Government Loves You - Sucker!

ACHIEVEMENT IN A GOVERNMENT PROGRAM IS SPENDING THE MONEY NOT ATTAINING THE GOAL Last sentence says Obama is asking for MORE money to waste. “Since 2009. The Obama administration has awarded more than $1 billion to American companies to make advanced batteries for electric vehicles. Halfway toward the goal of producing 1 million electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, auto makers are 1/20th of the way there. The money funded 9 battery plants - scattered across the U.S. from Michigan, to Pennsylvania and Florida -that have few customers, operate well below capacity and, so far, have created less and a 1/3 of the jobs promised by 2015. Customers including start-up Fisker Automotive Inc. and auto makers like General Motors Co., that urged the funding, have struggled to produce and sell battery-powered cars, though they insist a market is coming. President Obama heralded the “birth of an entire new industry” during the ceremonial opening of A123 Systems Inc.’s production plant in 2010. The president’s 2013 budget proposal asks for an increase in tax credits to car buyers to amp sales.”

The State is a Stationary Bandit

The notion that the state is a legitimate agency – one deserving respect – an institution that, despite its flaws, generally promotes (or at least aims to promote) the welfare of its citizens – is increasingly difficult to understand, much less to accept. A far more realistic view of the state, any state, comes from Mancur Olson: the state is a stationary bandit. Prudence might require that ordinary people tolerate it, but wisdom requires that those same ordinary people understand that, when dealing with the state, they are dealing with organized thuggery. Obey it because your failure to do so will prompt it to unleash its guns and prisons on you, but please don’t pretend that the state’s commands are issued with your best interests in mind.

Which 1/2 is the Loser

13% of our citizens are in the military. 10% of population is black. Maybe 3 - 5 % are gay. 20% of service men and women from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD. I posit that some Americans, who voted for Obama in 2008 and have now become disillusioned with him, reject Obama’s white ( not black) half. The white half accounts for his anti-military stance, his white half pushes a socialist agenda, his white half carries Communist leanings based on lies. What does his black half mean to most voters? Nothing.

When a great man died

In whatever we think beauty is located, beauty will betray us if we trust her to an earthly source because “it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing…For they ( beautiful things) are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.” These words of C.S. Lewis claim that greater joy awaits beyond our mortality. The devil counts on our “contented worldliness” to lead us to his dark world not to the source of beauty on earth. Matter, the stuff of life, our experiences, our power of memory to glorify the past, will one day be transformed, writes C.S. Lewis, “but one day we will recover, in transfigured, glorified form, what time has borne away.” “Then the new earth and sky, the same yet not the same as these, will rise in us as we have risen in Christ. And once again, after who knows what aeons of the silence and the dark, the birds will sing out and the waters flow, the lights and shadows move across the hill and the faces of our friends laugh upon us with amazed recognition.” “Guesses, of course, only guesses. If they are not true, something better will be. For we know that we shall be made like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” The day JFK was assassinated, Nov. 22, 1963, a great Christian apologist “discovered the reality about which he made such memorable guesses.”

Body Count

During and after the battle for Normandy ( after D-Day in WWII) and up to the liberation of Paris, Germans and their allies killed 20,000 civilians. Also 61,000 people and 76,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps. Added to human suffering was the fate of a massive number of (dead) draught horses “pitiful, rigid in the shafts with their upper lips drawn above their teeth as if in continuing pain.” How high the price of war - man’s inhumanity to man and animal. How low you will feel reading and understanding the course of history.

