Liberal Fascism ANOTHER UPDATE: Another reader emails: “Identifying with conservative issues, and I’m not even talking social issues, is professional death in the non-profit world. So, please, if you use this, don’t use my name.” UPDATE: Reader Jody Green writes: “You are so right to highlight this most disgusting fact of life in a country built on freedom. If you are Black, Hispanic, work in Hollywood, Journalism, Law or Academia you must hide your true beliefs or your life/job will be targeted. This is the real battle for the future.”

OHIO IS CRUCIAL

OHIO IS CRUCIAL Top Republican advisors agree that Mitt Romney's fate will be decided not just in Ohio and Iowa, but politically split Columbus and Des Moines and President Obama's also in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Former Bush political director Sara Fagen predicted that the election will likely come down to five states, Ohio, Virginia, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin where the margin could be in the thousands of votes. She recommended that Romney focus on Des Moines and Columbus and Obama the Norfolk area. "Ohio is the most important" for Romney, she said. "Virginia for Obama."

Your money spent for no jobs (but good cronyism)

Your money spent for no jobs (but good cronyism) A House panel is calling on the U.S. Department of Labor to turn over all records involving a half-million dollar contract funded through President Obama’s $831 billion stimulus program that paid for more than 100 commercials on MSNBC touting a “green jobs” initiative. The contract with McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations LLC in 2009 resulted in more than 100 commercials on cable shows hosted by Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman to raise awareness about the Job Corps program’s training in environmentally-friendly career areas. But spending reports showed that no jobs were created through the contract. The Washington Times first reported on the contract earlier this month, quoting one taxpayer watchdog who questioned not only the lack of jobs but why the commercials aired only on MSNBC, considered the most liberal of the major cable news outlets. “Despite the fact that these funds were made available as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — legislation President Obama said was critical for immediate job creation — an examination of public records show that the contract that resulted in the advertisements on MSNBC created no jobs.” Read more: House panel probing stimulus cash for MSNBC ads - Washington Times

GRANNY GO HOME - I WANT YOUR JOB

GRANNY GO HOME - I WANT YOUR JOB UPDATE: Reader Mac Overton writes: There is another pernicious repercussion to such low interest rates – and they affect the young as well as the old. The drop in interest income is keeping seniors working rather than retiring and forcing some retirees to rejoin the workforce. Those jobs taken by seniors crowds out job opportunities for younger workers.. Latest data from the BLS: Employed – age 65 and over July 2012: 6,155,000 July 2008: 5,193,000 Net add: + 962,000 Employed – ages 16 to 64 July 2012: 144,580,000 July 2008: 144,731,000 Net loss: -151,000 Basically, all new jobs (and then some) created in the past four years have all been taken up by seniors – which is why many youngsters sit on their parents couch at home – granddad and grandma took their first job…..thanks in part to the abnormally low interest rates. Well, they can always sit in their childhood bedrooms and stare up at those fading Obama posters.

Fading Obama Posters

PAUL RYAN: “With all their attack ads, the President is just throwing away money. And he’s pretty experienced at that!” Plus: “The recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.” Also: “I have never seen opponents so silent about their record and so desperate to keep their power. They’ve run out of ideas. Their moment came and went. Fear and division is all they’ve got left.” “College graduates should not have to spend their twenties in their childhood bedrooms, looking up at their fading Obama posters and wondering when they will be able to get going in life.”

The Unseen Class War That Could Decide The Presidential Election

OEL KOTKIN: The Unseen Class War That Could Decide The Presidential Election. There is no true solidarity among the rich since no one is yet threatening their status. The “one percent” are splitting their bets. In 2008 President Obama received more Wall Street money than any candidate in history, and he still relies on Wall Street bundlers for his sustenance. For all his class rhetoric, miscreant Wall Streeters, particularly big ones, have evaded big sanctions and the ignominy of jail time. . . . With the patriarchate divided, the real action in the emerging class war is taking place further down the economic food chain. This inconvenient reality is largely ignored by the left, which finds the idea of anyone this side of Bain Capital supporting Romney as little more than “false consciousness.” Obama’s core middle-class support, and that of his party, comes from what might be best described as “the clerisy,” a 21st century version of France’s pre-revolution First Estate. This includes an ever-expanding class of minders — lawyers, teachers, university professors, the media and, most particularly, the relatively well paid legions of public sector workers — who inhabit Washington, academia, large non-profits and government centers across the country. This largely well-heeled “middle class” still adores the president, and party theoreticians see it as the Democratic Party’s new base. Gallup surveys reveal Obama does best among “professionals” such as teachers, lawyers and educators. After retirees, educators and lawyers are the two biggest sources of campaign contributions for Obama by occupation. Obama’s largest source of funds among individual organizations is the University of California, Harvard is fifth and its wannabe cousin Stanford ranks ninth. Like teachers, much of academia and the legal bar like expanding government since the tax spigot flows in the right direction: that is, into their mouths. Like the old clerical classes, who relied on tithes and the collection bowl, many in today’s clerisy lives somewhat high on the hog; nearly one in five federal workers earn over $100,000. Essentially, the clerisy has become a new, mass privileged class who live a safer, more secure life compared to those trapped in the harsher, less cosseted private economy. As California Polytechnic economist Michael Marlow points out, public sector workers enjoy greater job stability, and salary and benefits as much as 21% higher than of private sector employees doing similar work. . . . The GOP, for its part, now relies on another part of the middle class, what I would call the yeomanry. In many ways they represent the contemporary version of Jeffersonian farmers or the beneficiaries of President Lincoln’s Homestead Act. They are primarily small property owners who lack the girth and connections of the clerisy but resist joining the government-dependent poor. Particularly critical are small business owners, who Gallup identifies as “the least approving” of Obama among all the major occupation groups. Barely one in three likes the present administration. The yeomanry diverge from the clerisy in other ways. They tend to live in the suburbs, a geography much detested by many leaders of the clerisy and, likely, the president himself. Yeomen families tend to be concentrated in those parts of the country that have more children and are more apt to seek solutions to social problems through private efforts. Philanthropy, church work and voluntarism — what you might call, appropriately enough, the Utah approach, after the state that leads in philanthropy. The nature of their work also differentiates the clerisy from the yeomanry. The clerisy labors largely in offices and has no contact with actual production. Many yeomen, particularly in business services, depend on industry for their livelihoods either directly or indirectly. The clerisy’s stultifying, and often job-toxic regulations and “green” agenda may be one reason why people engaged in farming, fishing, forestry, transportation, manufacturing and construction overwhelmingly disapprove of the president’s policies, according to Gallup. Read the whole thing. Posted at 7:21 am by Glenn Reynolds

