It is the city's duty to ask why. How do we know our current form (of government) is the best option for our city? If not, what documentation provides the most appropriate form of government our city should adopt?

The eighth edition of the Model City Charter (from the National Civic League Inc.) states, "Back in 1944, on the occasion of the National Civic League's 50th anniversary, Harold Dodds, then president of Princeton University and a former executive director and president of the National Municipal League, described the purpose of a model as being … to set patterns clearly and specifically, delineating the best practice and the best thought on a problem, to correct existing defects, to set high standards which provide something to fight for instead of against … the model laws brought stability, dignity and scientific fact to 'reform.'"

So, what are the facts?

According to the Florida League of Cities (as of September 2016), there are four options that the city of Crestview can undertake and a fifth hybrid of any of the four options: 

• Council-manager, 66 percent, 272 cities
• Council-strong mayor, 12 percent, 49 cities
• Council-weak mayor, 20.5 percent, 85 cities
• Commission, 1.0 percent, four cities
• Hybrid, 0.5 percent, two cities 

We are among the 20.5 percent or 85 cities within Florida running a council-weak mayor form of government. A closer look at the data provided by the Florida League of Cities reveals that of the 85 cities running a council-weak mayor form of government, the populations are 5,000 or less.

According to The Florida Municipal Official's Manual, a publication of the Florida League of Cities with the assistance of the John Scott Dailey Florida Institute of Government: "The council-manager form plan has been especially attractive to small- and medium-sized localities. It is used in a majority of American municipalities with populations of 25,000 to 250,000 … The most common form of city government in Florida today is the council-manager form.

“A second common form, found in many smaller municipalities, is the council-weak mayor form. In Florida, in recent years, most changes of municipal government form have been from some other form to the council-manager form.

"Approximately 270 Florida cities (out of more than 400) have a position of manager or a similar position, such as ‘administrator.’ In all Florida cities, members of the council or commission are elected by the voters of the city. The mayor may be simply a member of the council, elected by the council to serve as mayor; may be a separate office (that is, not a member of the council) or elected by the people. Certain administrative positions are filled by elections in a few cities. These include the offices of clerk, police chief and fire chief."

Under the eighth edition of the Model City Charter, the following alternatives are provided under the model as it relates to the council and mayor.

• Council elected at large; mayor elected by the council
• Council elected at large; mayor elected separately
• Council elected at large with district residency requirement; mayor elected by the council
• Council elected at large with district residency requirement; mayor elected separately
• Mixed at-large and single-member district system; mayor elected by the council
• Mixed at-large and single-member district system; mayor elected separately
• Single-member district system 

Additionally, Section 2.03. Mayor (states):

(a) Powers and Duties.

(b) Election — Alternative I — Mayor Elected by the Council

     Alternative II — Mayor Elected At Large 

To reiterate, The Florida Municipal Official's Manual does notate certain administrative positions are filled by elections in a few cities. These include the offices of clerk, police chief and fire chief. The eighth edition of the Model City Charter notates, "Section 2.08. City Clerk.

"The city council or the city manager shall appoint an officer of the city who shall have the title of city clerk. The city clerk shall give notice of council meetings to its members and the public, keep the journal of its proceedings and perform such other duties as are assigned by this charter or by the council or by state law."

If The Florida Municipal Official's Manual notates a variation of The Eighth Edition of the Model City Charter where administrative positions are filled by elections in a few cities, why was the council-manager form of government presented at the town hall meeting utilized where the city clerk is not appointed by the city council or city manager?

Why are we deviating from the standard best practice with regards to reform for our city?

My position as a resident of Crestview is that the city put into place the Model City Charter as referenced with the Florida League of Cities and by The Model City Charter, 8th Edition, National Civic League. In addition, any variations to such an alternative should not be disbursed as common practice or methodology to the public.

