Lost on the Yellow Brick Road

Rabbi Louis Benstock said, “Very often we are our own worst enemy as we foolishly build stumbling blocks on the path that lead to success and happiness.”  Benstock’s quote is an accurate assessment of the pitfalls that are bound to come to those who travel the road of success considering that nothing in this life is easy, especially success.  Success comes especially hard to those who act foolishly. But the enemy of America is an enemy of a different kind; it is not America tripping over a stumbling block; the enemy is an America that is no longer on  the road to success. You might say; very often we are our own worst enemy when we leave the path that leads to success and happiness.

The measurement of success for America has always been the freedom to pursue happiness. Our founders never intended to guarantee freedom or happiness; they knew that freedom is something that you have to cherish to the extent that you will sacrifice yourself for it, and happiness is something that you must pursue, i.e. everyone get out of my way, I am chasing after happiness and while I am running after it I won’t interfere with your personal pursuit of your own happiness. That has been the path to success and happiness for America, often called the American dream. Make no mistake it is a path, a certain path, the only path that has had the clarity of opportunity for those who stay on it. The junkyards of history are filled with societies who started down that path but got lost on the way. Unfortunately for the lost of history there is only one path; the fork in the road that leads to destruction, it is not another path; there is not another way to success and happiness. If you remove man’s willingness to sacrifice himself for freedom and his desire to chase after happiness he is lost, he is on the wrong path and the lost in history makes the point that they were never able to find their way back.

America has been its own worst enemy, we have left the path and lost our way. Can we fight the tide of history and reverse our course, find our way back? No! Before you hang up your mouse and move on to another blog let me explain why I say no.

First of all since 2008 we have more people working for government, in one form or another, then we have working in the private sector. Not only are there more, they also are paid more than their private sector counterpart. This is the perverbial tail leading the horse; this is the master waiting on the servant. Do you see any of these people voting out of office the golden goose? I don’t. This prevents effect change in bad government. This is a people with their hand out and a politician willing to fill it.

Secondly, common sense has been replaced with political correctness. Anyone who debates the problems of government is immediately labeled as politically incorrect. What this does is stifle debate and limits our ability to work on issue of importance to better the outcome.  A good example of this is Arizona’s immigration law; the governor was labeled as a racist because she wanted to enforce legal immigration. Extrapolate this throughout government and we become a society that is impotent to fix problematic issues.

Third, the balance of power in our government has dramatically shifted from the congress to the judiciary and the executive branches of government. This is particularly disconcerting because the congress is the closest branch of government to the people. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi failed the people, not by their agenda, but because they failed to see that the president is usurping their mandate to legislate the law. They pass laws and the president changes the meaning through regulations without the scrutiny of the legislative branch of government. This may work for Reid and Pelosi when the president’s agenda fits their agenda; but what happens when president’s agenda  is to increase the power of executive branch and diminish the constitutional authority of congress? This path can only lead to socialism headed up by a dictator.

Fourth, the baby boomers are retiring and the kids of the 60’s are becoming the power brokers. Generations come and generations go; but the cultural differences between the pre-WWII, the baby boomers, and the generation X’ers is huge. Not only is there a discrepancy in values, the X’ers are almost completely without virtue. Ideals such as love your neighbor and patriotism are all but forgotten if not totally anathema. Relationships are no longer physical; rather they are virtually electronic. Reach out and touch someone is now a “beep-beep” over a cell phone. The ability to sympathize with the needs of others is lost. This is proven out in the decline in charitable giving. Liberals typically give less than 1/3 to charity that there conservative counterparts do; for  liberals government is to stand in the gap to protect the less fortunate. This puts unreasonable financial demands on government, increases the size of government, and keeps the individual out of the loop in humanitarian service to others. A society where the individual fails in the service of others is a society in decline.

Lastly is the fact that the above is true and most reasonable people will agree that it is true. The problem is that the vast majority don’t see the above as a country on the wrong path; rather most see these as stumbling blocks that can and will be kicked aside at some point in time. It will never happen; the issues outlined above feed on themselves and have grown at an alarming rate. They have become so big that they now require to be nourish our they will destroy what little remains as sensible government. This is the process that has destroyed every republic throughout history, and has been the demise of every attempt at people friendly socialism and communism.
The problem is human nature, a nature that demands a freedom not to do good; rather a freedom to do only evil. We are born crying out to be feed and cared for and we feed the monster of irresponsibility three times a day for the rest of lives. The goal of mankind is food, clothing, shelter, and sex; and we don’t care who pays for it as long as it is not number one.

Truth or Consequences

When someone tells you a lie and you know they are lying and you believe it anyway; is it still a lie? Now before you roll back your eyes and think that that is a stupid question consider all the lies that you hear on a daily basis, from the news media, your friends, politicians, your boss, your kids and the secrete little lies that you tell yourself knowing that they are not true even when you try to convince yourself to believe them; if not completely true at least true to the point that you repeat it to others. After all, if you repeat a lie without identifying it as a lie and you passed it on as truth, and if you replicate it often enough, will you not begin to judge that it is the truth. There is an old saying, “to be a good liar you need to have a good memory.”

Lies differ from opinion; e.g. you can believe that abortion is ok and it benefits society; I can believe that it is not ok and that it destroys a life. Those are opinions; where the lie comes in is from what information you believe that helps you formulate your opinion. Taking our example of abortion; to believe that it is ok you have to believe that the human fetus is not a human being, that it is just a tissue mass. You want to believe that because you think that it is wrong to murder a person, but it is ok to remove a tissue mass. The flip side is that to believe that abortion is killing a human being you have to believe that the fetus is life and that if left to grow it will become a viable independent person. Which fact is based on truth, and which is a lie based on false information and deceptive agendas? You can say you believe one or the other and that your belief is just as valid as the opposite belief; but that is not true; two opposing set of facts cannot both be true.  If one plus one is two, then one plus one cannot be three; only one set of facts is true and the other is a lie. You cannot have an opinion about one plus one, the truth is that it is always two and never anything else. Back to our example of abortion, the fetus cannot be both a non-human tissue mass and a possible human being at the same time; the truth is that it is one or the other; both cannot be true.

