Monday, May 25, 2009

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
~~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931 - 2005

Wise words from a man who didn't have to witness the wheels that are now in motion.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

1st Amendment Is Under Siege

So it's contrivance wrapped in a good deal of artifice. It's entire premise is a matter of concealing unattractive attributes while emphasizing the positives.
There are judges but it's an unlikely arena to expect a fight over first amendment rights. But then again, it is called the "Miss USA Pageant"

Fact: Perez iz a gay, opinionated weasel who has made a career of ridiculing celebrities.
Fact: The question by this particular judge was loaded and agenda laden
Fact that matters: on the day of the Miss USA pageant the U.S. Constitution is still the foundation of our great and good country where this contest was held and that document holds far greater legal authority then any pageant or judge.

Fact: Carrie Prejean, while wearing very little clothing, posed for a photographer
Fact: Carrie Prejean has breast implants
Fact: Carrie is Miss California and as such a pageant participant in the national contest
Fact that matters: Carrie Prejean is an American citizen who has certain inalienable rights under our great and good country's Constitution, no less so because she's a pageant contestant with breast implants and a modeling career and no less so on that day when she said, ""I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman ... that's how I was raised."

Gay Perez is a professional blogger (don't get me started on how that vocation is about seven steps below the basement where the professional video gamer lives). Blogger Perez's fame is purely based on belittling celebrities. He decided to use his largely insignificant, temporary and arbitrary authority as a pageant judge to bully a contestant and grind his axe against society at large. He knew his question was provocative only because his position is widely unpopular. If not then why ask it? Why not try to stump the beauty with something along the lines of a geography question or perhaps by asking "what's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" But this proto-celeb was right in the sites of this big bad celebrity slayer. There was no way he wasn't going to take his shot at such an easy target, particularly when it could also serve the purpose of advancing his career and his homosexual agenda.

And like most bullies he had every expectation that he'd make his victim squirm and possibly eat a mouthful of dirt before saying, "Uncle," as in, "My uncle Larry married my other uncle Fred."

Instead his question was met with surprising and unexpected courage.

It would have been in the spirit and history of such a competition and in keeping with the expectations created by so many trite and forgettable responses along with so many bumbling and only slightly more memorable gaffs for Carrie to either fumble through or gloss over her own reply. Instead, with only slight hesitation, making the moment that much more dramatic and true, she faced the cameras and said what she believed. And after all, why not? She is an American. She has a right to free speech without persecution. Or does she?

In essence, in his own vernacular, Perez got bzitch slapped. Of course he was going to let out a high pitched yelp and then slap back.

So what followed was not surprising at all but what also had the effect of making this a more significant story about one group of Americans defending the all important right to free speech against the attacks by a vocal minority, a number of vocal minorities who want to subvert our system of laws that allows them to be vocal in the first place. The bully got propped up and dusted off by the bully's pack of toady thugs, a.k.a. the media. The little gal who delivered the stunning blow was attacked by the mob of cowards, a.k.a. the media.

I heard some amateur variety talk show types claiming there was no violation of free speech. I guess unless a hand is clapped over someone's mouth or they are thrown in some frigid prison completely cut off from society then it couldn't possibly be an infringement on this American right of personal freedom. And that's precisely how political correctness is allowed to operate and ultimately become so effective. It's not overt, at least not until it's too late. Certain types of speech are shamed publicly and frequently until it enters the collective subconscious. Then people would not dare speak in a certain way about this protected group or that sacred cow. Then because no one is saying the words, the words and eventually even the thoughts go away and free speech has a little corner cut away and therefore dies a little. So even though the idea of gay marriage is widely unpopular, speaking out openly about it means you will have to defend your position, or in Carrie's case, defend your character and all of your past actions and words. As the PC Nazi's would have it, better to avoid the insidious attacks by remaining mute or just going along rather than speaking your mind.

This is what Jonah Goldberg calls "Liberal Fascism" in his book of the same name. This is the PC nonsense that undermines our 1st Amendment. This is precisely what is wrong with "political correctness." There is nothing correct about it because if you give credence to it then you give those with an agenda and a public platform authority over our use of language. You cede control of your free speech to someone with a much less honorable and much narrower vision than our founding fathers possessed when they framed our Constitution with this all important cornerstone.

But in the end, there was a winner - Donald Trump's ego.
Oh, and Americans who can look to Carrie as an example of staying true to yourself even when it's unpopular and may otherwise hurt you in some way.

But perhaps there is an epilogue that will be written too, one where Carrie ends up the real winner. Obviously I already think she is for having the courage of her convictions, for not making a compromise, for acting in a fashion that won't require her to make a rationalization or feel a regret over this episode later on in her life. But I also have to say as an openly straight guy there is currently only one other pageant contestant that I can name. She was scandalized too but is now the most well known of all such contestants, with a continuing career in acting and music. Well, maybe Carrie isn't the next Vanessa Williams but neither has to end up beholden to a group of opinionated pageant judges for their greater successes in our free country.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

98 . . . . 99 . . . 100 . . .

