Boyle Heights and the 6th Street Bridge

June 16, 1933: Dedication ceremonies of 6th Street bridge and viaduct, built at a cost of $2,383,271. This photo was published in the June 17, 1933 Los Angeles Times.

The 6^th Street bridge and viaduct in central Los Angeles was built in 1933 to connect the downtown area with Boyle Heights; a hilly residential area that provided modest cost housing for many people working downtown. It became the city’s first major Jewish community before World War 2. As the city evolved, and people moved to the suburbs, the area became a major Mexican American community after that war and still has a high Spanish speaking community but now with an unsavory gang reputation.

Horizontal red arrow points to plastic bagging that is covering part of bridge that is crumbling onto cars and people below. Graphity on bridge.

Today to reach Boyle Heights via 6^th Street means driving through the heart of the Skid Row district in downtown. This is not a pleasant drive as we learned this past Sunday.

So who uses this boulevard and why are people making a big deal out of the planned destruction of the bridge because it’s falling apart?

Perhaps there are memories of the homeless who used to camp on the bridge’s sidewalk or it’s the people of Boyle Heights who have some romantic connection parking there to view the downtown skyline.

Police were called out to clear bridge of pedestrians on Tuesday night after about 100 people blocked traffic.

The police were called out to clear the roadway as some people walked out into the middle of the street.

A great view of downtown skyline that might help many recall wonderful times.

The designer of the new viaduct, Michael Maltzan, and city leaders are scheduled to participate in Wednesday morning’s final walk before closing the street for the teardown.

Incidentally the old bridge cost $2,383,271 and its replacement opening in 2019 will cost $449 million.

The font for this posting is typewriter “Courier New” in honor of our past.

Is Donald Trump the New Hitler?

The similarities between Donald Trump and Adolph Hitler are frightening. The United States is not in the same condition as Germany in the 1930s but many people see themselves as victims of a similar plight. They have low paid jobs or no jobs at all while there are wealthy people who are earning fabulous salaries and bonuses. Bernie Sanders has pointed out that the wealth of the richest 1% is greater than the bottom 90%.

Unlike Senator Sanders, Mr. Trump has rallied his support from those “victims” of illegal immigration from Mexicans who are “all rapists and murderers.”

Today Mr. Trump has added all Muslims to his list of people to fear. This methodology was the same used by Hitler in his campaign of hate against Jews in the 1930s. Perhaps we should blame Sanders for the rise of Trump.

Trump has found minorities to blame for the plight of the poor in America. Who will be his next group to blame? Will it be Jews or perhaps Asians?

Are Americans “that stupid” to fall for this clap trap?

Where are the sensible GOP candidates for president? Jeb Bush makes mild disavowals as does John Kasich and the others are silent.

Hillary Clinton may believe that the nomination of Donald Trump is her path to the presidency but there is a frightening tide flowing across this nation.

Am I just being hysterical? The crowds at Trump rallies tell me we do have something to fear.

Five myths about Hanukkah

I found this article on line. Written by Jennifer Bleyer

At nightfall on Sunday, Jews everywhere began the eight-day observance of Hanukkah by lighting candles, singing songs, showering their children with gifts and stuffing themselves with potato latkes. What’s not to love about a happy, home-based festivity involving fried food? It’s no wonder that Hanukkah is the most widely celebrated holiday among American Jews: According to the last National Jewish Population Survey, in 2001, 72 percent of Jews in the United States light Hanukkah candles — more than partake of any other Jewish rite, including attending a Passover seder or fasting on Yom Kippur. Yet a lot is commonly misunderstood about the holiday’s significance, both now and historically. Let’s consider some of the biggest misconceptions about the festival of lights.

1. Hanukkah is an important Jewish holiday.

It’s easy to get the impression that Hanukkah is a marquee event of the Jewish year, falling as it coincidentally does right around the time of that other blockbuster December occasion and likewise seeming to revolve around presents, parties and recollections of a miracle long ago. The sense of Hanukkah’s importance is further stoked by lively decorations, beautiful menorahs, delectable feasts and even, nowadays, kitschy sweaters and tongue-in-cheek competitions.

But as any rabbi would be quick to explain, Hanukkah is one of the least important occasions on the Hebrew calendar. Unlike major holidays such as Passover, Sukkot and the weekly Sabbath — all of which include extensive ritual requirements as well as prohibitions against work — Hanukkah is categorized as a minor festival whose only real decree is to light candles for eight nights. Everything else is custom or adaptation.

