message from an ugly conservative

Please allow me just a moment to intrude into the “territory" of Robert J. Westwood and The Desert Sun. The Morongo Valley is my territory but I picked up the March 10 Desert Sun opinion page to ease the wait in our hospital lobby.  The Desert Sun is for sale up here but I can’t be bothered for the vast majority of newspapers nationwide are political propaganda sheets for the so called progressive politics from the left. Accordingly, all of the comments from the readers of the Desert Sun were supportive of Mr. Westwood and his article in the Valley Voice.

Mr. Westwood, you are a progressive far left Democrat and you have a right to your bully pulpit.  This is, however, America. You do not have the right to deny the bully pulpit to those ugly conservatives.  The Ritz Carlton surely has a better financial bottom line because they hosted those ugly conservatives and is that not to the benefit of your advertised less than wealthy taxpayers and readers?

All of the issues that you list as conservative ugliness are sacred to a majority of middle of the road Americans.  Which is worse, the Koch brothers or the Clintons?  At least the Koch brothers are out there creating jobs for people, Democrat and Republican.  Your article is a tired list of far left Democratic talking points each having a deceitful twist.  I would very much enjoy the opportunity to point out your deceiving ways, anytime.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      .

Whose the Judge?

The worst fate in life is to be ignored, so Mr. Freter, you have my thanks for your opinion letter of February 21, offered in response to my letter in the February 18 edition of the Hi Desert Star.  This is America and each of us has the right to be wrong. is it you or I?  From my Lander’s sand box, I am willing to let the readers of HDS be the judge as to which words were shared in the best interest of the greatest country on earth, Israel being a close second.  By the way, thank you for the HDS abbreviation, which I shall use in the future.  

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

The new legal illegals

Re: “Within the law”  (Richard Boyd)

Thank you Mr. Boyd for your attaboy of November 30, Daily Press.  While we can all agree that the president’s action is not amnesty, as you narrowly define it, you do agree with most Americans that it is a path to citizenship. It is an illegal path to citizenship given to a large group of people without congressional action.  There is no law giving the president the authority for this give away and is therefore not within the law.  I repeat, it is a criminally illegal action by the President of the United States.  We are being ruled over as in a banana republic, for shame!

You site the actions of Reagan and Bush but America is tired of this repeated distortion.  You know and we know that their actions were small fixes to legislation that was passed by Congress.  Why can you not accept the obvious?  You claim that the new legal illegals will not be voting but they will have Social Security cards and drivers licenses, how stupid do you think we are?  You claim that the house will not act on immigration and this is another distortion.  The House has sent legislation to the Senate but Harry Reid and the President don’t like the step by step approach to immigration reform. It is the presidents way or the highway, sounds like a dictatorship to me.

One might ask as I do of you, who is the real liar?

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.

Moses and the Movies

In my blog posting of August 28, 2010, “Holy Moses Wash”, an attempt was made to identify and evaluate the biblical record of the life of Moses.  This blog posting has been the most often searched out opinion of my writing experiment.  It has been viewed 764 times out of 11,513 hits over the last five years.  These are not very impressive numbers but almost every week there is a hit on this posting indicating, at least to me, that there is some interest out there in Moses.  Another biblical epic and Hollywood movie is about to hit the big screen to tell the story of Moses.  Who was this man, Moses, a humble savior of his people who followed the voice of God or a morally blinded killer who terrorized his enemies in the name of religion?  Could not Moses have been both, both a model spirit for us and a life warning?

Christian Bale, the actor who is Moses in the movie, is seemingly correct when he considers Moses a schizophrenic personality.  Moses in life earned both our admiration and our condemnation.  You will hear little about the second terrorist Moses in your Church because mass murder is not a particularly uplifting narrative.  Conversely, my expectation is that you will not fully hear of the first Moses, the divinely lead humble servant of the voice of God in the upcoming movie, “Exodus, Gods and Kings”.  Hollywood will attempt to nullify the power of the first Moses and demonize all peoples of faith by demonizing the second Moses.  Both understandings of Moses, that of the Church and that of Hollywood, are in error and amount to kinder garden stuff.

The question that should be asked of the movie and the biblical narrative is whether Moses had a psychological or a spiritual impairment.  The movie will say that the story is about the psyche of Moses but allow me to argue for the latter, the spiritual understanding of the man.  The central starring character in the biblical narrative is not Moses but God, the divine reality who rules the heavens and the earth.  As long as Moses was a humble servant of the voice of God, God took actions to defeat the Egyptian power grabbing God imposter, Pharaoh.  Moses got into trouble when he got in the way of God and also became a power grabber and like Moses we humans are cursed with a like desire to be the man, the up front game changer, the one to make a spectacular impression upon this world.