THE WATCHMAN

REFERRED BY GARRY LUDWICK Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job. Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies. Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One was to do the studies and one was to write the reports. Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created two positions: a time keeper and a payroll officer then hired two people. Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people, Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary. Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $918,000 over budget, we must cut back." So they laid-off the night watchman. NOW slowly, let it sink in. Quietly, we go like sheep to slaughter. Does anybody remember the reason given for the establishment of the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY during the Carter administration? Anybody? Anything? No? Didn't think so! Bottom line is,we've spent several hundred billion dollars in support of an agency, the reason for which not one person who reads this can remember! Ready?? It was very simple... and at the time, everybody thought it very appropriate. The Department of Energy was instituted on 8/04/1977, TO LESSEN OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL. Hey, pretty efficient, huh??? AND NOW IT'S 2012 -- 35 YEARS LATER -- AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENT IS AT $24.2 BILLION A YEAR. IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND APPROXIMATELY 100,000 CONTRACT EMPLOYEES; AND LOOK AT THE JOB ITHAS DONE! (THIS IS WHERE YOU SLAP YOUR FOREHEAD AND SAY, "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?") 34 years ago 30% of our oil consumption was foreign imports. Today 70% of our oil consumption is foreign imports. Ah, yes -- good old Federal bureaucracy. NOW, WE HAVE TURNED OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM, HEALTH CARE, AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY TO THE SAME GOVERNMENT? Hello!! Anybody Home? Signed....The Night Watchman

21%

ARE THEY THE SAME PEOPLE? Statistics I saw yesterday: 21% of Americans are Mentally Ill 21% of Americans are Liberals. What is your analysis?

Shakespeare was first

We are lucky that we do not need to search for the right words because Shakespeare said most things first: “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” How could the great bard know that Obama and his minions are flying rampant over America, 2012, spreading falsehood and darkening our beautiful land?

Individual Rights versus the State

The Ohio Supreme Court just found the smoking ban in public businesses constitutional. Really? Why? How is the deprivation of your 1st amendment right of free speech, the 1st, not 2nd right delineated, now constitutional? What happened to the goal of the pursuit of happiness? Answer, some animals are more equal than others...

Moral Hazard

Need an example of moral hazard? First think about the million eggs ( no not potential babies) donated to the Ohio food banks by egg farms. Since the need is ‘greater than ever’ and because 40% of food bank patrons WORK, should we feel good about a free source of accessible protein? Not if you now contrast this report on the ‘needy’ and ‘hungry’ with another report directly following on the news about the newly renovated water park and slide in Ohio. Millions have been spent there on improved and expanded fun. How is it possible for people hurting from hunger to afford fun at a water park ( which obviously charges a fee for admission)? Moral hazard! Moral hazard originated (1915-1920) in insurance companies as a representation of the risk of customers’ honesty and trustworthiness. The concept expanded to mean free stuff for ‘moochers’ which allows people to be corrupted when temptation is too easily available. If I don’t take free stuff someone else will and I will have to pay for it anyway. Yes, self-respect and integrity lose; but food banks and water parks win.

Newspeak

Two examples of ‘newspeak’ from 1984 and 2012: A ‘benefit card’ and ‘hateporn’. The media who protect and sever reality from Americans call statements from conservatives or the tea party ‘hateporn’ when they question the truth of Obama’s statement about the place of his birth or cite evidence of his use of bribery. Welfare payments under the guise of food stamps, now called ‘benefit cards,’ facilitate the purchase of a $41.00 ice cream birthday cake. How times have changed from when other grannies ( and also this granny) gave sage advise: “Never spend more than you earn ( thus not taking government handouts), save a little from each paycheck ( or weekly earnings) and always tell the truth.

Either/Or

Take your pick from these options. A view that too many Americans benefit from an unjust status quo betting on the public’s cynicism or complacency. Life as a proletarian struggle kinda like in socialism. This view sees elected officials, suspicious of non-government types eager to centralize anything they can. That is, impose ever-expanding regimentation. An opposing view holds that decentralization means free enterprise. Business men that are profit-motivated but also patriotic, can improve life for an ever-expanding segment of American. By the end of World War II, America’s genius for manufacturing, its engineers, production managers and workers turned out 2/3 of the military equipment used by the Allies including 286,000 war planes, 86,000 tanks, 8,800 naval vessels, 2.6 million machine guns and 41 billion rounds of ammo. Tell that to current nay-sayers such as our President haranguing women at Barnard college about the bleakness of America’s past and their future struggle. Yes, we’re in a war between bloodless, fiscal tinkering and the free choices of entrepreneurship. Manufacturing might not forge America’s future ( Facebook mania anyone?) but I choose a brighter morning in America.