Unicorn Flatulence Is The Ultimate Flex Fuel

HOPEY-CHANGEY: Unicorn Flatulence Is The Ultimate Flex Fuel. ” You can think of the Volt as the ultimate in flex-fuel. It runs 30% on coal, 40% on natural gas, 9% each for nuclear and hydropower. Of course, the overhead losses in generation, distribution, conversion, and storage are immense. It is also worth noting that the current Administration is against coal, natural gas, nuclear power and dams.”

MILLIONS FOR SCHOOLS AND NOT A CENT FOR EDUCATION

The cost of a college education has soared far in excess of the cost of health care. This is in spite of — or, more accurately, because of — massive government involvement in subsidizing and running schools. On the one hand, we have President Obama, who wants to double down and have Uncle Sam play a larger role in the classroom. On the other, we have reformers like presumptive GOP vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan, who wants to limit the growth of Pell grants while ensuring the neediest students still have access. . . . College tuition grew at almost 7.5 percent annually between 1980 and 2010, when average inflation was 3.8 percent. At less than 6 percent annually, even health care costs grew at a slower rate than the university tab. Young people aren’t getting much in exchange for this huge outlay. While enrollment has increased, completion rates remain dismal. Barely a third of students complete their degrees in four years, and less than 60 percent earn their degree in six years, according to Mr. McCluskey. That means at least two out of five enrollees don’t finish and fail to reap the benefits of a post-high-school education. Even those who complete their programs of study and are fortunate enough to find employment find that in one out of three cases, their degree isn’t required for their work. Students headed back to school this fall will have historically high levels of dollars spent on them in the public school system. Nationally, average per-pupil spending exceeds $11,400 this year, meaning a child entering kindergarten today can expect to have no less than $148,000 spent on his or her education by the time the child graduates high school. In all, more than $570 billion will be spent on public K-12 education this year. Sadly, continual increases in the money spent per child and in overall spending haven’t led to increases in academic achievement. Which is why increasing numbers of parents, at all income levels, are fleeing the public schools

Affluence and Poverty

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON Affluence and poverty are the twins of liberalism. The former allows one to both dream and to escape that dream. The latter provides the fodder for liberal artillery. COMMENT: From abundance to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.” seems downright prophetic at this point.

Logotherapy View of Obama

“To be sure, people tend to see only the stubble fields of transitoriness but overlook and forget the full granaries of the past into which they have brought the harvest of their lives: the deeds done, the loves loved, and last but not least, the sufferings they have gone through with courage and dignity.” So writes Victor E. Frankl in his landmark bestseller, “Man’s Search for Meaning, after his survival from Auschwitz and development of a pychotherapy known as ‘logotherapy.’ If Obama is re-elected this upcoming election, each person will need to dredge up the entire harvest of his past life and adapt what Frankl calls a ‘tragic optimism’ for the future of America..

Greedy Government

People before Profits! Posted: 25 Aug 2012 12:00 PM PDT Here’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal: Free markets are often criticized for encouraging the fanatical pursuit of profits at the expense of other worthwhile goals, such as a cleaner environment. Such criticism, of course, springs from failure to understand the true nature of markets and of the institutions – most notably, property rights – in which markets are embedded. But there is one institution that can fairly be accused of too often elevating the pursuit of profit into a dangerous obsession: government. How else to describe the Obama administration’s imposition of, as you report, “provisional antidumping duties of between 31% and nearly 250% on solar panels containing Chinese-made solar cells” (“Solar Flare-Up: Back Tax Roils U.S. Firms,” Aug. 25)? Uncle Sam is intentionally raising Americans’ costs of buying products that the government itself insists are good for the environment. Government is doing so only to protect the profits of American solar-panel producers. Consumers and the environment be damned! What needs protecting above all, apparently, are the profits of Uncle Sam’s corporate cronies. Sincerely, Donald J. Boudreaux Professor of Economics George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030 An additional, and especially egregious, feature of this particular manifestation of cronyism is that the tariffs are imposed retroactively. Note the reason given by the administration for why such retroactive imposition is okay: A Commerce Department spokesman said media coverage of its investigation into dumping allegations should have served as warning to buyers that tariffs were possible. If arrogance and heavy-handedness could be captured and distributed as electricity is now captured and distributed, the U.S. Commerce Department alone would supply enough power to light up the world for a millennium.

