LEE RODGERS
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January 7 –

TAXING ONLY “THE RICH?” HA! ...
THE GREAT GUN DISTRACTION …
WHO SUPPORTS ASSASSINATIONS?

A brief message to all those “middle class” Obama supporters who are, or will be, shocked to see that their first 2013 paycheck is smaller because of increased withholding …

    Pssst! You're stupid if you believed higher taxes would only affect “the rich.” Welcome to reality.


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Another gun story the Big Media studiously ignored ...
    In suburban Atlanta, career criminal Paul Slater was seen lurking outside a woman's home. Fearing a break-in, she took her nine-year-old twins down thru a trapdoor into the crawl space beneath the house.
    Slater came looking for them, found the trapdoor, opened it and found himself looking at the woman, her children -- and her .38 revolver. She emptied the gun, hitting him in the face and neck with five shots.
    Of course, media airheads, if they mentioned this likely life-saving use of a gun, would tell us how awful it was for her to have the weapon in her house.

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Then there's the Oklahoma woman who was attacked and cut by a man with a box-cutter as she walked home from the supermarket. The government doesn't allow box-cutters on airlines, so why aren't they banned everywhere?
    And how about those hammers? After all, they're used in more murders than are rifles. Clearly, ownership of hammers should be forbidden. And what about killers who drown their victims? What's to be done about that?!


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From this morning's Washington Post, referring to action during and after yesterday's Redskins game in a city with very restrictive gun laws …
    “Hours went by Sunday afternoon and evening without any reports of robberies in the District. But in the first hour or so after the game ended, D.C. police reported three holdups, all involving guns.”
    But don't worry. Barack, Di-Fi, Nancy, et al, will stop all that when they make more laws restricting gun ownership.

    Won't they? Suuure they will ...


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"When you all go home and you're talking to your buddies and you say, ah 'He wants to take my gun away.' You've heard it here, I'm on television so everybody knows it. I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in people's lawful right to bear arms. I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I won't take your handgun away." – Presidential candidate Barack Obama, Lebanon, Virginia, 2008
    Lying then … lying now.


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I don't know whether to be puzzled, amused or annoyed when I read or hear conservative commentators purport to give advice to Obama: "The president should do this ..." "The president ought to do that ..." "The president would be well-advised to ..."
    Are these people kidding themselves? Can they seriously be expecting a devout leftist to take advice from conservatives, well-intentioned or not?
    Their talent and energies would be much better directed toward those capable of being persuaded by rational debate.

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From a cynical political perspective why shouldn't Obama nominate blatantly anti-Israel Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of State?
    After all, despite his own pro-Muslim positions, two-thirds of American Jewish voters gave him their votes.
     Further, about those media reports of Hagel being a “medal-winning” soldier in Vietnam. You don't “win” a Purple Heart; you get it for being wounded.


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Michael Goodwin (NY Post) gives recognition to Al Gore …
    “As Oscar Wilde said, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” In that spirit, I give up resisting the urge to shout 'HYPOCRITE!'
    “Start with Al Gore, the low-hanging fruit in the “say one thing, do another” culture. With his sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera, the almost-president instantly doubled his charlatan quotient.
    “The blowhard who often proclaims the end of the world is nigh because of fossil fuels sold his TV business to the emir of Qatar, king of the oil patch. But Gore’s scheming didn’t stop there. He also reportedly wanted to finalize the deal before the end of the year so his $100 million windfall wouldn’t be subject to new higher tax rates he zealously supported.
   
“He’s not alone in urging tax hikes he tried to avoid. From the Washington Post to Costco to Warren Buffett to Hollywood, the woods are full of devotees to that Sage of Selfishness, Leona Helmsley. The Queen of Mean insisted that 'We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes,' just before she was marched off to prison for tax evasion.”

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Burt Prelutsky, columnist, movie and TV writer for shows like “Dragnet,” “MASH,” “Newhart,” “Mary Tyler Moore” and many others, unleashes “...a pet peeve: the notion that there is something morally repellant about assassinations.
    “I can understand why heads of state would take exception to it. I can even understand why those of us who live in a country where we have access to free elections would be opposed. But when you consider that Pol Pot made it all the way to his 73rd birthday; Stalin made it to 75; Mao Tse-tung, to 82; and that Fidel Castro and Robert Mugabe are still causing trouble at the ripe old ages of 86 and 88, respectively, it’s hard to argue that the world wouldn’t have been better-served if they’d been eliminated by any means possible decades ago. And is there anyone out there who’s not named Bashar al-Assad, 47, who would have any objection if an assassin saw to it Syria’s serial killer didn’t make it to 48?”

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You may have noticed that "style" -- flashy graphics, dazzling video, etc. -- are not strong points of this daily missive. This is occasionally called to my attention by well-meaning folk who believe I should incorporate more dazzle in the presentation.
    As a longtime veteran of radio and TV, with a little newspaper background as well, I concur. Presentation IS important.
Will I do anything about it? No.
    This undertaking began more than two years ago with a small mission based upon content rather than style. It also presumes a healthy measure of reader awareness of what's going on in the world, rendering such news basics as "who-what-when-where-how-why" unnecessary. Interpretation, analysis and opinion -- my own and that of others whom I respect -- are the aim and output.
    I have been approached about "monetizing" this modest project. That means allowing a syndicator to insert advertising (of his/her choice) and "dressing up" the presentation. Doing so would mean accepting certain obligations which I choose not to assume. But I do sincerely appreciate the well-intentioned counsel. For better or for worse, I prefer to answer only to me.

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Argus Hamilton …
    “Downton Abbey premieres its third season about British aristocrats and their house servants a century ago.  They live in fabulous luxury.  In the U.S. version, the owners are a retired cop who just retired as a teacher, whose mother is on disability, whose father is living on an asbestos settlement and whose wife works for California's Parks Department.”

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Mamie Rearden of Edgefield, South Carolina, who held the title “Nation's Oldest Person” for two weeks, has died at age 114.
    Fortunately, the baby lived.

    (I'm SORRY! I know I promised never to use that sick punchline again, but I'm weak …)


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The e-mail brings this …
    “Just got off the phone with a friend who lives in Northern Wisconsin. He said that since early this morning the snow has been nearly waist high and is still falling. The temperature is dropping way below zero and the north wind is increasing to near gale force. His wife has done nothing but look through the kitchen window and just stare. He says that if it gets much worse, he may have to let her in.”
Lee Rodgers"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."
radiorodgers1@yahoo.com