Letter: Allen West? No, Thank You

1. Mr. Morelli, when I was discussing CO2 I was doing it to try and explain to you that it is a pollutant, (not what Obama says), and trying to explain science, real science, not fringe science, to you. You seem to have missed my point in your writings. This is the fact: CO2 is a pollutant. Yes, it is a plant nutrient, but in the amounts we have it is a pollutant. A core bit of knowledge in science. Your fringe science is not valid no matter how much ‘research’ you have done. Your ideas on global warming/cooling AGW, etc. are also fringe science.

   I again extend my offer to meet with you, please contact me. I think we could have an interesting intellectual discussion.

2. Mr. Rosen, I cannot judge what is in this President’s heart. I assume he does wish for the best for Americans. He obviously is willing to spend $5 trillion dollars trying, but sadly his policies have not created a more prosperous or safe America.

   What I know is that President Obama has continually apologized for America to foreign nations. He said “there are times when America has shown arrogance, and been dismissive, even derisive”; and “the United States is still working through some of our own darker periods”; and “we at times have been disengaged, and at time we sought to dictate our terms”; and ‘we have to acknowledge that we have made some mistakes”; and “our government made some hasty decisions, in other words we went off course”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAXA0WVwxiE

   President Obama was clearly not referring to slavery, or the Salem Witch Trials. He was not referring to our entry into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, since as you know from reading my hard work that Obama has spend much more money in those wars in three years than Bush did in eight. So what was Obama referring to?

   A lawyer first presents the evidence before arguing in summation. Let me be an advocate for a moment, which means I do not necessarily agree with the position, and I suspect you may not agree that the above facts show that President Obama is an anti-colonialist, and perhaps you might want more evidence. But many are convinced of that fact. And to argue that position I could offer a movie that I actually sat through, and you did not. The movie 2016 – Obama’s America makes a credible case, I would argue that no reasonably objective person could conclude otherwise, but that this president is an anti-colonialist and therefore his statements above should be viewed in that context.

   I am aware that there are a number of people who will not be persuaded that this President is an anti-colonialist. They may even deny the indisputable fact that Obama sent the bust of Prime Minister Winston Churchill back to the British that was gift from Tony Blair and sat in the Oval Office. But even the Huffington Post reported on it http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/22/obama-returns-churchill-b_n_168919.html.

   The simple minded explanation that only the disciples of Obama would believe was that it was the decorator who decided it didn’t fit the new look. The Huffington Post wrote “every president puts his own stamp on the Oval Office”. That may be true, but why was the insult to Brittan necessary?

   Perhaps you will be interested in another view “it was Churchill who, in 1952, ordered a crackdown on the Mau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule in Kenya, Obama’s ancestral homeland. Obama’s grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was labeled a subversive during the uprising and spent months in detention.”

   You see that’s the type of intellectual thought and hard work that I do to answer these questions, and from time to time so do you; although, I often do not accept your sources. I trust you will accept the video of Obama making the statements and the Huffington Post which is so far left anyone would need a telescope to read it from the political center.

   My letters represent hours of research. I enjoy our dialogue, but you disappoint me from time to time because you stoop to calling me a “gay basher” and “religious fanatic”. Firstly you know better and finally you fail to present facts that I might consider relevant to the discussion that might persuade me to take a second look. However you did take some time to publish a list of “experts” on “Global Warming”, which as you know is now once again “Global Cooling” and therefore renamed as “Climate Change”. It turns out that I had studied those bought and paid for experts that you offered, and I choose to believe the hard working mostly independent scientists who risk their reputations to present what I believe while unpopular among the media elites, are the more credible experts whose opinions I argue should carry more weight. i.e. Climate change is not anthropogenic.

   Unfortunately too often the replies to my letters are simply arm chair arguments from failed escapologists who continue to be chained up by the liberal media and apparently they never do the hard work of self education.

   My best regards and prayers for your health and happiness.

   • Mr. Morelli, I watched the Youtube link you sent. Again, all the clips were sound bites (and presented by Fox News/Sean Hannity), and you have to hear what was said before and after to get the full gist of his message. Did you also note that Sean Hannity called the assembled leaders at the UN dictators? Was that a slip of the tongue and did he mean dignitaries?
     You say we spent more money on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars while Obama was president as opposed to when Bush was. However when the president says he wants to pull out there is a republican backlash saying we can’t just walk out, etc. (And we couldn’t, everybody I think agrees with this.)

