Previously I wrote about Travis Bishop, the proprietor of the gun shop in Martinsburg that reported an alleged attempted straw purchase of a firearm - in violation of federal law. In the column I noted that local television station, NBC affiliate WHAG based in Hagerstown Maryland had not responded to an invitation to cover the story and according to Bishop were not interested in covering the story. I had reached out to WHAG to get their input for my column and had not heard from them prior to my deadline to submit my column to the Spirit.

Subsequently, WHAG responded to me and also covered the story. This is a good thing. However, Bishop feels that the station’s coverage left out an important aspect of the story. I would be inclined to agree. Bishop followed the law and reported an alleged straw purchase of a firearm - a violation of federal law - leading to the arrest of those involved. However, the alleged perpetrator was released from custody by authorities without being charged with that offense and is now at large. This was never mentioned in the WHAG story. As such, in my humble opinion, the story missed the point.

Having set the record straight in that regard, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year. As 2016 arrives, I believe that we are confronted with a society where there are precious few things on which we can all agree. It used to be that folks on opposite ends of the political spectrum could find some common ground.

And on that note, I’ve finally found some common ground with Bernie Sanders. According to a recent headline, “Bernie Sanders: We Need A ‘Full And Independent Audit’ Of The Federal Reserve”, quoting from an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times. From Sanders, “What went wrong at the Fed? The chief executives of some of the largest banks in America are allowed to serve on its boards. During the Wall Street crisis of 2007, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, served on the New York Fed’s board of directors while his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed. Next year, four of the 12 presidents at the regional Federal Reserve Banks will be former executives from one firm: Goldman Sachs.” It’s actually worse than that - it’s 4 out of the 5 five voting members of the Fed Board of Governors are from Goldman Sachs.

In addition Bernie says, “Unfortunately, an institution that was created to serve all Americans has been hijacked by the very bankers it regulates”. Imagine that. Bernie, your naiveté is showing - or you’re deliberately acting as such. Firstly, regulatory bodies are always hijacked by the industries they regulate rendering them not only useless, but working against the very interests they are supposed to serve. However, with regard to the Fed, it was created to serve its shareholders and good luck Google-ing that. I can’t find a list of the shareholders of the Fed. That’s one of the reasons why the audit is necessary. The Federal Reserve is not owned by the US Government - it is owned by shareholders that are currently secret - although it is allegedly the banks that it does business with and is supposed to “regulate”. You can’t make this stuff up.

On to another matter that can’t be made up. Ami Horowitz recently wandered around the campus of Yale University and in less than an hour got 50 people to sign a petition to repeal the First Amendment of the Constitution. The First Amendment is the one that affirms freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and, yes, freedom to petition the government. Really. This is at Yale. That video has gone viral on the internet. How much does one have to go into debt to get an “ivy league” education at Yale - the alma mater of five US presidents?

Then there was a recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP). One of the questions: “Would you support or oppose the bombing of Agrabah?” According to the poll, 30% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats would support the bombing of Agrabah. By the way PPP is notorious for exploiting “less informed Republican voters”. However, they also found that 66% of young Democrats (18-34), you know, a “key constituency of President Obama”, according to one analysis, supported accepting refugees from Agrabah. That’s right, two thirds of young Democrats supported taking in refugees from Agrabah. The problem is that Agrabah is a fictional city from the Disney movie Alladin.

So, the young Democrats - those most likely to have seen the Disney movie Alladin (I admit it - I haven’t seen it), along with other older participants in the poll, although unaware that Agrabah is a fictional place - weren’t shy about voicing an opinion regarding national policy with regard thereto. It begs the question articulated by one analyst, “And you wonder why things are the way they are?” I don’t and I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

So that brings us to the current state of education - the reason why citizens support bombing places they’ve never even heard of - or advocate repealing the First Amendment. Here in West Virginia we’re wondering if we’ve been lied to (I don’t wonder at all). According to Sandra Stotsky in Education News: “In December 2015, the West Virginia board of education adopted supposedly new standards for the state in a vote publicized as a rejection of Common Core’s standards. Earlier, parent and attorney David Delk had commented: ‘It is disappointing that the West Virginia Department of Education cannot be honest with parents and just admit that the [new] College and Career Readiness standards are Common Core 2.0’ “.

There’s more. According to the Associated Press, “A new West Virginia commission’s discussions of possibly changing standardized testing won’t be public”, as reported by NPR. It continues, “Michael Martirano has formed a commission to study and suggest changes to end-of-year standardized testing”. State education officials say the meetings of the 25-member commission won’t be open to the media or to the wider public.

So much for Martirano. No transparency and to add insult to injury, we’re being told that Agrabah exists. Happy New Year one and all. The more things change, they more they stay the same.