That’s not to say, however, that all the hubbub around Hanukkah is accidental. Its elevation to its current status in the United States goes back to the 19th century, when rabbis concerned about Jewish children feeling envious of their Christian neighbors realized that Hanukkah could let kids indulge in a joyous occasion around the same time of year. As Jewish historian Dianne Ashton recounts in her book “Hanukkah in America,” the holiday’s “timing in the midst of the Christmas season offered a way [for people] to perform their Jewish commitment through the holiday’s rite and, for a moment, to resolve the ambiguity of being an American Jew.”

2. Hanukkah celebrates a fight for religious freedom.

The story of Hanukkah commemorates events in the 2nd century B.C., when the Syrian king Antiochus, whose Greek-influenced Seleucid empire ruled over ancient Judea, issued decrees outlawing traditional Jewish practices, which provoked the uprising of a family of country priests called the Maccabees. They ultimately triumphed, regained control of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it according to their beliefs. As Rabbi Joshua Sherwin expounded at the White House Hanukkah party in 2013, the “true meaning” of the holiday is to celebrate “strengthening religious freedom in our days, just as the Maccabees did in ancient ones.”

But the idea that theirs was a fight for religious freedom is a myth, as is the notion that their revolt was exclusively against their Gentile oppressors. At the time, many Jews readily welcomed aspects of the dominant Greek culture, with its emphasis on reason, wisdom and art. These Hellenistic Jews advocated for the reformation of their own primitive belief system according to Greek values — the modernization of a faith founded in the Bronze Age. The Maccabees opposed their Hellenized counterparts, and according to some scholars, their revolt really began as a bitter internal fight between religious fundamentalists and reformers.

“The Maccabees were fighting for the ability to observe their own laws and the ability to coerce other Jews to observe their laws,” says Albert Baumgarten, an emeritus professor of Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. “It meant a very strong fight against the Hellenistic Jews and the establishment of what we would today call a theocratic state.” Some contemporary commentators have even deigned to call the Maccabees fanatics and zealots.

3. The Jews’ victory in the Hanukkah story halted assimilation.

Today, the Maccabees are extolled for having put a hard stop, after their recapture of Jerusalem in 164 B.C., to Hellenism’s threat to swallow traditional Judaism. “Hanukkah celebrates the rescue of Judaism itself from the clutches of cultural assimilation,” Ron Wolfson, an education professor at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, writes in “Hanukkah: The Family Guide to Spiritual Celebration,” nodding to why this story speaks so deeply to modern diaspora Jews. “In our own day,” he writes, “living in a completely open society, we too must battle the forces of cultural assimilation to retain our Jewish identities.”

But as rulers who subsequently established the Hasmonean dynasty, these rebels quickly realized that their survival involved playing the game of regional politics — and the way to do that was by none other than adopting Hellenism. “It was a kind of necessity,” Baumgarten says. “The Seleucid dynasty to which Antiochus and his successors belonged was split between two rival families that were fighting each other over generations, and the Maccabees had to play one branch off each other. If you backed the wrong horse in this ongoing civil war, you could end up losing your status and your head. . . . So although the Maccabees started as opponents of Hellenism, they soon become among its most enthusiastic admirers and adopters.”

This meant, for instance, aping Greek models of government and negotiation, and establishing an assembly to vote a ruler into power — a practice with no precedent in Jewish tradition. Their realpolitik also helped them learn to “negotiate the different tensions between being part of the Jewish world and the larger world,” Baumgarten says, which was critical to Jewish survival.

4. The oil burned for eight days and eight nights.

The ritual lighting of Hanukkah candles is traced to what’s known as the miracle of the oil: After the Maccabees reclaimed the Temple, the story goes, they found a small amount of oil permissible for lighting the sacred sanctuary lamp — enough for just one day. Miraculously, it lasted eight. Jews thus light candles on eight successive nights to recall this great miracle.

Yet whether the miracle really happened is questionable, and not just because of the empirically proven limits of combustible liquid. As scholars have long noted, there’s no reference to the miracle in early sources based on firsthand accounts, including the first book of Maccabees, an insider history written to glorify the new dynasty and its achievements, nor the second book of Maccabees, also a historical account written close to the time of the revolt, although from the diaspora.

The miraculous-oil story seems to be a rabbinic invention transmitted hundreds of years after it allegedly occurred. After the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Jews were expelled, and religious authority was transferred from Temple priests to diaspora rabbis, who came to codify the Babylonian Talmud as a central text of Jewish law, ethics and customs. In the middle of the Talmudic tractate discussing the proper way to light candles on the Sabbath, as a footnote that seems almost an afterthought, the rabbis included a discussion of Hanukkah candle-lighting along with a telling of the miracle of the oil. It’s this written account that made the story last.