     Are you also saying in your note that you object to an anti-colonialist stance? You want us to be colonialist? Perhaps I misread this in your letter because, if so, you don’t know the history of colonialism (I am a student of the history of Africa, as a hobby, – especially in the exploration and colonial time period -, please come and see my library of over 500 books on the subject).

     You also question my sources as I do yours. However to say that Penn State University, The University of East Anglia, The UK Government (various departments and groups), the US Government (various departments and groups) are “bought and paid for experts” is now absurd. The experts I mentioned did not weigh in on global warming, they investigated a non-issue that you claimed put the whole field of Anthropogenic Global Warming in doubt. It was not the science of global warming they investigated – although they did say the scientists work was not in question. And is Prof. Richard Muller (Physics Dept., University of California, Berkeley) also bought and paid for because by doing research he changed his stance on Climate Change?

     If you did real research you would find out that Anthropogenic Global Warming is not disputed in the scientific community. AGW will cause warming and cooling in different parts of the globe, which you should realize if you did real research. Your sources are things like Glen Beck, Fox News, etc. Please do not argue science or scientific methodology. As much “research” as you might have done is was not ‘good research’ and that is an important part of research.

     You have also said CO2 is not a pollutant because it is 1) a plant nutrient and 2) has not been litigated as a pollutant (it actually has). Do you still stick to this absurdity?

     However, where I really take exception is when you say you are ‘saddened’ or ‘I disappoint you’ by calling you and your ideas certain things. Mr. Morelli, in the past you have said that people who vote for democrats have no morals and that because I am an Atheist I hate Jews and Christians, and in this letter you say:

     1) “The simple minded explanation that only the disciples of Obama would believe”, so you are saying if we disagree with your biased point of view we are simple-minded.

     2) “replies to my letters are simply arm chair arguments from failed escapologists who continue to be chained up by the liberal media and apparently they never do the hard work of self education.” Is this comment not mean spirited? Mr. Morelli, I know your education (Rutgers, an excellent school) but to say that the people (me) writing against you are chained up by the liberal media/never do the hard work of self-education is absurd. Not only have I done the hard work of self-education I have also done the hard work of academic education in science and scientific methods and research methodology.

     Mr. Morelli, have you ever heard the expression “the pot calling the kettle black?”, I am sure you have. Look in the mirror. Your sources are biased to the right (again, Fox News, Glen Beck, etc.) and your research is so flawed as to not be accepted except in your own right-wing group.

     I had hoped that with our last couple of notes we were at least on the way to a certain kind or rapport, but I can see from this note that we are not. I do not apologize for the things I have said about you and your ideas and I have never heard/read of anyone more right-wing, unwilling to do true investigations into science or unwilling to even look with an unbiased view into anything – and that is the main flaw in your ‘research’. You dismiss anyone/any evidence against what you are saying.

     • Mr. Morelli, after showing our back and forth to friends I have decided to stop even engaging you and to be willing to let others dismiss your rantings for what they are. And, before you even say that my friends are liberals like me, let me tell you that my friends who have read our writings range from liberal to conservative, from Democrats to Republicans, from atheist to religious, from never setting foot in a house of worship to being a pastor. All found most of the things you had to say absurd and laughable. All also told me to stop the discussions because it was futile to have a logical discussion with a person holding all your radical views (yes, right-wingers can be radicals as well).

       However, should you wish a lesson on the proper way to do unbiased research please contact me by phone and I would be happy to sit with you and explain scientific method from its inceptions with Roger Bacon (1214-1294) and Francis Bacon (1561-1626, no relation to Roger Bacon), although some aspects of scientific methods are earlier, to current research methodologies in both physical and social sciences.

       Here I will end our discussion(s) with a paraphrased quote from one of my favorite comedians, Ron White: “You just can’t fix crazy” (White uses the word ‘stupid’, but this word doesn’t fit here, hence the paraphrase).

     • Mr. Rosen as long as you took the time to watch the video I owe you a response. I’ll try to be brief.

       Sadly you didn’t comment on what was said in the video which is an admission that is incontestable, so perhaps that is why.

       Obama wasted money in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think that is the point.