(but don’t stop counting now)


It’s time to celebrate the first 100 days. Only Thirteen Hundred and Sixty One more to go.


But before I get into his list of accomplishments I feel it’s important to put this all in some sort of context. So first a word on polling. If you’ve ever polled over the telephone then you have some idea how these work. Many are commissioned by newspapers and television news. The poll is structured in accordance with their preferences. Your responses to the questions have to conform with a very rigid and finite range of possible answers (i.e. Completely Satisifed, Somewhat Satisfied, Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied). In this age of drive-by journalism we rarely see the raw polling data. Instead we get question 8 and 32 and 49 and some obtuse analysis by some quasi-academic blowhard of what those three questions mean about the public subconscious. But I digress, much like a national poll might do.


So some polls were a bit more straightforward in their questions and in the way they were administered, almost as if they were a national election without a heavy dose of ACORN involvement. Someone directed me to the MSNBC online poll. Suffice it to say MSNBC has a very clear far-left liberal bias and attracts the following: Microsoft employees, people incapable of changing their home page from the default setting that comes on their Microsoft computers, Matt Lauer, Keith Olberman junkies and Rachel Maddow’s staff who are looking for a news “scoop” for her next broadcast. I went to the poll, the object of which was to give Obama and his administration a letter grade for his First 100 days in office. I fully suspected the responses to lean towards favorable. I was not entirely shocked to find the responses polarized. I was heartened to see that even this hippie fly-strip of a web page could attract what seems to be a pretty representative response.


As one fellow stock boy and future mediocratite once said to me, “C’s make degrees”. But not even the biggest, lamest, dodgeball banning, everyone-gets-a-trophy, No Child Left Behind, Cultural Relativist loser could make the case that a “D” grade is something to which one would aspire.


So if you add together the percentage of people giving a D or F grade that would be 54% against him, which is the percentage that voted for him in the actual general election (the whole nation and not just Manhattan and San Francisco). What a difference 100 days makes. If this were a national election and not just a poll that would mean he would lose the popular vote . . . and that, my friends, is why he’s trying to give amnesty to Illegals and give them free health care benefits too.

Later that same person who pointed me to the poll said, “I was watching MSNBC about noon just to see if they said anything about the poll. They did not mention this poll directly but as I figured, they were reporting a 60% approval rating for BO. Add up the A, B, C, and D. Typical for MSNBC.”


I realized then that I might be wrong in my own calculations. So I checked and lo and behold, MSNBC, a network that is dead-last in the news ratings, is aspiring to rise up and be at a “D” level.


But back to the point of who is really being graded here, well, you be the judge

Obama’s Hopeless Change

Score Card

  1. Use of Executive Order to repeal the “Mexico City” policy originally passed by Reagan and reinstated by Bush (43) after Clinton repealed it. Now U.S. tax payer’s dollars may be used to fund abortion activities outside the U.S. In day 2 of his new administration during the worst economic crisis in three decades it was more important for him to ensure we could spend tax dollars the U.S. did not even have in order to export his pro-abortion agenda.
  2. Going back on campaign promises to not allow lobbyist to work on his cabinet. Change that did not actually occur.
  3. Eric Holder, the Marc Rich Pardon-gate co-conspirator turned Attorney General.
  4. Tim Geithner – Tax Cheat to run Treasury Dept. / IRS
  5. Tom Daschle – nominee for HHS – Lobbyist Tax Cheat. When pressure mounts he steps down from contention. Obama supports on Monday, but Wednesday admits publicly, “I screwed up.” By the way, nice language, President Jack-Hole. Kids will want to be President when they grow up so they can curse on national broadcast television. This also marks another occasion, not the first nor last time the wheels of the Obama bus roll over someone that becomes politically inconvenient for him.
  6. In a January speech B.H. Obama says, "Now is not the time" for companies "to make profits." Is Free Trade / Capitalism Under Fire? You be the judge.
  7. 2.3.09 – just 15 days in office (including inauguration day) he “was tired of being in the White House” and needed to “break out” of his executive schedule. The Senate and Congress were busy debating the largest spending bill ever and hours and days later the president would be scolding those impeding his special interest, pork laden monstrosity as obstructionists who were not taking action fast enough. Who's working too hard and needs a break? After this, Middle Class America.
  8. Response to a crisis when ice causes power outage in Kentucky – no response – “I myself have been without power since last Tuesday (10 days) and I am not complaining because I do live in a rural area. There are great guys working to help everyone and I know of electric companies from all over the country have come in to help. That being said they complained that Bush didn't get to New Orleans with Katrina for a couple of days, but I don't think Mr. Obama has even made a flyover and seen the destruction.” This happens while . . .
  9. President flies AF-1 to western part of Virginia for a junket with the Democrats in Congress.
  10. Spendulus Bill gets signed into law without being in the "light of day" even 48 hours, nor long enough for the signators to have read it, let alone the 5 days promised by Obama. My children who are not yet of working age are saddled with tens or possibly even hundreds of thousands of dollars in burdensome national debt. The CBO calculates the debt is unsustainable. Republican Congressman Paul Ryan calculates that if the U.S. even plans to payoff this debt it will require a 68% tax rate on most of the working class and over 95% for the entrepreneur class who start most small businesses and create the largest percentage of new jobs.
  11. Speech in Indiana to whine to the American public about his Spendulus bill - "Not a single pet project," he told the news conference. "Not a single earmark." And "My bottom line is, are we creating 4 million jobs?" – 1st is only technically true. They are worse than earmarks because they aren’t spelled out that specifically meaning these are more dollars, just like the TARP funds that have no accountability for how they are actually spent. 2nd point – we’ll see.
  12. Passage of Trillion $ “stimulus” – DOW Jones = 7,800 from 9625 on Nov. 4th
  13. Obama appointee Attny General – Eric Holder calls American’s “Cowards” in a statement about racism. Obama has no comment.
  14. 9000 earmarks in the new Federal Budget from the No Ear Marks President
  15. Overturning Stem Cell research ban (see #1 in reference to unborn babies). Scientist are making greater strides using the uncontroversial adult stem cell. The need for this Executive action is deemed unnecessary but happens anyway.
  16. GM & Chrysler asking for additional bail outs after receiving Billions at the end of 2008
  17. DOW is at 6,600
  18. Geithner lies. Obama administration continues to support him. After 50 days in office there is still no plan by Obama’s appointee to fix the loan crisis that was the catalyst for the market collapse.
  19. Obama tables the idea of making veterans with war wounds use their private health benefits to pay for medical treatment in order to save half a billion dollars – after spending Trillions. He tables it after facing immediate opposition.This is his first shot (a warning shot, also called testing the enemies defenses) at the U.S. military and he hasn’t been in office for 60 days. First Shot . . . there will be more.
  20. Obama in campaign mode after winning the election – is covered picking his college brackets and goes on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show.