DEMOCRAT CONVENTION HIJACKED BY LIBERALS

Unfortunately there are few REAL DEMOCRATS left in the Democrat party WHAT HATH AKIN WROUGHT? Democratic Convention To Become Celebration of Abortion Rights. With an eye on Rep. Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comments and the GOP’s mad dash away from the sinking Missouri Senate candidate, the Democrats are turning their upcoming presidential convention into a pro-choice assault on the Republicans with the help of major abortion supporters. Just as the Akin crisis was reaching a crescendo, the Democrats on Wednesday announced that three starlets of the pro-choice movement will be featured at the convention, an event that will now drive the liberal charge that the Republicans are anti-women. Democrats said that they will feature Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parent Action Fund, Nancy Keenan, president of the NARAL Pro-Choice America and Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University student whose plea for federal birth control funding drew the ire–and a subsequent apology–from Rush Limbaugh. What’s more, the Democrats are expanding their list of women ready to assail the GOP on women’s issue, adding Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski and actress Eva Longoria to the list that already includes Sen. John Kerry and Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren.

GOVERNMENT REPORTS

GOVERNMENT REPORTS: 40% of Food is Wasted in America GOVERNMENT REPORTS: 30 % of adult Americans are Obese. CONCLUSION: Food Waste MUST BE Good, otherwise we would be fat as blimps if we ate it all GOVERNMENT REPORTS: 20% of Children go Hungry each day GOVERNMENT REPORTS: 33% of Children are Obese. CONCLUSION: Food waste MUST BE Bad, because starving children find no food in refrigerators. CONCLUSION OF CONTRADICTION: GOVERNMENT REPORTS ARE BUNKUM!

SOMETIMES BEING ‘NUTS’ IS A CAREER ENHANCEMENT

BUT SOMETIMES BEING ‘NUTS’ IS A CAREER ENHANCEMENT IN FORBES: Joe Biden’s Gaffes Call For A Thorough Neurological Examination. Are these aberrations stupidity, dementia or personality disorders? To find out, shouldn’t there be some vetting or testing of people in, or who aspire to, governmental positions as critical as the vice-presidency? After all, we require bus drivers and hairdressers to prove their competence before they are permitted to ply their trades, and applicants to most police forces undergo psychological testing. Biden should submit to a thorough neurological and psychiatric examination, with special attention to whether he is experiencing “transient ischemic attacks” – marked by impaired blood flow to the brain – small strokes, seizures, or suffers from a brain tumor. After all, we often demand to know whether a candidate has recovered from open-heart surgery, cancer or a stroke, and many states require elderly drivers to be re-licensed. Aren’t the vice-president’s highest-level security clearance and his influence on public policy as important as the ability to drive a car?

FACTS

PICK YOUR FAVORITE FACT: PASSION IS IN THE IDEA OF EDUCATION SOLITUDE IS A HABIT OF THE MIND JUSTICE ON THE 19TH CENTURY WESTERN PRAIRIE WAS ONE LASH FOR EACH DOLLAR OF UNPAID BUT FORGIVEN DEBT

American pluck

Here’s an example of American pluck. In the stock market crash of 1873, a cattleman lost all his money; “I’m all right, “ he said, “ I’ll come back. I came here fifty years ago with only sixty-five cents and asthma, and I still got the asthma.” And another. Cowboys in a bunkhouse on a cattle ranch late in the 1800's, made an iron-clad rule that whoever was caught picking frew backs ( lice) off the throwing the on the floor without first killing the, should pay a fine of ten cents for each and every offense.” (Ten cents was a lot of money back then). Lastly, a cowboy in 1886 took plenty of novels, and tobacco, and usually a cat,” into winter camp. “A cat and a briar pipe were lots of company when a fellow spent months shut off from the world.” Of course crudeness and cruelty reigned on the wild, western frontier, but American history is a fascinating study. American politics too. Today the crudeness and cruelty have found a new home with uncivil liberals.

CRONY OBAMACAPITALISM II

WITH EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL MF GLOBAL: No Criminal Charges. That’s certainly good news for top Obama bundler Jon Corzine.

HOW CRONY OBAMACAPITALISM WORKS

HOW CRONY OBAMACAPITALISM WORKS From Washington Free Beacon BY: CJ Ciaramella August 16, 2012 5:00 am 234 AMERICANS LAID OFF 2 DAY AFTER LOAN APPROVAL Just days after the Export-Import Bank approved a multi-million dollar federal loan guarantee to benefit a mostly foreign-based wind-energy outfit, the company pink-slipped more than 200 American workers. The Export-Import Bank, a federal agency that promotes and finances sales of U.S. exports to foreign buyers, approved a $32 million loan guarantee on Aug. 2 for a Brazilian firm to purchase wind turbines from LM Wind Power. According to its website, LM Wind Power is headquartered in Denmark. “Ex-Im Bank’s financing, which guarantees a Bank of America loan, will support approximately 250 permanent American jobs at the company’s Little Rock, Ark., and Grand Forks, N.D., manufacturing facilities,” the bank said in a release. The company maintains a manufacturing presence in Arkansas and North Dakota—but the company laid off 234 of the Arkansas plant’s roughly 300 workers just two days after its loan was approved. “The Export-Import Bank is a slush fund for corporate welfare that distorts trade flows and should be eliminated,” Barney Keller, spokesman for the conservative Club for Growth, said in a statement to the Free Beacon. “It’s a ticking time-bomb that has subsidized everything from Enron to Mexican drug cartels and it should be eliminated as soon as possible before it costs taxpayers.” The Ex-Im Bank enjoys broad support from Democrats and some Republicans, who say it bolsters U.S. exports.