Additional research with The Florida League of Cities also found that the information being disseminated to the population of the city of Crestview is inaccurate with regards to implementation of this possible government change. Formation of a new city model will not require the terms of those in elected positions to be completed to the end of their elected term. (Terms) can end immediately upon adoption of the new city model or a transition period can be adopted where the new form phases in for a small period of time while the old phases out.

At this time, I would request the City Council to bring Ms. Lynn Tipton, director, FLC University, to come and speak to the council and the citizens to ensure the most accurate information is being given to our city and that we are all being properly educated for the benefit of the city progressing in a continued positive direction.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview residents need accurate information on government structure

A dear friend of mine died this week after about three years battling cancer.

He had surgery, chemotherapy and spent extensive amounts of time at a famous cancer hospital in Houston, Texas. Medically, he did everything he could possibly do to beat cancer. Physically, he gave everything he had to beat cancer. Spiritually and emotionally, he gave everything he could possibly give to beat cancer. He wanted to live but it didn't work out.

Fifty-four is a young age to die.

Paul Schmidt was a wonderful Christian man, pastor and loved by hundreds and probably thousands. When someone is so loved, lives such a good life and does much to help other people, it seems harshly unfair for his life to end so quickly.

Another pastor friend of mine was looking forward to retirement but after battling cancer for about three years my friend Bob died an early death as well. He was just 63.

My sister's daughter, Cindy, died at the age of 53. She fought type 1 diabetes almost her entire life. After a kidney transplant and years of medical treatments and hospital stays, she eventually wound up with cancer that overtook her young body.

Good people such as these are reminders of the brevity of life and that each day is a gift. Little children die, babies often never make it a day and young adult and middle-aged adults are taken from us in the prime of life.

None of us were guaranteed a hundred years of life when we were born. We hear about centenarians, and may even know some, but even in this day and time living to be a hundred is a far stretch.

People of faith think about a life beyond this life and teach about being ready for better days beyond the grave. The problem is that it's impossible to know exactly what is beyond the grave. While many believe death is the end of everything, even a few atheists hope there is something to look forward to.

If you are a Christian, you look to the Bible and the very small and few nuggets of information promised about the other side. Other religions point to other books and understandings about the afterlife.

One thing is for sure: death comes to all. Another thing for sure is going to church every Sunday and being an A-plus person with a deep sincere faith does not guarantee longevity.

My wife and I joke about a relative of ours who lived to be 95. He was a character. He wasn't a bad person. He was just a little ornery. I don't think that being ornery adds years to anybody's life but sometimes it does seem like it works out that way.

Although I take it back because a lady lives down the road from me and is 95 years young and she is almost like a saint to us. She lives clean, works hard and is just a good devout person of faith.

Life is short and we all say goodbye at least in this world. Young people, old people and all people leave life by disease, tragedy and sometimes simply old age.

My only point is we should make the best of today. Smell the roses. Hug people and do some good along the way. Every day is a gift and never a guarantee.

Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Every day is a gift — make it count

A Pew Research Center study confirmed what most of us already knew.  More Millennials (those born after 1982), around 35 percent, are living with their parents rather than alone or with a partner. You’ve heard of “empty nest syndrome.”  We now suffer from full basement syndrome. 

The poll, showing that 26 percent of even college grads move back home, was confirmed recently by USA Today. 

There are only two ways you can look at this: We have raised (1) a bunch of dependent wussies, incapable of self-reliance, or (2) a generation of kids too afraid to ask their parents for rent money. Neither one is good. 

The Pew study went on to conclude that fewer young people are married than in the past. Even accounting for the increased popularity of cohabitation, there are just fewer 20-somethings and 30-somethings shacking up than there used to be. Millennials cannot decide who they want to stare at their iPhones with for the rest of their lives. 

Delayed marriage may be also driven by the decline of religion among  Facebook/Twitter-obsessed Millennials. Kids may not think as much of Christ because he had only twelve followers. 

Of course, there are exceptions, but essentially we have raised a group of self-important pansies who need “safe places” if they hear any comments they don’t like and “trigger warnings” to help them brace for anything that does not fit their narrative. They are taught to feel, not think. Their trajectory is not good for the country. 

