When obvious, simple truth answers difficult problems, denial is common because we want to believe that the solutions must be more complex.  Our defensiveness demands this; otherwise, how did we miss it?  When the problems and the solutions remain unsolved for 50+ years, fragile egos double-down to prevent the unthinkable: being wrong for nearly a lifetime.

 Godlessness and the deconstructing of traditional families and their values explain most of today’s social problems.  This began in the 60’s when the Feminist Movement declared war on men and the courts declared war on God.  Concurrently, concepts of shame, disgrace, humility, honor, chivalry, duty, character and courage were banished in the name of building self-esteem.  What was once earned was now expected, without merit, and progressive idealism replace religion on the Left.  

 Thomas Jefferson warned us:  “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God?  That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever…”

 We must awaken from the 50+ year coma that has enveloped us and reject the lie that the United State of America is not a Christian country.  Our country was founded on Christian principles.  Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 24 held either seminary or bible school degrees.  Until we return to biblical, Christian centered lives that guide and define our actions as morally responsible people, nothing else really matters because God and faith come before all else.  Corruption occupies the space from which  God was rejected.

 John Hancock offers wisdom shared hundreds of years ago but just as powerful today.  “Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. … Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.”

 The first Civil War of the North and South, fought with cap, ball and bayonet is today becoming the second Civil War; Right and Left, fought with words, ideals, history and God’s blessings that left unheeded will mark the demise of a nation, the spoiling of a noble and infinite ideal, and the ruinous end to the greatest experiment ever undertaken in mans attempt at self-governance, today still, the envy of the world.

 The American founder’s values are worth dying for.  The final sentence in the Declaration is a shared oath.  “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” 

 When citizens asked Ben Franklin what kind of government we had, he said, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”  Can we keep it?  Are we worthy of our Fathers?

I am fascinated with wristwatches. I love the look of some but more deeply, I admire the art form of the watchmaker. A watch that runs on electricity or depends upon vibrating quartz is useless in its perfection, the cubic zirconium of time.

A mechanical watch is a testament to the imperfect man pursuing the flawless. The precision of time is the lynchpin to everything else that we measure and quantify. The measurement of time is the attempt to capture an interval, the duration of a kind of space without mass between events, a pressureless force, an invisible calculus graphing the length, width and height of life itself.

By celebrating man’s achievements in advancing as close as one can towards the state of creating something truly free of defect, the only timepiece worthy of the wearing has to be mechanical in design.

Paradoxically, the cheapest quartz watch is much more accurate than the finest mechanical watches costing tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. The monetary value of a simple quartz watch is practically zero. These watches are given away as promotional items and hundreds of examples exist all over the internet at sale prices of under $5, barely the retail price of the battery. At a casual glance, many of these cheap watches are practically identical to their high quality, ultra-expensive mechanical counterparts.

So, if you can procure the perfect watch for pennies and it is indistinguishable from the same fine heirloom example of a mechanical watch that needs more care, is less accurate while costing as much as a new car, why does the heirloom watch even exist?

There is no real need to have a watch at all. The function of time and it’s telling are all around us all of the time. One is more likely to be within sight of a timepiece than not.  Our cell phones provide the precise time, all courtesy of syncopation with the atomic clock for precision almost impossible to imagine. Our computer screens provide the time, wall clocks are everywhere, radio and TV are constantly announcing the time and our vehicles all synchronize precisely with everyone and everything else. So why wear a watch at all?

Investing in a high quality watch is recognizing and appreciating the achievement of the device itself. We acknowledge the lack of precision; even celebrate it, because we understand our own shortcomings. Where the perfection of timekeeping costs almost nothing, the efforts of the imperfect man striving for the near divinity of perfection in its pursuit, is a mechanism worth so much more because we celebrate ourselves as humans; flawed, imperfect, yet made in the image of God himself and duty-bound to strive towards that standard, knowing we will fall well short, but are made better in the process.