       I can’t say what Obama’s intent is. Sir I absolutely do know the history of colonialism. I am intelligent and well educated. I never speak without knowing my subject matter; however, I never stop learning so I would be pleased to see if there are any books you have that I have not already read. You may have read 500 books but you failed t watch the video which I cited.

       You see government and universities as halls of ethics that can do no wrong. I don’t.

       Mr. Rosen my research is second to none. And scientists do not agree that climate change is due in substantial or even significant part to anthropogenic causes.

       CO2 is undeniably a plant nutrient. You are wrong. Litigation merely determined that the EPA can regulate it, not that it is a pollutant. The EPA can regulate water as well and I doubt you would call that a pollutant.

       I was not referring to you when I use the term “arm chair arguments”. Your arguments are often actually worse. They are sometimes aimed at silencing my speech, by using terms like “religious fanatic”. You insinuate that my science must be wrong because if I am a Christian and therefore you assume that I must believe the earth is 5 thousand years old. You intentionally mischaracterized my possition on gays. I support civil rights of gays, but do not support redefining marriage. You called me a “gay basher”. Mr. Rosen, I believe you can be a better person than that. Please try.

       • Mr. Morelli, I wasn’t going to respond to you, yet cannot let your inanity go by the wayside, I just can’t do it.

         First, let me refute some of the points of this last note, then get on to an exercise in writing that I wrote recently.

         1) I do not see government/universities as halls of ethics at all (government especially), why you say this I have no idea, it is not sustained in my writings. But universities are better ethically then most groups, and I have spent some time in academia. And science must follow certain methods/methodologies and these need to be duplicated for proofs.

         2) I am not sure which video you mean that I have 1) either watched as you say or 2) didn’t watch (as you also say). If you mean the Hannity one I did watch it and commented. However, whichever one, you say that I didn’t comment on it after watching it because it is incontestable. Bad logic!

         3) CO2 is certainly a plant nutrient, nobody is denying that! It is also a Greenhouse Gas and a major pollutant. That is also a fact.

         4) There is scientific agreement on CO2 as a Greenhouse Gas and pollutant. Mr. Morelli, think of science as 3 concentric rings. Innermost is Core Knowledge, second is frontier and final ring is fringe. Core is well-established principles and concepts that are well tested (i.e. CO2). Frontier are ideas based on the Core Knowledge, and are being actively tested/researched. Fringe are ideas and concepts that true scientists spend little time on because they, in some way, violate core principles of science. Your ideas on climate change are considered fringe ideas.

         5) You say my arguments are worse than ‘armchair arguments’ because I use speech aimed at silencing you. Not true at all. When I produce arguments you dismiss them out of hand. I never said you believe the earth is 5,000 years old, I did however ask you about it, but never got an answer. The term ‘gay-basher’ that I used was based on some of your writings and I have explained that a number of times.

         6) I am still confused, do you support colonialism? It seemed from your writing above that you do.

         7) Your say your research is second to none. Mr. Morelli, when you go into research with a biased agenda that research is garbage. Fact. Non-Scientific. This is what I have been trying to point out to you, but you, as usual, dismiss it out of hand.

         Now here is what I wrote recently:

         Mr. Morelli, have you not noticed something about the myriad of opinions you have expressed as fact over the past few weeks/months?

         1) Every scientific one that differs from yours the scientists are either “bought and paid for”, involved in a scandal, inconclusive, etc. Using climate change as an example, despite the myriad of studies showing it to be factual, you cling to some alternate non-scientific (or pseudo-scientific) studies or reasoning discrediting all other valid research.

         2) Every non-scientific one the person expressing those opposing ideas has not done the proper self-education, are obviously only listening to the liberal media, are influenced by the Democrats, etc.

         So all your opinions or ideas, according to you, are all correct and there is no broaching any other side of them. You have come to the only correct conclusions on everything. No other way to look at it if someone is of sound mind, only your way.

         Ok, I can see this on one thing, a few things, but Mr. Morelli, you have never been wrong or misguided on ANYTHING. If someone else said to you that here are a dozen or more of my ideas and they are really all facts, no two ways about it, would you not think that there was something wrong?

         You have said everything you say is right because you have done so much research. Other people have also done research, but they are wrong. You have also never responded to my claim that your research methods are flawed (good research is unbiased). Only other people are wrong.

