Send VA's McDonald on Permanent Vacation

Send VA’s McDonald on Permanent Vacation

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

May 26, 2016

Comparing the wait time for medical services at VA facilities to that of the lengthy lines at Disneyland is both insensitive and disrespectful to those who put their lives on the line defending the freedoms of this great nation. For his derisive and dismissive remarks, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald should be dismissed and sent on a permanent vacation.

Thousands of American veterans, service men and women who signed a blank check for up to and including the ultimate sacrifice have actually died waiting for the medical services they have earned. Additionally, thousands of veterans have been declared deceased by the VA, thus costing them their benefits, and ultimately sending them on a trail of red tape in the attempts to reinstate both their status and those much needed benefits.

McDonald, who has oft-claimed his hands are tied and unable to fire personnel at the VA, is simply a symptom of a greater ill. That ill is governmental bureaucracy – a bureaucracy that has prevented veterans from obtaining the necessary care they earned that will improve their lives. Veterans are typically placed on lengthy waiting lists – sometimes months long for appointments. That would be unheard of in the private sector, and thanks to competition, patients are free to seek medical care elsewhere.

To that end, privatization of the medical aspect of the Veterans Administration, in a capitalist society will be the veterans’ salvation. Far too many veterans are chained to the VA for their medical care, treatment, and prescription medications. Were the VA forced to compete on the open market and patients given viable alternatives within their financial restraints, veterans could put the VA behind them. Offer tax incentives to doctors to add new veteran patients to their practices.

Illegal aliens seem to have better medical options than do veterans. Many veterans have limited incomes, which is another disgrace for another column. Veterans should be able to visit any doctor of their choosing. (Quite frankly, so should all Americans – thus the dire need to obliterate Obamacare.) Illegals get free medical care, paid for by Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer – including taxes extracted from veterans.

As for the non-medical aspects of the Department of Veterans Affairs, fire the dead weight, incompetents, and the malingerers. Replace them with veterans qualified to do those jobs. US Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), herself a veteran, are both calling for the dismissal of McDonald for his egregious and irresponsible Disneyland comments as well as the overall disastrous manner in which the Department is being managed.

Free the veterans from the government yoke and get them the medical care they need and deserve. They gave this country their all, it’s the very least that should be done for them.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Potty Politics Plagues Public Schools

Potty Politics Plagues Public Schools

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

May 13, 2016

In the United States majority rule, minority rights has typically been the unwritten rule. Not according to the Obama administration who is attempting to micromanage the lives of all Americans by inflicting minority rule, majority irrelevance; and to make matters worse, he is impinging upon the public school children of this nation.

The Obama administration is doubling down on its lawsuit against the state of North Carolina by threatening the public school systems across the entire country, and thus foisting an immoral agenda on the children of this nation allowing the feelings of one child to trump the comfort of all others. (http://sanfordspeaksout.blogspot.com/2016/05/his-hers-potty-politics.html)

At the risk of losing federal funding, Obama’s toilet fetish would require public schools to permit any child the use of any bathroom facility and locker room based simply on how that child identifies, not based upon the realities of biology. According to the Obama administration, which is attempting to make this a civil rights issue, the so-called rights of a self-identifying child based upon feelings and not G-d-given biology actually must supersede those of the overwhelming majority. (See the column linked above for discussion of the Constitutional issue.)

In addition to threatening to eliminate federal funding for schools that refuse to succumb to his demented notion of equality, Obama is planning to take food out of the mouths of needy children. Such fiscal losses would include federal funding for breakfast and lunch programs designed to aid at-risk students. This feckless administration is willing to deprive or hold hostage already downtrodden children the basics in nutrition simply to acquiesce to the demands of a tiny minority; a tiny minority that is endeavoring to coerce and shame multi-national corporations into falling in line with these same demands at the risk of boycotts.

This is nothing more than politically correct intimidation by an obsequious weasel who, in 2008, promised to “fundamentally transform America.” North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory was prophetic when he said the bathroom bill battle in his state is “no longer just a North Carolina issue.” This is now a federal mandate that undoubtedly will find both wide scale objections by parents and non-parents alike that fear for the safety of children in public schools, as well as degenerates seeking to push the envelope of public decency and morality.

A high school student, a teenager, not attempting to transcend boundaries and defy authority is as rare as a kosher ham. John wakes up one morning decides he is Jane and wants to shower in the girl’s locker room at school after gym class. By the political machinations of Obama, this biological male now will be afforded the right to do just that, despite the complaints, objections, and protestations of all those biological females who use the girl’s locker room as a matter of course.