How and when did this happen? It might have started about the time we started printing those “My Child is an Honors Student at Teach to the Mean Elementary” bumper stickers. Sadly, our leftist education system has left our kids not only unappreciative of American exceptionalism but unprepared for life. 

Capitalism, which they disdain, has created incredible technologies that make life easy and 200 cable TV stations at the ready for them. We did not have it so good when I was young. I had to get up off the couch and fight my way through ten yards of shag carpet to change the channel on our TV to one of the two other channels. Then I had to rake the shag carpet on the way back because my mother told me to. 

Having been told their whole lives about all the things they "deserve,"  Millennials' expectations are out of line. There is an unmet sense of entitlement in this generation which disappoints and angers them. Health care became a right, while free speech is something that they can decide to allow — or not. 

Most are still on their parents’ Netflix account, which a judge recently ruled cannot legally be shared by its owner. So heads up, Millennials: If you don’t get your way, there has never been a better time than now to send your parents to prison. 

These kids could make more money if they could find a way to turn always being offended into a money-making proposition. Once college professors put a chip on your shoulder, the anger against any slight — real or imagined — colors your life and outlook. 

So our snowflake kids come out of college with some silly liberal arts degree and $50k in student loan debt their loan shark government put on them. They have few skills employers are looking for and a hard-to-please attitude. ObamaCare lets them stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26. Another poll that might astound you: 18-year-old members of the Greatest Generation died on the beaches of Normandy, but this group, when asked, said they thought the average age of reaching adulthood is 26. 

With all this student loan debt and being often unemployable, Millennials are not contributing as much to the economy in the form of spending, resulting in our sluggish economy. Most of their net worth is tied up in their tattoos. Economists predict that Millennials will eventually surpass the spending power of both Elton John and Michael Jackson by 2023. 

They say they don’t spend on things for themselves, but rather on experiences like concerts, where they post selfies constantly. On the bright side, many of these concerts are outdoors. Their selfie-sticks serve nicely as lightning rods, which could thin their ranks over time. 

Ron Hart, a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, is a frequent guest on CNN. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Millennials' lack of preparedness hurts economy

Ah, Crestview Rocks: AKA the new Pokémon Go! sweeping the Hub City, only better.

This new craze involves smartphones but only to the extent of people taking pictures of what they have found (and displaying them) on social media as opposed to having their eyes diverted from the basic function of looking both ways before crossing the street.

It has the same positive impact on the community as the previous craze, leading people to discover places in Crestview they might otherwise have never gone to — especially on Main Street.

Crestview Rocks surpasses Pokémon Go! in the sense that it’s something that every age group can enjoy and of which they can take part.

Families and friends get together in the evening to paint rocks to be discovered and admired by those who jovially participate in the hobby, and it brings out their creative juices.

Crestview Rocks is another way for businesses to get discovered, and it gives people another reason to go outside to get their much needed — and often neglected — dose of vitamin D.

Of course, with all the positive vibes that this newly beloved hobby attracts, some people just want to watch the world burn.

Unfortunately, there are some in our fair city who feel the overwhelming need to literally trash the joy that Crestview Rocks brings to the people who just want something to enjoy in a city that has little else to offer entertainment-wise.

Now, an interesting aspect of our budding city is that it still has the small-town, everybody-knows-everybody connection, and the kind of people who would throw away painted rocks are also the kind of people who love attention.

With that said, to those who decide to troll our painted-rock-loving public, just remember where you live and who knows you; and remember that large quantities of gravel are easy to access and to dump on your doorstep.

If you want to throw away rocks so bad, I’m sure some would be happy to give you an abundance.

Let people enjoy things.

Johnny C. Alexander is a Crestview resident and freelance writer, photographer and videographer.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Dear rock trolls, let people enjoy things!

If you wonder why the entirety of Washington and the entrenched ruling class of major cities hate Trump, it is simple.