         I think that I have come across the main issue here – you, in your godlike way – are perfect – and anybody who expresses a different idea or opinion is sadly mistaken, a godless/heathen, immoral, uneducated/poorly educated, etc. (all your words) Only you are perfect, never having a wrong idea. Mr. Morelli, is pride a sin in your version of Christianity? You are never wrong, you keep bragging about your job (Lawyer) and education (Rutgers). Where does your brand of Christianity stand on the sin of pride?

         It reminds me of the Lawrence and Lee play (and movie) Inherit The Wind. “God Tells Brady (Morelli) and Brady tells the world”. (By the way, what is the correct view of the Evolution/Creation argument? We need to know, please put a stop to all the discussion and tell us the truth.)

         You have not been at all wrong on climate change, social values/mores, religion, politicians, the economy, CO2 as a pollutant, the global geo-political system, the US constitution, the environment, Government regulations, the tax system, the English language, and so much more. We should all thank you for enlightening us. We who cannot have a valid opinion if it differs from yours. We who are so poorly educated, misguided, mindless, immoral, Kool-Aid drinkers, live in a fantasy world, approve of a politician you do not, etc. We who don’t use facts to back up out arguments (well, we do, you just dismiss them because they are always wrong. Only your facts and sources are correct.)

         Please Mr. Morelli, let’s get together and talk. I have never met perfection in human form, I would love to sit at the feet of someone who is never wrong and learn. Please help me to learn to not listen to the liberal media, scientists, atheists/heathens, and all those who do not measure up to your standards of how life should be lived.

         I have on numerous occasions tried to meet with you to discuss things, but you have not made an effort to do so. Please call me.

         • I would like to get back to my support for Allen West who will win because I trust voters to make the right choices. Now if you are a Democrat this is what your party believes.

           What is the platform that Democrats have approved?

           Oil companies’ profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn’t.

           The government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.

           Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it and agrees with our platform.

           People are too irresponsible to own a gun, and local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.

           People who can’t tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years so we should all drive electric cars.
           We should not be concerned about millions of babies being aborted so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.

           Illegal aliens have a right to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits, and we should take away $716 billion dollars out of social security and from those who paid into it.

           Businesses should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the Democrats see fit.

           Liberal judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.

           It is better to pay billions for their oil to people who hate us, but not drill our own because it might upset some endangered beetle, gopher or fish.

       • Mr Morrelli, nobody is arguing that co2 is a plant nutrient. But not a pollutant, no matter how overly abundant it becomes and therefore must be good for us too…….how absurd and idiotic

         • As usual, Mr. Morelli, you are so wrong what Democrats think. Besides doing biased research you approach all Democrats in a biased way. They ALL believe the same things, and all those things are wrong (according to you)!! Your paragraph on electric cars and polar ice caps is so crazy that you should not be allowed to read any science, even the pseudo-science that you do. Your note on abortions is also wrong but why should you have to talk to a Democrat and find out that not all of them think alike (You might also be interested to know that I am not a Democrat). Why should you let facts get in the way. Certainly not when you have that note on Democrats believing businesses should not be allowed to make a profit. How absurd.

           Your comment on free speech is amazing, although completely untrue, but again, why move away from your hatred and bias.

           Mr. Morelli, the more you write the more I am confused. You are either just writing these things to see if you can get a rise out of people or you really believe all of them, in which case you have really gone over to the fringe of society.

         • President Obama said that under his plan, the CO2 emissions limit would bankrupt anyone who attempted to build a coal-fired energy plant.

   • Why are people reluctant to use their real names? You got to wonder what they have to hide?

     Ms. Abbott is misinformed. She might do well to do her own research instead of Colonel Allen West was never convicted of anything and he has the Honorable Discharge to prove it. http://www.allenwestforcongress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/MFR-2Oct12-page-001.jpeg

     Democrats propose taking $716 billion dollars out of care for current Medicare recipients.

     If you would like to contribute to Allen West for Congress this is the web address:
     https://www.allenwestforcongress.com/contribute/?source=SearchAdsAllenWestGenericSearch

     Join West’s conservative army and make a difference in November.
     “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” Saul Alinsky “Rules for Radicals” use these tactics when you can’t defeat the opposing arguments. We see a lot of that here in these letters. It is sad and not productive.

     • Mr. Morelli, I agree with you that we see too much ridicule in here. I wish you would stop it. In one of my notes above I point out that you have done this in your past letters. I do see that as a radical you are using Saul Alinsky’s rules (I know you got that from Glen Beck! Right from his show and website!)