Going back to our original question, when someone tells you a lie and you know that it is a lie; but you believe it anyway does it become the truth for you? Absolutely not; believing or not believing does not decide if something is true. Otherwise, believing a lie does not validate it no matter how sincere your belief is. Looking back six hundred years men were executed for believing the world was round. The flat earther’s were sincere in their belief that the earth was flat; but we now know that it is round. No matter how sincere they were in their belief it was not factual, their belief was based on bogus evidence and the conclusion was not true.  After the first ship sailed around the world there were still many who believed the world was flat because they wanted to believe it; but that did not make it true, even for the non-believers it was round, they were believing a lie.  What conclusions can we draw from this?

First, before we formulate opinions we need to be sure of the facts. With the advent of radio and television we have become a lazy culture in that we rely too much on what hear from others and not on our own research. If you really want to know the true you have to work at finding it, you have to be willing to spend the time and resources to assimilate the correct facts. Be careful; there is a whole segment of our population that wants to keep you lazy, ignorant and believing their lie.

Secondly you have to learn to be able to distinguish  between truth and opinion and that the so called truth is not based on what you want to believe. Our society has become one that thinks it is entitled, that we have the right to demand that our needs and desires be met; as a result we are willing to believe opinions as truth when we are promised a chicken in every pot.

Next, we believe things we know that are not true because of our fear of the truth. For example we live in a drug abuse culture and when a love one becomes addicted we reject the truth because we don’t want a pot-head for a kid. We don’t want to deal with the issues of rehabilitation, the legal problems and pain of a destroyed loved one. More often than not in situations like this we reject the truth until it becomes so obvious that we can no longer deny it. The rule of the day should be, “the truth will set you free.”

Thirdly, if we are to be a people of truth, a people who puts supreme value on truth, a people who sees a lie for what it is; a perversion of the truth, and a feeble attempt to elevate one’s self; then we have to understand that a lie is about self. The most prominent letter in the word lie is “I.” lying is all about self, making “I” self important, making self supreme in the eyes of other men. Lying is about presenting ourselves as a step above all others. Lying is the endeavor to makes ourselves what we perceive as greatness; as “somebody,” as someone that we are not.  How can we ever become a people of truth if we continually lie about ourselves? If we cannot trust our opinion of self then how can we discern the truth of the rhetoric that others espouse?

Lastly, we are no longer a people who can think critically. Thinking critically is the ability to weigh the desire to believe against the consequence of miss-belief. We must not let desire rule our ability to collect and discern the facts. Desire is a powerful motivator and if not careful it will lead us to self-deception; i.e. wanting something to be true so greatly that we will believe the lie thinking that a lie will make it happen. The consequence of a lie is that we become the victim of our self-deception. We lie and we lose relationships, we lose virtue and thus we lose value as a person. We are no longer respected and trusted by those we use to call friends. Is the cost; i.e. consequences of lying worth the benefit of achieving a desire?

There was a national survey taken some years ago that asked if you were a liar and how often you lied. The results revealed that about 70% of the American people lie on a regular basis. The irony in this is that 100% said that they did not want to be known as a liar. There is an old saying that the easiest mark for a salesman is another salesman; could it be said that a liar is the easiest person to lie to?

What’s the point? The next time you listen to a politician think critically about what he/she is saying. Evaluate the words based on truth and not on what you want to hear. Think critically about what a politician tells you no matter how much you desire what he/she is selling. Below is a list of top ten issues that politicians are selling; behind each issue is a promise that you will be better off if only this or that happens. As you read through the list and the promises, ask yourself, is this true, are there facts to support this, if this is made into law will the world really be a better place or will there ultimately be consequences.

10. Global warming is the result of carbon and if we can reduce our carbon footprint we can save the earth. We need to sign on to the Kyoto treaty and pass cap and trade. Green energy is the answer and will ultimately reduce the cost of living for everyone and will elevate the societies in third world countries.

9. Our freedom of speech is being put into jeopardy by certain elements on talk radio, TV 24 hour news, and the internet. We need more regulation to control what is being said by these elements. Truth is relative to the situation and sometimes truth is more destructive than it is helpful.  We can get more done for the good of the people if we control the truth.

8. Abortion is freedom of choice and a women’s right to chose. Families are stronger when women are allowed to make this choice. We need laws prohibiting protest by those who disagree.

7. Homosexuality hurts no one and should be legalize allowing homosexuals to marry and to be openly gay in the military. This is important in a free society in that we should be tolerant of all sexual orientations. Homosexuality has greatly benefited other societies in the past.

6. A truly compassionate society would want government health care for everyone. We need to keep the healthcare law because it will ultimately make healthcare less expensive and will insure better health outcomes. Doctors and insurance companies are driven by profit, and a good healthcare law will control this.

5. Euthanasia is a compassionate way for a person’s life to close. Euthanasia would reduce pain and suffering and the cost of caring for the terminally ill. We need laws that will demand that doctors perform mercy killings when deemed appropriate.

4. Social justice is taking from the rich and giving to the poor through higher taxes. We need to tax the rich and corporations at a significantly higher rate. When we do this our economy will grow and people will be better off economically.

3. Guns kill people and the constitution clearly says that only a well regulated militia should have weapons. We could greatly reduce crime and murder if guns were made illegal. We need laws that will remove all guns from population at large.

2. Socialism, communism, and Marxism are just other ways of looking at government and in no way jeopardize our rights and privileges as citizens of a constitutional republic. The fact is that history tells us that the average person would be better off in one of these forms of government. It would be wrong to make laws that would deemed this views as illegitimate.

1.  Our constitution guarantees the freedom from religion; therefore religion should be taken out of the secular work place and government. The principles of religion are hurtful and should not be allowed as a view in a tolerant society. However, all people should be allowed to worship as they chose, even if their religion demands destruction of a constitutionally free society. We need to allow this so that the world will see the United States as a just society; then they will love us.

 A free society is nourished and grows from people demanding the truth. The next time you hear a politician pontificate get off your lazy butt and do your own research, thinking critically about what he/she is saying. Don’t buy into it just because you like what they are selling. More often than not the consequences of their lie is much more damaging then the promise is beneficial.

