Thursday, October 30, 2008

Is it too late to give Hawai'i back?


I was perusing www.rove.com looking at our dire straits when I noticed something interesting. Everybody's favorite socialist leads in Hawai'i by 41 percentage points. What accounts for that? If you already live in paradise, what can Obama offer you? I suppose you could always hope for more free time to enjoy your surroundings. Come to think of it - that would be pretty sweet...no job to worry about, your bills payed by the "rich" mainland suckers...They already have more than their fair share of the honeymoon industry eternally wrapped up. And they probably like him because he spent a couple of months there on sabbatical from his childhood in the Asian madrassahs.

So allow me to be the first to say that I am starting the movement to give Hawai'i back to the Hawai'ians. I will no longer willingly financially support their non-stop luaus, lousy college football, and snobby insistence on pronouncing their state name with its original inflection. I guess they could remain as a territory, but that would give them at least some voting rights, and they've demonstrated that they don't deserve to participate with the rest of us grown-ups. I mean, even Massachussetts only gives a little over 20 points to the commie. Shameful.

So stock up on bananas and mosquito nets, Hawai'i. A veritable typhoon of ill will is on its way.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Straw Man Debates, No. 2: Socialists are Ignorant


MOCKBADOC: Any political or social movement has to start with the recognition of a problem. Socialism is no different. If you read about the history of the Socialism movement, it started with the recognition of an inherent inequality between the workers and the people who benefited from their work. It must be understood, however, that the times in which this realization was made were fundamentally different from our own.

Flowerchild: What do you mean, exactly?

MOCKBADOC: Well, let's look at the places where socialism really took root - Europe in the 1800s. The biggest hotbeds of political unrest were Great Britain, Russia, and Germany. In all these cultures, the power was wielded by a noble aristocracy, and the vast majority of the population lived not as citizens, but as subjects.

Flowerchild: So?

MOCKBADOC: In a culture that is aristocratic, there are two distinct classes of people - the nobles and the non-nobles. A typical worker could never hope to achieve much of anything that was outside his or her class. If you were unlucky enough to be born the son of a coal miner, you were incredibly unlikely to become anything else. The acquisition of property and the securing of a good education and the means with which to use that education to better yourself all were controlled and doled out by a central, often tyrannical power class which received that power through no work of their own, but as a birthright.

Flowerchild: I don't see how this is relevant.

MOCKBADOC: Exactly my point. We in the U.S. saw this inequality as problematic almost a century before these other countries, and we decided on a course to stop it - our Revolution against Great Britain. We solved this problem of inescapable class structure by giving all our citizens (ideally) access to whatever they could achieve by their own hard work. We abolished royalty. The people who became wealthy in our country did so by working hard and making good decisions. In this way, we solved the problem the Socialists sought to solve, but by a different, and I believe a superior method.

Flowerchild: But we still have poor people. We still have those who work but don't get to succeed. Surely some sort of leveling of the playing field must be done.

MOCKBADOC: You seem to believe, like many liberals, that Socialist countries have solved the problem of having poor people. You are wrong. In the U.S.S.R., people were assigned to duties based on what their government thought their capabilities were. They earned little or no income, and as such, had no chance of rising to a higher level. In fact, the whole idea of rising to a better life was anathema to the Communists, because to do better for yourself meant that their "egalitarian society" was made void. So, if you were assigned the job of coal miner, you could hope for nothing but to remain a coal miner for life. You were still poor, you just had the twisted comfort of knowing that all your peers were poor, too. Except, of course, for the Party Elites. They had a pretty sweet deal.

Flowerchild: Okay. I'm really going to have to insist that you get to what this has to do with us.

MOCKBADOC: All I'm saying is that we don't live in autocratic 19th century Europe. If you are a coal miner and hate it, you have the choice to use your liberty to get out. Additionally, you have immensely better conditions than they did. Finally, you make an income that you can use however you want. You can buy a new house, a new car, whatever. This is hardly the hopeless set of circumstances that were being fought against by the original socialists. And to try and make the case that the workers need to rise up against the bourgeois in this time, and in a country where opportunity exists for anybody that wants to exercise their liberty, is more than silly. It's idiotic.

Flowerchild: Why shouldn't workers demand better pay, then? And what about all the people that make huge salaries, like oil and gas executives, while the roughnecks bear all the life-and-limb risks and make only a small salary? And what if you're born into a poor family? Surely you can see that you have a harder time becoming a millionaire as an inner-city kid than as a Rockefeller, right? I just think that everyone should have a truly equal opportunity to make it big. I'm not a Communist. I just think that everyone should have a truly equal opportunity.

MOCKBADOC: You just walked right into it. There is no way that you can ever achieve the sort of equality you are speaking of without taking rights away from people.

Flowerchild: That is a ridiculous claim.