Obamanomics Definition

Definition of CAPITALISM: Allocation of resources by competition Definition of OBAMANOMICS : Allocation by corruption

ObamaBucks at Work

UNEXPECTEDLY: Treasury: U.S. to lose $25 billion on auto bailout. “The Treasury Department says in a new report the government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout. That’s 15 percent higher than its previous forecast.”

Illegal good - legal bad

UCLA TO HAVE 'NATIONAL DREAM UNIVERSITY' FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education and the National Labor College that will offer college courses to illegal aliens around the country. The Ford Foundation was the largest single donor, providing $1.2 million. The George Soros funded Open Society Institute donated $176, 443. Other significant donors included the California Construction Industry Labor Management Cooperation Trust ($450, 000), the United Auto Workers ($156,500), the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the left wing Tides Advocacy Fund, and the City of Los Angeles (all gave approximately $50,000 each). The Liberty Hill Foundation, New World Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, and SEIU all donated between $10,000 and $30,000.

RESTORE DECENCY

Those who believe in re-incarnation or avatars, should know that Paul Ryan’s is just a Conservative born-again in my image. What should be a campaign poster for Romney-Ryan? SLOGAN: RESTORE DECENCY picturing two white wings representing two better angels in America, Romney/Ryan. What banner would obviously contrast with this image? Obama/Biden, symbolized by horns ( two of course) on a red banner. HO HO HO!

Obama's Afraid

Pixie dust (top down economic policies) or acid rain? You choose. Opponents of Romney and Ryan ( supporters of Obama still affected by undigested Kool-Aid of progressivism) already say they will hurt, hurt, hurt hurt, women, the elderly, students and the middle class ( for starters). Poor Paul’s extreme conservatism is a no-no. I say choose again between Pol Pot and Poor Paul. No brainer in November.

Depart, I say, and let us have done with you

Remember the Maginot Line of WWII? On one side - ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer. On the opposing side - Liberte’, Egalite’, Fraternite’ Germany vs. France. WHAT THREE WORDS COULD AMERICA USE TODAY? Remember when Leo Amery said to Neville Chamberbain in the House of Commons on May 7, 1940, quoting the words of Oliver Cromwell? “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” What three words come to your mind for the important Nov. election? “Out damned spot?” Your suggestion? __________________________________

$100,000 METER MAIDS

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY II WHY CALIFORNIA CITIES ARE GOING BROKE: Hermosa Beach meter maids making nearly $100K? But it is a highly technical job “ you have a high school diploma or equivalent.” to qualify. One of the latest examples comes from the California coastal city of Hermosa Beach, where some community service staffers who collect money from parking meters and manage their operations – positions once widely known as “meter maids” – are making nearly $100,000 a year in total compensation, according to city documents. There are 10 parking enforcement employees for the 1.3-square-mile beach city southwest of downtown Los Angeles

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY Housing for 1 $191,500

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY I Note: Housing cost for 1 person $192,500!! THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: USDA spends $2 million on internship program for one full-time intern. Who was the intern, and what were his/her connections? Among the most striking findings in the IG’s report was the fact that OCIO had spent $2 million on an internship program that ended up hiring just one full-time intern. “OCIO funded an intern program for a total of $2 million which, while funded as a security enhancement project, only resulted in one intern being hired full-time for ASOC [Agriculture Security Operations Center],” the report reads. “This project is intended to develop and sustain a highly skilled IT security and computer technology workforce,” the report added. “Expenditures for FY 2010 and 2011 included over $686,000 for development and implementation of a networking website and approximately $192,500 in housing costs for two summers. While the intern program may be a beneficial step in the long-run, it did little to further the more pressing objective of improving USDA’s IT security.” Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/10/usda-spends-2-million-on-internship-program-for-one-full-time-intern/#ixzz23FAFDpIq

Romney vs. Obama Conflicting Realities

I enjoy good poetry. Every once in a while a line leaps out of a banal poem to provoke a comparison to current events. Robert Frost writes: “But all the fun’s in how you say a thing.” In the context of the poem, various aspects a local mountain are seen by two different men. Nature speaks in many tongues. Anyway, Romney vs. Obama or Obama vs. Romney, whichever version of conflicting realities you choose, the fun of political campaigning is found in this contrast: Obama’s ‘fairy dust’ of failed trickle-down economics vs. Romney’s “get the country going again.” Now, wherein lies the fun?

Obama Destroying Plaanet

IS OBAMA RESPONSIBLE FOR DESTROYING THE PLANET? If ‘man’ causes global warming and destruction of the planet and Obama is pushing programs to extend old peoples lives he is guilty of killing the planet. Professor Donald J. Boudreaux observes: “And note also that if they work as advertised by their proponents, programs such as Medicare, Obamacare, and Social Security are questionable policies that contribute to global warming, species loss, deforestation, urban sprawl…..”

