The day following his veiled meeting with Muslim leaders at the White House, President Obama is trying to find a moral equivalency between radical Islam and Christianity. During the National Prayer Breakfast this morning, Obama reminded attendees that violence rooted in religion isn’t exclusive to Islam, but Christians as well.

“We’ve seen professions of faith used both as an instrument of great good and but also twisted and misused in the name of evil,” the president said. “We also see faith being twisted and distorted, used as a wedge, or worse, sometimes used as a weapon.”

This is exactly what we’re seeing in the Middle East now.

“No God condones terror. No grievance justifies the taking of innocent lives or the oppression of those who are weaker or fewer in number. And so as people of faith, we are summoned to push back against those who try to distort our religion — any religion for their own nihilistic ends,” he said.

Obama must not know about the Protestant Reformation.

“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

Is it any wonder the ‘rumor,’ that Obama is a secret Muslim continues to persist?

The attorney general who’s spent six years turning the Justice Department into a liberal wing of the Democrat Party is off his rocker, claiming he had to clean up a department politicized by the Bush administration.

“You want to look at a Justice Department that’s been politicized; you look at the one I inherited,” claims out-going DOJ Attorney General Eric Holder. “You look at the way in which hiring was done here for political reasons, you look at all the other things we had to deal with to rebuild.”

Talk about rewriting history before the ink is even dry.

President Obama is proposing a 10-year budget he claims stabilizes the federal deficit, instead focusing on supposed income inequality while adding nearly $6 trillion to the debt. Adding $4 trillion for the 2016 fiscal year, his plan will raise taxes on corporations and on the rich.

It increases discretionary spending by $74 billion over what sequestration allows.

Along with a 19-percent minimum tax rate on American corporate profits that are kept overseas, he wants a one-time 14-percent tax rate for companies that bring profits home from overseas. Much of the taxes raised are to go towards funding infrastructure, like roads, bridges, airports, light rail and other public transportation systems.

Many are recalling how well those ‘shovel ready projects’ have worked out for the American worker since 2009.

Meanwhile Obama is now calling for a business income tax overhaul that lowers the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent, and 25 percent for manufacturers. He also is proposing $105 million for “trade adjustment assistance,” and to aid to workers dislocated by free trade deals.

This so-called aid includes child care credits of up to $3,000 per child, increasing Head Start programs, creating universal preschool for all, investing in evidence-based home visiting, and spending $3 billion on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.

He also laid out the price for two ‘free’ years of ‘community college. In the first year it will cost $41 million, but will climb to $951 million by 2017 and $2.4 billion by 2018.  Unfortunately, only 18 percent of students complete their two-year degree within three years.

Finally, the president’s plan includes an increase in the capital gains rate on couples making more than $500,000 per year and requiring estates to pay capital gains taxes on securities at the time they’re inherited.  He also wants to impose a fee on the roughly 100 U.S. financial companies with assets of more than $50 billion.

The best thing about Obama’s budget plan is that he released on time this year.

The hot sting of tears welling up in my eyes was immediate when I read the headline, “Obituary: Walter Charles Woodstock.” I also felt my heart begin to hurt when I realized what it meant.

Walt, as I knew him used to come over to house every evening on his meal-break when he was first assigned to Klamath in 1972 as the town’s newest deputy sheriff. He always sat on my dad’s left side so he could get up from the table if called by the dispatcher.

After dinner, my old man and Walt would sit, talking quietly over coffee while we kids cleaned up the kitchen, clearing the table and loading the dishwasher. I always felt like I was interrupting them when they sat by themselves like this and often wondered what the two men talked about.

It wasn’t until I read Walt’s obituary that I could finally answer that question: “He was a proud Marine during the Korean War…” I didn’t know this about Walt, but it goes along way to resolving my curiosity.

Dad was also a Korean War vet, having been severely injured by an anti-personnel mine he drove over. The blast tore up his knees, killing a man riding in the back of the Jeep.

The two were remembering their youths, their experiences, sharing their thoughts and healing each others emotional wounds. Looking back, I can now understand the sense of humor the pair displayed following those occasions where life was at its worse for most people.