As a young man, Moses tried to bring change his way, the human way, with violence and killing.  The news got out and he fled in fear into the desert and decades of isolation from his God and his people.  Moses slowly yielded, let go of his plans and just listened.  Surprise, surprise, God took action as the central character in the rescue of the called out people of Palestine, the people of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  When Moses stood before Pharaoh it was always, “God said, let my people go!”  It was not a request but Moses had no earthly power to enforce the demand of God.  Pharaoh laughed.  It is a grand story worthy to be told over and over again, the movie is therefore welcomed but no matter how good may be the movie, the movie will not do the events justice.

The Bible comes out the winner in the realm of storytelling for it preserves the whole story, the good, the bad and the ugly, so that we can make a truly informed life decision.   As for the movie, one can always hope.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.

Hillary Hype

The Democrats reduce their politics to only one criteria for the Oval Office, the next president must be female.  Forget about leadership ability, honesty, accountability and a successful track record serving the people, the next president must be a she.  Since Hillary Clinton is the only she that has any semblance of name recognition in the Democratic party, this she will be their woman in 2016.  According to the ladies, America owes her the honor because the Democrats rejected her in 2008 and this country is long overdue to elect a woman to be president.

The emotional hype is so strong that any woman will do as was the case in 2008 when the hype was any black man will do, newspaper press don’t ask anything else of him, how has that worked out America?

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

Water Panic

California is going into panic mode for a lack of water.  The current three year drought is the third worst in over 100 years of California history and we all must be concerned.  The bad news is that the water shortage has reached critical mass and Governor Brown is correct to sound the alert by enforcing prudent conservation practices.  The fact that California is water fragile is no surprise, our history has had cycles of conflict with the water poor taking from the water rich to ensure water solvency for the large metropolitan populations.  This drought is different, this drought is first of all about the rapidly wilting central valley agricultural economy that is making conservation practices necessary in our large water districts.  (120)

The good news is that every recurring water crisis is a cyclical event, as is the weather.  This crisis will resolve with the good fortune of rain or the state will implode to limp along into an uncertain future.  The weather will change at some point and some weather outlets are forecasting that this may be an exceptional El Nino year.  Because we have been here before, we the people must not panic by enacting self imposed bad policy, policy that only reduces the anxiety of our situation without resolving the crisis.   (92)

Almost all of our politicians in Sacramento have united to put a  7.545 billion dollar bond issue on the November ballot for a vote by the people, claiming that it will resolve the water crisis.  It is a thirty year bond or loan that will be paid off from tax revenues from the general fund estimated to cost all of us over $500 million dollars a year, let me repeat, for thirty years.  Autumn Carter in the June 11 issue of California Common Sense, points out that the yearly revenue instability of California is a result of our state’s tax structure which is based on personal income.  Revenue is up the last few years only because of stock market profits and no one believes this revenue stream will last thirty years.  What if there is no rain in the next few years and the state experiences a decided and tragic downturn, what if more and more of our wealthy taxpayers move out of state because of liberal tax politics, who will make those 500 million dollars mortgage payments?  (176)

The bond issue is a wise commitment and sacrifice if it actually solves the water crisis.  Every voter, before the vote, should take a quick glance at the high points of the bond issue and ask themselves if this bond issue is a resolution of our crisis or an anxiety fix?  It seems to be the opinion of everyone that this bond will not make this water shortage go away, nor will it greatly improve our long range water availability.  How do we know?  We know by the silence of our politicians and their water people who, to date, will not defend the bond issue against criticism.  The silence is because the various water entities, special districts large and small, are afraid of offending their political enablers.  It is in their best interest to go along to get along.  (130)

Very simply the bond provides $2.7 billions for the construction of two reservoirs to service the central valley.  These are worthy projects but they will not be in service for ten years and are subject to the inevitable cost overruns.   Why should all Californians pay for these reservoirs that will only service the central valley and the agrarian economy?  Also, there are other multibillion dollar water construction projects that will be left blowing in the wind.  The remaining 4.85 billion dollars could become a huge slush fund to be distributed by politicians to benefit their political sympathizers.  To whom the billions are directed will be a decision made in Sacramento regardless of what the general plan may say, shall we again trust our politicians?  (118)

The answer is no on the bond issue.  (9)

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

Anti-semitism

The editorial staff of the Hi Desert star claims that editorial cartoons do not represent the views of your newspaper.  As a short term resident of Landers and new subscriber to your newspaper, I would like to believe you.  Your argument is not unlike every other newspaper that cowardly hides liberal racist and anti-Semitic bullying behind such disclaimers.  The cartoon in question is in the Saturday, July 12, 2014 issue of the Hi-Desert Star, a cartoon by Mike Luckovich.

