By Rex Huppke

Marco Rubio is right.
He was right four times during the most recent Republican presidential primary debate, and he has been right a lot more times since: President Barack Obama knows exactly what he’s doing.
And not the good kind of “knows exactly what he’s doing.” The bad, “he’s an evil mastermind hell-bent on destroying America” kind.
On the eve of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary election, Rubio’s GOP opponents were slamming him for using a campaign talking point over and over and over again.
During Saturday night’s debate, Chris Christie mocked Rubio for repeating some variation of this phrase: “Let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing.”
Christie implied that Rubio is only capable of parroting canned lines.
I implore all of you to ignore Rubio’s critics and acknowledge that the senator from Florida is absolutely correct. As he told ABC’s “This Week” the day after the debate: “When it comes to what he’s trying to do to America. It’s part of a plan. He has said he wanted to change the country. He’s doing it in a way that’s robbing us of everything that makes us special.”
Look out your windows, people. Look at the smoldering remains of this once-great nation. During Sunday night’s Super Bowl there was an ad featuring a creature that was part puppy, part monkey and part baby — THIS IS NOT THE AMERICA I REMEMBER!!
In a 2008 campaign speech, Obama said: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” If you view his words completely out of context and are prone to paranoid ideation, that is terrifying.
What’s more terrifying is that Obama followed through.
He has trampled the First Amendment, making it impossible for people like me to write a column like the one you’re presently reading. He also prevented Fox News contributor Monica Crowley from writing in 2013, in a column on the conservative news website The Blaze, that Obama is responsible for “radical wealth redistribution.”
That radical wealth redistribution was conveniently debunked in 2015 when another conservative news website, The Daily Caller, trumpeted: “Income inequality got WORSE under Obama.”
Not only has Obama strangled our First Amendment freedoms, he has forced us to use them in ways that are staggeringly hypocritical.
But the insidiousness that Rubio highlighted — four times during the debate and many times since — doesn’t stop there.
According to FactCheck.org, run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Obama also has caused:
–Corporate profits to go up 166 percent (classic socialist move).
–Fifteen million to get health insurance (a radical infringement on our right to die of preventable diseases).
–The unemployment rate to drop from a high of 10 percent during his first year in office to about 5 percent now (way to make having a job seem less special).
He has destroyed education in this country, as evidenced by Rubio saying during a campaign event Sunday: “Barack Obama is the first president, at least in my lifetime, that wants to change the country.”
A 1985 Los Angeles Times story cited Monday on Twitter by Princeton University history professor Kevin Kruse quotes President Ronald Reagan saying “he intends to ‘change America forever’ in the next four years.”
See? Obama has screwed America up so much that even Rubio didn’t know that Reagan (hero) made the same comment as Obama (nation-destroyer).
As if all that wasn’t enough to prove Rubio’s talking point, talking point, talking point, there’s also the fact that Obama has: moved the nation’s capital to the Black Panthers headquarters in Chicago; allowed gay people to get married, bringing on the plague of locusts that destroyed Texas and half of New Mexico; and forced every American to survive on government-issued, gluten-free protein paste distributed via hamsterlike feeding tubes.
Wake up, America. Rubio is right. Obama has transformed this country into an unrecognizable, sad, pathetic, on-fire, bat-infested, immoral, decaying, puppymonkeybaby-loving, sorrowful, steaming, malodorous pile of filthy detritus and broken dreams.
So let’s dispel with (technically that should be “dispense with,” but who cares about word choice when your country has been getting destructioned) this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing.
As Rubio said in a fundraising email sent out after the debate, Obama’s “really trying to change this country for the worse.”
And if you repeat that enough times, you’ll start to believe it as well.

(Rex Huppke is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and a noted hypocrisy enthusiast. You can email him at rhuppke@tribune.com or follow him on Twitter at @RexHuppke.)

c)2016 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

By John D. Doak, Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner

February is the month of love, and many of us are searching for the perfect gift for our Valentines. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent an average of $142.31 on Valentine’s gifts last year. But instead of giving roses or chocolates, consider giving the gift of security to your loved ones this year. Give the gift of life insurance.
Many people think life insurance is too expensive, but according to LIMRA, the cost of a $250,000 term life insurance policy is around $150 a year. That’s nearly the same amount of money the average person spent on Valentine’s Day gifts last year.
Choosing the right type of life insurance can also be confusing. Here are some guidelines that can help you narrow down your options.
You might consider term life insurance if:
– You need life insurance for a specific period of time. Term life insurance enables you to match the length of the term policy to the length of the need. For example, if you have young children and want to ensure that there will be funds to pay for their college education, you might buy 20-year term life insurance.
– You need a large amount of life insurance, but have a limited budget. In general, term life insurance pays only if you die during the term of the policy, so the rate per thousand of death benefit is lower than for permanent forms of life insurance.
Premiums for term life insurance policy are lower when you are younger. Some term insurance policies can be renewed when the policy ends, but the premium will generally increase as you age.
You might consider permanent life insurance if:
– You need life insurance for as long as you live. A permanent policy pays a death benefit whether you die tomorrow or live to be over 100.
– You want a savings element that will grow on a tax-deferred basis and could be a source of borrowed funds. The savings element can be used to pay premiums to keep the life insurance in place if you can’t pay them otherwise, or it can be used for any other purpose you choose. You can also borrow these funds even if your credit is shaky. The death benefit is collateral for the loan, and if you die before it’s repaid, the insurance company collects what is due before determining what goes to your beneficiary.
Premiums for permanent policies are generally higher than for term insurance, but it remains the same no matter how old you are.