You see, while Walt was a cop, my dad was an ex-cop and the fire chief of our little department north of the Klamath River. When I was older, I’d ride out with him and eventually, we’d see Walt at the same scene, whether it was a car crash, a house fire or a medical emergency.

One evening, I recall Walt limping as he walked up the drive to the house for dinner. During the meal he explained that he had thrown himself on the floor at his residence after a vehicle’s headlights shined through the curtainless sliding glass door of the house.

It was only then that he sheepishly added, “I was naked.”

We all roared. He had a great sense of humor and no worries about making himself the so-called ‘butt-of-the-joke.’

There was also the more serious side of Walt, like the time following my break in at the Morgan’s home to steal a couple of World War II helmets. He came to the house and placed me in handcuffs, seating me in the back of his cruiser.

Walt left me there to stew on what was about to take place, heading back inside the house, I presumed to talk with my parents. By the time he returned, I was a blubbering mass of sorrow, willing to take any punishment offered, as long as it wasn’t a trip to the sheriff’s office and juvenile detention.

When he returned to the Crown-Vic, he opened the door and instructed me to get out. That’s when he gave me the lecture of a life-time in one sentence: “You keep this up Tommy, and one day people won’t be reading about you in the sports section, they’ll be reading your name and seeing your face in the crime-blotter.”

That’s all he said as he spun me around, removed the handcuffs, releasing me to my folks. I recall later that night wishing he’d taken me in, as I think I got the worst butt-whipping of my life, and rightly so.

Following graduation, I joined the Air Force. It was while in Texas attending technical school that Mom wrote me, saying Walt was in the hospital with serious injuries following a nasty traffic accident.

“We’re not sure he’s going to make it. If he does, he may not walk again,” she wrote. “Your father’s pretty upset.”

A few days later, I called home for the third or fourth time, I learned Walt would be okay, but he’d have to retire. News like this travels quickly in a small community like Klamath.

While I never saw Walt following graduation, I never forgot him. In fact I recalled an incident at our home when Walt choked on one of Mom’s cupcakes.

On his way out of the house one evening, he grabbed a couple of cupcakes and shoved one in his mouth. By the time he made it to his cruiser, he had nearly passed out, unable to breathe.

But he managed somehow to gulp down the mouthful, admonishing himself as he climbed in the car, “I got to remember not to stuff my face like that.”

I don’t know if he ever learned that Mom had put a 25-cent piece in the cupcake, if he did, he never let on.

Walt leaves behind his wife Shirley, daughter Karen and her husband Dave, son Troy and grandchildren, Morgan, Leah, Emily, Veranda and Kevin and his wife Sarah, and three great-grandchildren Paul, Elijah and Brody. He was 80-years-old.

Semper Fidelis, Walt.

Senator Harry Reid’s younger brother is in serious trouble with the law. The 73-year-old was arrested by the Nevada Highway Patrol on U.S. 95 near Mile Marker 44 between Boulder City and Searchlight for drunken driving, driving across a median, not wearing a seatbelt, battery of a police officer, and possession of a gun while under the influence.

The arrest continues a rough beginning to 2015 for the longtime lawmaker, who was demoted from majority leader at the start of the new Congress in January. He also sustained broken ribs and broken bones in his face on New Years Day in a so-called ‘exercise accident.’

Senator Reid’s office stated, “Larry Reid is Senator Reid’s brother, and this is a private matter.”

ISIS/ISIL released a video showing Jordanian Lt. pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh being burned alive. The video shows him being doused and surrounded by lines drawn in the sand with flammable liquid, which are then ignited, causing him to burst into flames.

Now, Jordan has executed two convicts, including a female jihadist, following the killing of the pilot. The woman, failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, and al Qaeda operative Ziyad Karboli — both Iraqi nationals — were hanged at dawn.

This is the wrong approach and will lead to greater violence. Instead of going after the terror organization itself, they took the ‘easy route’ by executing the prisoners, which will simply be seen as a ‘revenge killing,’ by all radical Islamists.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Senator leader Harry Reid is back on the Senate floor, a week after surgery to remove a blood clot in his right eye and repair bones in his face.  Reid walked without help to the podium, accepted a handshake from the Majority Leader and thanked his colleagues for their well-wishes.