MOCKBADOC: No. It is the exact reason that Marx called the kind of socialism that Europe still practices today a "halfway point" between aristocratic capitalism and true equality through complete Communism. No half-measure of Communism can benefit anyone. Take education, for example. We've spent several decades trying to ensure that every single person who wants to try college can get a college education. The result? Lots of jobless people with degrees, and a critical shortage of skilled workers like machinists and carpenters. These good-paying jobs must be sent overseas while the people with a B.A. in political science work to pay off their college loans as managers at Taco Bell. We've flooded the market. The fact that people can't see this is proof that socialists are ignorant.

Flowerchild: So what are you suggesting? That only certain people get access to a college education?

MOCKBADOC: Yes I am. The ones that show aptitude for college-type pursuits. In the same way, people who are skilled and have a passion for carpentry or mechanics should be allowed to do those things. We have allowed ourselves to become victims of a sick mindset, preached to us by the liberal intelligentsia, that only intellectual pursuits are valid or have value. Because they look down on machinists as being some sort of sub-human, then we have begun to act that way, too. Go to any construction site. What do you see? Latinos. Are they inherently better carpenters, masons, plumbers, and electricians than their American competitors would be? No. It's just that all the people who would have made a very good living doing these occupations are off in some junior college somewhere struggling in vain to be accountants or something. To believe that you can make a happy accountant or doctor out of everyone is ignorant, and shows a thinly-veiled contempt for everyone who doesn't go to college.

Flowerchild: So let me get this straight. You want to rob poor kids of the chance to go to college, and instead assign them to a life of construction work. Real compassionate.

MOCKBADOC: First of all, who said anything about the poor? Lots of poor kids could go to college, if they show through their test scores and interests that they have the raw material to be doctors or architects or accountants. Lots of rich kids, on the other hand, might end up choosing to be electricians or carpenters.
And again, you tip your hand. Your disdain for construction work is evident when you say things like that. I can tell you, people who are good at construction make a very good living, and have a good lifestyle free from college debt.

The trick is to realize that all jobs have value and to make all these jobs attractive to the people that are inclined to do them.

Flowerchild: How do you plan to do that, then?

MOCKBADOC: If people who are naturally inclined to be doctors get the opportunity to be doctors, and people who are naturally inclined to be machinists get the opportunity to be machinists, then we will be the proud home to the very best doctors and to the very best machinists on earth. People who hire machinists will be able to attract the best of the best by paying more. In this way, the market benefits the employer and the employee alike. The worker is thus empowered, making socialism unnecessary.

I advocate excellence. Socialists elevate the idea of "equality" as if by making everybody equal, you make everybody happy. I disagree completely. I think that forcing people to be something they are not makes them unhappy. In fact, I think that forcing people to do anything at all is evil, and should be avoided. Additionally, I disagree with the entire premise that you can ever achieve true equality. Even under the most "equal" of systems - Communism - there were still people who did construction and people who were engineers. Was this equal? No.

This is why I think socialists are ignorant (but not the only reason). They think they can insure that all people are happy by forcing their views on everybody. I prefer to have the freedom to choose for myself what makes me happy, then go out and get it. Anything that stands in the way of that is a "human rights violation", to use the language of your twisted philosophy.

Flowerchild: You, my friend, are a fanatic, a loon, and a philosophical dinosaur. You should be careful. You'll be one of the first sent to one of Obama's re-education camps.

MOCKBADOC: I'm sure you're right, friend. I'm sure you're right.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Straw Man Debates, No. 1: Socialists are Cowards


MOCKBADOC: "Socialism, more specifically inc0me redistribution (the seizing of one citizen's property for the purpose of giving it to another citizen) is cowardly."

Typical, mindless, backbiting, sniping, cowardly, stupid socialist liberal (a.k.a. flowerchild): "How can you say that? Some of the best countries in the world are socialist - like France, the U.K, our dear neighbor to the north, Canada...pretty much all our allies. Are you literally calling their people and their goverments cowards?!?. Are you?"

MOCKBADOC: "Umm. Yes. Actually, yes. That is exactly what I am saying."

flowerchild: "I can't believe my ears. You are really going to have to back this up, dude."

MOCKBADOC: "I'll be glad to try, but I doubt seriously that a communist sympathizer like yourself will be willing to listen. Nevertheless, I love a challenge, so here goes.

Resolved: Socialists are Cowards. I submit that socialism is the misguided attempt to remove the element of risk from life. Socialized medicine makes everyone have the same crappy healthcare. Why? Because socialists would rather give everyone lousy health care, just so long as they all have some of that lousy health care. By promising people that despite their circumstances, they will never have to fear for anything, they simultaneously (1) align themselves eternally with all lazy and unmotivated people, (2) give themselves a vested interest in creating ever more lazy, unmotivated, dependent-type people, and (3) have to come up with a way to pay for these ever-increasing promises. The last part is easy enough, at least for a while. They'll just take it from someone else.