From The Heart of A Patriot

Today Obama had a meeting with the congressional leadership from both parties; the incoming Republicans/Tea Partiers and the outgoing Democrats. The gist of the meeting was to find common ground that both sides of the isle could work from during the lam-duck session. There was a lot of pre-emptive talk about the need to be respectful and to get the people’s work done.  There were words being spoken about bi-partisanship and the need to solve the issues at hand.  Tops on the agenda was the movement by Obama to increase the Bush tax rates (notice I did not call them Bush tax cuts; they have been in effect so long that they are now the tax rates and any efforts by Obama to change that is a tax increase not merely letting the Bush tax cuts run out). Secondly, although it is not being reported much, were issues like card-check, cap and trade, and what to do about the illegal aliens living inside our borders. With all this important stuff to talk about I wonder if we will be able to find common ground and play “nicety-nice?” I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT!          

Do you want to get along with him? I don't!

We did not vote a change in Washington so that we could get along with ignorant left. We sent  people there not expecting them to get along with the Washington establishment. I want to see “in your face politics” that demands a change that puts this country back to the values and morals that it was founded on. When George Washington cross the Delaware he was not looking for someone to hug, kiss and make nice to; he was looking to kill someone, he was looking for a way to through the bums out. Not that I am not advocating murder; but it is time to demand that the wishes of the people be heard and if the lefties don’t like it, tough! I don’t like them, they are a bunch of crooks and personally I don’t want to have anything to do with them and a Politician with any principles at all will not either.   
I am sending this to every newly elected congressman hoping that he/she will get the message that we did not send you there to join the club; we sent you there to kill health-care bill, to kill cap and trade, to kill card check and to stop all of this bailout BS. Also, while you are at it we the people want all the illegal aliens sent back to their home countries and the border closed.  We also want Muslim immigration stopped until every last terrorist is dead; nothing personal but until the so called peace loving moderate Muslims take up arms in defense of America they just don’t belong here.

Once again I want to make myself perfectly clear; you are not there to get along with Obama, Pelosi, Reid, or any other liberal. You are there to promote conservative values, period! Is that clear enough?

Gravitas

While talking with a group of conservative friends the question came up about the qualifications of Sarah Palin. For the most part everyone seemed to like Palin as a person and thought, for the most part, that her beliefs were in line with theirs. But when the questions of Palin’s qualifications to be president were raised, without exception, including myself, the prevailing thoughts were that she did not have enough “gravitas.”  When asked what they meant by gravitas no one had a definitive and knowledgeable answers. Most thought in her instance she did not look presidential enough; that her voice, her hair, the way she dresses, and her body language was not presidential and would cost her the election.

The word “gravitas” actually means, “a serious and solemn attitude or way of behaving.” Let’s put that into context with Palin and her beliefs by asking a couple of questions. First, is there anyone who does not doubt that Palin is serious about the conservative movement. Although her record is short, she was deadly serious about conservatism as Alaska’s governor. She moved in our both Republicans and Democrats who were part of the “good-ole-boy’s club and begin to do things differently; it is no wonder she has been attacked from both sides of the isle.

Secondly, if Palin has so little gravitas, why is the left so afraid of her? They have done everything they can to destroy her as a person and as a politician; yet they have failed miserably. So far her behavior has been above reproach; they can’t catch her doing anything that brings her shame. Should it not be said that she is so serious about her beliefs that she is willing to live them? Does someone lack gravitas because they live the way they talk? Isn’t there an old cliché that says a person of integrity “walks his/her talk?”

Lastly, and certainly not the least is that Palin is a person that intends to do what she says she will do, and she has the gonads to get it done. If getting it done lacks gravitas then I am not sure gravitas is what we are looking for.

Now, let’s make a quick comparison of our current president, BHO, to Palin. The world said he had gravitas and they were right, he can read a teleprompter better than anyone who has come before. He is seriously left, to the point that he has been rightly called a Marxist. As a characteristic Marxist he has lied when telling the truth would have been easier.  If being a Marxist gives you gravitas then I don’t want any. Physically he is tall, lean and dresses well; unfortunately he is short on values, fat on pride and clothes himself in narcissism. If you are not sure that he has gravitas, just ask him; he is so full of himself that he will bend your ear a good hour telling you how great he is.

As for me and my household we will stick with the ones who have Godly values and to hell with manmade gravitas. I never like the word gravitas anyway; it has always been a word used by the left to discredit anyone with sense of values who was willing to live a life that demonstrated man at his very best.

So the next time you hear someone disparage Sarah Palin ask them this question; “Washington is loaded down with gravitas, don’t you think it is time we loaded it up with TRUTH?”

 

Helpless and Indolent

North Korea blatantly attacks the south because the pencil headed dictator’s son wants to show that he is going to be the new pencil headed dictator and the world had better be careful or he will do something naughty. To prove that his “mojo” is active and well he sends a barrage of shells to a little known island in the south killing at least 4 people, injuring several others, and destroying homes and businesses. In the meantime the world stands by helpless and indolent, unable to do anything that will permanently stop this lunatic regime from doing it again and again.

Our next move in defense of our ally, South Korea,  is to have a joint drill of naval ships in the Yellow Sea. Wow; I am really scared to death about this. An exercise, a drill? This is the best we can do? There must be something with more “juice” behind it? Oh, I know what we should do; let’s go to the UN and get a resolution started, that will solve everything. I mean, the world knows that once the UN says that what you are doing is a no no; everybody gets all worried and starts to react with a sense of urgency.  Just look at how effective UN resolutions have been with Iran.

The headlines this morning are, “N Korea warns war drills take region to the brink of war.” Duh; I thought that it was their shelling of some little insignificant island that was bringing us to the brink of war; maybe I misunderstood what the cannon fire was all about; was it just a friendly “how do you do” that just got a little out of hand? Can you believe they have the audacity to warn the world that we are being reckless and are inching closer to war; that our plans to stage military exercises in the Yellow Sea are the cause of this. Someone needs to get a grip on reality.

But never fear, the US is on the front lines ready to take action. General Sharp, at the UN Command center, said, “make no mistake, this was clear violation of the 1953 armistice.”  Wow! I am glad we had that explanation; I mean I was really confused about what was going on till I heard that. And then there was Japan’s response, their parliament adopted a resolution calling the attack “an outrageous act of violence.” Let’s be clear here; It wasn’t just an act of violence, nor was it just a bad thing to do, it was “outrageous.” I’ll bet old Kimey Il wet his pants with fear when he heard that one.