Money means nothing without expectation. The meaningless of money is based upon the ample supply of it. Time is the only equally shared commodity regardless of ones station in life. Rich or poor, we agree on the measurement of time and we all have the availability of that time at our disposal in equal measure, however; what we decide to do with that time, how we allocate our activities and how jealously we guard our stewardship of it, is all up to us individually. The poor sell their time by the hour. The wise invest for the greatest return in the shortest amount of time, understanding that efficiency honors the fleeting and irreplaceable nature of time.

Watching the second hand on a watch face reminds us of the moment in time.  The ticking of a watch mechanism animates the sound of life being lived; reminding us rhythmically of its continual and unwavering passing. The rigid staccato of a quartz watch, marching like an enemy soldier to a hideously regimented pace is the antithesis of the smooth, analog motion the fine watch provides in a soothing and fluid design created to lower anxiety and make beautiful the functionality itself.

The counterfeit Rolex sold on the street is as unlikely to be on the wrist of the rich man as is the genuine article on the poor one and strangely enough for the same reasons; neither celebrates the value. The poor man can’t tell the difference and the rich man trades his money for the imperfect yet infinitely more elegant effort that honors time, achievement, the humility of mankind and the omnipotence of God Almighty.

Over 250 years ago, Ben Franklin said, “Time is money.” The literal manifestation of this adage rests on the wrists of those who truly understand not only the nature of time and money, but the nature of man and God as well.

©Robert T. Kingsley

From 1979 until the Trump campaign began, the phrase “The Wall” conjured up Pink Floyd and triggered that familiar melody in our heads.  Today this term is the modern representation of Fort Sumter in current American politics.  Sadly, many will have to Google “Fort Sumter” to understand the reference and therein lies the partial explanation of our problem, a lack of historical understanding.

Noted intellectual and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Reinhold Niebuhr said:

“The fence and the boundary line are the symbols of the spirit of justice. They set the limits upon each man’s interest to prevent one from taking advantage of the other.”

The borders of a country are no different.  Respecting borders provides acknowledgement of ownership, control and providence of ones rights whether it be that of a nation, state, county, farm, a meadow, or a home in the city.  Without borders, there are no countries, no cities, no towns, no privacy, no societal norms or public convention but instead collectivism.

Four centuries of well-established law governs US immigration.  Mexico is transitioning from a third-world economy and society with a much lower standard of living and deep poverty.  The Mexican minimum wage is 64 cents per hour.  Because much of the southern border is open, unfenced, unwalled and sparsely patrolled, illegal entry so far in 2018 is estimated at over 300,000.

President Trump’s primary campaign promise was to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.  It is promise that got him elected and he will rightfully be drummed out of office if he fails.

These facts are not in dispute:

• Over 12 million illegals already live here illegally.
• Thousands breech the southern border regularly and continually.
•  Illegals drive up the cost of law enforcement, social services, taxes, health care and education.

Our walls have doors.  The US has always been a welcoming country.  We have welcomed more immigrants from around the world than any other country on the planet by far.  Every year, more than 1 million legally admitted immigrants will make America home.  It is our right and obligation to enforce immigration laws as they best benefit our country.

Those against the wall, supporting open borders while opposing the rule of law and challenging our right to national sovereignty are by definition anarchist traitors disqualified of citizenship and true enemies of the State.

Pink Floyd’s lyrics tell us, “We don’t need no education…”  Mission accomplished for those fools who want to see the demise of our country via globalization, again, lessons only learned from history if you bother to study it.

President Trump; build the wall you promised, or drown in the very swamp you have failed to drain.

Three twenty-something boys and three young girls roll into the dive bar late Sunday, interrupting my otherwise pleasant viewing of the baseball playoff game.  The boys are matte white Caucasians, mass attending, well educated, and affluent with scruffy beards, hats reversed, sporting orthodontic smiles through the light fog of a joyfully drunk demeanor.

Along side this trio of lug nuts are the lily-white young women who trickled in behind them, cell phone clutching, giggling, make-up mavens with big hair and strongly competing fragrances, blabbering non-stop as the boys gleefully ignore them while slamming beers, laughing and loading the jukebox.