3. Aubrey wrote: “Hello, my name is Aubrey West and I would like to discuss about somethings that have been occurring in the press today. My parents are good and honorable human beings that have been strong for not only my sister and I but also our new addition to our family Lin who is a Chinese foreign exchange student. The recent attacks on both my mother and fathers character has been downright wrong and false. This election for this year should be one that is focused in on policies and ethics, not personal attacks on a family that sacrifices so much for their Country. My father has been serving the people of the United States for 22 years. During that time I have had to watch my father leave to go fight wars to protect this Country and now he is still serving his Country and people are spreading false and hurtful things about my parents who continue to this day to sacrifice for this Country.

   “I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
   I am an American Soldier.”
   -Soldiers Creed-Army Values

   -“All soldiers are entitled to outstanding leadership; I will provide that leadership. I know my soldiers and I will always place their needs above my own.”
   -“I will not compromise my integrity, nor my moral courage.”
   -NCO Creed-

   My father has not forgotten these words since he first spoke them during his service. He continues to serve and he continues to provide outstanding leadership, but now to the people of the US.
   For those who have served they know what it is like to say goodbye to a loved one. For the media to take such precious shared moments and warp them into abhorrent lies is disrespectful to the sacrifice and love that this family has shown, the dedication and service my father has shown, and continues to show to the Citizens of the United States of America.

   • Aubrey, my heart breaks for you because you have to read and hear the cruel and untrue things that are said about your father. I think you know that millions of Americans love your father and believe in him as I do. You are blessed to be the daughter of such a good man who was not too afraid to put his life on the line in the service of his country. But I am sure you know him as a fantastic role model and as a loving father.

     What you read and hear are complaints more about your father’s courage to tell the truth, than they are about him personally. He could be very popular by compromising his faith and his belief in what is right for America, but like so many who are maligned in the press and on television, your father is a hero in the eyes of those of us who understand him, agree with him, and are anxious to support him.

     We pray for your father and his family every night because he is a true patriot.

   • Great response, Aubrey! Please ignore the mindless lies and attacks against your father, it means nothing to the intelligent people who know the truth, and we are many, as the polls show! We support, admire and appreciate him and all that he stands for as an American, a military hero and as a strong Congressman. The left rightfully fears him or they wouldn’t continue to attack his name. They know he is effective in standing up for what he believes in and for saying so. His knowledge and fearless devotion to God, family and country is admirable and against everything the liberals stand for. May God bless him and his family! We look forward with appreciation to his continued service to America!

4. WAR is HELL!

   When Americans are sent to WAR; all parents, wives, husbands and children want their loved one to be protected, safe from harm and return home. That protection comes in many forms on the battlefield. Colonel West protected his troops and was honorably discharged from military service. The members of his troop continue to stand behind Colonel West and support him.

   Mr. Murphy, Colonel West’s opponent, has never served in the military. He has though, been supported by his father, switched political parties to have a better chance of being elected, and moved 3 times to find a district in which he could run for office.

   Thank you, Colonel West, for protecting those in your command in a WAR torn country with diabolical enemies intent on killing Americans.

   Colonel West has my vote.

   • I support our military people wholeheartedly, however I object to people saying that just because someone has served in the military they will become good leaders in civilian life. While some do (George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower) some also don’t (U.S. Grant, G.W. Bush). To blindly follow someone simply because they have been in the military is not a viable way to run a government.

     That being said, this is one of the most negative campaigns I have ever seen. Not a lot of ads about what the candidates would do, only ads about how bad a person their opponent is. Let’s see some practical positive ads that show what each of these people stand for and how they will vote on many issues that will come before the House in the next couple of years

5. Ms. Abbott your letter left out important details about Colonel Allen West.

   Congressman West served our country in battle, and has an honorable discharge to prove it. The facts as I know them are these.

   The President of the United States commissioned Allen West as an officer in the U.S. Army.

   Soldiers sometimes are required to kill the enemy, and the job of an officer in the U.S. Army is to do so while protecting the lives of the men and women under his command. Colonel Allen West served with distinction as evidenced by the chest full of ribbons awarded for valor under fire.

   The “criminal act” you described was not criminal at all. It was an Article 15 which is like taking a note home to mother for talking in class.