OBAMA ELECTION ETHICS

Obama’s election ethics: BRYAN PRESTON: Why Team Obama Ran with the Dishonest ‘Mitt Killed My Wife!’ Ad. “As I wrote yesterday, we’re dealing with something in the Obama campaign that we haven’t seen much at the top of American life, except in the worst moments of the Clinton era. We’re dealing with a president who is entirely without any sense of ethics, honor or morals. He has lived a lie for most if not all of his life, hiding his true political convictions in gauzy language that makes him appear reasonable and moderate. Having lived a lie, what’s one more lie, in the service of keeping himself in power?” ACTUAL FACT: Wait a Minute: Joe Soptic’s Wife Wasn’t Even Diagnosed With Cancer Until 2006? Romney left Bain in 1999. GST( the company) was shut down in 2001. Soptic’s wife had her own health insurance through 2003. Now, in 2006, she was diagnosed — diagnosed! — with very late-stage cancer. She died 22 days after diagnosis. Is the argument made that Romney owed this guy another seven years worth of insurance coverage? And what good would it even have done? She wasn’t even diagnosed until just over three weeks before she would die. What?! I have to point this out because until now I’d been assuming she was suffering with cancer for years. I knew this ad was preposterous, but this is just too much. Or typical Obama ethics.

PORTMAN FOR VP ?

AM I CRAZY? OR IS LIMITED GOVERNMENT DEAD? A site touting ROB PORTMAN for VP cites his resent accomplishmnets: “Portman has introduced a handful of bills since May, in this order: one requiring the Treasury to issue Pro Football Hall of Fame coins, one to place FDR’s D-Day prayer at the World War II Memorial, the Synthetic Drug Control and Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention acts of 2012, the Multinational Species Conservation Funds Semipostal Stamp Reauthorization Act of 2012, one to give golfer Jack Nicklaus a gold medal, the Global Conservation Act of 2012, the End Government Shutdowns Act, and a bill introduced last week to affirm the authority of the president to require independent regulatory agencies to comply with regulatory analysis

“a leaping tongue of bloom?”

Who could pen a phrase in poetry to compete with Robert Frost’s “a leaping tongue of bloom?” Words like these leap out at a reader to invoke an image or a feeling. That’s poetry. Nature, the ultimate poet, simply channels into a writer’s imagination and creative genius. Where has all the great poetry gone? Or the great speakers? Not either of our Presidential candidates, 2012.

Obama's Ego

Something landed on Mars. Someone said something about a “global integrated average,’ being determined about something on Mars. Confused? Life is too confusing nowadays. Obama’s ego is out of control what with 117 I’s or me’s in a 25 minute speech averaging one reference every 12.8 seconds. Something lands on Mars and some person uses the phrase “global integrated average.” What does this space jargon mean to someone in love with technology’s outer limits? Summary of lesson learned? On both earth and Mars the meaningless means something to someone. Regarding Obama, we learn that his narcissism wastes our money. Regarding space exploration, ditto.

Goverment As A Deviant Subculture.

PHILIP K. HOWARD: Goverment As A Deviant Subculture. A deviant subculture is defined by sociologist Anthony Giddens as one “whose members have values which differ substantially from those of the majority in a society.” American government is a deviant subculture. Its leaders stand on soapboxes and polarize the public by pointing fingers while secretly doing the bidding of special interests. Many public employees plod through life with their noses in rule books, indifferent to the actual needs of the public and unaccountable to anyone. The professionals who interact with government — lawyers and lobbyists — make sure every issue is viewed through the blinders of a particular interest, not through the broader lens of the common good. Government is almost completely isolated from the public it supposedly serves. The one link that is essential for a functioning democracy — identifiable officials who have responsibility to accomplish public goals — is nowhere to be found. Who’s in charge? It’s hard to say. The bureaucracy is a kind of Moebius strip of passing the buck. The most powerful force in this subculture is inertia: Things happen a certain way because they happened that way yesterday. Programs are piled upon programs, without any effort at coherence; there are 82 separate federal programs, for example, for teacher training. Ancient subsidies from the New Deal are treated as sacred cows. The idea of setting priorities is anathema. Nothing can get taken away, because that would offend a special interest. The institutions of democracy are dedicated to the status quo. Limit the government to the things it’s actually authorized to do under the Constitution, and most of this problem would go away.

Goverment As A Deviant Subculture.

PHILIP K. HOWARD: Goverment As A Deviant Subculture. A deviant subculture is defined by sociologist Anthony Giddens as one “whose members have values which differ substantially from those of the majority in a society.” American government is a deviant subculture. Its leaders stand on soapboxes and polarize the public by pointing fingers while secretly doing the bidding of special interests. Many public employees plod through life with their noses in rule books, indifferent to the actual needs of the public and unaccountable to anyone. The professionals who interact with government — lawyers and lobbyists — make sure every issue is viewed through the blinders of a particular interest, not through the broader lens of the common good. Government is almost completely isolated from the public it supposedly serves. The one link that is essential for a functioning democracy — identifiable officials who have responsibility to accomplish public goals — is nowhere to be found. Who’s in charge? It’s hard to say. The bureaucracy is a kind of Moebius strip of passing the buck. The most powerful force in this subculture is inertia: Things happen a certain way because they happened that way yesterday. Programs are piled upon programs, without any effort at coherence; there are 82 separate federal programs, for example, for teacher training. Ancient subsidies from the New Deal are treated as sacred cows. The idea of setting priorities is anathema. Nothing can get taken away, because that would offend a special interest. The institutions of democracy are dedicated to the status quo. Limit the government to the things it’s actually authorized to do under the Constitution, and most of this problem would go away.

What thrift?