He may mess up their honey hole, the mindless money faucet that is Washington D.C. — and thus, the power so many derive from it. Too much power over our lives has been sent to D.C. Trump was sent there to bring some of it back to the people, and the “deep state” is fighting him.

Trump has a different POTUS-Operandi than any predecessor, and it concerns the inextricably entrenched elites. He is indelicate, but he's the right person to do it.  It will be a nasty fight. No nice guy ever cleaned house.

Neither side of the aisle wants its ox gored. Republicans want more money for the military, even though we spend four times more on our military than any other country and more than the next eight countries behind us — combined. They keep us scared and fearful that somehow Islamic extremists, who do not have cable TV or processed cheese, will cross the ocean and get us.

You can’t justify an annual trillion-dollar national security budget if you make every country look like Montenegro. Trump shoved aside their president as if his food order number was just called at Chick-fil-A, as if to say, "Montenegro, please!"

In order to grow the military industrial complex, it behooves the political class to keep us in constant fear.

So politicians fight for “their” share of the approximately $4 trillion a year in spending that Washington takes from us and then magnanimously spends on us. To get all they can, congressmen and lobbyists always stay up until the midnight deadline of the spending bill.

If the CBO is right about the numbers on the health care "repeal and replace" bill, it will be one in a row. How can 23 million people lose their insurance if only 10 million are signed up? When the CBO scored ObamaCare in 2013, it estimated that 26 million would be signed up by now. Good enough for government work.

Both parties have their angle at power. Democrats divide the country into classes of aggrieved parties. They remind them that life is unfair, and the Republicans are around to ensure it is so.

Democrats have no evidence but want to move forward to impeach Trump. Then they can get on with impeaching Pence, then Paul Ryan…

North Korea fired another ballistic missile last weekend. So sit tight; the priorities of Democrats are such that they will be holding hearings on Trump’s "Russian collusion" from their undisclosed nuclear bomb shelter near Washington.

Democrats know that if you cannot win on your ideas, you use the technical aspects of law, government and media innuendo to crush your opponents. A clear conscience in a Washington D.C. politician can only mean one thing: the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Add to the entrenched right and left the many corporate cronies, unions, agencies, journalists and foreign diplomats who hide in the fatty folds of this huge government apparatus, and you can see why Trump scares them.

Tensions are high. The Montana Congressional candidate body slammed a reporter.

But the good news for the GOP is that, if politics stays on this body slam trajectory, Republican The Rock can be their next presidential nominee. 

Ron Hart, a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, is a frequent guest on CNN. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Trump upsets the ruling class

Kathy Griffin crossed the line and CNN did the right thing in firing her.

Griffin recently did a photo shoot holding up a decapitated, synthetic bloody head resembling President Donald Trump. What she did was obscene and there was nothing funny about depicting violence toward another person.

Griffin was terminated from the annual New Year's  Eve program hosted by Anderson Cooper and Griffin. Anderson Cooper remarked that he was "appalled by the photo shoot and that the picture was disgusting and completely inappropriate," according to CNN.com.

Griffin apologized for the photos saying, "I beg for your forgiveness. I went too far. I made a mistake and I was wrong," according to a post on Instagram.

The photograph was taken by celebrity photographer Tyler Shields, who later took down it down as requested by Griffin.

The photo was a stupid stunt by Griffin and by photographer Shields — both guilty of losing all sense of reason.

For the last decade and more, we have heard too many times about Islamic extremists cutting off the heads of contractors and journalists and others taken hostage. Americans and people around the world have shuddered as good people have been tortured and decapitated for the world to see. Such acts have been carried out by the evilest and heinous depraved persons of the world.

Everyone who has the opportunity to be a comedian, entertainer, public speaker or television personality has a lifelong opportunity to say something stupid or just be stupid in general. Every day is a life of guarded speech and guarded life decisions.

