The Right Stuff: True intention of Jan. 6 crowd not what’s being said

By Earl Heal

February 14, 2022 | Posted in Local Opinion Columnists While the House Select Committee investigates and the news media pontificates on what 100,000 adults at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had in their minds, let us logically evaluate the facts and compare them to opinions that many are espousing.

President Joe Biden promptly labeled the gathering an insurrection and some have applied that term to the entire crowd in an official House assembly. The media has widely employed a term, “Threat to democracy.”

The Insurrection Act of 1807 was enacted for suppression of civil disorder, insurrection or rebellion and has been invoked 27 times. It provides statutory exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits federal military use for law enforcement. It requires the president to proclaim an order to the insurgents to disperse before invocation. Causes have included a slave rebellion, Civil War, suppression of the Ku Klux Klan, labor disputes, enforcement of desegregation in Alabama and Mississippi and five times for race riots in the 1960s. Alabama’s Democratic governor George Wallace – even when his actions defied the law – was not cast as an “insurrectionist.”[...read more]

The Right Stuff: Has truth left us at altar of political ambition?

By Jim McCully

February 21, 2022 | Posted in Local Opinion Columnists | Western civilization has an undisputed trend toward liberty and freedom resulting in experimentation in democratic governance.

The concept of Democracy as the vehicle toward liberty has been, by and large, in ascendence for a long time. History has witnessed this in war and peace, tyrannical political philosophies from Socialism to Fascism to Communism have arisen and demonstrably failed because of this desire as man’s eternal yearning for liberty remains strong and seemingly fundamental to our nature.

Where is America in 2022? After listening to President Joe Biden’s embarrassing recent press conference in Georgia, frankly, as my father would say, standing in need of prayer. It was sad watching and listening to a man in decline. Far too many of our so-called leaders elected, appointed or too often self-appointed are hyperbolic with mostly useless banter leading to silly behavior. It seems we have come to a point where political discourse has descended into sound and fury signifying little of value.[..read more]

The Right Stuff: You cannot legislate human nature

By Earl Heal

February 07, 2022 | Posted in Local Opinion Columnists | Congratulations, California citizens. Our state Legislature could not find enough supporters on Jan. 31 for the single-payer health care bill, Assembly Bill 1400, to be presented for a vote. It is dead for the year but expect more socialist steps this year.

Gov. Earl Warren began promoting single-payer health care in 1942. The first bill was defeated in 1944. Single-payer bills were passed by the Legislature both in 2006 and 2008 but were vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. We will undoubtedly see it again as most politicians sadly do not learn from history.[..read more]