ABORTIONS HONOR MOTHERS!

From The Washington Examiner (hat tip - Weazel Zippers): Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., built a fundraising pitch for the pro-choice political action group EMILY;s List around the upcoming Mother's Day holiday. "This Mother's Day, I can't think of a better way to honor all the mothers in the country -- past and present -- than with a contribution to EMILY's List," Gillibrand wrote in the email [all emphasis original]. "They're the ones working tirelessly to elect the pro-choice Democratic women who are making sure that our freedoms are protected for generations to come." 'Honoring' mothers by funding an organization that kills babies of women who "chose" not to be mothers? That's not only really, really, sick and bizarre -- it doesn't even make any sense at all. Unfortunately, it's a prime example of just how illogically and non-sensibly far too many liberals think. By the way, Doug Powers points out that Sen. Gillibrand and Emily's list aren't alone in their 'loopyness' -- Planned Parenthood also has their hands out for Mother's Day. Alternatively, perhaps brunch is more your thing. Then there's also Sandra Fluke and the National Women's Law Center joining in on the looniness -- she wants you to honor moms this Mother's Day by sharing your contraception anecdotes.

Prince Obama

“The Prince is the only person, whom Mr. ? has ever known, who realized the Ideal. None, with whom he is acquainted, have ever approached it. There was in him a union of the manly grace and sublime simplicity of chivalry, with the intellectual splendour of the Attic Academe.” Can you guess to which Prince, Queen Victoria’s eventual Prime Minister Disraeli referred? To Prince Albert, her consort, of course. Disraeli knew the meaning of sycophant. And our President Obama? His reach always exceeds his grasp. He personifies no Ideal. His presence calls for no hyperbole. But his followers - true sycophants - never cease to sing his praises as the great, cool, cerebral, classy, anointed One.

Nannyism

Coke, excuse me, is pure America. Sugar, salt, fat and red meat are basic biology. There’s no such thing as an unhealthy food. Instead of Dr. Shaw preaching the evils of progress and processed food, capitalism and profit, why does she not suggest practicing self-control as opposed to self-indulgence, also an American tradition? Drinking Coke (since its 1st bloom of popularity) cannot make a person fat or sick with Type- 2 diabetes if not consumed to excess and not programmed by one’s biology. Let me counter Dr. Shaw’s parental take on our modern world which blames selected foods and corporations to remind people that parents should allow their children to “explore the boundaries of their taste buds” but understand that excess is not good. It’s an informed conscience that should guide our behavior. I know what you are thinking! We live in two Americas now, and never the twain philosophies shall meet. Schools could help by re-teaching the golden mean.

Pay or Play for Gay?

If there are any doubting Thomases out there regarding Obama’s supreme ability to lie, let me put your doubts to rest. “As a practicing Christian,” Obama said, “my support for gay marriage has evolved.” Possible, you ask? A practicing Christian’s tenets do not evolve. Period. Obama is just playing to the youth vote and pandering for pay to the gay vote ( including its various permutation). A liberal, Democrat supporter of Obama’s world of public education said that 3rd graders who are failing 3rd grade do not need to be held back a grade; they just need “intense remediation” ( probably from the same teachers who originally failed to teach them). Obama and his advisory staff of Michelle, Sasha and Malia also could use “intense remediation” of their version of Christianity.

The vote is in!

Two down and one to go... Luger the old line Republican OUT; marriage between heterosexual IN in No. Carolina. Now to boot Obama in November. It’s not exactly 4 home runs in a game but then we in the Tea Party cannot expect to be like a winner who ‘takes all.’ Rush Limbaugh again on his show Tues. 5/8 praised the Tea Party movement as the last, best hope for America, claiming too that we are alive and well across this country.

Focus Folks!