It's easy to blurt out something accidentally and blow a career. It's also within a human's ability to literally orchestrate a moment such as Griffin and self-destruct. Griffin probably hasn't totally blown her career but losing the New Year's Eve gig is probably something she won't regain. On the other hand, some far left wing liberal media group will probably embrace her and offer her another show or spotlight her in some way.

President Donald Trump was recorded saying something on a bus that was vile about grabbing women in a certain offensive way. His statement did not cost him the election but it was an ugly statement.

Statements and actions can go from the obscene and insane to just making up big lies as Brian Williams did on NBC Nightly News. Williams admitted he, "Said things that were not true," back in June 2015. He lost his NBC anchor chair but has bounced back a bit by his new role on MSNBC, which is not exactly a shabby position.

We all have heard that no man can tame the tongue and out of the same mouth come blessings and cursing.

I wonder if Griffin's recent stunt will help any of us in America. Is there any possible chance that we might think a little more about what we say or, in Griffin's case, what we depict ourselves doing?

Often it only takes a spark to get a fire going. While Griffin suspected there would be a firestorm from her picture, I don't think she ever imagined the severity of the burns.

Most people who play with fire never do.

Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Kathy Griffin played with fire, got burned

To Joe Blocker, Jerry Milligan and Bob Allen:

Each of you gentlemen has taken an opportunity to express yourselves publicly on an issue that’s been on everyone’s minds since early March: changing Crestview’s charter to incorporate a city manager-council form of government.

Mr. Blocker, you committed yourself to acting to the will of the people and to not succumb to the threats of an outsider (even if he is an expert, and they weren’t threats).

You very passionately advocated for the education of the people and focused on getting something sent out in the water bill. I appreciate your gesture and willingness to take a suggestion that was first offered by someone in our Facebook group.

However, when the water bill initiative stunted, what additional efforts did you make at educating the public?

You claimed after your election victory that you wanted and needed the public’s assistance in steering our city, and yet you haven’t taken time to respond to any of my emails that I’ve sent the whole council, which is disappointing when sat against your promise to work with the people and your encouragement for the people to get involved.

We’re involved now.

Mr. Milligan, you served on the previous charter review committee and helped determine a move to a city manager was necessary.

Recently, you’ve published an article with The Good Country stating that a city manager form isn’t the only one we can go to, and you focused heavily on education of the public the same way Mr. Blocker did.

I’ll ask you a similar question — what steps have you taken since the beginning of March, when this issue picked up speed, to educate the public about the inefficiencies of what we currently have and what options we have moving forward, with pros and cons of each?

Mr. Allen, you are a former councilman with deeper knowledge on this issue than the average citizen. You went so far as to equate the rationale (delivered by experts) to a Little Johnny scenario and jumping off bridges, and went so far as to state a strong mayor form of government should be the way of Crestview’s future, citing representation to the voters as being the largest benefit over a manager.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that you canceled out your own argument, for in one point you acknowledged that a three-fifths vote in an open meeting can quickly dismiss a city manager (the council meets at least twice per month), but then in an attempt to argue your main point of a strong mayor, you suggest a lengthy process of impeachment/recall, or waiting for the next mayoral election (every four years) as being better for the voters, in the event of a bad mayor — all of which, even in the best circumstances, would take longer than getting three-fifths of the council to act.

Further, if we move to a model “strong mayor” charter, the mayor typically hires a city manager upon taking office. This means we not only raise the current mayor’s salary, but we also hire an additional employee, which is gluttonous spending when we can hire a manager, re-evaluate existing salaries to accommodate the move of duties under the manager, and come out spending less money than if we went to strong mayor.

My question to you, Mr. Allen, is what substantiating data and facts do you have to support your suggestion of a strong mayor for Crestview, specifically?

Voter representation is a flimsy argument here, because it can easily be flipped on end that the five existing elected officials, who answer to the voters, are still accountable to their constituents in the same manner you claim a mayor would.

