When did we all become so bitterly political?

When did vicious killings, blind terrorism, the slaughter of innocent children and cruel rampages by mad men become so divisive and partisan in America?

An evil lunatic walks into an elementary school and kills 20 children in one of the most unimaginable and savage crimes ever committed. There was not a living soul in America who did not feel the shock and sorrow that day. We were united by the grief.

Yet, when the next day dawned, the fresh sorrow was pierced by the tired whining of the old nakedly partisan political debate about gun control. In an instant, we went from being totally unified to being cleaved in half once again by politics.

In the months since, the partisans have not relented. Lobbyists have been hired and the poor families of the little victims have been dragged into the maw of the nasty, squalid struggle for political power in this town. The tiny little coffins have become political talismans in a fight for new laws that everyone agrees won’t bring back the children and would have done absolutely nothing to prevent the massacre in the first place.

In Boston, two ferocious bomb blasts mow down weary but joyous revelers at a world-famous marathon.

As so often happens when Americans are unmolested by politics, good people ran toward the explosions. Risking their lives and not knowing whether there might be more bombs, bystanders raced to tend to the injured and comfort the dying. Complete strangers stripped off their clothes and tore them into tourniquets.

With bare hands, they tied the strips of clothing around the most gruesome injuries to slow the bleeding, never minding the garish white bones splintered and sticking out at grotesque angles. Across the country, people watched the scene in horror.

But even before nightfall, politics had seeped in like a toxic vapor and soon took over.

Folks on the right jumped to the conclusion that the atrocity was committed by Muslim terrorists. On the left, people jumped to the conclusion that some kind of homegrown, right-wing wacko had perpetrated the crime. Neither side based the accusations on much evidence.

A columnist for The New York Times — our national newspaper of record — pinned blame on Senate Republicans for not approving President Obama’s choice for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. No wonder we are so lost.

When Mr. Obama stepped before the cameras to speak — certainly a moment of national unity through the years — he strained to NOT call the attack “terrorism.” For strictly political reasons, of course. Then, like crazy birds chasing a cicada, conservatives went loony and criticized Mr. Obama’s decision not to use the T-word — as if that might mend a wound or bring back a deadened heart.

Even at that moment, people were still bleeding, people were still frantically trying to find loved ones and people had not yet woken up to find their legs shattered and sawn off. They awoke to an appalling national debate over why somebody didn’t use the word “terrorism.” The whole lot of these partisans should be ashamed.

By the next morning, the entire frothing mess had boiled over into sheer lunacy. One lifelong politician used the travesty to push for higher taxes. Another used it to argue for more street cameras. Congress, meanwhile, moved with alacrity to remove trash cans around the Capitol.

It is hard to pinpoint exactly why or when America lost its soul and became so brutish, unthinking and deaf to others. So uncharitable. It certainly isn’t how we reacted in the aftermath of 9/11.

Was it spawned by the blind hatred in some of former President George W. Bush? Is it because of the blind hatred in others today of Mr. Obama? Or is there just so much regret on both sides that the unity after 9/11 birthed two unpopular wars and turned the federal government into an even more unpopular security leviathan?

Whatever it is, it is corroding the soul of America and our soul must be cleansed of it before we will ever be great again.

Source: Charles Hurt

Resolved: No American citizen shall be required to pay federal income taxes at a rate higher than the country’s millionaire president pays.

Let’s call it the Alternative Maximum Fairness Tax: Calculate your current tax rate, compare it to the president’s and pay the lower of the two.

The White House admitted in a Friday afternoon news dump, of course that President Obama paid only an 18.4 percent effective federal income tax rate on his adjusted gross income last year of $608,611. The highest income-tax rate last year was 35 percent (and has now increased to 39.6 percent, thanks to the fiscal cliff tax hike). Once again, the president piously demanded that “the wealthiest Americans should pay their fair share” and yet, in the very same paragraph, the multimillionaire president admitted to paying less than half the standard rate for his income bracket.

If that weren’t enough hypocrisy, Mr. Obama once again called for the so-called “Buffett Rule” of raising taxes on high earners at the same time that he admitted to breaking the rule by paying lower taxes than Warren Buffett’s secretary. This president then had the audacity to claim that he believes in “protecting families making under $250,000 from seeing their taxes go up.” I suppose the operative word there is “seeing.” President Obama is clearly fine with hiking your taxes so long as you don’t see it happen. That’s why he cleverly hid 20 separate tax hikes on families making under $250,000 inside Obamacare.

To add insult to dishonesty, Mr. Obama’s 18 percent tax rate is almost half the standard rate that one of those families earning just under $250,000 faces, which is 33 percent. Is the president aware that his teleprompter has been running around saying that in order for all Americans to have a fair shot, it’s imperative that “everyone plays by the same set of rules”?

