Monthly Archives: November 2011

Robots…

Please download free healthcare, college and future employment into my memory banks...

If I’m guilty of anything it is my passion for the things I believe, some more than others. Consequently, when I look at the big picture there is always one common thread. No matter the direction of the political wind, nor who we elect as President, and no matter our personal motivation, frankly speaking, if we fail to educate our young people adequately and accurately about this great nation and what it means to be an “American”, we lose…

Jack Chambless, Professor of Economics at Valencia College, asked his students to submit essays basically having to do with the federal government’s role in our lives. And while there where a small number of college age folk who felt government should stand aside and let the individual shine as was Constitutionally intended, better than 70% of his class wrote in terms of free healthcare as well as government provided college, jobs and pensions. One young man even wrote something to the effect of “human beings could not provide for themselves and that it was the (government’s responsibility) to do it for them”.

This is the sort of thing that should scare every freedom loving American who is reading it. Not only is it scary that this could be the thought process of anyone preparing to go into the world for real, but more so because somewhere along the line, at home and/or within the public school system, there was a “void of learning” which can only be attributed to parental complacency and an ignorant and flawed union ideology rooted in most of the public education system today. We are producing an entire generation of entitlement robots devoid of the fundamental principles of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”, a class of young people who simply have not been taught to recognize or understand the goodness in free will, self-reliance and individual exceptionalism. Simply put, our nation will instead have to deal with a totally new entitlement class, poor and deficient not by circumstance but by choice.

 

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Get in the damn game…

See ya...

I think it’s fair to say when looking at the failure of the “Super Committee”, Governor Christie is spot on when he asks the POTUS: “What the hell are we paying “you” for”? Put aside for a minute Christi’s accurate assertion that President Obama has been essentially AWOL during the debt debate choosing instead to heckle from the side lines. What is truly amazing is that he’s made around 50+ trips to 11 potential 2012 swing states of recent, and all on our dime, that’s more than any of his predecessors. Moreover, I continue to chuckle every time I hear School Boy Jay Carney say things like: “It would be a stretch to think we would know which states will be battleground states”. I mean, how stupid does this clown think we are. Truth be told, the Obama team has a group of individuals whose sole responsibility is to monitor every detail of his election campaign, specifically something as critical as the 80 or so electoral votes he must get to win in 2012.

So putting aside Carneys contempt for the “unwashed”, it is not “a stretch” when we ask our President to get off the campaign train, jog on over to Capitol Hill, and get in the damn game!

 

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Border cover up…

Agent Terry's family bids him farewell.

You had to know that Democrats like Diane Feinstein and company would try to spin “Fast and Furious” into an anti-gun thing. Problem is they have their “facts” confused as usual. Seriously, from Holder on down you have to wonder if these folks could find their way out of a paper bag with two hands and flashlight, that is until you look at the history and know there is and has been an agenda for some time.

Assertion: 70 percent of the firearms recovered from crime scenes in Mexico come from U.S. gun stores.

Fact: That number is extrapolated from federal weapons “traces” only, and in many case the traces are doubled and even tripled up in the collection process as they are often derived from three or more agencies. Additionally, even BATFE is reporting that with the exception of “Holders guns”, most seized weapons are older weapons traced to legal

Agent Zabata's bullet riddled vehicle.

military sales to a number of Central American nations over the years, and had probably made their way into the hands of the cartels simply by way of the highest bidder. (I would add here that in both cases where we are looking at American officials killed by the cartels, (Agents Terry and Zapata), “Holders guns” have been the only ones implicated). Oh and one more thing, it is understood by even the most partisan hack having anything to do with the border firearms issue, that Russia has been and will continue to be a huge influence by way of illegal arms and ammunition sold to the Mexican drug cartels. As I have said many times, those bastards would sell gasoline to arsonist if it turned a profit.

Look, this is simple. Holder and his anti-gun cohorts on the Hill, in another failed effort to portray anything related to the Second Amendment as bad for America, made a big huge boo boo with this “Fast and Furious” gig. Consequently, it’s looking more and more like their negligence got some fine Americans killed in the process.