In conclusion, socialists are cowards because (but not only because):
(a) they refuse to confront either themselves or their constituents with the hard facts of life for the grown-up world that
(1) life is difficult and risky and
(2) sometimes you have to look someone right in the eye and ask for help like an adult, and
(3) stealing is wrong, even if it is done through subterfuge and obfuscation by way of your socialist congressman,

(b) they have created a self-perpetuating machine of dependency that will guarantee their continuation in government long beyond the natural time of death of their ridiculous philosophy, and

(c) they know how viscerally we, as freedom-loving people, detest their sick and twisted philosophy because it is antithetical to all that we stand for and have ever stood for, they always hide their true intentions which include the creation of an omnipotent central government (run by them, of course) and taking and giving as they see fit, without regard to fairness or equity, but instead with regard to what serves them best.


flowerchild: Good Lord. Where do I begin? Let's start with the first point. I'm not sure that socialists are trying to save everybody from risk, but nevertheless...Isn't the quest to remove all risk and fear from people's lives a noble one? Surely you can see the wisdom in trying to do that, right?

MOCKBADOC: It is an illusion, and a dangerous one. First of all, let's be accurate. When you take money from someone who makes more, you've just increased their risk. It would be pretty silly for someone to argue that you should work your tail off and go into debt just simply to get to a place where the socialists take half of everything you and your family have, right? That isn't fair. It is favorable to one group of people over another. It is exactly like racism, except that is is based on class. In the same way that you would agree with me that there shouldn't be "Whites Only" drinking fountains or "Irish need not apply" places of employment, then surely there shouldn't be "Poor Only" elements of government. Our government shouldn't show favoritism to anyone, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, sex, gender...or income." And no. It is never noble to take from one to give to another. It neither ensures equity (one has been disenfranchised in favor of another) nor the nobility of the recipient. One who depends on and is beholden to another forever for their very existence is no longer a citizen - he is a slave."
flowerchild: "Slave? Okay now. That's a bit strong, don't you think?"
MOCKBADOC: "I certainly don't think so. But you tell me - what's your definition of a slave?"
flowerchild: "A slave is:
(1) a person held in servitude as the chattel (property) of another or
(2) one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence.
Surely you aren't suggesting that the rich are slaves under socialism, are you?"
MOCKBADOC: Surprisingly, no. I am suggesting that everyone is a slave under socialism. The poor are slaves because they are quite literally held as the property of the government. They have no hope of success by their own hard work or merits. Conversely, their only hope to avoid total ruin is the continuation of the government that feeds, clothes, and shelters them. In this way, they are robbed of their free-will and their potential, and become enslaved.
The so-called "rich" under socialism, on the other hand, have been allowed only the illusion of riches and self-determination, only to have them taken away at the whim of the government. In this sense, the entrepeneur is the slave of the masses. If the poor outnumber the rich, then the poor have the power to simply vote the entrepeneur into the poor-house. This kind of power over another is nothing if not slavery."
flowerchild: "That is a bit stark, I think. That kind of power is simply our democracy at work. That is hardly slavery."
MOCKBADOC: "I disagree on both points. First of all, we were never founded as a democracy as is often uncorrectly suggested, but as a Constitutional Representative Republic. Under this form of government, the power does not simply rest with the majority - a circumstance that was foreseen by the Founders to have exactly this kind of effect - but is shared between the people individually and collectively through a brilliant system of houses and branches of government, so that the desires of the masses are tempered by the also-important needs of the nation as a whole, then are made (ideally) to be consistent with the intention of the Constitution. We are not a democracy. We never have been. Look it up, if you don't believe me.
Secondly, I would ask you this question. How much slavery is too much? Is a little bit of slavery okay? How much is okay? How much institutional racism is okay? It is impossible to define, isn't it. The correct answer is that no amount of slavery or racism or domination or tyranny on the part of our government toward any single citizen is okay. We must fight slavery, racism, and tyranny at each and every moment we find it in ourselves or in our government. Imprisoning or enslaving people because you have no faith in their ability to do it for themselves is elitist, condescending, and contradictory to our way of life. Every person should be seen equally in the eyes of the law and government.
Furthermore, don't blame democracy for the state of affairs. At one time in this country, a majority could be found that thought that black people were not smart enough to vote, hold office, etc. Was that okay, just because the majority thought it? Clearly it was not. We must fight the tyranny of the majority as well as the tyranny of the minority. Our government, as originally intended, allowed for this. Unfortunately it has been slowly destroyed and rendered nearly useless to anyone but those who run it.
To be so afraid of loosening the chains on the rich and the poor alike, socialists are truly cowards."
flowerchild: "What about the people that live under socialism but don't run it? Are they cowards, too?"
MOCKBADOC: "Only if they embrace it and do not fight it. If you are okay with having a bully steal another kid's lunch money and give it to you because he likes you better, then you are a coward. If you continue to empower that bully over years and years, then you are an unrepentant coward. If you refuse to recognize that it is wrong to bully anyone and take their lunch money to give it to their friends, that it is wrong to take from one and give to another using only your own sense of justice as a guide to what is fair and what isn't, then you are the worst kind of coward. You are a socialist (Democrat). You have no right to decide who deserves and who doesn't deserve. Who are you to make these kinds of decisions? How can you be so egotistical and sure of yourself?"
flowerchild: "Well, if you are so smart, then...how are we ever going to empower the less-fortunate?"
MOCKBADOC: "We can't. Who ever started this whole thing about one person being able to empower someone else anyway? Each person must do everything in his or her power to empower him- or herself. When there are shortfalls, that's what families and communities and religious organizations are for. Not giant unwieldy, impenetrable beaureacracies. All governments have to do is get the heck out of the way. People are capable of amazing things if simply allowed to thrive and required to pull their weight. If it were not so, the human race surely would have died thousands of years ago."
To be continued. Next issue - Socialists are Atheists.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Calling Time of Death on Free Speech

