This is Viewpoints for Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015
'Pants on Fire'
According to Politifact, a website founded by the Tampa Bay Times to check the truthfulness and accuracy of candidates' statements, 84 percent of Ben Carson's statements are false, mostly false or "pants on fire" (not only inaccurate but also ridiculous), followed closely by Donald Trump (76 percent) and Ted Cruz (66 percent). The fact that they continue to dominate the Republican field says a lot more about their supporters than it does about the candidates themselves.
— Neal Snyder
Warner Robins
Concealed carry on base?
Employees at Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene, Texas, with concealed carry licenses are now authorized to bring their weapons on the base with them, provided their weapons remain locked in their vehicles while at work. The biggest benefit to this change in policy is they are now capable of protecting themselves on their commutes and when they choose to dine off base during lunch.
Contrary to current opinion, the limitation on personal protection is not a congressionally passed law, but was Department of Defense directive 5210.56, which was issued on Feb. 25, 1992, and signed by Donald J. Atwood, George H.W. Bush's deputy secretary of defense. It was by no means a "ban" on firearms at military installations. It explicitly authorizes DoD personnel "to carry firearms while engaged in law enforcement or security duties, protecting personnel, vital government assets, or guarding prisoners," and simply aims to "limit and control" the carrying of firearms by DoD military and civilian personnel.
It seems that anyone who wishes ill for employees at Robins Air Force base would know their softest targets are the restaurants just outside the gates during lunch which are patronized mainly by unarmed base workers. It is obvious that "shooter consciousness" is on the mind of the base command structure, as evidenced by the periodic "duck and quiver" drills run on base. Consequently the command should be sensitive to the reality of violence in and around the base, and follow the lead of those at Dyess, allowing licensed firearms owners to carry in their cars. That way they would at least have a fighting chance while at lunch or when stopping during their commutes.
— Dan Topolewski
Kathleen
Page of facts
Thanks to Walter Williams' "Our timid military leaders," Michelle Malkin's "Immigration and our Founding Fathers' values," and Thomas Sowell's "Attacking the truth," is a full page of truths based on facts. I would like to mention my highlights of each.
Williams: If women want to be treated the same as equal to men, lowering the Army's training standards for women is not equally equal.
Malkin: Alexander Hamilton's statement "To admit foreigners indiscriminately to the rights of citizens the moment they put foot in our country would be nothing less than to admit the Grecian horse into the citadel of our liberty and sovereignty."
Sowell: The issue is whether a given black student, with given academic qualifications, should be admitted to a college or university where he would not be admitted if he were white. This is taking place in all arena of our society. Of course this was in reference to Justice Antonin Scalia who opposes affirmative action and other policies that treat minorities as groups.
Thank God for him believing people are individuals progressing as one's own and not as racial groups or any other group.
— Faye W. Tanner
Macon
Why I don't like the U.N.
1. U.N. elected Saudi Arabia to head the Human Rights Council panel.
2. United Nations Relief and Works Agency attacked UN Watch for exposing Palestinian Authority teachers' incitement to stab Jews.
3. Paris attacks: UN rights expert blamed U.S., the West, and Israel.
4. U.N. Gaza inquiry accused Israel of war crimes: Attacking homes and families.
5. UN General Assembly condemned Israel 20 times, only three times for the rest of the world.
6. Genocidal Sudan was elected to a leadership position at UNESCO.
7. U.N. Resolution targeted Israel as the world's only violator of health rights.
8. United Nations Human Rights Council elected Venezuela and rolled out the red carpet for Nicolás Maduro's special address.
9. Hamas front group won U.N. status as "non-governmental
organization.
10. Iran elected to U.N. Women Executive Board.
— Hill Kaplan
Macon
Two peas in a pod?
I enjoyed the political cartoon recently in The Telegraph where Donald Trump is being sworn in as our next president and two deniers in the crowd comment they expect him to drop out of the race any day. As a "stop Hillary and the donkeys at any cost GOPer" your readers will appreciate my appreciation.
Actually Trump and President Barack Obama are like two peas in a pod, albeit the pods are shaped differently. Each man has a dream, Obama to move the country into deeper dependency and socialism and Trump seeks more self-sufficiently and personal responsibility in a capitalistic world.
