What's So Hard To Understand?

Let's take a look at the big new stories of late and see if we sense a pattern emerging.

Bengahzi - Our President has recently included the attacks on 9/11/12 as another "phony" scandal. Even though 4 of our finest, including the President's own personal representative, Ambassador Stevens, were murdered that night. But if it was a "phony" scandal,  why did Ambassador Susan Rice announce at the United Nations (and then through the Sunday morning TV news lineup) that this was all a big misunderstanding over a You Tube video.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even consoled the families of the slain soldiers that she personally will get to the bottom of these videos and bring those responsible to justice. Even though we now all know that the video had absolutely nothing at all to do with the attacks that night, the irony is the only person being incarcerated is the guy who shot the stupid video. First amendment rights immediately would be at play here. Except our esteemed justice department arrested him for violating his probation. But so far, not one of the real players have been even approached, much less be arrested.

The big questions don't just stop there. In fact, there have been so many twists and turns that the white House is forced to relocated CIA officials who apparently were there and given regular polygraph exams to keep them silent. Even the Congress can not get the White House to follow any sense protocol in reporting to the House. Of course, as long as the head Republican, Boener is in charge, expect capitulation and back-room (read: Illegal) deals.

But even more complicit in whatever cover-up is being foisted on the American people is the mainstream press, where nary a discouraging word is uttered by the major news outlets. You see, in the America of today, far more attention has been given to the Royal baby, to Alex Rodriguez and to some idiot football player who used the N-word while drunk. Suddenly, no one is watching the White House and no one cares about the finding that there were hundreds of CIA operatives on the ground that night it Benghazi.

As for the media, they are all caught up accusing Republicans of somehow destroying Detroit by by having absolutely no involvement in the city government for over 50 years.

As for Detroit, what's so hard to understand? The city thrived and rested on their good fortunes. Three things combined to turn Detroit into the cesspool it is today. Arrogantly believing that they could produce inferior products without worrying about competition from Asia. But when unions workers were making twice as much as their non-union competition, they could no longer compete on the same level. Before you knew it, more foreign cars were filling up the parking lots around the Ford Motor Company, than domestic.

The second item to kill Detroit was the public sector unions. Once the people realized they could raise taxes to cover the costs of outrageous pensions. Basically borrowing today to pay for everyone's tomorrow. What then soon happened was written in walls. Businesses started fleeing the city in droves to avoid paying higher and higher taxes. This led to point #3 and Mayor Coleman. While Detroit was still salvageable, rather than embrace the suburbs as an extension of the far more cosmopolitan city, he forged battles along racial lines. The animosity between the Mayor and the suburban became such a point of contention that when the city of Pontiac built the Silverdome, legend has it Young threatened to pull the name "Detroit" unless "fees were paid."

Slowly, the white flight out of Detroit picked up steam. As successful businesses moved north of 8 Mile, there was nothing left to replace it. So more tax revenue left the city. What replaced it was government jobs. But the pool of money to pay these workers was getting thinner and thinner. In addition, for the past 30 years, the Detroit School System had been at best a failure of epic proportions. Attendance in some classes was less than 10%. The gangsta culture was far more tempting and as the urban family units began to crumble, more and more teenagers turned to the only place they could to hit it big - drugs and violence. Going back to school was way uncool. Sadly, this lack of a discernable education permeates through even the adult population of Detroit, where unbelievably, The president of the Detroit school board, Otis Mathis is a functioning illiterate.

When you combine these issues - corrupt cronyism, lackluster product, obscenely high taxation and reverse discrimination, you have a recipe for disaster. No one can honestly say they didn't see it coming. And no one wants to be the one to pull the plug. Unfortunately, we are cursed with weak leaders with are more concerned with how things appear over how they can be fixed.

Of course, the same can be said for the Benghazi scandal. Hillary Clinton said it best when she proclaimed "What difference does it make?" As far as our "leaders" are concerned, the only thing that matters is perception. How can we place the blame of those damn Republicans? How can we blame some obscure video? What difference does any of it make? After all American voters are far more interested in the royal baby, or some what guy using a word that many people find offensive. If offense is the reason to destroy someone for using a word, I can come up with a whole bunch of words that insult me pretty badly, too.

And you know what? I am willing to bet that more than 80% of the people who heard that word could basically care less. But in order to appear insulted or damaged they gave the impression that it the main thing. There was a time not to long ago where the mantra was "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." I wonder who it was who won the first law suit because they got hurt by words?