Joe the Plumber. Someday our great-grandchildren will know his name. It will be on the page in their textbook that covers the period in history when the First Amendment died.

And in the kind of stunning irony that only real history can provide, its murderers will be the same people who have argued most vehemently for free speech historically, the liberals.

The ACLU is silent, as Joe the Plumber's tax records are pored over, as his reputation is dragged through the mud, as his life and livelihood are forever changed for the worst. All because he asked a question.

We bloggers are next, no doubt. Anyone who has tax problems should certainly lose their right to comment on the nature of our Republic. Right, Congressman Rangel?

Sweet Justice: Finally the Capitalist Pigs will Pay



I am so excited about our next President. Finally, true justice will be lavished upon all his subjects. My personal favorite is how he is talking about punishing oil companies and anybody else who does especially well. He and the other democratic socialists will institute a "windfall profits" tax that will show them a thing or two.

I can't wait until those smug bastards can no longer profit from the record-breaking price of oil. All of their stupid speculation and exploration and environmental compliance...

You just wait, ExxonMobil. Pretty soon your executives and their families will know the true meaning of pain.

Obama's gonna change it! Obama's gonna lead us!

Sorry. I get so excited sometimes that I start singing along with the Obama children. Anyway, as I was saying, you and your capitalist swine families will soon make NOTHING! 'Cuz that's what "windfall profits" taxes do, you creeps! Your companies will be dealt with harshly beyond belief! And what'll you do then, huh?

What's that? Stop exploring for oil and gas so aggressively? Well, good! Then you'll really be hurting. You and all your stinking executive friends. And then...huh? What were you saying, you disgusting capitalist? The price of what? Gasoline??? But how would punishing you cause all of us to pay more, exactly? Less oil means less supply and more demand? More demand means higher price? I don't get it. You must be lying, because that's what you right-wingers do. You lie. Well, even if we do have to pay more for gas, it'll be worth it to see you fat cats suffer...what? Pass what on, exactly? So you are telling me that you will still make a ginormous salary despite taxing your windfall profits? How do you figure that, Einstein? Lay-offs? Passing the higher costs on to the consumer? Oh.

You people disgust me. You just wait. Our glorious leader will find a way to thwart you yet.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Survival

I'm lucky. My brother and I were raised to be self-reliant. Dad made sure of that.

My maternal grandparents grew up in Oklahoma during the "Dust Bowl" years. My grandmother lived in a small town and her dad sold mules to the U.S. Army. My "Peepaw" grew up on a small farm in the middle of the state. They survived.

My dad's dad also grew up on a farm. His father had died when he was a teenager, leaving him as the male leader of a family including nine children. I remember almost every story he ever told me about those years. They lived an isolated, but very happy and fulfilling life. They planted. They harvested. They loved each other. They survived.

Somehow, through some weird quirk of circumstance, I've always been interested in the past - in how people did what they did against seemingly insurmountable odds. In fact, I've always had a peculiar romantic feeling about how life must have been in those days. My grandfather and dad taught me how to recognize which trees make good fence posts, good firewood, good houses. I learned how to salt- and sugar-cure pork. I know how to hunt. I know how to fish. I know how to trap. I know how to plant and to harvest. I know how to survive.

I watched the events following Hurricane Katrina a couple of years ago with a morbid fascination. I saw entire families helpless - waiting on rescue from a government they trusted with their very survival so completely that they literally died waiting. I saw others descend into a "Lord of the Flies" kind of madness: looting, stealing, and killing. They had lost their instincts for self-reliance. Their communities that could have helped them best evaporated in the mists. Their government agencies, whether local, state, and federal, were too large, too distracted, and too poorly-prepared to save them. They couldn't survive.

Again, I find myself watching sort of sickly mesmerized as the doom and gloom are predicted, but I know that we'll be okay. I know this because all the people I've ever known have taught me, and I've learned. I find it pitifully tragic that others lack this sense of self-reliance. Even the people in the 1920s and 1930s who were raised much closer to our agrarian and self-reliant past than were we, were shocked and surprised by the sudden onset of the Great Depression. As now, the American collapse heralded a world-wide downturn. Nevertheless, our ancestors survived. They took what they had and made the best of things. They did without the trappings of wealth and high society. They turned to the only thing you can really ever count on in this miserable world - God and family. They survived. Moreover, they thrived. Out of the ruins of that dark time rose what has been called "The Greatest Generation" - forged in the hardships of the Depression, further hardened by a World War.