What is with the cliff?  Are the Jewish people not entitled or deserving of self defense?  Are they obligated to accept the rein of rocket terror from Gaza as a condition of U.S. aid?  The Jewish government will defend it’s people regardless of the cost or any supposed cliff, that kind of government ought to be respected by all fair minded newspapers.  The principle would be respected by we the people if our government was so moved.

The question can only be answered over time, do you also print cartoons that speak the truth?   As a newspaper, do you present the whole story?  I shall be watching.

G.Goslaw
From the Sandbox

1984

So what is wrong with Obama’s America?  Our layered politics is in control of everything in our daily lives. Politics has always been a factor in every moment of our history but in today’s America, politics has it's sticky fingers on our economic system, our legal system and our foreign relations.  Obamacare, better known as the Unaffordable Act, has captured 1/6th of our economy and is debilitating the rest.  Eric Holder and his selective enforcement of our laws has made legal regress a joke.  The badmouthing of America by this president has emboldened the bullies of the world to push aside democracies and give terrorists license to kill.  Our privacy rights, both foreign and domestic, are no more, courtesy of the NSA, CIA, IRS and the FBI.  All the forces of government are marshaled to exact richly deserved punishment upon all the internal political enemies of the state.  We are in the world of 1984.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

Dear Bernie Goldberg,

This is a correction, if you please, and even if you don’t.  Nothing in scripture is ignorant!  There are only ignorant people who expand the words of scripture to say ignorant things.  You sir are so simple minded as to blame it on the Bible.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.

Fox News

Fox News is going to the Duck’s, give us a break , please!  Your occasional listeners may not have heard Phil’s family story but we regular listeners are getting all ducked out.  The condemning I Corinthian passage in question is the only such threat in scripture, what about the rest of the Bible?  We are not all fundamentalist thinkers who regurgitate an understanding about God that is wrong, destructive and worst of all mere, culture speak.

Phil has the right to define God in any way he wants and we all support his right to regurgitation, even as we disagree with his exclusive message.  Fox News, what  is your interest in manipulating the divide amongst believers?  Is this a free speech issue or is your primary interest to sinfully entertain your audience?  Thanks.

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.

The O'Reily factor

Mr. O'Reily is bending over to political correctness in his old age.  His book, “Killing Jesus”, is the latest case in point.  The book is not worth the reading or the buying because of a spinning of the facts surrounding the death of Jesus.  The authors have once again regurgitated the Roman hypothesis.  Mr. O'Reily will counter that his book is a history not religion, how convenient!

There is limited documented history about Jesus so what are their sources?  The story can not be told without the Bible as a primary source.  As so many do, one would have to pick and chose to conclude that the Romans killed Jesus.  If your going to use the Bible at all, tell the entire biblical account, Mr. O'Reily.

Yes, the Romans authorities pulled the trigger to kill Jesus but it would never have happened if the powers of religion had not insisted that the Romans do the deed.  Jesus was ignoring the religious leaders in Jerusalem and their control of the people was being diminished.  The Jewish religious authorities insisted and then threatened the Romans with civil unrest in order to have Jesus crucified.

How can you leave that part out, Mr. O'Reily?  Could it be that you are afraid of offending our Jewish brothers?  You are becoming the sultan of spin!

(this is a response to comments by Mr. O'Reily on his show, I have not and will not buy or read the book)

G.Goslaw
Landers, CA  

Leadership in 2013

Politicians and preachers promote themselves to be leaders but they first parrot the priorities of their own choirs.  The choirs are a depository of a particular group think.  In both the political realm and the church realm, each depository will raise up their own champions to challenge the supposed misguided adventures of the other group think depositories.  These champions have certain charismatic qualities that make this internal warfare seem more winnable.  Leadership, then, is reduced to the smaller battles instead of the corporate needs of all the people.  There is no Christian leadership as there is no national leadership.  This stagnation of leadership has never been this debilitating, never have the internal battle lines been so clearly drawn.  So where is the hope for all of us in 2013?

G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca

Marriage

Letter to the Editor

Daily Press

Victorville, Ca

Some of us also love and depend on the dictionary but occasionally we miss the full meaning of a word. Mr. Gray, you have done so in your opinion of August 1, entitled “Semantics and marriage”. For fear of beating a dead horse, the fourth definition of marriage offered in my dictionary (Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language) reads, “Any close or intimate union”. Even the definition of “marry” has a broad context, number three states, “to join closely or intimately, unite”.

Every dictionary is a document of past verbal usage and therefore is never fully up to speed with the immediate culture. Thankfully, in today’s culture homosexuality is less a dirty word to be hidden from the children (in most cases), it is more a word that describes the few in every culture, past and present.