Webster defines it as “economical in the use or appropriation of money, goods, or provisions of any kind; saving unnecessary expense, either of money or anything else which is to be used or consumed; sparing; not profuse, prodigal or lavish.” Thrift sounds moral doesn’t it? Dr. John Templeton expands: Thrift is not so much a matter of how much we have, but of how we appreciate, value, and use what we have. Everyone, regardless of income level, has opportunities to exercise the virtue of thrift. We practice thrift by monitoring how we spend our time and money and then by making better decisions.” Thrift sounds proper doesn’t it? Ben Franklin clues us in to its source? “I have lived, Sir, ( George Washington) a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this – that God governs the affairs of men. … without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building (the United States of America’s Constitution of 1787) no better than the builders of Babel.” It sounds advisable to follow God’s path of prudence and economy doesn’t it because of debts, deficits, the lack of savings and the absence of thrift. Frederick Douglass noted that Americans also faced government intrusion into their individual freedoms and pursuit of happiness: “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.” Sounds like we better wake up and smell the stench of government waste and prodigality and its lack of interest in encouraging thrifty citizens. Sounds like we better conquer extravagance and improvident use of personal resources by too many Americans. Sounds like we cannot afford one, future rainy day.

Nazi Evil

Don’t Kid Yourself #1 Evil Nazi, Heydrich in 1942, planned the final solution of the Jewish Problem which included ‘labor’ …”and undoubtedly a large number of them will drop out through natural wastage,” he said. Read between he lines. #2 Evil Himmler also in 1942 said that in a “few concentration camp factories” ( I counted 26 on a map in a book about the Holocaust), “ Jews shall some day disappear in accordance with the Fuhrer’s wishes.” No need to read between these lines. Herman Melville wrote in “Moby Dick” that “all that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonism of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab were visibly personified and made practically assailable in Moby Dick.” Just substitute the JEW in these lines for the white whale. Proof of German hatred for the Jews lies in these lines from a 1936 German children’s book: “The Devil is the father of the Jew. When God created the world, He invented the races: The Indians, the Negroes, the Chinese And also the wicked creature called the Jew.” As early as 1920 Hitler himself spoke of death for all Jews who were “parasites on the national community”… and “only one bolt cannot be opened – and that is death.” Then late in WWII, 1944, a Pastor Hochstadter pleaded to German soldiers at the front to end the slaughter of Jews. “We live in an age which is raging throughout with mad ideas and demons, no less than the Middle Ages. Our allegedly ‘enlightened’ age instead of indulging in an orgy of crazed witch-hunting, feasts itself in an orgy of maniacal Jew-hatred….This the Church, the community of Jesus Christ, must acknowledge.” What should we do other than read and weep? Think. Who are now being accused of hate? Who hurl accusations of racism and hate? Who are the intolerant who self-identify themselves as enlightened? Today’s truth in scapegoating must first be confronted before it can be stopped. God help us!

RUSSELL & REMINGTON

“...they are cruel, ... he does not have to see them torture a rabbit as a pastime, for the subdued ferocity of the tiger is in their eyes and gleams out savagely...” Frederic Remington of the Apache character “The biggest part of the Rocky Mountains, still belongs to God.” Charles Marion Russell of nature in America Take your pick - men of the great Spirit or the men and women of God?