   Colonel Allen West captured a Muslim terrorist who had killed young American soldiers. That terrorist had information that would save the lives of other soldiers. What Colonel Allen West did was discharge his weapon to scare the enemy soldier into giving information that led to saving the lives of more American soldiers.

   I am prolife, so I am very pleased that Congressman West continues to protect innocent life. God bless Allen West.

   • I had read that Allen West was fined $5,000 (although he did face 11 years in prison) and was allowed to recieve an honorable discharge (I assume this was the military equiv. of a plea deal). That I assume was the end of his military career. The shooting off fo a gun near the head of an enemy prisoner was deemed to be wrong by the court.

     I’m not sure if this was right or wrong, but the court decided it was wrong. This was what I’ve read, but I’m sure there is more to the story.

     Personally, I just don’t agree with any of Allen West’s stances. He did serve in the military, but that is not nec. a reason that he would be a good congressman.

     • Mr. Rosen I guess you and I have become the keepers of this comment section. While in the past you have saddened me with your mischaracterizations of me, I still respect your opinion, and I am pleased to read your comments here. They are cogent and fair. Thank you on behalf of all the people who agree with me. I am hoping that more people will join our erudite disagreements. I think it will be the only way to overcome misunderstandings.

       I think you might appreciate this letter from an old saylor, even though it may be too harsh on the president it speaks to the topic of the letter, and not to your comments. But I would like to hear your comment.

       Dear President Obama,

       I enlisted in the U. S . Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos’n Mate. Now I live in a “rest home” located on the western end of Pearl Harbor , allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

       One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man. So here goes.

       You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

       ” We’re no longer a Christian nation”, ” America is arrogant” – (Your wife even announced to the world,” America is mean-spirited. ”

       Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.

       I’d say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

       After 9/11 you said,” America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.”

       Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

       Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

       Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue . You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

       • Mr. Morelli, Yes, it seems we are the ones who comment the most (and we seem to be two of the only ones who print their names and are not anonymous, well, there are a couple of others).

         You asked me to comment on the letter from an old sailor, so here goes:

         1) As to the quotes he uses I cannot comment on them without knowing the context they come from. Unfortunately we live in an era of sound bites and so many quotes (on every side) are taken out of context and exploited. This isn’t right by either side and leads to a lot of misinformation. The days of sound bites!! Nobody wants to delve deeper into things anymore, that takes work!

         2) I do disagree with his opinion that the President hasn’t shown gratefulness to this country. On the contrary, I think he is grateful to be in the position he is in and admits that every chance he gets. I also believes he loves this country. Nobody who becomes president does not love this country, even if their views go against one-half or more of the people. Being president seems to be a thankless job, for every president after George Washington held the job! Pres. Obama could have gone into a private law firm and made a lot more money, been under a lot less pressure and lived a more relaxed lifestyle, but he chose not to. I would not question whether he likes or loves this country.

         3) And just a side note. I do not believe we are a Christian nation. I believe we are a nation that gives everybody the right to choose what religion they want to be or don’t want to be and to live their life as they see fit within the constraints of that religion or lack of religion and within a civilized society. I also believe that one religion does not have the right to impose its moral ideas, in the form of laws, onto others. I believe the founding fathers also believed this, hence separation of church and state. David Barton, one of the religious rights favorite historians (and a poor one at that) has tried to prove that Thomas Jefferson (in The Jefferson Lies) was an Orthodox Christian. Unfortunately Mr. Barton is a poor historian and took many things out of context. Two professors, Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter from the Grove City College (a Christian religious school) have disproved this by doing good research (in Getting Jefferson Right: Fact-Checking Claims About Our Third President). Grove City College is a private institution where “the ethical absolutes of the Ten Commandments and Christ’s moral teachings guide the effort to develop intellect and character in the classroom, chapel, and co-curricular activities.” How did two professors form a religious college come to this conclusion? They did good research and in their own words “The duty of Christians as scholars is first to get the facts correct… Engaging in scholarship as a Christian is not about who is on our team; it should have as an aim the uncovering of facts about a subject, whether it is a historical figure or a theory of social science, and following the data where they lead.”

         Also, you had mentioned you had a website, if I promise not to leave comments on the site can you send me a link? I would also love a chance to sit with you to discuss our differences and similarities (I am in the book, if there still is a book).

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