I urge you not to lose heart. And I urge you to listen to the voices of our forebears. My great-great-grandmother, who I listened to as a young child, under an old oak tree in her elderly daughter's front yard, told all us kids of "coming to Texas on a covered wagon", crossing rivers, being harassed by Indians, and surviving. That same pioneer spirit that lived in her, in the Pilgrims, in the "49ers", in Lewis and Clarke, in Daniel Boone, in the Heroes of the Alamo - that same spirit lies dormant in us, too. We will grow through this, no matter how bad it gets. We will grow stronger and better. And, with God's help, we will survive.

Read, hear, learn, and survive.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

What a Joke Sounds Like in Russian: Liberals Gone Wild

I have a confession. From time-to-time, I begin to wonder if I’m slightly over the top with some of my criticisms of Democrats. No, really. It’s true. I think that if one is trying to be honest and shun self-righteousness, it is necessary to maintain a kind of habitual self-examination, even self-doubt at times. I mean, surely it is a bit overstated to call them socialists all the time.

It was in just such a reflective mood that I awoke this morning. Maybe it was John McCain’s genuflection at the altar of socialism last night with his whole home mortgage buy-out thing – I don’t know. I was in the same mood when I sat down to check the news and see if this morning’s fed rate cut had been able to temporarily placate the spoiled child on Wall Street. Unexpectedly, the Conservative fire in me was stoked to new fury with an article I happened upon by Timothy Noah, senior writer at Slate magazine.

After hating myself a little for even looking at Slate (it’s like pornography for liberals), I began to read. Noah feels that the election is in the bag for The Socialist Party. In a rapture of self-congratulation and playground taunting, he begins to fantasize about how great it would be if he and the rest of his socialist pals could be open with their true feelings about our country. The article is only slightly tongue-in-cheek. I submit, for your consideration, the list. Consider it Exhibit A in my continuing quest to get people to realize just how sick, twisted, dangerous, and unpatriotic this ideology truly is.

This is a rare glimpse into the secret dungeon of liberal thought. I give you fair warning. Those of you with even the slightest conservative leanings may be deeply offended. Reader discretion is advised.

1. I think Karl Marx had some valuable insights into capitalist economies!
2. I think abortion should be safe and legal. Rare is fine, too, but the way to achieve that is contraception, baby!
3. I think Mormons are kooks!
4. The Second Amendment does too allow government to ban handguns!
5. Let's standardize the federal age of consent at 16!
6. Promiscuity between consenting adults is good exercise!
7. Health care is a service, not a business!
8. Pot is no more dangerous than vodka. Legalize it!
9. I don't support the troops. I support some troops, depending on whether or not they've committed war crimes!
10. No more wars without United Nations or at least NATO support!
11. Saving the boulder darter was worth a few thousand jobs!
12. If Eastern Europeans think NATO will go to war to defend them against Russia, they're out of their minds!
13. Ditto if Taiwan thinks the United States will go to war to defend it against China!
14. Let's teach evolution in Sunday school!
15. The military-industrial complex is a greater menace than most foreign nations!
16. If Israel isn't out of the occupied territories in six months, we'll cut off all aid.
17. Higher gas prices are good because they make everybody bike and take public transit like they should!
18. America isn't the greatest nation in the world. We think it is only because it's our country. Duh!
19. America won't be the world's most powerful nation forever. And you know what? Handing that responsibility off will be a relief!
20. America's official languages should be English and Spanish!
21. Judges should legislate from the bench if they want to. Conservatives do it, so why not liberals?
22. I do not accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior! I don't even believe in God!
23. What's so great about the Judeo-Christian tradition?
24. Big-city values are better than small-town values!
25. I'm glad the Muslims whupped the Christians during the Crusades! Served 'em right!
26. We need a shorter work week!
27. Employees who work more than 40 hours a week should always get overtime.
28. We're going to need affirmative action for a long time.
29. We're undertaxed. Look at Europe!
30. Terrorism isn't that big a threat to America!
31. I'm not a "progressive," for Pete's sake. I'm a liberal!
32. I'm not a "liberal," for Pete's sake. I'm a leftist!
33. I'm not a "leftist," for Pete's sake. I'm a democratic socialist!
34. I'm not a democratic socialist, for Pete's sake. I'm a Communist! Just kidding!
35. Let's bring back the era of big government.
36. Walter Mondale would have made an excellent president!
37. It's not enough that the top 5 percent pays 55 percent of our taxes. Why not 75 percent? Believe me, they can afford it!
38. Prostitution is a victimless crime! Don't outlaw it; regulate it, so we can arrest physically abusive pimps, limit the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, and halt sexual trafficking in minors!
39. Many welfare moms kicked off the rolls by the 1986 welfare-reform bill are worse off in their crappy jobs!
40. Ronald Reagan was a crummy president!
41. Broad availability of gay marriage: good. Broad availability of gay divorce: better!
42. You want to know why George W. Bush was a lousy president? Because he's stupid!
43. Pornography is good for your marriage because it teaches you new sexual techniques!
44. The problem with public schools is private schools!