Of course our great friend and ally, China, has not apportioned blame over Tuesday incident, and is urging both sides to show restraint. But, our guy has talked to China’s guy and has urged China to use its influence to calm the situation. Isn’t it great to have friends like China; they are there right on the front line protecting the world from another little inconvenient war. At this point who needs another war? After all, a few more lives, a lot more money; whose counting anyway?

Wake up world! People are dying, lives are being destroyed, and all you can do is talk! I’ll just bet that the dead people on that little island would be proud to know that the world is ready to make another resolution; that the world is ready to stand in the gap to protect the innocent and those who are unable to defend themselves. I can see their shinning little faces, smiling with thanksgiving that the UN, Japan, China, and US are “rattling their tongues” in defense.  Wait a minute, isn’t the cliché supposed to be “rattling their sabers?”

Who Are The Lefties

Recent polling tells us that about 30% of the electorate are Democrats (lefties), about 30% are Republicans, and about 40% claim to be independents or nothing. Different polling tells us that only about 10% of the population are those who hold to a true leftist ideology. So who are the rest of those that make up the Democratic party if they are not true left leaning liberals? Why do they vote Democratic? Do they really subscribe to liberal values (sorry, I know liberals don’t have any values but I couldn’t think of a different word; maybe ideals would have been a better word since values implies right and good)? Can we put these people into a sub-group that identifies who they are?  I am sure you know someone who consistently votes with a liberal bias; therefore when you read what becomes visible as the motivation to support the liberal agenda, compare it to the liberals you know and see for yourself if what I say is not true. Then if you think it is true hand a copy of this to a liberal and run for your life.

First of all they (the lemmings of the world) are basically discontented; lemmings truly believe that life is inequitable and that anyone who has more things than they have has taken advantage of the capitalist economic system and therefore taken disadvantage them.  The left uses this despondency to their benefit by propagating the morality of class envy.  Class envy is divisive and if taken to its full expression will destroy a culture. The French revolution is a important example of class envy in action. They murdered many who were not part of the elite abusive ruling class, only because they had worked hard and had improve their life. The discontentment of the lemmings morphs into the rule that if I don’t have it, no one can have it.

Secondly, the discontent of the lemmings becomes an ”I am entitled mentality;” hence welfare. Those who are not truly left liberals but vote that way are for the most part people who want something for nothing. If you believe that the world has taken advantage of your laziness, then you will naturally feel that that same world owes you something; i.e. the fruits of its hard labor. A good example of that is Obama-care. When the lemmings thought it was free, i.e. paid for by hard workers through higher taxes, they were happy and looking forward to this great new entitlement; but now that they know everyone will have to pay a premium or be fined $3K it is not so good. Otherwise when something for nothing cost me personally I don’t like it because I have the right to it even if I have not earned it.

Third, lemmings are vicious in their attacks of anyone who does not concur with them; they will even eat their own if they don’t hold the line. The next time you tell a voting Democrat that healthcare is not a constitutional right stand back and take note to the expletives and personal attacks you will receive. You will be called uncaring, intolerant, greedy, a dirty capitalist, and a whole list of anything they can think of in the way of a demeaning personal attack.  They will refuse to argue the issues and facts; the reason being they don’t know the issues or the facts. This is the most telling trait of the lemmings, they don’t know the facts because they are ignorant of the facts. The problem is not that they are stupid; rather they are ignorant because they are too indolent to discern for themselves and they go behind the pack by listening to the propaganda put out by the left media. They believe the propaganda because the misinformation is always built around the lie that the conservative right is out to get you. Don’t believe me; just listen to CNN or MSNBC for one evening and keep track of how many times they use the straw man that the right is taking something away from the lemmings, i.e. social security or Medicare etc.  

Forth, the lemmings are convinced of their own integrity; they have bought into the idea that man is basically good and that any little thing they do will make the world a better place. They are the people who drive battery powered cars because they think it has a carbon free footprint, all the while forgetting that the electricity to charged the batteries comes from a coal fired power plant. They are the lemmings that  picket to save the whales and at the same time insist on abortion on demand for human babies. They are the lemmings who believe it is not what good that is completed, but what good we want to be accomplished; the notion that it is what we think and talk about that is important, not what we actually achieve.

We could go on with describing who these people are; but the bottom line is this, they are lemmings, little rodents that can’t think for themselves and willingly run off the cliff with no comprehension of what they are doing. Paraphrasing the words of Lenin, “we need the ignorant lemmings because they keep us in power.”

The Fact of the Matter Is

 

There are six words in a certain order that need to be removed from the English language; or at least removed from the repartee of the lefties, all politicians, and the liberal media is, “The fact of the matter is,” or “The truth of the matter is.”  The fact of the matter is this is the most over used headliner that comes out of the mouth of those who think they are in the know, and it should be condemned with the penalty being death for anyone who would be so impudent as to use it.  Let me explain.

First and foremost is the fact that whenever this phrase is used there is neither truth or facts that are going to be referred to.  Be honest, when is the last time you heard a fact following that statement? When is the last time you were sure that you heard the truth just because some nipple headed politician preference his words with “the fact of the matter is?” Least we feel stupid, you can be sure that whenever some pundit on TV says those six magical words he is expecting you to believe what he says, “hook line and sinker.”  The audacity of my hope would be that those elitist snobs would keep their mouth shut; or just tell the truth for a change. Their credibility is so suspect that they feel they must start their lie with the lie, “the fact of the matter is,” as if one lie plus another lie equals the truth. The truth of the matter is, if they were required to tell the truth or not be allowed to speak, TV would become the “silent movies.”

Secondly, what they are really saying when they use that damnable phrase is,  “you are so stupid that you will believe anything that I tell because you know I am so very smart.” Question Mr. Elitist Snob, if you are so darn smart why is it that you use “the fact of the matter is” so redundantly (for you snubs, redundantly means to use so repetitively to the point of it being a nuance)? How can a Harvard graduate be so simple minded that he/she can’t come up with a new opener; something like, “I am a liar, but you should believe me anyway.”  Or how about this opener, “I have lied so much in the past that I am no longer sure what the truth is, please give me one more chance to get it right, pretty please.”