5. Latkes are the traditional Hanukkah food.

Latkes, or potato pancakes, are the much-salivated-over centerpiece of most Hanukkah celebrations in America. Consisting of grated potatoes mixed with matzo meal and eggs, and fried in oil to a golden crisp, they are the holiday’s iconic food, fueling vociferous debates about which topping is superior — sour cream or applesauce — and enabling the endless creativity of modern cooks, who include ingredients their ancestors probably never heard of, from Swiss chard to zucchini, from chipotle to feta cheese and artichokes.

But latkes originated in Eastern Europe, not ancient Israel. And they were first made with curd cheese rather than potatoes, Gil Marks writes in the “Encyclopedia of Jewish Food.” Although they are certainly a traditional holiday food, they are by no means the traditional holiday food. For centuries, as Marks details, Jewish communities around the world have celebrated with other delicacies that acknowledge the role of oil in the Hanukkah story. Greek Jews eat fried fish with ajada, an adaptation of an ancient Mediterranean sauce akin to garlic mayonnaise; they also serve fried apple rings and apple fritters. The Cochin Jews of India enjoy neyyappam, a kind of fried sweet cake containing semolina, almonds, cashews, dates, apricots and cardamom, as well as bonda, fried potato fritters coated in chickpea flour and served with chutney. Syrian and Lebanese Jews celebrate with atayef, cheese-filled pancakes deep-fried and topped with sugary syrup or thick cream, while Sephardic Jews have traditionally feasted on ojaldre, an ancient Spanish form of puff pastry also stuffed with cheese. The Jews of Italy, meanwhile, nibble on frittelle di Chanukah, yeast fritters flavored with anise.

Hungry yet?

Twitter: @jennypencil

What Makes America Great?

First read this.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

That is the inscription on the Statue of Liberty written by Emma Lazarus.

It’s been there since 1903. The statue itself was erected in 1886. It was a prefect poem (sonnet) to place on Lady Liberty.

We all take it seriously in America until we are confronted with people trying to obtain entry into this country. Some GOP candidates for president need to read that poem and remember their roots. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are the outstanding leaders of the group that do not want to devise a path to citizenship for the people who prepare their meals, wash their dishes, make their beds, and cut their lawns.

By late Monday, states refusing Syrian refugees included Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.

Have we lost our collective mind? America was built on refugees. They are the people who made this country great. Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase is the grandson of a Greek immigrant. Similarly millions of Americans are the children or grandchildren of immigrants.

So your next door neighbors and the people you see on the streets don’t look like you and maybe they have different religious beliefs but they all – we all – have one thing in common – our families all agree the United States is a country where everyone can work and live at our full potential. Somehow we seem to have forgotten that idea.

It’s time we all started acting like Americans.

No Matter What the Jews Do They will be Blamed!

First view and read this: http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/fox_news_psychiatrist_blames_jews_for_surrendering_guns_to_Nazis

“In other words while Ben Carson was only implying that Germany’s Jews were responsible for their own deaths, Fox News’ Keith Ablow went all the way there:

If Jews in Germany had more actively resisted the Nazi party or the Nazi regime and had diagnosed it as a malignant and deadly cancer from the start, there would, indeed, have been a chance for the people of that country and the world to be moved to action by their bold refusal to be enslaved.

In other words: We didn’t fail Europe’s Jews in the Holocaust, the Jews failed us. Good to know.”The Weekly Sift

It seems that no matter what Jews do or don’t do they are to blame. Millions of Jews did as they were told and were killed before and during WWII. Many people continue to say they did not stand up to the Germans and that cost more lives than simply following orders. Of course that is not entirely accurate. Jews did fight against the Nazis while being held in the Warsaw Ghetto. Jews did join underground efforts against the Nazi war machine. At the end of WWII they fought to the British in Palestine before the state of Israel became a reality. The tactics used by those Jews in Palestine were condemned by many people.

Israel has received military hardware to defend itself from the United States but no participation of U.S. military. When they are attacked they continue to conduct their own defense in their own way. They are condemned for their tactics.

So what is it you want from Israel? Surrender and be killed or fight with every tool you have. That is the choice. The Israelis have chosen to fight. I am not an Israeli but if I was, I would fight.