So thank you, Tim Noah et al. Thank you for reminding me exactly why it is that your America-hating, atheistic, Godless, sadistic, and yes, by your own admission, Communist ideology must be destroyed.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Mayday, Mayday...Pull the Cord, Maverick! Pull the Cord!!!


John McCain, in a colossal blunder tonight, just revealed his plan to win the election. Socialism, Republican-style.
Oh, my goodness. Now we're going to "bail out" the irresponsible "grass roots" that contributed to this credit mess. Let's not allow the market to adjust naturally by allowing unemployed and asset-less borrowers to reap the whirlwind of their irresponsibility. Instead, let's allow the responsible borrowers to subsidize others' short-sightedness in a misguided and transparent pander which will undoubtedly eventually further destabilize the lending market.

As a tax-paying, hard-working, debt-leveraged Veteran and worried home-owner and householder, allow me to be one of the first to tell John McCain "no thanks".

You were ready to sacrifice an election to win a shooting war. Now it is time to sacrifice an election to win an ideological one.

If we conservatives give in to the notion that the government is responsible for saving citizens from their own poor decisions, then the Republican Party has truly lost its moral authority on all matters financial. I'm sorry, Senator McCain, but this is where we truly part ways.

I respect you. I honor your service to our country and unmistakable courage as a POW. I admire your willingness to stand your ground, even against your own party, when you feel they are wrong. So please understand and respect my position that what you suggested tonight is more than simply a ham-handed attempt to change your downward slide in the polls. To me, this identifies you irrevocably as part of the very problem that has led me to oppose Barry Obama. If you continue on this poorly-considered vote-grabbing pandering course, I will feel forced to waste my vote on the Libertarians.

Please reconsider, or I fear all will truly be lost.

Redistribute. It's the (new) American Way.


I found Obama's performance tonight to be flawless. He spoke just like George Soros taught him. I'll give it to him. He is about the most eloquent spokesman for communism I've ever heard. What a pity the Cold War ended already. He'd have been a shoe-in for information minister under Andropov or Khrushchev.

When did it become a crime to make it? When did it become the government's responsibility to make sure your children were taken care of? I guess I missed the memo. Here I am, trying to ensure a better life for my son, and all the time, I could have been depending on Barney Frank to take better care of him than I ever could have dreamed.

Incidentally, I found it interesting that "health care is a right...in a country as wealthy as ours...". I guess that, once again, I was operating on the outdated notion that "rights" were those things that were assumed as part of a universal belief about people's place in the universe. Apparently, health care is a right in America, but not in the Congo. Not in the Sudan. Not in any less "fortunate" country. It's good to know.

I move that we also amend our Declaration of Independence to specify that only Americans are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights to Life, Libery, and Property. After all, we are the only ones who can afford such luxuries...right, Senator Obama? I guess the rest of the world can just suffer until your far-sighted generosity touches them. After all, YOU (and your party) are the true guarantors of all real "rights". Until the colossal thieves Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Barack ("the One") Obama, and the Obama Youth are on board, all such claims to these heretofore "rights" are simply rhetoric.

Please, Senator Obama. Please let us poor sheep know which rights we can afford under your New Plan for America. Far be it from me to be so presumptuous as to claim rights to which I am untitled due to my poor position in life. We await Thy Glorious pronouncement.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Barack Obama - Criticize at your own Peril

In an A.P. article this morning, it was suggested that criticisms by Governor Sarah Palin of Senator Barack Obama's past (and present) radical acquaintances and friends are, in a word, racist. This is exactly the kind of conversation-squelching race-card playing that his campaign has perfected, not over the past couple of years, but apparently over his entire adult life. He is a career race-baiter and brow-beating thug.

Okay. Let’s just take the whole color thing off the table for a moment. Not that I am forgetting about it, of course, because it is extremely important, and I will get to it later.


Senator Barack Obama is a radical terrorist sympathizer. It’s true. There is no reason to believe, unless you are simply predisposed to take him at his word that he would not continue to be a terrorist sympathizer once in the White House. I know. You are in shock at my candor on this subject. And some of you, perhaps many of you, are thinking the same thing right now – the “r” word (racist). I’d like to tackle this issue in two parts. I’ll start by backing up my assertion that Senator Obama has habitually cozied up to terrorists and radicals.


From his very earliest days as a Columbia University student with political aspirations, Barack Obama has been groomed, trained, and protected by some of the most notorious America-haters known. Almost as soon as he arrived in New York, possibly before, he was under the tutelage and supervision of the radical and controversial leader of the so-called Nation of Islam and well-documented white-hater and race-baiter Louis Farakhan. He was likely accepted into Harvard Law School as a result of the introductions made for him by Farakhan, most notably to an advisor to a Saudi Arabian prince. It has been speculated and not denied that Obama’s law school education was paid-for by this Saudi sheik.