Lastly, where is the TV host when these lying snubs open their mouth? When are they going to hold them accountable for their lying? Could it possibly be that they are party to this lack of discretion? Or could it be that they haven’t done their homework and they really don’t know when one of these phonies are lying? If that be the truth of the matter, then at least they could say this, “liar liar pants on fire, nose is long as a telephone wire.” If they would at least do this then we poor stupid masses would know that a lie is coming; after all, the fact of the matter is,  we are not smart enough to know the difference ourselves; are we?

The fact of the matter is, if you pass this on maybe some sweet day in the future one of these nipple heads will read this and change his openers, or maybe even tell the truth; forget that, you and I both know that will never happen. Is that the truth of the matter or the fact of the matter? Oh well.

Joe Friday the Competition

The world is collapsing, the economy is in a disaster, freedom is at peril, Christianity is being attacked everywhere, anti-Semitism is on the rise, Islam is on a perpetual Jihad, healthcare is facing its biggest crisis ever and all the media pundits can talk about is themselves and how dim-witted the competition is on the other channel; I am confused. I thought I was listening to news programming to learn about the world and not about the reporters.

I listen in a lot to Limbaugh, Beck, and O’Reily on a regular basis and agree with them occasionally if not most of the time; but over the last two or three years their programming has denigrated into arguing and bashing their competition as if the news is about them and the news organizations and not about the news makers, i.e. presidents, congressmen, and financial moguls like George Soros. Enough is enough already, you guys are not the news, you don’t write legislation, you don’t vote on legislation, you don’t make policy, all you are supposed to do is report on what the power brokers are doing.

I appreciate your analysis; but I don’t give a whit about your opinion.  Tell me what is going on and the implication, not what you would like to see ensue and how breathtaking the world would be if only it thought like you.

You guys have become specialist at riling against one another; but that is not what the poor ignorant masses want you to do, we want you to hold the politicians feet to the fire; make them accountable in the public debate for what they say, and most importantly, for what they do. I have to admit that MSNBC, CNN, and the “lame-stream” media are the worst at attacking their competition, the right-wing media; but look at their ratings, no one is listening to them, they have moved into the never-never world of absurdity. No one cares what they believe. Chris Matthews and his ilk are a non-entity. I stopped listening to Hard-ball 10 years ago and I am only acquainted with what happens on his program when you detail it. Do you think that by improving his ratings that you perk up your own? I don’t think so!

Like I said earlier, I am confused. Think of this, the New York Times is not the paper of record anymore, their readership is down drastically, their people are notorious leftist and they only write from their perverted moral views, so why give them the time of day, they don’t merit your time or mine. Please, “Just the facts, Just the facts sir.”

The Power of a Lie

I use to have a boss who said, “Some lie when telling the truth is easier.” The problem with a liar is that after he tells the lie so often he begins to believe it himself. He forgets what the truth looks like and begins to believe his own lie. The irony of a liar is that in his own deciet he begins to look at everyone else as being a deceiver as well; i.e. he sees the guilt of his own failings in every relationship he is involved in; if I am a liar then everyone else must be a liar also. It is interesting to note that one of our greatest liars of the modern era, FDR, said, “repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.” It is amazing how well FDR understood the folly of deciet, but was so greatly versed in it himself as he touted the wisdom of his policies. Lenin took the opposite view of lies when he said, “a lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

Just how prevelant is lying in our modern political scene? Does anyone think that our current cadre of politicains would dare lie to their constituents? Heaven forbid that our estemed leaders would ever lie. Forget that nonsense; ever since Bill Clinton came into the lime-light lying has become a unashamed art form that is not only prevalent but thought to be a good practice if it gains the intended means. Our current president and his administration as a group are professional liars; it began with “Change you can count on” and it will not end until he has convinced the uninformed masses that he is the “messiah.” In contrast the problem the media had with Obama’s predecessor was that he wasn’t a good liar. Jerome K. Jerome said, “it is always the best policy to speak the truth-unless, of course, you are an exceptinally good liar.” President Bush’s dilemma was that he always told the truth as he knew it no matter how bad it hurt; as if that could be a problem.

It is a well know fact that the left sees the poor stupid ignorant masses as someone who “can’t stand the truth” and must be lied to so that we will accept their “better ideas” on how to spend our money and control our lives. The paradox is that when they are caught in a lie, they then perpetrate another lie to cover the first lie and then they begin to believe that lie just as they now believed the first lie (I intentionly over used the word “lie” because they lie so often). The best example of this currently are the lies they are trying to pull off as to why they lost the House. The lie told has been anything but the truth. The most used lie has been that they were poor at getting the word out as to how good a job they were doing. That was followed by the lie that we just didn’t understand what they were doing. That lie is a continuation of Pelosi’s lie that we wouldn’t know how good Obamacare was until it was passed and signed. WOW! That was a whopper of a lie. Rush Limbaugh reported today that AOL’s religious reporter says the reason they lost the House was because our great religious leader, Obama, didn’t do a good enough job of sharing his faith with the Christian left (maybe he should have said religious left, I don’t think you can be a christian and be on the left, the two are in conflict to each other) and conservative Christians. I hasitate to explain the folly of this lie because I don’t want to insult your intelligence. However, the first lie here is that Obama is a Christian; he is not, he subscribs to Black Liberation Theology and that has no corolation with true Christianity. Second lie is that there are Christians on the left, you cannot be Christian and be a committed leftist, again I say this because they are in total opposition to one another; e.g. the left makes the claim that lying is ok if it brings about the desired ends, Christians don’t subscrib to lying for any reason. Of course the loss of the House by the Democrats has nothing to do with Obama’s faith or his willingness or unwillingness to reach out to Christians. Plato explains the lefts problem with lying and faith when he said this, “false words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”

Reasonable thinking people know exactly why the Dems lost the House; the policies of Obama, Pelosi, and Reid were not in the interest of the American people. Their policies are socialistic and go against everything that liberty loving people everywhere embrace. The simple truth is no one wanted Obamacare, no one wanted restrictive financial regulations and no one wanted to be lied to about what the Dems are up to.