American Political Dynasties

Family dynasties in politics goes back to our second president, John Adams. His son, John Quincy Adams was the 6th president. John Quincy was an early proponent of Manifest Destiny, an American expansionist policy popular in the 19th century. He changed his position when the expansion of American territory also meant the expansion of slavery. What was he most noted for? He supported infrastructural and educational improvements in the shape of federal projects like road and canal building, a national university, and a national bank, but met with stiff opposition from supporters of Andrew Jackson in Congress. He is renowned as one of America’s greatest diplomats before his presidency and one of American’s greatest congressmen after his presidency, but was not a particularly effective president. Source: http://us-presidents.insidegov.com/q/27/9699/What-were-President-John-Quincy-Adams-s-accomplishments, www.john-adams-heritage.com/john-quincy-adams-facts/

Then there were the Roosevelts. Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt was a republican (In office September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909) with a liberal view who started our national park system and the first anti- trust laws. He began construction of the Panama Canal. Later his famous young nephew Franklin Roosevelt who led America out of the Great Depression and through most of WWII.

The Kennedy Family was famous even before John F. Kennedy became president.

The Bayh family of Indiana consists of two representatives Birch Bayh and most recently his son Evan Bayh.

The Brown family of California. The father was Pat Brown who is famous for building the California aqueduct that helped to distribute northern California water to southern California. His daughter Kathleen served as the state’s Treasurer and son Jerry who is now serving his fourth term as governor.

The Bush family starting with Prescott Bush (1895–1972) brought us George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush as presidents. Today George W. Bush’s brother, for Florida governor Jeb is running for president.

The Gore’s of Tennessee, and the Dodd’s of Connecticut are two other families that also come to mind.

Last but hardly least is Hillary Clinton who would like to be remembered for more than being a former First Lady.

There are many other political families listed in Wikipedia.

The question is have these families really harmed America? I believe the answer, for some of them is Yes. They see politics as a business to earn money for themselves and their families at the expense of society. Here in Los Angeles at least two families were instrumental in the incorporation of separate small towns that were manipulated to purchase services from their private companies.

These situations should be a reason for more Americans to be involved in the political system.

Remember the Maine and other Reasons for Starting a War

History has taught us nothing!

Two Americans were beheaded and those acts, as horrible as they are, is about to lead the United States into another war.

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. For some unknown reason, Austria-Hungary believed that Serbia was involved either directly or indirectly. Some people believe that Austria-Hungary was just looking for an excuse to start a war.

“REMEMBER THE MAINE, TO HELL WITH SPAIN!” was the cry after an explosion on that ship caused it to sink with 260 American sailors on board. On April 11, 1898, McKinley asked the Congress for permission to use force in Cuba. To send a message to the rest of the world that the United States was interested in Cuban independence instead of American colonization, Congress passed the TELLER AMENDMENT, which promised that America would not annex the precious islands. After that conscience-clearing measure, American leaders threw caution to the wind and declared open warfare on the Spanish throne.

The Spanish-American War is often referred to as the first “media war.” During the 1890s, journalism that sensationalized—and sometimes even manufactured—dramatic events was a powerful force that helped propel the United States into war with Spain. Led by newspaper owners William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, journalism of the 1890s used melodrama, romance, and hyperbole to sell millions of newspapers–a style that became known as yellow journalism.

The term yellow journalism came from a popular New York World comic called “Hogan’s Alley,” which featured a yellow-dressed character named the “the yellow kid.” Determined to compete with Pulitzer’s World in every way, rival New York Journal owner William Randolph Hearst copied Pulitzer’s sensationalist style and even hired “Hogan’s Alley” artist R.F. Outcault away from the World. In response, Pulitzer commissioned another cartoonist to create a second yellow kid. Soon, the sensationalist press of the 1890s became a competition between the “yellow kids,” and the journalistic style was coined “yellow journalism.”

Hearst created several schemes to spark U.S. intervention. The most well-known involved the imprisonment and release of Cuban prisoner Evangeline Cisneros. With his hand in her dramatic escape, Hearst successfully used publicity to rally U.S. interest for the Cuban struggle.

Perhaps the most famous anecdote surrounding Heart’s zeal for the war involves a legendary communication between illustrator Frederick Remington and Hearst. As the story goes, Remington, who had been sent to Cuba to cover the insurrection, cabled to Hearst that there was no war to cover. Hearst allegedly replied with, “You furnish the pictures. I’ll furnish the war.” More detail here.

Tune in to FOX, CNN, NBC, etc. today and you will see the images and hear the tales of ISIS soldiers now reportedly numbering 30,000 or more that are threatening Syria, Iraq, and adjoining nations with their very existence. “Contractors Ready to Cash In On ISIS War” is an article posted by Eli Lake on THE DAILY BEAST. “Islamic State’s rapid growth caught U.S. by surprise” is a headline of the Los Angeles Times.

Don’t you see how headlines and stories are fanning the flames of war? In the confusion the president calls his plans a war then call it an action against terrorists but not a war. “No boots on the ground” is repeated endlessly. What does that accomplish? Proof that the United States is not getting into another war. – The confusion causes the president’s highest advisers to sometimes say the word “war” and then re-state that we are not going to war.