Once in Chicago, Obama was immediately snapped up into the world of ACORN as a community organizer, where he became acquainted with William Ayers, former 1960s radical and member of the Weather Underground. Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist, and has made recent statements that indicate that violent acts against the government might still be necessary in order to perpetuate his radical agenda.


Ayers and Obama co-chaired a foundation which funneled funds into ACORN projects, including one designed by Obama himself while the lead trainer at ACORN – the use of intimidation and bullying tactics to force local banks to make ridiculous loans (so-called NINJA [“no income, no job, no assets”]) to local black citizens. ACORN then funneled money back towards Obama when he first ran for elected office in Chicago. It should be noted that at the center of the recent mortgage credit crisis lies ACORN and their work to force loans to happen that could never be paid back as a form of social engineering. These bad loans were eventually packaged up and sold to Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, and when they began to be defaulted upon, started the fall of dominoes that led to the recent $700B bailout. This sort of takes the punch out of Obama's recent assertion that this mortgage problem suddenly appeared out of thin air the instant G.W. Bush was elected. It also makes one wonder how on earth he could go about fixing a problem, the origins of which he either forgot or refuses to acknowledge.


For twenty years, Barack Obama attended a church led by a violently radical race-baiting, white-hating pastor, Jeremiah Wright. He was married to Michelle in that church by Reverend Wright. Reverend Wright baptized his children. There really are only three possibilities: (1) Obama truly was oblivious for twenty years about what went on in that church (ignorance or naiveté of an unprecedented scale); (2) Obama knew what that church was all about but couldn’t afford, for political reasons, to leave (cowardice and self-centeredness); or (3) he knew very well what the church was about and stayed there because he tacitly agreed with what Wright preached. Is he naive, cowardly, or dastardly? I'm just asking. I still haven't been satisfied with his failure to answer simple questions about this.


Antoin (“Tony”) Rezko, a Syrian businessman and recently-indicted real estate developer in Chicago, has had a close personal relationship with Obama for years. In fact, Obama and Rezko secured their new home properties on adjacent lots in the same very well-to-do Chicago suburb on the same day – three weeks after Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi loaned $3.5million for the purchase. There is more than enough to be curious about the relationship between Obama and Rezko.



Obama’s campaign has been in frequent contact with Hamas, a known terrorist group, during this campaign, so much so that when it was discovered, they felt it necessary to fire Robert Malley, a chief Obama advisor, to avoid the obvious political fallout. This never really materialized, of course, because the mainstream media outlets are too busy drooling and trying to get their next opportunity for "Cooking with Barack and Michelle".

So what does all this mean? Does it mean that Obama is Al Qaeda’s “man on the inside”? Of course not. Although it does seem to indicate a certain level of comfort with people that most of us, especially us whites who seem to be the target of the rage of lots of Obama’s friends and acquaintances, might find less-than-fun dinner companions.


I never like the “shoe-on-the-other-foot” technique of argument. But here it seems rather appropriate. Let’s imagine a candidate – a white candidate. This candidate goes to a white supremacist church for 20 years, then claims he didn’t know that it was preaching white supremacy, after it is conclusively demonstrated that he was there when the “hate message” was being preached. Far from being shocked and horrified at that message, he stays there. He gets married by the white supremacist preacher. He lets that same preacher baptize his children. Would that bother you?

Now let’s say he could be definitively linked to running in the same circle as Tim McVeigh, or perhaps the Unabomber? Moreover, he lived on the same street as the Unabomber, as well as the same street as a well-known Aryan Brotherhood leader who had called for the destruction of all black people? Would that bother you? Would it make you a racist to point out all those oddities?

I, for one, don’t think that would make you a racist. I think that would make you a thoughtful voter. So when you call those of us racists that want to make sure we aren’t electing a radical, a friend of known terrorists, just know how incredibly defensive and silly you sound. There is truly a limit to being “The Devil’s Advocate”.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Way To Go, Sarah!


She did what she had to do last night. She seemed at-ease and comfortable, and in fairly-good command of the issues. She came off as a very refreshing antidote to the consummate boring double-talking insider Biden.

I was thinking last night right before the debate started that she would hardly be human if she wasn't thinking, in some deep dark part of her psyche,

"What in the world am I doing? Am I doing the right thing? Am I the right person for this? Can I - should I - put my family through this? What would happen if I just left? Maybe I should just run out of here and back to Alaska where people understand me, love me, respect me..."

She didn't run. She girded herself, swallowed hard, and did what Americans are supposed to be the best in the world at - kicking butt when it counts the most. I am so very proud of her.

I am also proud of all the people who joined with us to pray for her and her family. Most of all, I am proud and incredibly thankful that we have the ability to speak to Our Father anytime, anywhere, and about anything. It is so nice to be in His family.

This isn't over, of course. Today, the attacks will continue and even intensify. We have to commit to continuing to pray for her and for our country in these dark times. Thanks, everybody.

_______________________________________


On another front...

