2016 Jan 29^th

I saw Mona Charen’s column this morning and thought I would have something to tilt against, wrong-o. Mona is not happy with Donald Trump, neither is she happy with Senator Ted Cruz. She is sure that either of them, if nominated, will bring disaster on her party. Hey…when the woman is right, she’s right! Mona maintains that both Cruz and Trump are planning to get the “evangelical” vote. I’m not sure what Mona means by that. Usually evangelicals are those who believe in a very literal interpretation of the Bible. Many classified as evangelicals are not Biblical literalists at all and see many of the New Testament stories as metaphor. Even though there about 95 million evangelicals in the United States, not all of them will vote Republican anyway. Then there is the problem that for every evangelical these candidates cozy up to a non-evangelical may be lost by that same message.  Ms. Charen is very unhappy with the way things are going in her party. I wonder who’s to blame for that.

What I hope is a final note on the Oregon occupation, the FBI has released a video taken from an aircraft and showing the fatal shooting of La Voy Finicum. Mr. Finicum is shown getting out of his vehicle with his hands up, about thirty seconds later he begins reaching into his waistband and is promptly shot dead. He had said many times that he wouldn’t be taken alive and he did everything he could to guarantee that boast. Unfortunately the seditionists now have a martyr. No one will believe the FBI film; they will all claim it was doctored. First term Nevada Assemblywoman Shelly Shelton compares Finicum to Moses and to Christ. (A private subscription for a statue can’t be far off.)

The big event yesterday was the Republican debate sans Trump, who held his own celebration of himself just a few blocks away. Deciding to miss the debate was a smart move. He had nothing to gain by appearing and by having a competing event he guaranteed himself far more camera coverage than if he had shown up. It seems obvious that his posturing about Megyn Kelly’s “unfairness” was just a cover. I’m sure he had planned to skip the debate from the get-go. He managed to contact people with plenty of disposable income and raised 6 million dollars for veterans. We’ll be charitable and assume that the pledges given for the money will be honored.

Not all groups appealing for money to support veterans are using much more than half of the money collected to actually support veterans, The “Wounded Warrior Project,” very heavily advertised on TV, manages to spend just over 60 percent of its collection on veterans. The rest goes for expanses like conferences at the Broadmoor, a five star hotel in Colorado Springs. There are about 900 thousand veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and they need help. That help should be the responsibility of all of us through increased taxes and increased government support for veterans.