ALL elected officials are susceptible to a recall petition initiative. The data supporting a city manager is backed by the Florida League of Cities, in addition to other state, and nationally recognized entities whose whole call in life is to advance municipalities.

A question I have for all three of you, since each of you expressed public education as being of massive importance, is this: What steps did you take before the last election to educate voters of there even being an election?

And when the turnout was so alarmingly low at 3.8 percent, what steps did you take to make sure voters will come back out next election, or what steps did you take to try and improve future involvement?

It seems each time this topic comes up, it’s the same group defending against change, holding “CAUTION!” signs, and random speed bumps occur along the way to throw people off the scent.

Gentlemen, is there something you’d rather the people not see? 

Matt Gates, with the Facebook page Crestview Citizens for Change, is not to be confused with Matt Gaetz, the U.S. congressman. He lives in Crestview.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Questions for city manager critics

President Trump has renamed terrorists from monsters to losers.

I agree.

People such as 22-year-old Salmon Abedi, who contrive to inflict such a heinous act as the carnage he recently inflicted in Manchester, England, is the worst of pathetic world losers.

Abedi joins a long list of scum who are so disconnected from rational thinking and healthy emotions that they are filled with hatred; resentment of normal life; (to hurt) loving people who simply want a night out on the town such as an Ariana Grande concert.

In the case of Alyssa Elsman of Portage, Michigan, it was just a fun walk in New York City. She was heinously killed in Times Square most recently by Richard Rojas, who also injured 21 other pedestrians in a killing spree that he hoped would end in his death by the police. He is a sad loser who took a vibrant girl's life.

These world losers spend too much of their lives locked away in their private rooms staring at a computer contriving and discovering how to completely waste their lives by gaining world recognition by killing innocent people.

Instead of getting a real life by mowing grass, building a real career, serving in the military or serving humanity, they seethe inside to destroy or maim a few human beings.

I understand that all human beings have struggles and issues but there is a depravity that some hideous, crazy losers unfortunately stoop to in trying to make themselves feel momentarily better.

The list of losers sadly has grown to a list we can no longer find the space to write about or identify all the names. From around the world now there are people young and old who maniacally and successfully brought about school killings, theater shootings, church murders and concert massacres.

While the national news informs us well of the bad news and the hideous people who are making it happen, we must not forget that most of the world is still filled with good people.

As we face Memorial Day weekend in America, we remember all the good people serving in our military. We remember the many, many men and women who fought valiantly for our country because they were decent, strong and good moral people.

Many of us go to the cemetery this time of year and remember not only our military heroes, but also moms and dads, grandparents, children and siblings and friends who have preceded us in death. We remember them and we miss them.

Last weekend a taxi driver from South Africa gave me a ride and was so thrilled to be working in America. He was a nice guy. A college student working weekends at a hotel helped me with my bags. He's from Sudan and was an articulate, hard-working kind young man happy to be in America. They are winners.

I don't understand the radical evil hatred that permeates a person to end his or her life and the lives of others. They dramatically need a changed way of thinking — a different mind and a different heart. Many are so immersed in such hatred, radicalized we call it, there is no turning back for them.

What can we do? Try to affect the world around us with good. Be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good. Be alert. There are poisonous vipers in the world and they intend to hurt somebody. You aren't going to change them.

I've always believed in hope. However, I do believe a person can reach a mental/emotional state where they are beyond the help and influences of sane reasonable people.

These people are lost. President Trump called them losers. 

Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Trump said it best — 'They Are Losers'

So a special counsel has been hired, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, to look into something about Trump — I think.

Mueller is well respected by members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and has their unwavering support — right up until he renders a conclusion different from their own theory. Then he will suck and be the worst person in Washington, and there will be calls for him to be investigated. 

This gives the Democrats a chance to impeach Trump, with no evidence, because they disagree with him on policy. It's a conspiracy theory in search of facts. Based on the left-wing media’s Trump Derangement Syndrome, we are proceeding with this investigation based on un-sourced, felonious leaks from “deep state” government employees (91 percent of Washington D.C. voted for Hillary Clinton), The Washington Post, and other media confederates. These unnamed sources supposedly gave the “journalists” information that  Trump said something that everyone who was in the room denies he said. And even if he said these things, while perhaps indelicate, they were not illegal. 