There are also a number of different types of permanent insurance policies, such as whole life, universal life, variable life, and variable/universal life. For more details, talk to your insurance agent.

by Rhonda Baze

Have you seen that commercial for the cognition enhancing medication that has been on TV lately? The wife says that she is his sunshine and he has always been her everything…. It brings to mind the many ways we show love on a daily basis to those we care for. Love isn’t always about emotion; sometimes it’s giving your time to someone who is lonely or a friend who is frightened because of a new diagnosis. Love sometimes is laughing together because things are just so confusing or sitting quietly together when no words will come. You may have heard it said that Love is an action word. Suppose we define love as: seeing a need, knowing you have the resources to meet that need, and then taking action.
But what about when love becomes emotionally or physically difficult for the person giving the love? What then? Are you a failure when you cannot meet the need presented to you? In his book When Love Gets Tough, Doug Manning speaks to this at length. As a matter of fact, Chapter 1 is titled “Love is Doing What People Need-Not What They Want”. Our lives can be completely consumed with caring for someone we love. There can be ‘very little life of your own. The house can become your whole world. There are no vacations, no nights out, no weekends off. Every decision has to be made in the light of how care could be provided for the loved one” (paraphrased from Manning’s book). “On the surface it seems that love would mean we would care for our loved ones at home no matter what the cost. It might be true if the cost was ours alone. The fact is the cost is NOT ours alone” according to Manning, “The people we take into our home must also pay a cost. It costs their privacy. It costs them social contact. It costs them the meeting of their physical needs.”
When caring for a loved one, there is also a cost to our other relationships. We become more isolated from friends and family. Our relationships with children, grandchildren, and friends often suffer. Don’t be afraid to admit that you are tired and need a break occasionally, ask for help. Tell friends when you are lonely, and plan to spend some time with them, talking about your feelings can help. It also provides a way for those that love you to know what your needs are at the moment. Remember that there are people out there who love you and want to show you love… let them! When friends offer to help, let them! And don’t feel guilty when someone does help you… let them show YOU love!
Often there is a physical cost when caring for a loved one also. The simple act of helping another person up and down out of chairs, helping with meal preparation, extra housekeeping and/or laundry takes its toll. According to an article on AgingCare.com, “Many caregivers taking care of parents or grandparents are simply not suited for such physical stress. With the physical demands of physically lifting, turning and transferring loved ones, injury is common. In fact, it is estimated that musculoskeletal injuries that occur as a result of lifting or moving patients affects nearly 52 percent of caregivers. Most caregivers in home environments are in their 40s, and 50s. Keeping them, as well as their loved ones, safe and healthy is vital. Learning how to practice good body mechanics in all aspects of home care is essential in preventing injuries.”
There are community resources available to help. Having help from friends, family, or paid caregivers is meeting the need. It does not have to be you all the time. Oklahoma DHS, Department of Aging is a great resource to find help for caring for seniors. There are respite vouchers available to provide paid caregivers to step in when time away is needed. There are Veterans benefits that also pay for caregivers to provide care. Senior Centers are an excellent way for loved ones to stay connected with people their own age, engage in social activities, and have a meal, all while providing a break for caregivers and sometimes provide transportation to and from there.
So when love gets tough… we do the best we can. We make decisions based on the best options we have available to us and the information that we have at the time. The possibilities are endless to show love to others, but loving and caring does not have to consume our daily lives. We can be their “sunshine”, and they can be our “everything”. Love takes seeing a need and taking steps to meet that need… while loving ourselves too.
Right Choice Personal Assistance would be happy to talk to you about your needs and to help you get connected to resources for those needs. Call today 405-595-7066 and let us help you get started.

Moore’s Legion Commander, Mike Devenitch is asking all vets to stop in for a free hot dog! The Moore American Legion Post 184 Richard Harrison Memorial Post will be holding an open house with FREE HOT DOG for veterans on March 12th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Chartered on April 17th, 1947 and has been in Moore for nearly 69 years. Formed after World War II Moore has grown and it’s an exciting time to live here! The post has just over 200 members and looking for find more. Current members have served from the Korean conflict, Vietnam War, WWII and even Afghanistan. Mr. Devenitch said, “We are always looking for new members to get involved and helping out community. Sometime vets are too busy raising a family and the kids are gone. It is the perfect time to get involved” The Moore post hosts a programs with the VFW on Memorial Day and Veterans Day each year for the community in Veterans Park located at 4th Street and Bryant.
The post holds its meetings always the second Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. Long time Adjutant/Finance Officer Bobby Onspaugh said “I encourage our members and vets to arrive at 6:30 and chat before the meeting.” Mr. Onspaugh has handled the funds of the post for 15 years. If you are a veteran and have served in time of war, you are qualified to be a member. In fact, if you served a day since August 2nd, 1990 to today you are eligible.
The American Legion was chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans’ organization devoted to mutual helpfulness. It is the nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization, committed to mentoring youth and sponsorship of wholesome programs in our communities, advocating patriotism and honor, promoting strong national security, and continued devotion to our fellow servicemembers and veterans.
The post is located just one block north of the Moore Library at 207 SW 1st Street in Moore. If you have questions, please leave us a message at 794-5446 and we will get back to you.