Unless you've been under a rock, by now you have heard of Ahmed Mohamed, although you may better know him as "the Bomb-Clock Kid". At first, we were told that this "very smart kid" was the victim of a terrible misunderstanding which led to the fourteen year old being arrested. This terrible misunderstanding revolved around a clock, a pencil case, and school teachers who know little if anything about explosives so they must be bigoted haters of all Muslims to have been concerned about the wires and the digital timer that was counting down. This was meant to be the "news" story to show once and for all how badly Americans treat poor, innocent Muslims. This is the narrative that we were meant to believe. 


   Young mister Mohamed has become the poster child of Muslim victimization. He has been invited to the White House, offered a job at Facebook (when he gets older of course), and told to enroll at MIT (also when he gets older) by MIT all in an effort to shame those of us who might think that it is completely acceptable for school officials to take action if a student brings something to school that might be suspicious or that the police should take action if a bomb might be involved. The lesson that we are all meant to learn is that it is completely irrational to fear Muslims no matter what they are doing. This is the idea that is being implanted into the minds of the masses. 


   If what we had been told at first was the whole truth then there might be reason to feel bad for this kid, who seems to be enjoying his new found celebrity, but there does seem to be just a little bit more to the story. In an interview with Eyman, Ahmed’s sister, it came to light that she had been suspended from the same school district as Ahmed over, of all things, an alleged bomb threat. Then a simple background check shows Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, Ahmed's father, to be a political activist who had run for President of his native Sudan twice and made national headlines when he got involved with the Rev.Terry Jones' Koran burning "trail" as the Koran's "defense attorney". What does any of this have to do with the bomb-clock event? Well let's just say that it is likely that this family might have had some idea both how this would look and what the reaction might be.  


   Many who have taken the time to scratch beneath the surface of the media narrative are now asking if this might not have been a planned event designed to get Ahmed suspended and gain attention. The arrest may not have been part of the plan but it certainly didn't hurt the cause. Those who have even a cursory understanding of Islam are left wondering if this isn't part of a propaganda campaign designed to convince everyone that to be suspicious of Muslims, regardless of the circumstances, is to be Islamophobic. If a young boy has a device that in any way looks like a bomb, you must be a hateful bigot to think it might be a reason for concern. After all, when have children ever been used to attack the enemies of Islam anywhere in the world?  


  Whether you believe that this was just an unfortunate set of events resulting from prejudice and fear or you are thinking there might be a little more to it, there is one simple fact that you must know. There is no such thing as Islamophobia. Islamophobia is a word made-up by the Islamic-apologists who want you to ignore those who are sounding the alarm of the dangers of those who would force Sharia upon you, your neighbors and everyone else you know. A phobia is by definition an irrational fear of something. For any non-Muslim there is a ton of very rational reasons to fear the spread of Islam and more importantly stand against it .                    


      If you are a non-Muslim then you are a Kafir, a word meaning one who conceals the "truth" of Islam. In the teachings of the Islamic "holy" texts, by not embracing Islam you are hiding the truth, as Muslims believe, that every person on the planet will become Muslim or submit to total rule by Muslims. If you are Kafir then you are the enemy of Islam and it is not only acceptable but encouraged that Muslims deceive, plot against, hate, enslave, mock, torture, and do worse to the Kafir. Sixty four percent of the Koran, thirty seven percent of the Hadith and eighty one percent of the Sira is devoted to telling the Muslim how to treat the Kafir so it is safe to say that more than half of Islam is focused on the treatment of non-Muslims. 


   Another fact that all non-Muslims need to know and understand is that Islam is not a religion. Islam is a philosophy for world domination. It is a philosophy that has a religious component but in it's whole it is a doctrine for conquest which includes strict rules for all to live by a.k.a. Sharia. Sharia covers everything from finance to dress codes to public behavior. And yes, the Kafir are expected to live under Sharia wherever Islam is dominant. 