Trying to concentrate on the game, my senses are suddenly offended by blaring lyrics that any thinking, normal human being would find abhorrent.  Doubling-down on this tasteless trash, the boys, in a unison trio, join in and loudly and proudly sing along to a ditty that goes like this, courtesy of the finest example of human civility and dignified behavior today’s youths can apparently conjure up, Kanye West:

You’re such a fuckin’ ho, I love it I love it,
I’m a sick fuck, I like a quick fuck (Whoop!)
I like my dick sucked, I’ll buy you a sick truck
I’ll buy you some new tits, I’ll get you that nip-tuck

One of the boys sees the look on my face and asks me what I think, clearly enjoying the shock value.  I tell him that he needs some new role models.  Astonishingly he says, “I don’t have many.”

Sadly, I believe him.

Three quick take-aways for any young person who can identify with this group as it might apply to them and their friends.

1. The first time you heard this song should have been the last time you ever heard it.  This is straight up evil filth and you ought to be capable of recognizing that without being told.  The fact that this group not only didn’t have the consciousness to reject it, but committed it to memory, makes me sick and it definitely makes them spiritually empty.  The level of distain this demonstrates for women is breath taking.  Those young men felt perfectly comfortable singing these lyrics at the top of their lungs, in a public place, into the ears of their girlfriends.  The only thing more mind numbing is the fact that those young women didn’t think enough of themselves to get up and walk out of that environment.  Accepting this as ok makes them open to and vulnerable to almost anything.  It is sad that these young girls don’t insist on something better.  What a lack of self-value, so sad to see.  Is this really what these girls are looking for in a man?  Talk about settling.

2.  For all young men that find nothing wrong with this you ought to be asking yourselves; what about my own sister, my mom, would I be so loud and proud singing this to them?  Would you be so accepting as you watched their boyfriends sing that song to them?  How about we post this performance to YouTube for your boss, or perspective employers to see?  Still so sure of your choices?

3.  And finally, as you move along in your lives, eventually marry, have a family, is this the legacy you want to present to your future kids?  Should they build on your premise and go even deeper into the moral abyss?  This level of filth is morally offensive and dangerous to not only your mental health, but to the deeper spirit of a nation founded on goodness.  Grow up and reject that which is evil.  I know for a fact all of you were taught better than this.  You’re all making really alarmingly bad choices that will ultimately define for others who you are and what values you live by.  Is this really your best effort?

As for the young man that enjoyed my stunned reaction to his stupidity, I have a simple, single question that I will bet the farm on he fails miserably to be able to answer.  This is how I can best phrase it.  You have committed to memory all of the filthy lyrics of the Kanye West song in order to impress your friends.  That said, which amendment to the US Constitution protects your right, and Kayne’s right to utter those awful words?

Yea, I didn’t think so genius.  Maybe memorizing the Constitution is a better use of your brain cells than allowing the likes of a Kanye West anywhere near what is left of your sensibilities.

Finally, the US Supreme Court has been re-calibrated to accurately and properly reflect the values, traditions and true character of America.  The United States “Court of Last Resort” has for too long been the tool of liberal ideologues conjuring credence in agendas not reflecting the will of the people and alternatively sought the friendly confines of sympathetic, left-leaning courts, circumventing the legislative process by judicial fiat.

Failure of our schools to teach civics has allowed ignorance to prevail and consequently, many don’t understand the most basic of ideals regarding issues of constitutionality, due process or the rule of law.  This lack of understanding has fostered ill-conceived and bastardized concepts of how America actually works, created in part by a left-leaning media.  The concept of individual states, instead of over-arching federal control and oversight is a novel idea in governance, widely misunderstood and under-appreciated.  This very concept defines at least in part, American Exceptionalism, a form of governance that had never been tried before or since.