TEA PARTY

August 5, 2012 Tea Party Unbound AMERICAN THINKER By Clarice Feldman For several years now it seems to me that voters throughout the country in a perfectly peaceable way have demonstrated their revulsion at the ruling class's political , academic and media elites, and the media's disparagement or utter refusal to cover this civil revolution has not succeeded in killing it. Instead, as more people join in and see how the media distorts or refuses to report what they see with their own eyes, the sooner all of the major media will be joining Newsweek and CNN and the NYT and the Washington Post in their death throes. (This week it was so bad the far left Ford Foundation was granting media like the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times substantial funds to keep these half dead publications afloat.) A. The Beginning of the Ongoing Revolution The revolution began in 2009 when voters were sickened by the Congressional and Presidential power grabs, government waste and huge spending bills and, taking a leaf from the early colonists, called themselves The Tea Party. Watching the weak-kneed Republicans, upset with the Obama-Reid-Pelosi troika running roughshod, they realized that the "opposition" party was too unreliable to carry freedom's torch. The preposterous Senator Voinovich bawling at the John Bolton hearings when a real hero was being attacked and could not bring himself to effectively defend the nominee, was the capper: And then there was the inability of the McCain campaign to actually run as if they meant to win the race rather than the NYT's Miss Congeniality contest. So, from every state and county and city people organized themselves. While it started out as a largely Republican development, its sincerity and effectiveness keeps winning more independents to its side. CNBC's Rick Santelli probably did more than anyone to make the movement national when he criticized the government plan to refinance mortgages and suggested traders revolt by dumping derivatives in the Chicago River. By September 12 of that year, tens and tens of thousands of citizens came to the Capitol from around the country to respectfully demonstrate their unhappiness. The media seriously undercounted the extent of the gathering, ignored the way the participants had organized themselves to make sure everything was done legally and the grounds were kept spotless despite the huge number that gathered there. Instead, they focused in on a truly damned lie that charged some tea members with spitting and calling out racist epithets at Congressional Black Caucus members who with Nancy Pelosi had deliberately tried to provoke them. B. 2010 Election While the media drew the wagons around the Democrat politicians and protected them from having to fully and honestly face the anger of the voters, that anger grew. Low information types might have believed the cock and bull story about the racist epithets, but everyone who was there knew it was false. Even without the aid of the corrupted press, they told their friends and family and neighbors what had really happened, and they did what real Americans are better at that anyone in the history of the world: They lawfully organized themselves to get rid of those who had ceased to represent them. As Wikipedia summarized the event that followed: The Democratic Party suffered major defeats in many national and state level elections, with many seats switching to Republican Party control. The Republican Party gained 63 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, recapturing the majority, and making it the largest seat change since 1948 and the largest for any midterm election since the 1938 midterm elections. The Republicans gained six seats in the U.S. Senate, expanding its minority, and also gained 680 seats in state legislative races,[3][4][5] to break the previous majority record of 628 set by Democrats in the post-Watergate elections of 1974.[5] This left Republicans in control of 25 state legislatures, compared to the 15 still controlled by Democrats. After the election, Republicans took control of 29 of the 50 State Governorships. Political analysts in October 2010 predicted sweeping Republican gains this election, but despite a reported "enthusiasm gap" between likely Republican and Democratic voters,[6] turnout increased relative to the last U.S. midterm elections without any significant shift in voters' political identification.[7] The swaying views of self-declared independent voters, however, were largely responsible for the shift from Democratic to Republican gains.[8] C. The Media Kept Announcing the Tea Party was Dead, but like the Movie time Zombies, it did not Perish The tea party went to work after 2010 at the state and local levels. This movement is a bottom up one, and unlike the multiple phony "grassroots" ops on the left (remember the hilarious ersatz "Coffee Party"), this one is genuine, responding as it must to the demands of the average citizen, not some overpaid apparatchiks operating out of fancy offices in the capital, handing out money and placards to moogs on the ground. The most dramatic of the state efforts was that in Wisconsin, where despite an enormous infusion of Democrat and union money, extensive bullying and illegal conduct by the opposition, and outrageous shenanigans in the local courthouses, Scott Walker beat back an effort to recall him, and the Republicans seem to have largely succeeded in legislative and executive acts designed to make the state's management affordable and responsive to its citizens. Interestingly enough, the unions not only lost that race, but in beating them so thoroughly in such a leftwing state, Wisconsin created a template for other states to cut back on the public union stranglehold on their treasuries and politicians. D. The Rebellion Has Now Expanded to Include A War Against the Cultural Elite For some time now the cultural elite have played mind games with people. By declaring views contrary to theirs to be "hate speech," with the full complicity of academic leaders and media style setters, they have precluded debate on things important to voters. Your thoughts are simply made unspeakable in public. This week's stunt, surely another Democrat "look squirrel" diversion from the wretched performance of the President, was over the statement of the CEO of Chick-fil-A that he supported traditional marriage. You will not find a less hateful company in America. It is a model of a good business and a good corporate neighbor but for that remark, the company was targeted with calls for buycotts and dopey pols hoping to ingratiate themselves with yet another Balkanized bit of the voting public started threatening the company's right to do business as well. The public was not buying it. Why? Protein Wisdom's Jeff Goldstein said it best on Facebook I think: Remember when Bill Clinton signed DOMA, and Barack Obama ran as being a proponent of traditional marriage? Well, now that Obama changed his stance -- without doing anything about it with respect to the law -- suddenly holding the position he held until a few months ago is a "civil rights violation" -- and any religion that supports only the traditional notion of marriage is a "hate group" soon to be condemned in courts of law. Tolerance = unequivocal acceptance for someone else's views. Hate = disagreeing with leftist orthodoxy. So this time the politically correct gimmick of suddenly announcing contrary views to be beyond the pale and hateful speech, which must be shut down, didn't work. From everywhere in the country that Chick-fil-A operates, people reported long lines outside the company restaurants. The company wouldn't reveal the total uptick in business as a result of this stunt, but the best guess was over a 200% increase of business as a direct result of the "buycott." (Don't say there's nothing booming in the US economy. As far as I can tell ammunition, guns, freeze-dried survivalist food and Chick-fil-A are setting new sales records.) If you didn't know how successful the anti-buycott was, don't blame yourself. Michael Warren in the Weekly Standard: ...you wouldn't know anything about the national phenomenon by reading the front pages of most of the country's leading newspapers. There's no mention of Chick-fil-A on the front pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and the Boston Globe. The front pages of USA Today, the Dallas Morning News, and the Houston Chronicle have small headlines about the restaurant, while Chick-fil-A's hometown paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, fits in a story below the fold under the heading, "Chick-fil-A Controversy."... I'm not sure how philosophers answer the question "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound". But there's ample evidence that when the public is angry and organized against the ruling classes and the media ignores the phenomenon, the rebellion does not die. Jeff Dobbs looks at the latest Rasmussen poll, the most reliable national poll there is, and reports: Minus 23 at Raz today. Today marks the first time Obama has found himself at minus 23 in 2012. It is also the first time Obama has had a Strongly Approve as low as 22. Today also marks the fourth time in 2012 that Obama has found himself with a higher Strongly Disapprove than Total Approve -- with Total Approve at 44 and Strongly Disapprove at 45. The other three times were June 22-24. Welcome to August, Mr. President. Time to get wee wee'd up. Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.c

From an exhaustive study about “Hitler’s Willing executioners”