So don’t be fooled by the desperate smoke and mirrors campaign launched by Eric’s buddies in Congress. The facts tell a very different story. And that is why in this author’s humble opinion, if the President of the United States continues to stand in defense of the Attorney General and does not accept the truth about (Operation Fast and Furious), ultimately he will be complicit in the deaths of those two brave Americans who gave all in defense of the homeland against the scourge of the drug cartels.

 

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Red meat…

If you follow my writing at all, you will know that I’m against amnesty of any sort. And for that reason you might conclude that Newt Gingrich’s recent immigration policy proposal as outlined in his 21st Century Contract with America might make me a bit queasy. To the contrary, I think it makes sense. The problem always comes when the media jumps the gun and harps the sound bite without the facts.

It is true that the Republicans consider themselves to be the party of the family, (the real family, not the Liberal facsimile). Therefore, it is only logical that we should promote that which we believe. Gingrich is correct when explains that it makes no sense to uproot and destroy a tax paying families which, after having been allowed to enter and stay in this country for 25 years or more by way of the current and failed immigration policy, and those of Administrations dating back to Reagan. If one would take the time to read the proposal, one would see that there would be a number of checks and balances, not the least of which deals directly with those more recent and “untied” to America if you will, being given their collective walking papers. There are even more qualifications that disallow voting rights as a penalty even to some of those who will remain.

The message here is simple. This is not a Rhino flip/flop like those of Candidate Romney, but rather a well thought out plan presented by a seasoned lawmaker who understands that simple expulsion of the almost 12 million illegals currently living in this country, while making for good campaign “red meat”, is simply not doable…

 

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This is not what Christmas is about…

I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was a happy and safe one. Sadly, I must report this holiday weekend has brought a tragic and senseless end to the lives of some who partook of the so-called “Black Friday” sales events around the country. I will admit I have never attended one of these (free for all’s), and never will. Moreover, I have developed an affinity for the cyber component of shopping, as the deals seem just as good and certainly involve less aggravation. Having said all that, my wife, who was a retail executive for many years before my son was born, has done her best to explain the fascination with sleeping on a cold sidewalk at 2 AM in the hopes of purchasing a $2.00 waffle maker. (I still don’t get it). All joking aside, a grandfather died while attempting hide a video game from other ravenous shoppers and was subsequently tackled by security as a shoplifter and died of a heart attack right in front of his grandson. Another women pepper sprayed here retail opponents and fled with her X-Box. And yet another was shot dead in the parking lot of a mega-retailer for the merchandize he had just “scored”.

Aside of how sad I feel for these poor souls and their families, I think there is another dynamic many of our time are overlooking as we attempt to make sense of these tragedies. At this very moment and in some far away cave, a bunch of smelly fanatics are pointing to this lunacy and using it as a teachable moment for the militant youth before them, who are preparing to go and take the lives of the innocent to promote their twisted beliefs. They scream of the decay of American culture and the evils of our free society, and point to these very incidents as evidence. Even more alarming is that “We the People” seem numb to the reality of this “picture of America” we present to the rest of the world. In the name of a few dollars saved on a damn video game, a young boy will miss all the good times not lived with his granddad. And for only what he possessed in his arms at that very moment, an innocent family man is robbed not just of his merchandise, but of his future.

I must be honest and tell you that you will not find a bigger Capitalist when it comes to the engine that drives the most successful economic platform in the history of the world. However, when as a pretext to a holiday framed by peace, hope and love for our fellow-man, we engage in this kind of shortsighted, selfish and animal like behavior, it is definitely time that we step back and examine our national priorities. Otherwise, the rest is inconsequential at best. Wake up America!!

 

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Presidential IQ…

While my political differences with President Obama run deep, I have never questioned the man’s intellect. I will admit I’ve made some not so flattering references to his Presidency looking a bit like that of # 39, those were more about where the country seems to be heading as he applies his college thesis to the problems of real life.

To the contrary, Barack Obama is no dummy. He is however the most ideological man ever to sit in the Oval Office, and yes that includes Ronald Reagan. In this man’s eyes, we are but the unwashed masses and would benefit greatly if we would just submit to his wisdom. The problem is “We the People” are beginning to understand, and in greater numbers every day, that this is not about the Presidents cognitive abilities by way of his education, but rather it is about his refusal to accept the concept of an all things to all people view of the federal system is simply unrealistic.