The founders meant for the states to be more powerful than the federal government, overseeing and controlling federal power, which by constitutional definition was to be very narrow, well defined and limited.  The 10th Amendment and the “Commerce Clause”, (Article 1, Section 8, clause 3) spell this out by defining the “enumerated powers” listed in the Constitution.  Over the years, activist courts have exploited the meaning of interstate commerce which has grossly and unfairly increased the expansion of federal powers, as an erosive force against states rights.

Adding to this degeneration of states rights, the passage of the 17th amendment in 1913 further undermined states authority by making senatorial selection a popular vote.  The original Constitution called for each state legislature to send senators elected from their own state ranks.  By making the senate selection a popularity contest, it erases the connection to the governance of their respective states legislatures, and lessens the consequences from their actions as Senators.

Widespread ignorance of these bedrock, American principles does in no way negate their importance and control of our society.  However, Thomas Jefferson did warn us, as far back as 1815 when he said, “An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight. It is therefore imperative that the nation see to it that a suitable education be provided for all its citizens…”

Even to the least informed amongst us, the embarrassing national debacle we saw during the senate judiciary committee hearing for the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh should give us pause.  The deplorable actions and behaviors we all witnessed are the direct result of an uneducated and uninformed citizenry elevating these buffoons to power.

Jefferson, again, over 200 years ago:
“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree.”

King Cuomo II is a heretical, hypocritical cafeteria Catholic, pretending to be deeply moved by the pope regarding capital punishment yet defying him on abortion.  Holding conflicting views insults intellectual honesty and Cuomo is the proud poster-boy for insulting both intellect and honor.  Only a scoundrel willing to do anything to stay in power will embrace opposing positions while proudly defending them and is worthy of no one, no ideology, left or right.  King Cuomo’s conscienceless confliction speaks volumes about not only the cut of his cloth, but the fabric of those thoughtlessly endorsing him in spite of it.

Heartfelt, pope-induced crocodile tears for convicted murders and crickets for innocent babies.  Let that sink in.

On November 3, 2015 as Fred Akshar’s Million Dollar campaign was handily defeating Barb Fiala in replacing Tom Libous as NYS Senator for the 52nd District, there were two elephants in the room, one representing the Republican Party and the other begging the question never asked of Akshar: Why?

Why would Akshar, a career Broome County sheriff Captain squarely positioned to be the top Sheriff one day and having never held a political office, quit, take a pay cut, and risk unemployment every two years to become a politician?

Incredibly, no one in the media ever asked the question. News not reported is as troubling as “fake news.”

The most obvious answer to why, would be that there was something in Akshar’s personnel folder that was prohibiting that advancement, or otherwise not conducive to his thorough vetting in the public domain. Because this unasked question of why is so obvious, I think it is fair to speculate that the media didn’t miss the question on purpose, but just might be in the tank for Akshar.  The only other plausible explanation is garden-variety incompetence.

Ignoring the anecdotal, rumor mill, which is pretty rich in itself, lets look at just those facts we know.  Akshar was named in a 2014 lawsuit, alleging misconduct as he dispatched his own brother, a sheriff deputy, to the scene of a disturbance in the City of Binghamton, (normally outside of the sheriff’s territory) at the behest of local attorney and chairman of the Independence Party, Paul Battisti, to an incident involving a family dispute and alleged political support as a quid pro quo for Akshar’s assistance.  Subsequent arrests made by Akshar’s brother were later thrown out by the district attorney.

While Akshar was a sheriff Captain, he had a romantic relationship with a female department subordinate. Now we recently learned that again, Akshar is carrying on a romance with another subordinate, this time in his own political organization, a younger woman to whom he has heaped raise after raise, doubling her salary in just over two years.  It seems paying women and supervising them makes for easier dating opportunities than Match.com.  Converting subordinates to lovers betrays a troubling profile of someone who might well abuse his authority in other areas as well.

The Republican Party needed a Law-And-Order guy to replace disgraced Senator Libous. Party leadership mistakenly assumed that the imagery of a smartly uniformed, broad-shouldered man in a grey Stetson might disguise the reality of a cop willing to weaponize his legal authority, as well as a womanizing abuser of power, commanding romantic attention from those he pays, supervises and controls.