Meanwhile, back in his home state of Nevada, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is looking into possible corruption after an extortion attempt at the state level. Assemblyman Chris Edwards of Las Vegas claims he was asked to change his vote for Assembly speaker in November.

Detectives served a search warrant at the home of Rob Lauer looking for recordings between Edwards and Lauer, and affidavits and other documents that allege unlawful or unethical actions committed by Edwards. Lauer says police confiscated both his cell phone and computer.

Lauer, a veteran’s advocate, applied for an Assembly seat vacated after Assemblyman Wes Duncan took a position in the state attorney general’s office. Lauer wasn’t selected for the post.

Multiple individuals continue to be questioned including Assemblyman Brent Jones, also of Las Vegas, though it isn’t clear if the visit was related to the probe. So far, no one has been arrested or charged with any crimes.

A decorated veteran with 25-years in the U.S. Navy, Edwards was elected to District 19 after the incumbent Cresent Hardy decided to run for Congress, unseating Congressman Stephen Horsford. Edwards is a part of the moderate wing of the state’s GOP.

After ISIS/ISIL released a video showing terrorists lighting a Jordanian pilot on fire, our president contrasted his death and the destruction of group with the ‘benefits’ of Obamacare, which he claimed makes ‘people healthier’ and ‘their lives better.’

“We’re here to talk about how to make people healthier and make their lives better, and this organization appears only interested in death and destruction,” he said.

Obama’s an out-of-touch nut job!

Patrick Creek Campground is where Patrick Creek and the middle fork of Smith River meet about seven miles east of Gasquet in Del Norte County, California. It is one of the places we used to go on family outings when I was a kid.

The campground has steps, rock walls, restrooms and sunken campfire circles built-in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. There is no electricity, water or sewer hookups making it a rustic place to spend the night.

Dad wasn’t known to wade into cold water above his knees because of injuries sustained in the Korean War; they would begin to ache and swell making walking hard. Also in the water is Deirdre, who appears to be dunking Adam under water.

When Adam turned nine-years-old, he asked to have a party at Patrick Creek. This is him opening one of his presents — a Big Jim Camping Set. I was jealous, because I wanted one too, but at 12, I was too old for such a toy.

This me with an inner-tube in hand on the bank opposite from our campsite. We always camped in the same spot, year-to-year.

Adam was our family’s ‘class clown,’ doing whatever he could to stir-the-pot from imitating John Wayne to threatening to splash whom ever was taking the picture. Nearby is Deirdre, possibly chasing a fish, while Marcy is wondering along the far bank.

Ever the ‘momma-bear,’ Mom is again shouting instructions to one of us kids. (Not me this time as I’m taking the picture.) Maybe it was to Marcy — who may have wondered to far from the campsite.

Eventually, Dad would zone out, fall asleep and snore, sounding like a freight train in a canyon, letting nothing bother him.  No wonder Mom was always hollering at us kids.

How I miss those days.

The idea of net neutrality is that all Internet traffic is equal — whether it’s a movie streaming from Netflix or a Tweet and is to be treated the same by Internet Service Providers (IPS’s.) But a current proposal could allow the federal government to become the gatekeepers of cyberspace.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is expected to recommend regulating Internet service like a public utility. This would reclassify high-speed Internet service as a telecommunications service, instead of an information service, under Title II of the Communications Act .

The change, pushed by President Obama, would give the federal government the authority to make sure that content is not blocked and no so-called pay-to-play fast lanes exist. However Texas Senator Ted Cruz calls the president’s plan, “Obamacare for the Internet.”

That’s because Title II was meant for the bygone era of telephone service monopoly. It wasn’t intended to be applied to services not characterized by monopoly, like Internet access.

Wheeler insists that “a light-touch approach” would be used, instead of directly regulating pricing decisions. He also suggests putting wireless data services under Title II and adding regulations for companies that manage the backbone of the Internet.

One study released in December 2014 shows consumers could pay an extra $84 per year if IPS’s are regulated like public utilities. This is because they would be forced to give to state and federal programs that seek to make sure access to telecommunication services.

A vote on the proposal by the full commission is scheduled for February 26.