So while the POTUS continues to pour over his Noam Chomsky literature looking for a reason why the economy refuses to turn around despite him having played the Socialist play book by the numbers to include the class warfare standard, the country is slowly slipping away into the always fatal abyss of international insignificance. We are a dying world power.

Now I heard someone talking on the cable news today about a certain Republican Primary candidate “re-making” himself and no longer sounding “apocalyptic”. Thinking about that, I wanted to use this post and its topic to remind my readers of something very important. While “apocalyptic” is not a word I use with any frequency, to categorize our current national predicament with even the slightest hint of complacency would mean your “cognitive abilities” should be called into question. The United States of America, with Barack Obama as President, is in fact changing. The question is, will you accept that change?

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I am thankful…

As I have grown older the holidays have begun to creep away from me. It seems harder and harder to grab hold of the feeling I remember when I was younger. The good news is that I know why, and maybe I can change before it’s all said and done.

As we gather and prepare to give thanks this Thursday, it is clear to me how it’s not the material things we should be grateful for but rather that which has nothing to do with us, those things separate and apart from our day-to-day success. I know this is a bit cliché, but our human tendencies often get the better of us and we find ourselves thanking the good Lord for our new iPhones and laptops. My point here is that as we grow old, we seem to lose that connection to the root of our success, the thing that drives us, our souls.

Outwardly, there is the feeble attempt at grace said at the table, with the usual appreciation that the family has managed to get to that table without a “WrestleMania” event breaking out in the living room. Then Uncle Bob will do his rendition of “rubba dub-dub, pass the grub, yey God”. And the ensuing free for all is usually pretty messy.

This year however, I for one am keenly aware of God’s grace and mercy as we navigate these truly troubling times. I am focused on my wife and son and how grateful I am to Him for bringing them to me and keeping them safe. I am even more aware of so many with needs far greater than any of mine, and who are still thankful for just one more day. I suppose this is the natural progression of age and what it brings to us as when we consider the holidays yet again.

This Thanksgiving, I intend to wrap my arms around the notion that with age God grants us the wisdom to see things more clearly. And in so doing allows us to recognize the gift. It seems He grants us the benefit of the doubt in youth but expects more as we grow older. For this reason I will take a step back this holiday season and remember the mother who is thankful to have received a phone call from her son in Afghanistan telling her he is safe. I will remember the husband who must carry on without his wife but is grateful that he remains to protect and raise his young daughter. And I will remember the surgeon through whose hands the grace of God has passed to a critically injured or ill child. I am thankful for all of them.

These days it may seem hard to grab hold of the holidays. Maybe a good way to start though, is to remember the trials of others and how many are still thankful. Then reach out to them, even if only through prayer.

As is customary for me this time of year, I do jump back on my political horse for a moment and borrow from the great MaHa Rushi, that’s (Rush Limbaugh) for you non-fans. The reason is simple, this piece is the most thoughtful and accurate I have been able to find on the real story on which our Thanksgiving holiday is based. So take a moment and digest this along with all that turkey… God bless…

“After eleven years, about forty of them agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World, where they would certainly face hardships, but could live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example.

“And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work. But this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found — according to Bradford’s detailed journal — a cold, barren, desolate wilderness.” The New York Jets had just lost to the Patriots. “There were no friends to greet them, he wrote.” I just threw that in about the Jets and Patriots. “There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims — including Bradford’s own wife — died of either starvation, sickness or exposure. When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats.

“Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper! This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of” the Bible, “both the Old and New Testaments. Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well.” Everything belonged to everybody. “They were going to distribute it equally. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well.

“Nobody owned anything.” It was a forerunner of Occupy Wall Street. Seriously. “They just had a share in it,” but nobody owned anything. “It was a commune, folks.” The original pilgrim settlement was a commune. “It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the ’60s and ’70s out in California,” and Occupy Wall Street, “and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way.” There’s no question they were organic vegetables. What else could they be? “Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives. He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage,” as they saw fit, and, “thus turning loose the power of the marketplace. That’s right. Long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism.