   While it may be true that not all Muslims want to behead Christians, burn alive Jews, or turn little, non-Muslim, girls into sex slaves; it is certainly true that Islam teaches that all Muslims should in fact do this things. It teaches that those who will not convert are less than human and should not be viewed as if they are human. It is also true that because of the practice of Taqiyya it is impossible to know which Muslims would prefer to simply live in peace and which are merely waiting for the time to act. For these reasons, and more, it is completely rational if you are a freedom loving, non-Muslim, to be concerned about the spread of Islam and Sharia. If it is rational then, by definition, there is no such thing as Islamophobia.

  For some time now we have been hearing one horror story after another about the care, or better put the lack thereof, that our military veterans have been receiving from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The unimaginable failure of the VA to take care of those who risked all and sacrificed much in the name of the United States has become legendary even among federal government agencies. These failures having been exposed yet again led to a new round of promises of change, new leadership and all of the other canned political hot air that normally comes with the momentary outrage of the public before they go back to watching the Kardashians or Dancing With the Stars. But how much has changed for those to whom we owe so much?

  Now to be fair there is new leadership in place and with such a huge mess to clean up there is little doubt that there hasn’t been enough time to see wholesale improvements yet. I’d also like to say that I believe that the majority of people who work for the VA do so because they have a heartfelt desire to help our vets so this is in no way meant to be an indictment of those who are working hard to correct the issues. That having been said, those who were in a position of oversight, appointed leadership and congressional members who sat on Veteran’s Affairs committees, while the VA was allowed to fail in such a fashion should feel great shame in their role in our veterans not receiving their much needed healthcare and beyond that I would go so far as to say that some individuals should in fact face criminal charges.

  The latest news to come from the VA is the rather disturbing report that a total of 307,000 veterans have died while waiting for the Department of Veterans Affairs to process their healthcare applications. Allegations of mismanagement at the Veterans Health Administration’s Health Eligibility Center led to an investigation by the VA office of the inspector general. The findings that exactly 867,000 veterans still have their healthcare applications listed as pending in the database is just the beginning of the outrage. The database records go back multiple decades, so many of the applicants would have died some time ago while still waiting for care. The exact dates are unclear, because many, if not most, of the pending applications had no filing dates listed. As a result there are a large number of deceased veterans who remain on the list because the VA has no method in place to remove them.  

  Bad enough? There’s more. Poor data management prompted VA employees to arbitrarily delete 10,000 records from the database after marking them as complete, even if they were still unfinished and in need of resolution. For example from September 2012 to January 2013 alone, the VA had 11,000 unprocessed applications on hand. And according to the report there is no guidance to establish timelines for application completion. In an effort to fix the issue the VA has already started the process of contacting hundreds of thousands of veterans, asking them to send in new documentation to prove healthcare eligibility. Is it any wonder that our vets are angry and frustrated with this ill-designed, bureaucratic, nightmare system.

  How are our vets supposed to get the care they need if they can’t even get past the application part of the process? How can we, the people, allow this kind of inefficient waste continue? This must be fixed or better yet a new system put in place. In the meantime what would be so bad about the common sense solution of our vets getting needed healthcare at regular medical facilities and the VA reimbursing those providers?

Our veterans have already paid the price. Promises were made and should be kept. If our federal government can find billions of dollars to help illegal invaders and foreign governments that hate American, then there are no excuses for not taking care of those to whom we owe so much. 

Today, Sept. 1st 2015, Kim Davis once again stood defiant against the recent SCOTUS opinion that many wrongly believe legalized same-sex marriage nation-wide. Davis is the Rowan County Clerk who stopped issuing all marriage licenses in the days after the SCOTUS opinion citing her religious beliefs as her reason for not issuing them to same-sex couples. Yesterday the SCOTUS denied her last-ditch appeal asking that they grant her “asylum for her conscience” because of a federal judge’s order for her to issue the licenses.  

  This morning she was faced with a life changing moment of truth. She had to choose whether to issue marriage licenses, defying her Christian conviction, or continue to refuse them, defying the federal judge who could hit her with fines or order that she be hauled off to jail. She decided to stand by her Christian faith and face the consequences whatever they may be. A brave choice under the circumstances, but one she should have never had to make.