Is it just me, or is everybody thoroughly confused now about this bailout deal?

I understand the problem, I think. Bill Clinton put pressure on the central bank to institute a practice of lending money to people that couldn't possibly pay it back as yet another social welfare program. In his mind, I guess, home-ownership (like health care) is one of those inalienable but unmentioned "human rights". Now those bad mortgages have begun to be defaulted on in large numbers, and the people holding those mortgages can't sell them. The banks invested in them are failing, now, and have no credit to lend to anyone.


Where I get sketchy, though, is in the following...

1. How exactly does $700Billion fix all of that?

2. What would really happen if we said "no" to the bailout deal?

3. What should we be doing to prepare?
Help me out with this one, okay? I really don't get it. I don't know if I should be calling my Representative and telling them to do it, or warning them not to do it.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

A Prayer for Sarah


I don't think any of us really know what kind of person Sarah Palin is. There seem to be a couple of extremes of thought, to be sure - some of her most ardent fans would claim that she is the savior of the Republic, her enemies paint her as a danger to everything American, a Bible-thumping "fundamentalist" idiot. Both of these extremes almost certainly leave something to be desired.

Despite my initial positive gut reaction to her, therefore, I had withheld final judgment until we could see more of her. What I found was that I was watching the wrong person.

Sarah Palin is what she is. She is a human being - a driven and successful American woman. She is very much like many of us - with some weaknesses, some strengths, some tragedies, some joys. I'm sure that we could learn a lot about her, given more time, and our opinions might change for the better or for the worse. I find, however, that I am learning more about Sarah Palin from her enemies.

She has been in the public eye for a very few weeks. In that time, she has inspired a kind of rage and vitreol I've not seen before in my lifetime. She has been accused of graft and corruption - no evidence could be found. She has been accused of being a political novice - I've tried to figure out how on earth that could be a bad thing. She has been attacked for having too many children. She has been ridiculed for her down-home persona. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign money have been spent to dig up dirt on her...the result? She tans.

She has been interviewed by our "elite" media sneeringly and mockingly. She has been asked unanswerable questions, then bashed for not answering to their satisfaction, then dismissed as stupid and naive. Her 17-year-old daughter has been exposed to a ridiculous level of scrutiny for becoming pregnant then doing the most responsible thing and keeping the baby and marrying the father. She has had her personal emails hacked, stolen, and then leaked in a barely-reported federal crime. Her husband has been accused of incest, and her special-needs son was offered for sale on eBay by some of the radical liberals who oppose her.

All of this combines to reveal something. Although we don't know Sarah Palin very well by her own words and actions yet, we are learning much about her from the people who despise her. She is hated with a kind of hatred I've never before seen in this country. The term "rabid" comes to mind. These are the people who want to run our country.

With all this in mind, my family and I have been praying for Sarah this week. We will be praying for her tonight before and during her debate - lifting her up to a merciful Father in prayer. I do this partly because I think that someone like her might be good for a change - the other three people involved in this contest are all parts of the problem to varying degrees, in my opinion. And I do this partly because I hurt for her and her family. It hurts me that this is what happens when we send one of our normal American citizens to Washington. They are given a choice between corruption and personal destruction. She chose to be strong, so she and her family must pay the price of their insolence against the power structure.
I want to be clear about this. I am not making the claim that Palin is "God's candidate" or anything of the sort. I am not even praying that she wins the debate tonight necessarily. The election will go as God wills, if we will pray to Him about it. What I am praying for is that her enemies who have attacked her and her innocent family so cruelly and without basis and without mercy will be thouroughly confounded and put to shame.
I invite all of you to pray for Sarah today and tonight. I ask you to pray for her family. She must be under a kind of pressure few of us can even fathom. You and I know, however, that the One to whom we pray is greater than all of this, and is able to make her personally victorious, even if not outwardly. I invite you to pray with me for our very sick country, that God will heal it. Surely this is not the America our forefathers envisioned. I am praying that her enemies will become confused, that God will protect his daughter with his angels, that He will prepare her mind and spirit for the battle tonight, and that God's perfect will will be done. I offer the following verses from His Word as thought points as we go into spiritual battle along with her...


When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. 2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: "Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. 4 For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory."
- Deuteronomy 20:1-4
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."
-Deuteronomy 31:6

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear ; do not be frightened."
- 1 Peter 3:14

... say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you."
Isaiah 41:10So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

- Isaiah 35:4

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.
Psalm 20: 7-8

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalm 27:1

The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
Psalm 28:8

Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!
Psalm 31:24

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1

But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.
Psalm 59:16

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
1 Corinthians 1:25
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Ephesians 6:10
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
- 2 Timothy 3:12
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
- 1 Peter 4:12-14, 16
But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;therefore my persecutors will stumble;they will not overcome me.They will be greatly shamed,for they will not succeed.Their eternal dishonorwill never be forgotten.
- Jeremiah 20:11
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
- Matthew 5:10-12
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
- John 15:18-20

Hang in there Sarah. You are not alone in this.