Sallust (34 BC) in the “The War with Catiline” wrote this, “Ambition drove many men to become false; to have one thougth locked in the breast, another ready on the tongue.”

 

 

 

 

More Than Meets the Eye

This weekend 2 oil tankers were released by the Somali pirates for a ransom of $12 million; the crews are reported to be unharmed. That is the good news, here is the bad news; there are 25 more tankers being held by them for ransom. Now that the pirates know they get huge sums of money there will be longer negotiations for the ships that they already have and you can expect more pirating in the future.  All this means that the price of oil and gasoline will be rising and this is not good news since speculation and the devaluation of the dollar has already started to raise the price.  Expect to be paying $3 per gallon for gasoline by Christmas.

But there must be more to the story than what we hear in the press; the pirates are ignorant low life and there is no way that they can be doing this without backing from someone we haven’t heard about. So, I have 5 questions that need to be answered in regard to this:

1.      Where does a group of low-life ignoramuses get the where-with-all to do this? The planning and equipment just doesn’t grow on the local coconut tree; someone big must be driving this.

2.      Why is this happening? Is it an attempt to drive the price of oil up; or is it raising funds for something more sinister?

3.      If it is to increase the cost of oil, who is doing it?  Iran, Russia or some behind the scene mogul like George Soros? If it is for the purpose of raising money, again we must ask who and for what purpose?  Could this finance some sort of horrible terror plot?

4.      If it is only the low-life out there on their own then why doesn’t some country or group of countries put a stop to this?  The US has a presence there but the rules of engagement are so restrictive that the US Navy is totally incapable of putting a stop to this.

5.      If it is much more than the low-life why isn’t the UN and the International Court bringing charges and making arrest?

Don’t hold your breath waiting for reasonable answers to these questions.  Something is obviously going on and no one who is in the know is willing to step up the plate and point a finger. No one is going to stop this as long as the power brokers are making money by letting it happen. Or Is this some sort of black on white crime which is being rationalized as wealth-sharing? Who knows the real answer; but I can assure you that there is more here than meets the eye.

Have A Great Day

Skandalon

Follow My Blog at http://skandalonlibertas.blogspot.com/

The New Liberal Mantra

Wednesday morning when you wake up there will be a new conservative congress; the conservatives will pick up 70 seats (my estimation) in the house and 9 seats in the senate. The question is why did this happen? The next question is how will the liberals (politicians and lame-steam media) spin this?

In anticipation of what is about to happen the liberals are already out saying that it is “the economy stupid.” They claim they lost the mid terms because the economy that was inherited from Bush and it is so bad that we can’t pull it out in just 18 months; it is not our fault they say; but the voters are so dumb that they just didn’t know any better.  That will be the liberal mantra; get ready for it.

Now, the real cause.  First on the agenda for sane thinking people has been the socialistic programs that Obama has been pushing. Americans like their freedom and can find no place in their lives for socialism.  It started with the bail-outs and ended with Obama-care. This was a big government take-over and the people don’t like it. Obama has taken over the financial markets, auto industry and healthcare. Not one of his takeovers was designed to help the economy or the American people; they were designed to destroy the economy and American exceptionalism. Obama is an America hater; he hates America because of his perceived idea that America is not just and he intends to bring social justice to our shores. The bottom line is not to improve the economy but to destroy it bringing the people to their knees begging for just the right socialist to bail us out.

So, the mantra Wednesday morning will be the poor stupid idiots that voted for the conservatives just don’t understand that it is not Obama’s fault that unemployment is 9.6% (the real unemployment is 17%+) and that things will turn around when and only when we believe in Obama and put our trust in him.

But you are informed and know that the vote was against Obama and his policy of turning America into what he believes could be a socialistic utopia. When you voted Tuesday you said no socialism, communism, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi.  It is now our job and responsibility to hold those we put into office accountable for what they do.

Skandalon

Snipping at Spending

The military just ordered 3600 conversion kits for the Remington M24 rifle, converting it from the NATO caliber to the 300 magnum. The conversion is costing $7800 per rifle; mind you this is just a conversion that replaces the barrel, the receiver, and the scope.  This will be for a total cost of just over $28 million dollars and will take about 5 years to complete.  Now here is the rub.

The civilian version of the complete M24 sells for just under $3000 dollars and the same scope can be bought on line for $1300  for a total cost of approximately $4300.  If you were buying 3600 of this package the total cost would be $15.5 million; this is $12.5 million less than the government is paying for the conversion.  The bottom line is that we are paying $12.5 million for a conversion that there is no way on God’s green earth can cost more than a complete system.  Whose pockets are getting lined on this deal?  It sure isn’t the tax payers; our pockets have a big hole in them and the DOD and politicians are nailing us to the wall of poverty.

If they are going to charge this much for conversions why not buy the civilian system and save the money.  During Vietnam Carlos Hathcock used a civilian version of the Winchester model 70 and had 93 confirmed kills and with a off the shelf 50 Cal. he still holds the record for the longest confirmed kill at 2500 yards. I want our soldiers to have the best possible equipment but I also want our DOD and politicians to use common sense and press manufacturing companies to give us the best deal possible; at least as good as what goes to the general public.

Have A Great Day

Skandalon

Follow My Blog at http://skandalonlibertas.blogspot.com/

Looking at the Economy

Lots of discussion about the economy; is it good or is it bad, are we heading in the right direction or are we heading in the wrong direction, and last but certainly not least, no matter whether it is good or bad, right or wrong direction, how long can we expect the current situation to last? Depending on who you talk to you will get as many answers as you have people to talk with. Probably the 4 most important indicators are inflation, jobless claims, unemployment percentage and housing (starts and foreclosures). Let’s, in brief, look at each one of these indicators.

Inflation risk: in the short term (5 yrs out) the risk of deflation is probably much more significant than inflation. The reason is that we are a credit based economy; everyone borrows money, individuals, businesses, the government, everyone does it. Credit is currently plunging meaning that businesses won’t expand and hire, individuals don’t use their credit cards or buy houses and cars therefore business don’t sell as much and must lay off people, and the government gets less revenue to spend thus those in government jobs or government contracts get their benefits and pay cut or they get terminated. All of this effects prices and causes deflation.  Read Mish “Inflation Expectation Noise” at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/10/inflation-expectation-noise.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher.