Only a week ago Sen. Chuck Grassley, ex-member of the Senate Intelligence Committee (it sounds ironic, but there is such a thing), said the FBI confirmed to him that Trump is not under investigation. Apparently, James Comey told Trump the same thing. So Trump must have committed a “high crime or misdemeanor” in the last week. 

Trump was sent to Washington to be indelicate. He harvested voters' frustrations about Washington pettiness like this. His supporters like his firing of entrenched government dolts. He also goes against the PC nothingness diplomacy of predecessors. We like that. He is a wrecking ball we sent there. And wrecking balls have balls, and they wreck things. 

Democrats’ breathless barrage of baseless accusations paints Trump as a Russian James Bond villain, "Gold Hair." They want all Republicans who have ordered a vodka-based drink in the last year to be investigated. Anyone who has ordered a Moscow Mule should be hauled before Bernie Sanders and asked to explain himself. It feels like the McCarthyism they purport to abhor. “Mr. Bannon, are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist party? Have you ever even been invited to a party where vodka was served?” 

That is the problem with socialists like Bernie Sanders and many "progressives” today. They do not care about governing since their plans have never worked. They just want to protest. Actually governing only serves to illuminate the age-old battle between socialism and its archenemy, reality. 

Democrats called for Trump to fire Obama appointee Comey, but once he did they said Comey should not have been fired. There is no pleasing these folks and no intellectual honesty among them. If Trump came out as pro-choice, Dems would try to impeach him for colluding with Planned Parenthood. Thus, their crying "Wolf" diminishes their future ability to investigate something that might be real. 

Trump planned to fire Comey even before the scathing memo about Comey was sent out from the DOJ. Trump called him a "showboat" and a "nut job."

Trump left this Inside-the-Beltway circus last week for the comparative civility of the Middle East, where more rational minds abound. While the world is a mess, the circus consumes D.C. 

Ron Hart, a libertarian op-ed humorist and award-winning author, is a frequent guest on CNN. Contact him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @RonaldHart on Twitter.

What's your view? Write a letter to the editor.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: The circus consumes Washington, D.C.

The only way to get out of darkness is to follow the light. Sometimes, it's just a very faint light. Often you have to be in the darkness long enough to refocus your eyes so that you can look for a glimmer of light to follow out of the darkness.

Darkness is never enjoyable. Often it's a long valley that seems inescapable. There are different forms of darkness such as poverty, failing health, family difficulties, work dissatisfaction, discord in your relationships, failures of all kinds and the list goes on. You may have been there or you may be there now. You may not see any way out.

I read this a long time ago and claim it every day in different ways: “Walk in the light while you have the light before darkness overtakes you.” Throughout life, I've learned if I walked in the light that I had then I usually would receive more light.

When I was a kid, we had a light bulb in the ceiling of most every room. There would be a long string attached to the little silver chain that would pull the switch and turn on the light. Throughout my childhood, I often would go into a dark bedroom at night and search for that dangling string. Finding that string was a relief because it turned on the light.

Often, we look for the dangling string for a long time to turn on the light. Sometimes we eventually find it and sometimes people never do. Some people live in desperation of trying to find the dangling string while others simply gave up a long time ago.

There is something to this old saying that is true: "Let us not grow weary in doing good. We will reap a harvest if we don't quit." Another truth that I have heard is, "Believe in the light while you have the light so that you may become children of light."

I don't know what you are dealing with today, but don't quit. It's easier said than done, I know.

However, maybe, if you hang in there and keep your head up and your hand stretching out in front of you, then just maybe, you will feel the string dangling in the darkness.

Glenn Mollette is an American syndicated columnist and author.

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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Finding the string dangling in the darkness