I came across this in the Washington Examiner. Don’t know who Lavaux is but his point is well taken. Stay on message and don’t get distracted by past or trivia. Lavaux, Christian, husband of one and father of two, American ex-pat, international lawyer, classical liberal. Hear him. “Let's stop noodling around in Obama's background and focus on what we know about him from his past three and a half years as our president. 1. Obama is a lousy statesman and a great politician. 2. Obama has failed the Office of President as well as the country he governs, yet his political skills give him a decent shot at winning another term despite his record. 3. Obama will say anything no matter how untrue and do anything no matter how destructive to build the Obama brand - he's in this job for himself and his vision for America. 4. Obama believes himself entitled to the job, entitled to exploit the perks of the job, entitled to our love, and entitled to impose his will on us. 5. Along with ego, identity and self-image, Obama is motivated by ideologies and values most Americans do not share with him. 6. Obama does not understand or like America as is. These things more than justify our flushing this guy from our political system, so let's get the job done.”

Socialism

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. - Winston Churchill

Political Correctness

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS is like a two-faced coin. It applies not only to us the common folk but also to the elite ( special) class. They get ‘heads’ and we get ‘tails’. 1. WOMEN LAWYERS at the GITMO trial of 9/11 accused should wear the HIHAB to protect the souls of the master minders of destruction. The Wall Street Journal reports: “Cheryl Bormann, a lawyer for Mr. bin Attash, was dressed in an abaya, a loose-fitting garment worn by observant Muslim women, leaving only her face exposed. She suggests that women on the prosecution team follow her example and dress modestly “so that our clients are not forced to look at the prosecution for fear of committing a sin under their faith.” We should bow in respect to murderers? Both elite lawyers and the justice system of normal Americans are expected to buy this political correctness? Wouldn’t a better solution be for the redneck American’s to wear the highest heels and shortest skirts the legal profession could find? 2. WHEN THE ELITES apply political correctness a favorite birthday treat of real Americans suffers - the cupcake. In Massachusetts, “Bake sales, the calorie-laden standby of cash-strapped classrooms, that PTA’s and booster clubs rely on, will be outlawed from public schools as of Aug. 1 as part of new no-nonsense nutrition standards, forcing fund raisers back to the blackboard to cook up alternative ways to raise money for kids.” Why? Sweet desserts are alleged to cause obesity. Of course, there’s also an alleged epidemic of “hunger.” 3. WHO FEEDS OUR KIDS ANYWAY? I QUOTE from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack: “The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act is a significant step forward in our effort to help America’s children thrive and grow to be healthy adults. Thanks to the dedication of this Congress and First Lady Michelle Obama, more kids will have access to healthy, balanced, nutritious school lunches. By increasing the number of students eligible to enroll in school meal programs and improving the quality of food served, this legislation simultaneously tackles both hunger and the obesity levels currently affecting too many communities across this nation.” How can we have epidemics of starvation and obesity at the same time? There appear on America’s two-faced coin of political correctness. Minted because of conflicting agendas - no problem to liberals, as YOU KNOW. The Fat Children are Starving, WE JUST NEED TO ACCEPT THAT as a contradictory fact, good as GOLD. What about parents whose children are not overweight in the slightest. They are subject to monitoring and now food restrictions at school. Meanwhile, the kids are dragged to community service at the local food pantry and badgered about “walking for hunger.” This is Orwellian doublespeak at its finest. Why isn’t anybody talking about it?

Cost of Government Help

Should we blame government meddling for two huge problems - tuition fees increases and health care spending? Duh! Does al-Qaida lie? In the past 20 years, college tuition fees have risen 184% (accounting for inflation); yet wages of college grads after graduation have only risen 9%. Such a disconnect equals a Cool Hand Luke ‘failure to communicate.’ Per capita health care spending in 1991 was $3000; in 2009 it was $7000. In liberal states, D.C. and Mass. spending was respectively, $10,000 and $9,000. Duh! Is water wet? Yes, we can blame government’s intrusion into education, student loans and health care for skyrocketing costs. Free markets without intrusion, regulation and manipulation would allow America to return to a better, cheaper, bygone era.