liberty Education Interview Series

We’re happy to announce that Robert Ringer’s Liberty Education Interview Series has been officially launched. To listen to Robert’s recent interviews with Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Alan Keyes, Stephen Moore, and other prominent pro-liberty advocates, please go to www.robertringer.com and click on the appropriate icon in the left navigation bar.

You can also go directly to http://www.robertringer.com/liberty-education-interview-series.html. In either event, please encourage your family, friends, and coworkers to listen to these interviews as well. Liberty needs all the support it can get right now.

And be sure to let us know what you think about the Liberty Education Interview Series thus far.

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The Antihero, Part II

By Robert Ringer

The message from The Graduate that I was referring to at the end of Part I of this article is simplistic but true. It’s a message that has transcended the ages: Never give up. Watching The Graduate reminded me of a Lucite cube I gave my son when he was very young. On it are inscribed the words: Whatever It Takes! To this day, it sits atop his dresser.

Which, in turn, reminded me of the latest antihero tale that has unfolded before the entire world, that of Susan Boyle. She’s the frumpy-looking forty-seven-year-old Scottish lady who shocked Simon Cowell and billions of people around the globe with her dazzling performance on the U.K. version of American Idol — Britain’s Got Talent.
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The Antihero, Part I

By Robert Ringer

One of the many things I regret not having enough time for is watching good movies. I emphasize the word good to differentiate from most of the celluloid sewage that comes off the Hollywood production line — the 90+ percent of films whose only purpose seem to be to dull viewers’ minds with over-the-top violence, sex, profanity, and anti-Western propaganda.

Some movies are so good that you feel compelled to watch them again every ten years or so. The Graduate, one of the greatest “cult” films of all time, is one that falls into the once-every-ten-years category for me. And last weekend, I’m happy to say that I took the time to watch it. Once again, it did not disappoint.
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The Fraud Tax: How the Federal Reserve Turns Deficits into Money

[RR note: This article, by my longtime friend and brilliant economic analyst John Pugsley, will help you understand how and why the massive deficit spending the government is now engaged in will impact your financial life. Sadly, not one person in a hundred has a clue.]

By John A. Pugsley

When Congress spends more money than it collects in taxes, it authorizes the Treasury Department to borrow from the public by selling Treasury bills, bonds, and notes. The Treasury offers these securities for sale at public auction, and they are bid for and purchased by banks, pension funds, trusts, corporations, individuals, and even foreign interests. These are widely considered to be the safest IOUs around. After all, they are guaranteed by the U.S. government.
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The W Factor, Part II

By Robert Ringer

As I said at the end of Part I of this article, myths aside, the facts clearly show that for the past hundred years, Democrats, by and large, have been The Party of War.

Consider:
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Sh.. Happens

By Robert Ringer

At least once or twice a week, I meet someone, or see someone on television, who really inspires me. A few weeks ago, my inspiration came from a remarkable, upbeat young woman by the name of Cara Fortunato.

I met Cara at a high school where my son was playing in a tournament. After his game, he and I happened to pass the open door to her office and saw that she was watching a college game on television. We asked if she would mind if we joined her.
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The Art of the Search, Part II

By Robert Ringer

Unlike the Windows Search effort I discussed in my last article, manually searching Windows Explorer or My Computer begins with how you store a document. Because if you do a good job of storing it, finding it should be easy. There was a simple reason why I couldn’t find my son’s paper: I had stored it in the wrong folder! Doh!

What do I mean by “wrong folder”? In my world, a wrong folder is one that is not a logical place for a particular document to be stored. There is no doubt in my mind that everyone reading this article knows exactly what I mean by this, because every computer user has made this mistake — usually many, many times.
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The W Factor, Part I

I ended Part II of my article “Does Anyone Get It Yet?” by saying, “Perhaps you’re wondering what the W stands for in the D & W Factors, and how it plays into all this. No teasing intended, but I think I’ll leave that for another time. I wouldn’t want to say anything that might spoil your otherwise blissful day.”

Well, wouldn’t you know it? Here I am, just ten days later, and I can’t resist revealing the W Factor. As I’ve already explained, the D stands for Dictatorship. Now, there are many avenues that can lead to a dictatorship, but perhaps the one that offers the least amount of resistance is to be found in the W Factor: War.

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Who Will Tell the People the Truth?

Below is a rerun of an article I wrote last May during the primary campaigns. For reasons that will be obvious to you, I felt compelled to rerun this article. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I hate having to say “I told you so.” [Highlighted text and my additional comments speak for themselves.]

Who Will Tell the People the Truth?

By Robert Ringer

Thomas Friedman recently wrote an article in The New York Times titled “Who will tell the people?” Friedman, liberal though he may be, is an outstanding writer and future-oriented thinker. You may know him as the author of The Lexis and the Olive Tree and The World is Flat.

Friedman says “We don’t need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents. We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.”
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Does Anyone Get It Yet?, Part II

By Robert Ringer

As the Obamacrats continue to take over banks, auto manufacturers, and, soon, everything from land-development firms to sports franchises to lemonade stands, more and more people will finally get it. They won’t have a choice: They’ll be living in servitude!

Of all the dictators over the past hundred years, I think BHO comes closest to the model used by Adolf Hitler. I know, I know … I can practically hear you chuckling. Enslaved people throughout history have a propensity for chuckling – until they wake up one morning and find themselves in chains. So, by all means, feel free to chuckle – but do hear me out.
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Does Anyone Get It Yet?, Part I

By Robert Ringer

I didn’t watch much news for a couple of weeks, because I found it frustrating that almost no one — not even the staunchest conservatives – seemed to get it. Today, however, I am happy to see that a handful of commentators are edging closer to acknowledging what is really happening to America.

Even Bill O’Reilly is now using the term socialism (though he still claims that BHO has “good intentions”). O’Reilly, you will recall, is the guy who, back in the good old days when Rev. Wright was entertaining us nightly, insisted “I don’t believe for a second that Obama shares the reverend’s radical views.” (If the latter is not a precise quote, it’s a close paraphrase of statements about Obama that O’Reilly has repeatedly made.)
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