Akshar is cut from the same cloth as the other Albany crooks; seven indicted and arrested just this year in Albany, almost 30 others in total since 2003.  The only difference between these other disgraced former politicians and Akshar is that being an ex-cop, he is highly skilled at covering it all up and due to his influence; the local media goes suddenly deaf, dumb and blind.

Every country in south and Central America has either a US embassy or a consulate.  Asylum seekers from those places could LAWFULLY make their applications BEORE willfully endangering their children in long, arduous treks to ILLEGALLY invade our country.  In an honest debate about this issue, we need to ask, WHY?

Unfortunately, the answer is that past practices have applied a “Catch & Release” policy that allowed these illegal aliens to stay in this country awaiting hearings. Quite predictably, almost none of these “Catch & Release” folks ever show for the hearing and simply disappear into our country. This is why the Constitutional concept of Due Process is being actively debated so to change that standard to not be applicable to illegal aliens.

There are 7 countries in Central America and 12 in South America.  With the exception of one, (Brazil), the predominate language is Spanish and the cultures, while not identical, are certainly closer in kind to one another than they are to US cultural norms.  Why are these asylum seekers not considering refuge in any one of these other countries?  They would be closer to home, share the same language, assimilate easier, and spare themselves and their children the dangers of long, difficult travel.  In an honest debate about this issue, we need to ask, WHY?

It would appear that the 19 countries most geographically and culturally appropriate to provide asylum and immigration are unwilling to do so. Why does that become the problem for the USA, the country furthest from the problem?

And finally, why aren’t the citizens of countries that are apparently falling apart, taking action?  What about a citizens revolt and take back their country instead of running away? The USA has stood up to every world threat in modern times. When the British attempted to put its thumb on the colonies, our forefathers didn’t seek asylum, we went to war in order to defend our country, fighting and dying in the process.

One year ago today, my son was nearly killed when a car pulled out in front of him while he was riding his motorcycle. Unconscious and suffering from severe, multiple injuries, Bob would remain in a coma for almost 3 weeks and would degrade so significantly while in a level 2 trauma center that he would need to be emergency air-lifted to a level 1 center in order to receive advanced lung treatments.

In the midst of this, the lead surgeon dealing with Bob’s multiple broken bones, closed head trauma and internal injuries took me aside after performing half a dozen surgeries on Bob within 10 days and told me that I had best prepare my ex-wife for the reality that Bob was likely not going to make it. His lungs had been so badly damaged that his ability to uptake oxygen had been compromised badly and the reality of severe brain damage was ever-present.  The surgeon thought that Bob would never regain consciousness and told me that after a few days to allow my ex-wife to come to terms with the reality of the situation, they would take him off the machines keeping him alive.

My daughter flew in to be with her brother. Six months pregnant with her first child, I worried about what this was going to do to her.  The airport was almost an hour away, and as I waited for my daughter to arrive, my ex-wife called me, frantic that Bob had taken a turn for the worse.  As I drove back to the hospital with my daughter, I was struggling with so many things, my daughter, my son, my ex-wife, how can this be happening?  Would my son be gone before we got back to his bedside?  It was a day I could barely handle.

On Sunday, my ex-wife, my daughter and I went to church. Bob was still in a coma and we were all fogged in with our own emotions, struggling to put one foot in front of the other, but as I left that service and went into the parking lot, the air seemed cleaner, the sun not as hot, and the day clearer.  It was a turning point.

Bob’s struggles were far from over, but he survived and he worked at recovering for those long, long weeks in the hospital and then in the rehabilitation center, enduring tremendous pain in order to coax his limbs to bend and work once again. He had to relearn walking, getting out of bed, getting into and out of a car, transferring from a wheel chair etc. all had to be done while enduring the tremendous pain of healing bones.

God Almighty intervened and saved my son from certain death.  Thankfully, the one-year anniversary falls on a Sunday and I thanked God, in his sanctuary, for giving us back what we feared we had lost.  I love you Bob.  I can only imagine what plans the Lord has for you.