Trump as a campaigner has rough edges but he is smart enough to surround himself with good staff that will sharpen those down while sitting in the Oval Office. On the other hand, Obama and his like in the Democratic Party will bring in mirror images of failed programmers past to continue the destruction of our county.
Hopefully Obama will stand next to Trump on a cold January day in 2017 and hand him the keys to the United States of America. I expect your political cartoon on that day will be worthy of a Pulitzer.
— John G. Kelley Jr.
Macon
'Gun-nut central'
This is for all my liberal friends. In the U.S., we have the highest gun ownership rate in the world. We have approximately 90 guns for every 100 people (see video: "Number One with a Bullet"). A friend of mine has 86 guns. Of 218 countries, the U.S. ranks 111 in murders. That's right, we don't rank in the top 100. If you removed the top 10 high crime, strict gun control cities controlled by Democrats, like Detroit, New Orleans, St. Louis, Baltimore, etc., our murder rate would be low. What does this tell you?
It tells me liberals are clueless. Let me enlighten you on the terrorist murders in San Bernardino, California. One percent of our 322 million U.S. population are Muslim. If you add all the crazy non-Muslim mass murders (136) in the last year and compare that number to only the recent Muslim mass murders (14) you will find the Muslim murder rate in the U.S. for just one event is 10 times the rate for the entire year of all the crazy non-Muslim murders. That's right, Muslims are killing at 10 times the rate.
The lowest murder rate in the U.S. is 0.4 murders per 100,000 people in gun-nut central, Plano, Texas. If all of the U.S. had a murder rate the same as Plano, the U.S. murder rate position would be number 211 of 218 countries. If you are a liberal and don't care for our Second Amendment, I suggest you get out.
— Mike Smith
Warner Robins
Stop delaying
I have never agreed with Frank Gadbois. But I do agree that our legislators need to authorize a limited infrastructure for the growing and distribution of medical cannabis oil. This will ensure access to a legal product that is safe, lab tested, consistent and effective. Medical cannabis oil is used to alleviate the ravages of debilitating illness for over 400 sick children.
After the growing and distribution of medical cannabis oil is authorized, parents will not have to travel to Colorado to buy it. And these law abiding parents will not have to run the risk of being arrested for transporting it across state lines in order to ease the suffering of their children.
For the well intended but misinformed there is a vast difference between medical cannabis oil and pot. And, the production and distribution of medical cannabis oil is not the first step of legalizing recreational marijuana in Georgia. The in-state production of medical cannabis oil will not lead to an increase in crime. It will be easy to safeguard the licensed manufacturing facilities and regulate the distribution of medical cannabis oil.
I encourage voters to contact their legislators. Demand that they stop pandering to ultra-judgmental moralists in order to curry political support and do the truly Christian thing and provide needed medicine for sick kids.
— Jim Costello
Perry
Can't fight for their country
Trying to solve the gender problems in the military ranks while creating systemic inequalities in the form of reverse discrimination, is not a viable solution. We are not training our troops to fight each other we are training them to defeat America's enemies on the battlefield — an environment that does not discriminate. Putting our women on the front line or in any other combat position will prove to be most disastrous and very regrettable.
America needs to wake up, rise up and put a stop to this foolish mandate. The mere notion that a woman is physically fit to successfully challenge a man in combat in and of itself is ludicrous. Do we have to wait for a disproportionate number of body bags containing our women to prove this point?
As citizens of this country, we must take the lead in reversing this detrimental mandate. We should not expect our generals nor other military leaders to lead the charge in this instance, as the decision has already been made and they're commanded to implement the requisite guideline to ensure broad dissemination and compliance regarding such mandate. The time for challenging or constructive criticism has expired
Forget freedom of speech and protest, that's not the way our military works, however, "we the people" have a duty to protest blatant disregard of conventional wisdom. There are no positions on the "front line" suitable for women. Can you imagine how embolden the enemy would become if they discovered women were on the front line? They would immediately fix bayonet, charge the line and decimate our force. What recourse would the military pursue if women simply dropped their weapon, turned and ran? Would they be charged with cowardice as our male troops similarly situated?
In view of the arduous challenges inherent in "boot camp" coupled with the anticipated high, costly dropout rate among women, is it worth marginalizing our fighting capability?
— John Haugabrook
Warner Robins
This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 7:52 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015 ."