“And what happened? It didn’t work!” They nearly starved! “It never has worked! What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation! But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years — trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it — the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently. What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every school child’s history lesson. If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future.” If it were, there wouldn’t be any Occupy Wall Street. There wouldn’t be any romance for it.

“The experience that we had in this common course and condition,'” Bradford wrote. “‘The experience that we had in this common course and condition tried sundry years…that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing — as if they were wiser than God,’ Bradford wrote.” This was his way of saying, it didn’t work, we thought we were smarter than everybody, everybody was gonna share equally, nobody was gonna have anything more than anything else, it was gonna be hunky-dory, kumbaya. Except it doesn’t work. Because of half of them didn’t work, maybe more. They depended on the others to do all the work. There was no incentive.

“For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense,'” without being paid for it, “‘that was thought injustice.'” They figured it out real quick. Half the community is not working — living off the other half, that is. Resentment built. Why should you work for other people when you can’t work for yourself? that’s what he was saying. So the Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford’s community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property.

“Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result? ‘This had very good success,’ wrote Bradford, ‘for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.’ … Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? Yes,” it did. “Now, this is where it gets really good, folks, if you’re laboring under the misconception that I was, as I was taught in school. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians.” This is what happened. After everybody had their own plot of land and were allowed to market it and develop it as they saw fit and got to keep what they produced, bounty, plenty resulted.

“And then they set up trading posts, stores. They exchanged goods with and sold the Indians things. Good old-fashioned commerce. They sold stuff. And there were profits because they were screwing the Indians with the price. I’m just throwing that in. No, there were profits, and, “The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London.” The Canarsie tribe showed up and they paid double, which is what made the Canarsie tribe screw us in the “Manna-hatin” deal years later. (I just threw that in.) They paid off the merchant sponsors back in London with their profits, they were selling goods and services to the Indians. “[T]he success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans,” what was barren was now productive, “and began what came to be known as the ‘Great Puritan Migration.’

But this story stops when the Indians taught the newly arrived suffering-in-socialism Pilgrims how to plant corn and fish for cod. That’s where the original Thanksgiving story stops, and the story basically doesn’t even begin there. The real story of Thanksgiving is William Bradford giving thanks to God,” the pilgrims giving thanks to God, “for the guidance and the inspiration to set up a thriving colony,” for surviving the trip, for surviving the experience and prospering in it. “The bounty was shared with the Indians.” That’s the story. “They did sit down” and they did have free-range turkey and organic vegetables. There were no trans fats, “but it was not the Indians who saved the day. It was capitalism and Scripture which saved the day,” as acknowledged by George Washington in his first Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789, which I also have here.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to quickly tell you about one passenger on the Mayflower, a guy named Francis Eaton. He was a carpenter. He was not one of the Pilgrims. He was another passenger. He was a carpenter. He died in 1633, 13 years after they landed at Plymouth, and here’s what he left in his will: “One cow, one calf, two hogs, 50 bushels of corn, a black suit, a white hat, a black hat, boots, saws, hammers, square augers, a chisel, fishing lead, and some kitchen items” and his season tickets for the Redskins-Cowboys game. No, no, seriously. This is the estate of one of the men who probably built many of the houses for the first settlers. Very modest. But it shows what he saw as wealth back then. By the way, the life expectancy back then was not much. Not compared to today. And just remember, they were not eating trans fats, and they didn’t live as long as we do today.

END TRANSCRIPT

Thanks Rush…

 

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Kerry conundrum…

John Kerry reporting for something, not sure what...

John Kerry, “uber rich Democrat” MA, has about as much credibility on the issue of taxes as the Rhode Island General Assembly. That said, if we are to take anything from this silly “Super Committee” experiment, it should be that the argument over our debt is a fundamental one of ideology. The Democrats in Washington are doing their level best to frame the debate in terms of the class warfare argument, but it just doesn’t sound legitimate crossing the lips of a tax and spend hypocrite like John Kerry. The Republicans on the other hand are proposing the simple mathematical equation of “spend only what you have in a time when you’re broke and heavily in debt”. I have an even more simplistic analogy that I think fits the bill. A gambler with a drinking problem is about to go under at a Vegas casino and is asking for yet another rack of credit chips in the hopes that he can win it all back.