Unemployment claims: claims are down about 11,000 from a 4 week moving average but because of their volatility it is better to look at moving averages. The 4 week average is still close to the peak compared to the last two recession telling us that there is a persistent weakness. There has been no improvement for the last 10 months excepts for the fake numbers that the Obama administration is putting out. No one hiring because there is no consistency in the Obama government; no one knows what he will do next and therefore no one is willing to risk what capital they have. Over the next 12 months watch for local, state, and federal employee layoffs or at least cut back in benefits. They have been out pacing the private sector but this will soon come to an end.  Retail sales have been improving at a very low rate. Holidays sales this year could turn out to be a disaster for retailing. Thanksgiving is late this year cutting the holiday shopping season short.  Christmas day is on Saturday and this is never good.  All this is bad news for employment figures. Read for a complete discussion: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/10/weekly-claims-drop-to-445000-4-week.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Housing numbers: nothing but bad news here; the projected foreclosure rate is expected to be 20% for the coming year.  What more do you need to know.

Unemployment rate: recent Gallup survey shows that unemployment jumped from 9.4 to 10.1% in September. Couple this with the underemployment rate of 18.8% and you have people who are in real financial difficulties. Gallop concludes the following: Regardless, the sharp increase in the unemployment rate during late September does not bode well for the economy during the fourth quarter, or for holiday sales. In this regard, it is essential that the Federal Reserve and other policymakers not be misled by Friday's jobs numbers. The jobs picture could be deteriorating more rapidly than the government's job release suggests. http://www.gallup.com/poll/143426/Gallup-Finds-Unemployment-September.aspx

Again, what more do we need to know before we realize that we are in big trouble. Who do we blame for this?  Rush Limbaugh says it is our “Jackass” president, B.H. Obama; that he is an economic illiterate, or that he is doing this intentionally because he is a Marxist anti-capitalist. I don’t know about all of this; but I can be certain in saying he is doing nothing to help the situation. How long can you expect the bad to hang around; the optimists are saying 5 years, the pessimists say it could be 10 years or longer; that gives you an average of 7.5 years or longer.  Can you survive that long?

Have A Great Day

Skandalon

Follow My Blog at http://skandalonlibertas.blogspot.com/

The Koran Teaches What?

District court judge Miriam Goldman sentenced jihadist Shahzad for his failed attempt to blow up time square. After giving the sentence she said something very interesting to Shahzad, she hoped that he “will spend lots of time in prison thinking if the Koran wants you to kill people.” Thanks judge for sentencing this bum to life in prison, personally I think they should have blown him to kingdom come by strapping a bomb around his neck; but the judge did the best she could do in times like these when justice will only be decided in the next life and never in this life. But that was not the interesting part of the trial, that was what we expected. What was interesting was that comment about how he should spend his time.
What I want to tell the judge is simple and to the point. Shahzad knows the Koran backwards and forwards; he know what it says and he knows what it means and his intent was to live by what it says, “kill the infidel.” Does the judge really think that Shahzad will gain new insights in how to get along with his fellow man by continuing his studies in the Koran? Does she feel that deep down inside of Shahzad there is the heart of a good man and if he will reflect on the Koran that one day he will see the light? I don’t know the judge; but I can tell you this, she doesn’t think for one minute that Shahzad will ever be a changed man; she thinks, and he will continue to be, a simple minded brainwashed jihadist terrorist the rest of his life. Any reasonable person can only come to that conclusion. So, why did the judge say what she said?
There can only be three possibilities; she is not a reasonable person and doesn’t see Shahzad for what he really is, or she is being politically correct hoping not to offend Muslims by putting this creep away, or she is totally clueless about what the Koran and Islam is all about. You can decide for yourself; but personally I think she is a lot of all three. If you don’t agree with me that she was confused by all three possibilities, then there is only one conclusion you can come to; she is totally clueless concerning Muslims and the Koran. She has no idea that the Koran explicitly teaches that Islam is to dominate by any means possible even if it means to KILL THE INFIDEL; which is exactly what Shahzad intended to do.
Judge listen to me now, Shahzad needs to get in touch with the true God of the universe, he needs to seek forgiveness of his sins, he needs to recognize his need for a savior that can bring about salvation and not one that promises 72 virgins for an eternal life of sex. Shahzad needs to come to grips with who he really is before it is too late; otherwise he will come before the ultimate justice system and be condemned to an eternity of hell; a hell much worse than the hell he intended for his victims.

Have A Great Day
Skandalon

The Moderate RINO

Once again Colon Powell has shown us his true stripes by joining the liberal chorus of "Illegal Alien" lovers. He even went so far as to admit that he has illegal’s working on his property; however he did retract that statement the very next morning. Conservatives everywhere should demand an investigation into this illegal action and liberals everywhere should demand an apology since it is obvious that he used racial profiling in determining that the people working were "illegal aliens" and is now claiming that he didn't know for sure they were illegal; but they must have been illegal because they spoke TexMex and were brown skinned with brown eyes and dark hair; isn't that the characteristics that makes a person illegal? Is his stupidity really a significant problem for politicians/republicans? Absolutely not and here is why.

1. Colon Powell is a nobody that became somebody because he was the recipient of affirmative action. If he had been of any other color he would have gotten nowhere. He only hits the radar screen by his own choosing; no one is all that interested in watching him stick his foot in his mouth.

2. Conservatives everywhere should be rejoicing over his latest gaff; it only goes to prove he is a "Moderate RINO" meaning that he is a full flush liberal and is of no interest to anyone in conservative circles. Anytime the "lame stream" media is interested in a conservative the individual is neither conservative nor worthy of interest; so goes CP.

3. He is of no interest to the GOP unless you are a RINO. Only RINOs feel the need to snuggle up to the likes of CP. They are the Republicans that are still adhering to the "Big Tent" ideology that everyone should have a voice and is worthy to be listened to. There is no place for CP or anyone like him in the GOP if the GOP intends to regain status as a legitimate alternative to the liberal left. If M. Steele was truly concerned about conservatism coming back into power he would publically denounce CP and ask for his GOP id card returned.

