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March 28
1934 - Bouquet Canyon Reservoir, replacement for ill-fated St. Francis Dam & reservoir, begins to fill with water [story]
Bouquet Reservoir


You Know I'm Right | Commentary by Betty Arenson
| Friday, Jul 24, 2015

bettyarensonIt’s been a journey of learning in listening to the mantra-of-the-moment from people or groups that have a pulpit for the topic of the minute.

We had the theme of “connect the dots” from Nancy Pelosi some years ago over some now-forgotten, allocated conservative frailty and later it was Pelosi’s “astroturf” bashing the grass roots organizing of The Tea Party.

April 2014 brought the whimsical bandwagon for #BringBackOurGirls arising from the 300 Nigerian teens kidnapped for vile and lascivious reasons by Boko Haram terrorists. Michelle Obama got in on that one. The hashtag is now gone, as (still) are most of the girls.

I’ve been writing about the contemptible Al Sharpton and his shameful allies conveniently pushing “BlackLivesMatter” as they exhibit precisely the antitheses with their actions. Every event that could be linked to ethnicity, valid or not, resulted in, “America needs to have a dialogue.”

For one, I’m in total agreement with that; however, as I pointed out in last Friday’s commentary, dialogue is the last thing “they” want. Moreover, the bashers: 1) often do not react with a real or full name; 2) fail to refute with any supporting facts versus merely throwing garbage; and 3) frequently fail to respond to the original topic.

I gave exact, verifiable citations as proof.

Coincidentally, in the same couple of days, on one of the local SCV blogs, a man posted the true-life headline, “Mexican Illegal Alien Arrested for Allegedly Raping 13-year-old.”

Considering this headline emerged freshly after the illegal alien killed Kathryn Steinle and while Obama is visiting a federal prison to free criminals, I responded.

I wrote (using my true identity): “Boy, the critics are looking pretty bad with each passing day, proving Donald Trump’s earlier assessments as correct. American taxpayers will give this creep lawyers, food, medical care, whatever he wants, then house him, continue his care for decades to come. That is unless, of course, Obama visits his prison and decides to free this fine young man, because after all, he probably just didn’t understand it was not OK to kidnap this girl, hide her, drug her then sexually assault her for a couple of days … because ‘Hernandez-Gomez hails from Chiapas, Mexico, where the sexual age of consent is 12’ … and what a fine defense that will be. Only in America.”

Linda (who forthrightly and respectably gave her full name) replied: “Betty – My niece was sexually assaulted by her stepfather, American born. There are plenty of sexual abusers out there, including in the Duggar Family (such good Christians). No one is defending sexual abuse, so stop with trying to lay this at the feet of our president. BTW if you don’t like our legal system of justice, feel free to come up with a better one.”

My response to Linda was: “Thank you for helping make my point. It would be very hard to find a family that didn’t have an in-family, American-born criminal to claim; perverts, predators and molesters among the worst that ultimately murder souls. So with our own rapists, why are we importing them? Why go to the stratosphere that (just) sexual abuse is laid ‘at the feet of our president?’ What is at his feet is ignoring a porous border and failing to step up and lead the country to actually follow our country’s immigration laws. I do have a few better legal system ideas: Follow the Constitution and laws we have; stop diluting criminal convictions with pleading down crimes that lead to massive releases, freeing felons into the public, often without time served. Use the pen and phone to immediately direct the appointed Attorney General and the DOJ to act swiftly and stop dragging out the prosecutions, and sentences … For all criminals. That’s a few for starters.”

I found it telling that the original topic was not addressed. Specifically, yet another criminal illegal alien being allowed to remain in this country, break law after law and endanger lives of children, while we have an administration that is not protecting American citizens or anyone here legally.

Dismissing the fundamental illegal rapist issue, the responder chose to defend Obama – who indeed has both issues at his feet – illegally residing criminals and executing the laws of our land.

Linda did not reply, but through no fault of hers. When I tried to submit my last message; the entire post was gone … oddly and mysteriously taken down.

Once again, no dialogue.

 

 

 

Betty Arenson has lived in the SCV since 1968 and describes herself as a conservative who’s concerned about progressives’ politics and their impacts on the country, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She says she is unashamed to own a gun or a Bible, couldn’t care less about the color of the president’s skin, and demands that he uphold his oath to protect and follow the Constitution of the United States in its entirety.

 

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5 Comments

  1. Hughe Mendent says:

    Betty,I completely agree with Your article,,the whole world has turned PC..You can’t say or do anything with out being chastised..
    take care,
    Hughe

  2. Dave Warburton says:

    We incarcerate more people than any other country. Is this really keeping us safer? The real questions is WHY do so many mostly young people turn to a life of crime in this rich country? The answer, I think, is severe economic inequality which prevents so many from earning a livable wage. There are other, cultural issues, of course, but that is the main one.

    As for locking up more people, all we have to do here in CA is put out the money to build more prisons to hold them, and conservatives don’t want to fork it over because it would require more govt spending.

    You can’t have this both ways, Betty.

  3. Betty Arenson says:

    David: One. the original topic is a bunch of Washington dolts—covers nearly ALL of them– looking the other way while illegals overwhelm the borders….Two: the proven criminals/felons are returning five and six times and their crimes get more severe—Multiple recent headlines prove it; Three: If you think I disagree with you about more prisons, I absolutely do not! I would vote for a prison in a heartbeat, needing verification the $ would go there and not to Jerry Brown’s General Fund to be wasted elsewhere AND along those lines, other states will house, maintain, and “keep” the criminals ..all Jerry Brown and the Calif. legislature have to do is organize it; Other states are crying to do it for employment reasons (Wyoming for one as I recall); Calif. taxes will pay for it (we pay one way or the other anyway)… do you know the reason why it isn’t being done? It is the powerful prison guard unions. I cannot recall the last time I saw a “lets build a new prison” prop. on the ballot. There’s no “both ways” about it.

  4. Marty Siebe says:

    @Dave, @Betty A little off-topic but part of the conversation. I do not think “more” prisons are the answer and I am unwilling to cast the blanket of “economic inequality” over the cause of this problem. That is for another discussion. I do think that more effective prisons are the answer. Clearly, repeat criminals are not afraid to go back to prison…some, I would argue, might even like it there. Therein lies the problem. Prisons need to be one or the other. They either need to be so miserable that criminals truly want to avoid them enough to deter their behavior and decisions or they need to truly rehabilitate. By rehabilitate, I mean effectively influence a positive change of behavior in a criminal to become a non-criminal. Not just throwing money at some perceived new-age, soul reaching, herbal induced, cutting edge teaching. Simple, honest discipline, accountability, and reward systems. I’m not making an argument for either one but I cannot imagine that anyone believes that our current prison system is effective. Because of that I am loathe to perpetuate it by building more.

  5. Betty Arenson says:

    Right On Marty. You nailed it. More is NOT the answer, EFFECTIVE is. I totally agree…Prison should be so harsh NO ONE would want back in. More than one criminal has admitted committing another crime to get back inside where they are housed and taken care of, never having to deal with society…the society that provides for them.
    No argument here….this present system is NOT effective.

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