  The issue of same-sex marriage, at the legal level, is really a very simple one. The federal government has no authority to control or regulate marriage of any kind. There is no constitutional right to marriage guaranteed to anyone. The extent the federal government has any say is in defining what criteria must be met for federal tax purposes. And for those that would argue that the “Equal treatment” clause of the 14th Amendment gives same-sex couples all the same privileges as bestowed to opposite-sex couples I would remind you that the legal standard for “equal treatment” is identical treatment not “fair” treatment. If both heterosexuals and homosexuals are denied state recognition of civil unions based on “marriage” to a person of the same sex then that in fact does meet the identical treatment standard. Yes, I know that the SCOTUS has given an opinion that would be contrary to my statement, but their opinion and the “rulings” of any other federal judge or court is a huge overreach on their part and as one would expect they have moved to try to further that extra-constitution power hoping that we the people won’t challenge.

  With no federal authority over marriage, per the constitution, the power falls back to the states and the people. I would argue that no government has any authority over marriage, that it is in fact a spiritual union between the people involved and God. But the states decided a very long time ago that they had need to define their criteria for recognizing civil unions that they would refer to as marriage for various legal purposes. Pursuant to that end the states were well within their rights to establish those criteria in accordance with the will of the people of those states. Which then brings us back to Kim Davis and the state of Kentucky.

  In Kentucky, same-sex marriage is not currently legal. In fact the state has the Defense of Marriage Act written into their state constitution. Their state constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman in Section 233A. The language was approved by the voters of Kentucky with almost 75% of the vote. These facts make issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples against the law within the state of Kentucky. Regardless of anyone’s “feelings” on this issue the federal courts do not have the constitutional authority to force Kim Davis or anyone else violate the current state law.

  The entire Kentucky state government should be standing with Kim Davis. Not because of support or lack of support of same-sex marriage but because of the federal government’s attempt to override their state sovereignty. There should be outrage by every citizen of this nation that the federal court system hasn’t refused to hear these cases citing the fact that it’s simply not a federal issue. The fact that this issue even got to the SCOTUS represents a willful choice to ignore the limits of the federal courts placed on them by the U.S. Constitution.

  I, personally, am indifferent on the issue of same-sex marriage. I don’t care what any state decides to set as it criteria in the establishment of civil unions that they call “marriage”. But I do care about the law of the land. The Constitution is the “Prime Directive” for this nation. The SCOTUS does not make law, it renders opinions, which on occasions have been reversed, about the constitutionality of laws. The states themselves have the constitutionally upheld means of nullification to fight federal overreach when all else fails. So all of this comes down to working within the system or trying to trash the system. Following the law or pushing an agenda at any cost.

  The activist that have been working so hard for so long to get same-sex marriage legally recognized in every state should continue their efforts to change to hearts and minds of the people in each state, not try to force it on people who don’t agree with them. I understand the desire to take the short-cut, because “it’s hard”, and it takes “too long” but if your cause is as noble as many of you feel it is, then isn’t it worth doing the right way? Stop trying to short-circuit the Constitution and force your will on others. Just go back to work if you really believe in it.

  I stand with Kim Davis, not just because of the government overreach but also because of her courage. She has made a stand based on her faith. She has let her moral compass guide her in a very tough situations. I applaud her and would hope that even those who hold different beliefs than she, can appreciate and respect her stand. I would ask that all liberty loving, freedom cherishing Americans join me in calling for the Kentucky state government to stand behind Kim Davis, for the federal government to back off, and for the same-sex activists to pursue their goals in accordance to the state by state efforts of the past.

  If the people of Kentucky decide to change their laws in regards to same-sex marriage then Kim Davis will then be forced to choose between honoring her faith and doing her job. But until Kentucky does that, she should continue to do her job in accordance with Kentucky state law and the federal courts should get back to federal matters.