4. CP publically backed Obama for president telling us that he either a liberal and thus a hypocrite; or he is a true racist and voted for Obama because he is black; or is Obama white, or, just what is Obama; I guess it depends on where he is and who he is speaking to. I know what you are thinking, this is a racist comment. Consider this; if I (being white) was a liberal and I voted for McCain because he is white I would be called a racist, right? Pardon me for not allowing you lefties the opportunity to have a double standard on this point.

5. Last but not least being clean cut and articulate does not make you a conservative, a Republican, or even a nice person. I don't know CP so I cannot honestly assess his personal character as to whether or not he is a nice person or a bad person (depending on how you define the terms). But I can say that he is a liberal and thus a RINO hypocrite. I can also say he is a racist and he proves that racism is alive and well among liberals and blacks; and that racism is not an exclusive fault among white conservative males.

How should conservatives respond to CP; ignore him, he is a nobody trying to find a new place in the sun. Good bye CP, please go back to your estate and watch over the work being done by your illegal’s. Just one more thought; I wonder, is CP paying SS taxes for the illegal’s he is hiring? Where is a good ICE officer when you need one?

Three Cheers for Barton

Joe Barton found it necessary to apologize to BP because of the presidential shakedown for $20 billion. Now the GOP is out there trying to get Barton to apologize for his apology.
Go figure that one; Obama walks on the edge or maybe even the wrong side of the law and constitution, Barton calls him out on it and the GOP demands that Barton apologize for his statements.
This is further proof that the GOP has lost its way and as a result I can no longer support it. I am happily sending Barton money to help in his campaign. I may even support other republicans who are running for office; but I will be very selective and will never again send monies to the national committee.
The GOP has become part of the politically correct elite class and has lost its right to solicit funds from conservatives.I am looking for Tea Party members and those of the Conservative Party who will say and do the right thing; they deserve our support. Those Republicans who are going after Barton need to be taught a lesson; the lesson of “we can’t support you if you don’t hold fast to what is right.”
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Just The Articles Please

Years ago when Playboy first hit the news stands those found with the rag in their possession used the canard that they bought it for the articles and they hardly ever looked at the pictures; if you believe that, not that anyone ever did, you probably didn't have the cash to buy a copy because you were spending all your money on lake front property out in the middle of the Arizona desert.
Hugh Hefner was a genius, or maybe just a great con-man, at raising pornography to the level of acceptability to the main stream of the culture. Where you use to find National Geographic on the coffee table, Hefner was able to convince everyone Playboy was suppose to replaced it. Women were buying it as a birthday presents for their husbands and saw it as a way to build their sexual relationship with their husbands and not as a slut-sheet that demeaned women. I am not sure who got liberated with that move.
Whether or not you found Playboy to be a magazine filled with great articles or not, is not the question that needs to be dealt with. The real issue here is why someone like Hefner, with an obvious talent to get a message to the masses, would choose to use his talents to appeal to the purulent interest of humankind instead of furthering causes that would bring benefit to the human race. Please don't post that you think Playboy has benefited man. Lets just assume that Playboy is just a trash rag and nothing more; just for the sake of argument.
Instead of dwelling on the negative with a litany of all the dirt bags who have become rich and famous by appealing to the baser elements of man I would like to close with a top ten list of things that need to be accomplished that would benefit all men everywhere for all time.
10. Put government on the side of the people;not a government that is responsive to special interest groups with big pockets. I put this at number 10 because I don't see much hope in government or politicians; otherwise this isn't going to happen,ever. Smart people don't put their trust in government. Politicians are only responsive to what we demand, they will never do the right thing if left on their own.
9. Make politicians responsible for their decisions; both criminally and civilly. No way should a politician be able to get away with activity that would put the average Joe behind bars.
8. Someone needs to start a movement to convince the masses that personal responsibility pays bigger dividends than government welfare. When has government ever preformed on its promises?
7. Where is the magazine "Popular Civility?" Who is the Hugh Hefner that can make civility popular again? Our culture is not only rude, it is crude.
6. We have become a society of fear; we are afraid of what we eat, what we drink, where we live, our neighbors,our cars, our kids, our environment, and almost anything else you can name. What happened to virtues like bravery? Where is the person who can inspire the public to regain their confidence to live without fear?
5. What happen to virtues like pride and personal responsibility? When did we loose the shame of taking a handout? Who is that can make eating beans more respectable than standing in a welfare line?
4. When will someone put meaning back into words. Our language is now filled with euphemisms to take the sting out of reality. A bum/hobo is now a homeless person. There was a time when a bum was honest enough to admit what he is, a bum. Today a homeless person is a product of society and has the right to defecate on the street with impunity. Words have meaning for a reason; so that we can understand who we are.
3. Years ago in a movie "Dirty Harry" said a most profound thing; "a man has to know his limitations." Mankind needs to come to grips with his limitations; we do not have the wisdom to make everything right. There will always be pain, suffering and most of it will be caused by man against man hate, greed, and envy. Where is the person that can teach us what we really are, teach us what our real limitation are; depraved and without conscience.With that truth in mind we might decide to change who we are.
2.Who can teach us about priorities and how to live by them? We are a society that demands government healthcare because it is too expensive; but we don't have second thoughts about spending $130 a month on a cell phone, $60 a month for internet connection and over $100 for cable TV service. I use think this was because we have become an entitlement society, and we are but; I really believe we need to learn how to prioritize our lives first.
1. What happen to truth? The reality that 2 + 2 = 4. Not only do we not accept the reality that there is truth, we have no truth in and of ourselves. When was the last time you felt comfortable in trusting someone to tell you the truth? When is the last time you listen to the news and believed what the commentator said? Politicians? Lets don't even go there, they have been lying for centuries. It has gotten so bad most of us shouldn't be trusting ourselves. The truth is that most people will lie when telling the truth is easier.
That's my list and I am sticking to it. We are a culture that is in trouble and we need people who will stand in the gap and promote goodness and mercy; and at the same time refuse to capitulate or tolerate anything less. We have given us our resolve to demand what is right and to refuse to accept what is wrong. We need a Hugh Hefner who knows the difference between right and wrong, truth and lies; and is willing to use his/her talents to promote it.