Hitler’s killing machine involved about 35 police battalions and 18 killing squads. And ordinary Germans. After WWII, from Battalion 101, just 2 legal investigations of the Holocaust presented 27 volumes of evidence and 12 more volumes plus 13 volumes of appeal documents. From a death march investigation 25 volumes plus 10 additional volumes eventually were recorded. Imagine how much print this involved? The Nazis used 1. work camps, 2. death marches and 3. extermination squads to rid Europe of Jews. This could only happen as a result of an “eliminationist anti-Semitic German political culture, the genesis of which … was the prime mover of the Nazi leadership and ordinary Germans in the persecution and extermination of the Jews.” “These beliefs have seemed ridiculous, indeed worthy of the ravings of madmen,” but they were the common property of the German people.” “The Nazis were the most profound revolutionaries of modern times. It was a cognitive-moral revolution. …The revolution was primarily the transformation of consciousness – the inculcation in the Germans of a new ethos.” First, the “revolution was one of sensibility and practice,” meaning a “new Nazi moral dispensation, … the antithesis of Christian morality and Enlightenment humanism – ‘those stupid, false, and unhealthy ideals of humanity’.” Second, their camp world was “the revolutionary transformation of society in a manner that denied basic premises of European civilization.” So ‘transformation,’ the ‘end of civilization as it is known,” the ‘destruction of Christianity,’ – does any of this garbage ring a familiar bell in American today? The notion that an “individual’s defining characteristics were derived from his race and the world was divided into distinct races,” was a widespread belief in WWII Germany. Again, does any of this garbage ring a familiar bell today? For the Jew, in America today, substitute any demon from the extreme leftist ideology, the tea party, Christians, conservatives, capitalists – all stated enemies of Obama’s agenda to be pointed out, rounded up, vilified with vile and gross language ( especially if you read Web comments) and dealt with by intolerance, persecution, marginalization and punishment. Does any of this garbage ring a familiar bell today?

Who builds winners?

Do you think London built that (infrastructure) which allowed the Olympic athletes to win their gold medals? Or is winning the result of being the best at a game regardless of where it is played? Are you a fool mesmerized by the illogic and contradiction of Obama and his administration? If so, you deserve a ribbon for achieving nothing - which seems to be the goal of the liberal, progressive agenda.

CHICK-FIL-A

TO WALL STREE JOURNAL “Chick-fil-A Leaps Into a Controversy” by John Bussey on August 3 stunningly misses the whole point of the squabble. It revolves around two issues - freedom of speech and government bullying. Regarding free speech, Mr.Cathy commented to a religious publication and was not picking a fight. The politicized gay community sought out his ‘thought crimes.’ Mr. Cathy holds a view absolutely within the mainstream of Judeo-Christian tradition for thousands of years. The politicized gay lobby is just the latest fashionable heresy within that tradition and as usual is seized upon by the elites. Moses and Christ will be here long after gay fads lie in the dust bin of history. Mr. Bussey refers to Mr. Cathy as ‘arrogant’ as if his view is an offense to the American people. Does he know that less than 2% of the population call themselves ‘gay’? Government bullying is the second issue. How dare government elites, fawning on the politicized gay lobby, deprive a citizen of his constitutional right to property and free speech? Or demand a banning of his business? The only God or morality to these politicians is raw power. The customers who lined up to patronize Chick-fil-A were standing up for each American’s right not to be bullied by government. Weirdly, Bussey notes that southerners are quite backward compared to northerners. Reaching way back to the 60's for his examples of southern inferiority, he fails to remember that today’s bastions of coastal liberalism were actually religious then and now look at them. It saddens me that a traditional American be again mocked and threatened by elites.

CONGRESSIONAL WEALTH

INCOME INEQUALITY THAT GETS CURIOUSLY LITTLE ATTENTION: The Congressional Wealth Gap. In 2010, the average net worth for a U.S. senator was $13,224,333. The average net worth for a Democratic senator was $19,383,524, compared to $7,054,258 for a Republican senator. That’s a difference of $12.3 million. Ballotpedia has compiled data on the average net worth of our elected officials for the years 2004 to 2010. As the average net worth of Congress has increased since 2004, and held about even from 2007 to 2010, the average American family net worth dropped 40 percent from 2007 to 2010 to an average of $77,300.

GOVERNMENT BULLYING

IF ROMNEY DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO EXPLOIT THE CHICK-FIL-A ‘PEOPLES REVOLT AGAINST BULLYING GOVERNMENT’ - THEN HE SHOULD NOT BE A CANDIDATE. What do you think? BOB OWENS wrote: “The Cluck Heard ‘Round The World.” “Clearly, this is more than a “buycott” over gay marriage. If the smattered of people I’ve talked to are representative, homosexuality is a side issue. This strikes a much deeper, more foundational chord. The massive crowd reaction locally and nationwide are driven by a loathing of arrogant politicians like those in Boston, New York, Chicago and San Francisco who feel they have the power and the authority to tell a businessman like Dan Cathy what personal opinions he can and cannot hold if he wants to do business in “their” towns. They trampled on his religious beliefs. They trampled on his freedom of speech. They attempted to deny him and his franchisees the rights to start small businesses, merely because a free American dared to share what he believed. Maybe it is a preference cascade. If so, you can thank Rahm.”

Let freedom ring

Did you know that the so-named Liberty Bell represents a call to end slavery? Originally the Pennsylvania State House Bell, mounted the year of Betsy Ross’s birth, 1752, was re-named on the eve of her death in 1836. Abolitionists asked : “May not the emancipationists in Philadelphia, hope to live to hear the same bell rung, when liberty shall in fact be proclaimed to all the inhabitants of this favored land? Hitherto, the bell has not obeyed the inscription; and its peals have been a mockery, while one sixth of ‘all inhabitants’ are in abject slavery.” Thus the statehouse bell became the Liberty Bell, and began life anew. And regarding slavery, Thomas Jefferson at age 77, considered slavery’s expansion a terrible problem. He wrote: “Like a firebell in the night, this question awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the union. ... I regret that I am now do die in the belief, that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons. ...”