Moms? Dads? Do you want the above scenario unfolding in your public school? The public school you support with your property taxes? Call me old fashioned, but I am concerned for the safety of my wife and daughters, as well as their ability to use a public restroom and gym locker room unimpeded by a man who may or may not be a lurking pervert intent on committing some form of harassment or a heinous sex crime.

The time is nigh for people to stand up for what is right, moral, and decent in American society. The vast majority should not have to surrender their right to attend public school or use a public restroom or locker room because a handful of people wish to defy the natural order of biology. This is not an issue of fair and equitable use of public accommodations, as no one is being denied their use. All that is being requested is that biology be adhered to and those who have successfully completed gender reassignment surgery not be discriminated against based upon their new gender. Gender identity is an entirely different notion when a person decides not to act within the confines of their biology.

And what of the precedent this will set regarding Title IX and women’s athletics? Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Title IX never mentions transgender or transsexual individuals. If a male identifying as a female is permitted use of the girl’s bathroom and locker room, the next step is the ball field. This will become a breeding ground for all forms of shenanigans and chicanery. To deny the self-identifying female, yet biological male, a place on the girls’ soccer team, basketball team, softball team, volleyball team, track team, swim team, or any other female team sport will invite lawsuit after lawsuit. This is the United States – one of the most litigious societies on the planet. Will the United States be banned from the Olympics if the other countries don’t follow suit? (Former Bulgarian, East German and Soviet gymnasts notwithstanding.) The Title IX scenario is demonstrative of how out of control the entire premise of identity gender politics is and will ultimately become.

If ever there is a slippery slope, this is it. Granting Obama’s demands is the continuance of the demise of decent, moral, Judeo-Christian society. On the other hand, this could be the clarion call that is needed to wake up American society to the need for increased charter schools, parochial schools, religious schools, and home schooling. Perhaps the time has come for a tax revolution to stop funding public schools until they cease serving as a tool of the corrupt teachers’ unions (of which I was a one-time member), the Democrat Party, and an enslaver of the poor who have no alternative and become tools themselves of the Democrat Party and dependent on their lifelong largess.

Until that time, it is up to heroes like Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R) to stand up to Obama and the federal government and protect the safety of all the children in the Lone Star State. He rightfully called it blackmail and is defying Obama. Let him set the standard that other governors will follow and stop the potty political insanity.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

His, Hers, & Potty Politics

His, Hers, & Potty Politics

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

May 11, 2016

The Obama administration, via Attorney General Loretta Lynch, is once again attempting to micromanage the lives of all Americans through ridiculous lawsuits pertaining to potty politics.

This need not be a lengthy screed, but as is typical of the Obama administration, they are literally making this a federal case by suing the state of North Carolina, thus forcing the Tar Heel State to countersue the federal government. Deigning to compare the current kerfuffle of alleged discriminatory practices in North Carolina pertaining to proper bathroom choices to the Civil Rights Movement and Jim Crow Laws is an insult to all who paid the ultimate price fighting for the rights and dignity of G-d given equality.

To tell biological males that they must use the men’s room; and to tell biological females they must use the women’s room is not subverting any of their civil rights. They are not being denied accommodations the way blacks were denied seats at lunch counters, lodging in hotels, housing opportunities in certain neighborhoods, jobs, equality on the ball field, battlefield, or in the classroom.

If Phil wants to jump into a dress and slap on some lipstick and call himself Phyllis, that’s his business. But when he decides to sashay into the ladies room to do his business, then it becomes all of our business. To reference a House episode where the good doctor divided two groups of potential team members into “danglers” and “non-danglers,” so too should our bathroom facilities remain divided. Just because a man isn’t feeling particularly manly today doesn’t give him the right to use the women’s room and make others feel uncomfortable and revert back to the men’s room the next day. Those men and women who complete gender reassignment surgery should be permitted use of the facilities of their new gender.

A reasonable, not necessarily simple, solution is to have a men’s room, a women’s room, and a single stall facility for those unable to figure out whether they are in Column A or Column B. Many large shopping facilities, malls and factory outlets, for example, already offer a third option called a family changing room designed for parents changing babies. This is a single stall option that can be utilized by anyone – one at a time. While this is clearly a reasonable solution, it may not be simple. Smaller businesses and service establishments such as restaurants or offices may not be spatially equipped to expand and install a third bathroom option. In those cases, danglers must use the men’s room and non-danglers must use the women’s room. This is a matter of biology, not feelings. Biology and gender are not debatable. We are as G-d created us.