I am asking all my Progressive detractors and email buddies to email today with your true intentions. Put aside your disdain and vitriolic hatred for the American way for just a minute and do the math. Stop the silly and counterproductive trip down memory lane, accept what is the political reality of a two party shared blame, and then explain to me how the hell we are going to get out of this hole by simply “taxing the rich”, (or for that matter taking every single dime from every single person or entity making $250,000.00 dollars a year or more). Let me help you out a little in advance. I have already done the work for you, and it is mathematically impossible!! So inevitably, your intentions must be to destroy America as we know it!!

There, you see? Was that so hard? Now let the battle begin….

 

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Call it what it is…

I read an editorial in the Providence Journal the other day which focused on why, under Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, the “Affordable” Care Act would eventually be upheld as Constitutional when it is heard this coming summer in the U.S. Supreme Court. After I finished and accepted that the author, who was from Los Angeles and spoke of regulatory constraints in terms marijuana legalized for medicinal purposes, was obviously attempting stretch the Commerce Clause far beyond any discernible measure, I refocused on the battle over the debt raging within the so-called “Super committee” and how the two debates are ultimately related.

Anyone who can perform the most basic mathematical equations must conclude in large part that our current fiscal ditch was dug primarily with an entitlement shovel. Spending beyond our means and outside of our Constitutional responsibilities has resulted in the fiscal breakdown of government from the cities and towns to the federal black hole. Consequently, I want to leave the question of Constitutionality off the table for a moment and sprinkle a little common sense on this dilemma. In view of how almost every government entitlement program has wound up (in debt and insolvent), why in the name of God would anyone ever think of adding more to that already bloated and foundering ship by way of yet another tax and spend initiative? In beating to death the question of whether we can, many on Capitol Hill have not even bothered to ask if we should.

I would submit to all of you the fundamental problem in Washington today, is born not of a lack of intelligence, reason or capability, but rather reflects simple irresponsibility in the face of overwhelming truth. It is this foolhardy and blatant disregard for our children’s America that will be our undoing, not some silly deal to cut a lousy 1.5 trillion dollars over ten years from a debt number that will swallow that much long before 2021.

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Balancing act…

My wife and I sat today as we often do, and discussed money coming in and money going out. It is a discussion that in this day and age is all the more critical. As a side note, the discussion involved taxes on everything from my cell phone bill, to gas, to the utility delivery apparatus for my house. So the next person I hear say they would be willing to pay more taxes, I will give them mine. (Or would this be considered a loophole)?

Getting back to our household budget, the mathematical equation is actually quite simple. Money going out should not exceed money coming in. This is a struggle sometimes I understand. But fiscal discipline my wife and I agree is as important as or more so today than at any time in recent memory. That said, I understand and can sympathize with the notion of succumbing to the impulse to buy that hot new phone or flat screen. But in the end, my son’s future dictates a balanced budget and it must be done.

Why then is this concept so foreign and/or difficult for our government and to those to whom we have entrusted it? Why have we allowed them to use “federal plastic” in so reckless a manner for so extended a period of time? Why have we allowed the culture of special interest politics to burden our great-grandchildren? And why now does the congress scoff at the idea of a “balanced budget amendment” on behalf of our posterity. When I think about the answer, it causes me to believe there is no hope. I cringe and will not allow this however. I will not believe that “the entitlement free ride”, as promoted and financed by the Progressive Left, has finally crippled our nation beyond repair. And I will not believe that “We the People” have signed off on the American dream and the individual freedom necessary to achieve it.

I will say though that every step we take away from common sense and every ounce of leverage we forego in the name of political expediency is another step toward an America we will not recognize when all is said and done.

The Wall Street folks should quit stifling the Manhattan business economy, and should be yelling shame at those who voted against our children’s future today in Congress when they voted against the proposed balanced budget amendment. Shame! Shame! Shame!

 

 

 

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