Mr. Obama’s teleprompter evidently has gone rogue. It made another audacious statement at its 2012 State of Union Address: “It’s time to apply the same rules from top to bottom.” Fine. Let’s force the president to live up to that ideal or at least expose the Democrats as the hypocrites they are. Here’s how:

Whenever Mr. Obama and the Democrats attempt to burden current or future Americans with higher taxes or higher debt, Republicans should add the Alternative Maximum Fairness Tax amendment to it. Fiscal cliff. Debt ceiling. You name it. Add the amendment that says no American citizen shall be required to pay a federal income tax rate higher than the president’s and dare the Democrats to oppose it. Force them to defend the indefensible.

Democrats claim that the rich should pay their “fair share.” OK. Let’s flesh out exactly what really is fair. Is it fair that General Electric paid zero federal taxes on $14 billion income in the same year its CEO served as a close adviser to the president? Is it fair that crony companies like AIG and Solyndra received hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money as their executives kicked hundreds of thousands of dollars back to Mr. Obama’s campaign? Is that fair?

Is it fair that a president whose income is well into the top 1 percent of earners he derides pays a lower tax rate than the families he promised to protect from higher taxes right before he raised them? Then what is fair? Assuring Americans that they will never be forced to pay a higher income-tax rate than their multimillionaire president. That’s fair. That is undeniably fair.

Of course, if fairness is what we seek, then there is a much better way to achieve it.

A flat income tax is fair. If someone earns 10 times what you earn, he pays 10 times the taxes you pay. That’s fair. If someone earns half what you earn, he pays half the taxes you pay. What’s not fair about that? Further, eliminate loopholes that the government uses to bend your behavior to their liking and that the wealthy exploit to avoid paying higher taxes, and the system would become fairer still.

The president and the Democrats are enormously vulnerable on matters of fairness because of their flagrant hypocrisy. Their government-centered society itself corporate welfare, bank bailouts, Obamacare, etc. is inherently unfair precisely because it chooses winners and losers, or more accurately, friends and enemies. It unavoidably creates separate sets of rules for separate groups of Americans. If the current Republicans cannot expose the fundamental unfairness of Barack Obama and stop it, then let’s replace them with champions of liberty and fairness who can.

Source: Dr. Milton Wolf

Indiana – Catch the latest addition of the “Indiana State Police Road Show” radio program every Monday morning at your convenience.

Download the program from the Network Indiana public website at www.networkindiana.com. Look for the state police logo on the main page and follow the download instructions. This 15 minute talk show concentrates on public safety and informational topics with state wide interest.

The radio program was titled “Signal-10” in the early sixties when it was first started by two troopers in northern Indiana. The name was later changed to the “Indiana State Police Road Show” and is the longest continuously aired state police public service program in Indiana.

Radio stations across Indiana and the nation are invited to download and air for FREE this public service program sponsored by the Indiana State Police Alliance and Cops for Kids, a subsidiary of the Indiana State Police Alliance.

This week’s show features Nathan Riggs, Media Relations Director for the Indiana Department of Transportation. Mr. Riggs discusses National Work Zone Awareness Week and offers safety tips to motorists traveling through construction zones.

St. Mary’s Health is set to offer “Nutrition Nuggets,” a five-part Healthy Living Workshop series. The classes will be held at the St. Mary’s Women’s Wellness Center location in the Medical Office Building on 3801 Bellemeade Avenue. Attendees can choose between two convenient times, noon – 1 p.m. or 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
The first class, “Sugar: Sweet Love or Toxic Frienemy,” will take place Thursday, April 25th. It will take a look at our culture’s history with sugar and its impact on human health. Participants will explore how much sugar they actually consume and develop strategies to avoid sugar.
The classes will be presented by Beth Anderson, certified Holistic Health Coach, founder of Holistic Health Hotspot, and author of The Holistic Diet: Achieve Your Ideal Weight, Be Happy and Healthy for Life.
Other dates and topics include:
• Wednesday, May 1st – Understanding and overcoming sugar addiction
• Wednesday, May 8th – Learn what holistic health is and set healthy goals
• Wednesday, May 15th – Top Ten Ways to Improve Your Nutrition
• Thursday, May 23rd – Discover what is robbing you of your energy – and how to get it back

A complete description of each class is available at: http://www.stmarys.org/healthy-living.
The cost is $90 for all five classes. Pre-registration for a single class is $20, and same day registration is $25. Men, women, and teens are all welcome to attend.
For more information or to register, please call 812-485-5725.