The more prickly concern are the locker room and shower situations, which are larger more unwieldy spaces in businesses such as gyms and schools. A separate changing facility can be provided, but a private shower becomes infinitely challenging, thus the dangler/non-dangler proposition. There is a genuine concern about opposite genders simultaneously sharing shower facilities, especially in schools, where this has already become an issue. Shockingly there are actually people supporting the right of a student who merely identifies as the opposite sex to be permitted use of the shower of his/her choice. It is this brand of laissez-faire permissiveness lending itself to inappropriate interlopers taking advantage of a situation by committing exploitive acts against the unsuspecting and naïve. There is something extremely wrong here as it speaks to the continuing decay of the moral fabric of American society as well as the shrinking acceptance of Judeo-Christian values in this country.

The bigger picture is the legal overreach by the Obama administration as it seeks to usurp state law thus ignoring and bypassing the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Each state should have the right to determine its own policies. This should not be made a 14^th Amendment case either, as this is not an equal protection issue. (“…nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.) No one is being denied bathroom facilities.

While potty politics has become Obama’s latest fascination and priority, infinitely more paramount issues such as illegal immigration, securing the border, sanctuary cities, defeating ISIS, a growing heroine epidemic, and a failing public school system are relegated to the back burner. It’s time for Obama to get off the pot and concern himself with something important, like where he put his putter.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Vote Cruz - Now More than Ever

Vote Cruz – Now More than Ever

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

May 3, 2016

Friends; fellow Hoosiers, Indiana is the Crossroads of America and this nation is also at a crossroad.

Can we afford to continue down the perilous path toward higher taxes and higher unemployment due in part to forced socialized medicine? A path where America’s allies can no longer count upon us and America’s enemies no longer fear us? It is bad enough the United States is not respected as a nation to the point where Americans traveling abroad are not safe. Where increased illegal immigration and sanctuary cities render our porous borders meaningless. Where political correctness is destroying the fabric of this nation, especially where the First Amendment is concerned on college campuses. Where the Second Amendment is in jeopardy and the military is weakened physically and in its morale by an administration with disdain for our troops.

The time is nigh we the people speak out and pull ourselves out of the morass into which we have fallen. While there is no such thing as a perfect candidate, I subscribe to Ronald Reagan’s 80-20 rule – don’t discard a candidate for which you disagree 20 percent of the time when you still agree with him or her the remaining 80 percent.

As was said of Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) during the 1964 campaign for president, Texas Senator Ted Cruz represents a choice, not an echo. He is oft criticized as having few friends in the Senate. There’s a reason for that – Cruz is not a go along to get along senator. (One of those friends, Utah Senator Mike Lee, who I met over the weekend, has been criss-crossing the state stumping for Cruz.) His agenda, and the reason the people from the Lone Star State sent him to Washington, was to end the status quo, make genuine change and improvements in the lives of those who sent him there and not be beholden to special interest groups.

Ted Cruz will ensure the seat held with dignity and aplomb on the Supreme Court by the late Justice Antonin Scalia will be filled by a Constitutional Conservative who will do the job of interpreting the law and not legislating from the bench. In addition to the passing of Scalia, it is quite probable that three additional justices will retire during the next administration and with Cruz’s acumen as a Constitutional expert; we the people can rest assured future selections to the High Court will fit the Scalia mold.

Senator Cruz will restore strength and dignity to the US military and put them in a position to destroy all enemies, foreign and domestic, especially the scourge that is ISIS. Sanctuary cities will be put on notice that by not cooperating with federal law enforcement and ICE will put any federal funding in jeopardy. We may not be able to deport 12 to 20 million illegal aliens, but if they are restricted from receiving any government aid and denied employment meant for US citizens and legal immigrants, many may opt to return to their countries of origin to hopefully repair those nations and improve the lots of those people demonstrating that a rising tide lifts all boats.

Ted Cruz is a steadfast conservative fervently defending our freedom of religion, the Second Amendment, and the Tenth Amendment that far too many have abandoned. Cruz is solidly pro-life and one of the strongest pro-Israel candidates calling for the move of the US embassy to its rightful place of Jerusalem.

With the repeal of Obamacare employment will rise as employers will not feel stifled by limiting the number of hours a person can work or the number of workers that can be hired in order to remain financially viable thanks to the Draconian penalties associated with Obamacare. Far too many people have lost their health insurance under this administration and it is time the concept of interstate competition be employed as with other forms of insurance.

I am confident a Ted Cruz-Carly Fiorina ticket will begin to restore America’s respectability in the world. I liked Fiorina while she was running for president – she had always been in my top five of the menagerie of GOP candidates, and having met her over the past weekend and spoken with her, she will be a strong vice president to work with a President Cruz. Her knowledge of technology and the military are impressive and her life experiences will add dimensions to the leadership.

Join me today in voting for Senator Ted Cruz here in Indiana.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.