Even in his Wednesday night speech the president said there is no credible threat on the “homeland.”

When a president has no firm foreign policy he is impacted by the noisiest among us. Prepare for loss of life and other unintended consequences.

Compromise is not a Dirty Word

Some random thoughts.

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The more suggestions the better. At some point in time we will have to reach a compromise. Those that refuse to compromise need to be ignored. Compromise is not a dirty word.

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“Barack Obama believes in government; we believe in you.” This is not what Americans want to hear. Americans want to hear the ways our government will make America more successful. Does “we believe in you” mean we will do nothing to further America? It is a hands off philosophy that would make Ayn Rand proud.

American government has continuously invested in the country. First it was canals and postal roads. Then it was the railroads and building highways. It was America that stood up to the Soviet Union with the Marshall Plan and the G.I. bill that sent our WWII vets back to school. It was America that put a man on the moon.

We don’t want a do nothing government. We want a government that helps lead the country to new successes!

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The median American family income in 2009 was $49,777, not statistically different from the 2008 median according to the U.S. Census Bureau. (Arithmetic Median Definition: Median is the middle of the given numbers or distribution in their ascending order.) The U.S. Census Bureau also reports that 43.6 million people in 2009 were defined as being in poverty.

However over 1% of the population has earnings of more than $250,000 per year. That is more than 3 million people. The GOP obtained extension of Bush income tax cuts for that group. Even worse is capital gains are taxed at 15% while salaries are taxed on a graduated tax scale. Thus a family earning taxable income of $212,300 – $379,150 is in the 33% tax bracket.

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Representative Paul Ryan is the un-Robin Hood.

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On Social Security. As I listen and watch political talk shows it is obvious that politicians do not want to deal with this issue. There are only four possible solutions and even a combination of solutions is too hot for most people.

Raise the retirement age.
Raise taxes.
Lower benefits.
Change the plan to a private investment option that does not guarantee a specific payout.

Since politicians won’t deal with the problem the solution is an independent commission similar to the commission that raised taxes and the retirement age. The National Commission on Social Security Reform, chaired by Alan Greenspan in 1983 was the last time changes were made. The next commission will have to take more drastic measures to ensure the viability of the system.

Some Muslim History

Reflecting on the facts

Just a few things to ponder on a warm summer evening….

– In 732 AD the Muslim Army which was moving on Paris was defeated and turned back at Tours, France, by Charles Martell.

– In 1571 AD the Muslim Army/ Navy was defeated by the Italians and Austrians as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to attack southern Europe in the Battle of Lepanto.

– In 1683 AD the Turkish Muslim Army, attacking Eastern Europe, was finally defeated in the Battle of Vienna by German and Polish Christian Armies.

This crap has been going on for 1,400 years and half of these damn politicians don’t even know it!!! If these battles had not been won we might be speaking Arabic and Christianity could be non – existent;

Judaism certainly would be… And let us not forget that Hitler was an admirer of Islam and that the Mufti of Jerusalem was Hitler’s guest in Berlin and raised Bosnian Muslim SS Divisions: the 13th and 21st Waffen SS Divisions who killed Jews, Russians, Gypsies, and any other “subhumans”.

Reflecting A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.

Pause a moment, reflect back. These events are actual events from history. They really happened!!! Do you remember?

1. In 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male.

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslim males.

3. In 1972 a Pan Am 747 was hijacked and eventually diverted to Cairo where a fuse was lit on final approach, it was blown up shortly after landing by Muslim males.

4. In 1973 a Pan Am 707 was destroyed in Rome, with 33 people killed, when it was attacked with grenades by Muslim males.

5. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim males.

6. During the 1980’s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by Muslim males.

7. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim males.

8. In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim males.

9. In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim males.

10. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim males.

11. In 1993 , the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim males.

12. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim males.

13. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim males.

14. In 2002, the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim males.

15. In 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded by—you guessed it was a— Muslim male.

16. In 2013, Boston Marathon Bombing 4 Innocent people including a child killed, 264 injured by Muslim males.

No, I really don’t see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you?

So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. Absolutely No Profiling! They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President’s security detail, 85-year old, Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males, alone lest they be guilty of profiling.

Have the American people completely lost their Minds, or just their Power of Reason???

Let’s send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Allred and other stupid attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves — if they have any such sense.

As the writer of the award winning story ‘Forrest Gump’ so aptly put it, ‘Stupid Is As Stupid Does’.

Author is unknown

David Bancroft