TERM – TAKING the OBAMA or PLEADING the OBAMA like Pleading the 5th Amendment but in this case Not Doing Anything as well as Not Saying Anything when in a position of responsibility and power.

  1. Congress passes an amendment to TARP which will levee a 90% tax on executive bonuses in response to AIG paying bonuses with TARP funds. The President, a former lawyer, legal professor and editor of the Harvard Law Review fails to object or in any of his public statements to identify this as a Bill of Attainder which is Unconstitutional. This is not interpretively unconstitutional like Roe v. Wade. It would not require a Supreme Court hearing. It only requires about a sixth grade reading level and a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Don’t believe me. Don’t strain yourself by bothering to read the whole document either. He certainly never has. Skip to Article I, Section 9.
  2. White House calls for GM President Rick Wagoner to resign – a move that can only be reconciled with a Socialist intent in this administration. GM is still GM but the G now stands for “Government” instead of “General”
  3. N. Korea launches ICBM – Obama Pleads the Obama and “calls for action” from members of the U.N. Hey numb-nutz, you are the Commander in Chief. It’s your job to TAKE ACTION.
  4. America is openly ridiculed by despotic South and Central American dictators right to President Obama's face. He smiles and gives thanks that they don’t blame him personally for America’s indiscretions because he was only three years old at the time America was committing our "offenses" against these known torturers, thieves and scoundrels running these countries.
  5. See the lack of response to the Somali Pirates who hold a U.S. commercial ship captain hostage (next post below). Another incident involving Taking the Obama.
  6. In the days preceding the lawful and peaceful Tea Parties the Dept. of Homeland Security headed up by new Obama appointee with the frighteningly familiar first name Janet (as in Reno) Napolitano issues a broad and vague warning about the danger of military vets and conservatives often with a single political issue focus. (Second shot at the military?) There is nothing factual to substantiate the assertions in this memo and many believe it was designed to be an intimidation tactic aimed at Tea Party participants. And before you say, “you’ve gone too far” read the latest headlines (just beyond the 1st 100 days on how the White House employed its own "thugs" to make threats and intimidate hedge funds to abandon their legal contractual rights and agree to a restructuring of Chrysler that heavily favors the pro-Obama UAW. Obama's socialism trumps your adherence to Magna Carta and the Constitution, America.
  7. AF-1 is commissioned to “buzz” lower Manhattan. The low level maneuver which for many New Jersey residents and New Yorkers was frighteningly reminiscent of 9/11 was unannounced even to the Mayor of the City. The secret mission sent many into a panic and Democrat Mayor Bloomberg responded with vocal criticism of the President. No one in the administration can say who ordered the $300,000 flight. Apparently, no one is responsible for the AF-1 flight plans.
  8. DOW at 8000. A 35% decline YoY. Still awaiting clarity in Geithner's plan.

and it continues . . .