The common but sexist usage from the past is in my dictionary but to it’s credit there is an allowance for a definition that includes gay marriage. Your dictionary must have been written by a Neanderthal.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca

Questions and Answers

Publisher, Stephan Wingert
Editor, Don Holland
VV Daily Press
Victorville, Ca. 92393

September 2, 2009

Gentlemen:

This regular reader of your newspaper is informing you of my dissatisfaction with your newspaper. Possibly other readers have a similar complaint. You should ask, why are our efforts being ignored? Your paper is in financial distress, why? For any media to navigate these changing times has to be difficult. It is my belief that it would be more prudent to examine the editorial policy than to remain content to blame the stressors.

The problem is that there is very little follow up coverage of happenings that matter to your on the street readers. Your reporters do an excellent initial story but many probable reader questions are left dangling and unanswered. We do care to know the answers. Keeping your readership better informed long term with appropriate story follow up would seem to be fundamental to a win, win for the paper. Please, let me be specific.

Spring Valley Lake Politics
Your coverage of SVL politics is very superficial. An article about a petition drive, a fight on the beach, possible financial mismanagement but no ongoing follow up. This reader and resident was in attendance at a recent meeting with the new accounting firm. The presenter asked if the Daily Press was represented but your newspaper didn’t show. The new accountant says that he is not responsible for the past system. We were given to believe or allowed to assume the opposite by management. When will an independent audit happen? Will the SVL assessment payers ever know if their funds were stolen? Where does the current board stand on full disclosure and how responsible are they for the ambiguity? What is being hid?

Spring Valley Lake Crime
The security budget for SVL continues to skyrocket all because of crime. Management and the board will use such fears as justification for even more increases. Your newspaper has reported on two invasion robberies in SVL in the last three months, three overall. In these cases security was impotent. The fight on the beach at SVL was reported without appropriate questions being asked. Again, security was unable to keep the peace. What is the root cause of these incidents? Were the people involved property owners or tenants? What was the motive for the robbery, to steal a few guns or drugs again? These are the questions your reporters should be dogging the sheriff to confirm. The answer is of critical importance to we property owners.

Accidents ?
On July 20, 2009, a non accident occurred on Bear Valley Road, taking the life of a Victorville innocent woman. Highway accident fatalities are not a rare occurrence in the high desert, we all assume as drivers that there is a risk. However this case is blatantly criminal regardless of the excuse. Your newspaper to this date has made no attempt to keep your readers up to speed on the investigation. Is murder by suburban just a youthful indiscretion? Was the young man a legal resident? Did he have a driver’s license and insurance? Was the suburban registered and to whom? Will your paper ever report upon the ongoing investigation? The answer to all these questions would increase the level of involvement in your readership and your reader’s want some answers.

This reader attempts to be a realist. The complaint is a long standing issue with your paper and positive change is probably wishful thinking. Does your editorial policy cozy up to police and political influences? Are you trembling for fear of a lawsuit? You bucked the system with the exposes of financial mismanagement in Victorville. Your readers expect more consistency. At least this one reader, has gone on the record.

G.Goslaw

Religion Page

Mr. Don Holland
Editor
The Daily Press
Victorville, Ca. 92393

May 19, 2009

Dear Sir:

Please forgive me if this letter is somehow inappropriate but as a faithful reader of your newspaper, I wish to share a long held concern. The concern is the Religion page. This page is the focus of my Saturday AM start and potentially that of all your readers.

The Religion page has gotten progressively more anemic and uninteresting over the years. The wasted potential is difficult for this reader to comprehend so I felt it necessary to at least express my dissatisfaction. Please allow me to make the following positive statements.

A newspaper Religion page should be inclusive. A single constituency directive is a turnoff for wider readership. Such a limited scope is what the church world knows as “preaching to the choir”. Should a newspaper focus upon peddling such feel goodies? No, Sunday AM is the appropriate time for such communication.

A newspaper Religion page should be about sharing. The possibilities for this sharing about God are incalculable. Even the opinion that we are alone in the galaxies is to be respected. What does religion have to say to the current culture? All input should be solicited and valued, then the readers can make their own conclusions.

A newspaper Religion page should present a mix of perspectives. The wisdom of the professional theologian with assigned status and educational degrees is only one perspective. Let’s also listen to the elderly, quiet little lady in the second pew who has weathered a multiplicity of life experiences. What wisdom have you, young lady, received from God on your journey? Both perspectives should be encouraged to speak.

Your newspaper must have “other” priorities that allows management to settle for a lesser Religion page. Possibly, this page’s weakness is industry wide. Probably, I am the only reader dissatisfied. Certainly, I am not qualified to judge your efforts at the business of publishing.

From this layman’s perspective, the purpose of this letter is to be positive and I apologize if this unsolicited feedback seems super critical. Thank you for the Daily Press’s pivotal role in my life and the life of all your readers.

Sincerely Yours,
G.Goslaw
Victorville, Ca. ( This letter has engendered no response)