Recently, I have received a beautiful book of pictures and descriptions of Golf courses in the land of Colombia. I was privileged to have this Spanish book explained in English. I noted how beautiful the land was; filled with water in lakes, streams, and rivers; and somewhat mountainous, and green beyond belief! A rich land filled with coffee plantations, mines, and rich with industry. What a place to live! BUT… the guerillas wanted to have what the “rich” people have…by any means…ransom, killing, theft, etc. So the “rich” people paid blackmail to the guerillas not to kidnap, rape and pillage.
Now the government was taken over by the wealth and influence (which was sometimes by torture and death) of the drug cartels. After all a government soldier would rather work for a drug dealer at $2000 per month than his “lousy” government salary of $200 per month. So the “rich” also people paid the government to protect them and their businesses from the drug cartels.
Golf courses located 15 minutes from the major cities were the locations for “money”. Naturally, groups of criminals began to prey on the patrons of golf courses. After all, that’s where the money was! So the government on behalf of the “rich” requested security from the criminals. Soldiers were stationed “out of bounds”, sometimes hidden by trees and landscaping. Of course this was partially paid for by the “rich”.
A person’s wealth was partially demonstrated by the number of private armed guards that either surrounded his place of business or plant or his private residence. No one could safely drive from one area to another in Colombia. The risk of guerillas, armed bands, criminals and the like threatened outright robbery, kidnapping for ransom, rape and more, deterred travel.
So, in my opinion now, Colombia remains a beautiful country without security and in a semi-state of anarchy. Those that know how, live comfortably. This is no place to “just travel”.
Once again, the “rich” want to protect what they have by supporting those that can give them “security”.
In America we have two main parties “the Republicans and The Democrats”. Both sides are supported by the “rich”. The supporters want access to gain security for their “interests”. Perhaps we have not yet reached a complete disregard of “human rights” but what is so different from any place where the “rich” want security and protection from the “guerillas? The “Have-nots” continue to want what the “haves” have any way they can get it…… Has anything changed?
The definition:
The “rich” is anybody who has something to protect and wants “Government” security and protection against unspeakable, personal horrors!
**********************
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Current - #201 - #23 - Is it going to be Judeo-Christian ethics, Moslem theocracy, or American Democracy???
It looks like the world will have to decide which one is to survive!
This is a “future” world….fifty years from now!
The birthrate in so-called Europe is so low that there will be less people of younger age in Europe in 20 or 30 years than there will be an the increase in Moslem population throughout the world.
“Europe” will find itself becoming more Moslem. It will probably go to war to protect itself. It won’t be a civil war, it will be another type of conflict. But it will seem a war of “survival”. Survival of a type of “European culture” versus a survival of a so-called “Moslem culture” based on its religion.
Then, of course, “American democracy” and its so-called idea of “culture” will be at war with the surviving cultural battle between “Europe” and the “Moslem” culture or religion.
It looks like “war” is inevitable. As Winston Churchill said “…victory is the only successful result of war!!!”
After all, war is “survival of the fittest” .. the “survival of the strongest”.. the “survival of the most warlike”!
It is great to muse over the “results” of war, but, first and foremost, “victory is the only successful result of war”! Then go ahead and muse on….!!!
Perhaps this subject is giving you a headache!
Perhaps you may not wish to go on? …… Bye now!!! … But for those that wish to think ahead……
This “inevitability” aspect is a harsh thing to think about. There simply has to be “a successful alternative”!
Suppose we take a look at what made us think “war was inevitable” in the first place….
1).Birthrate in “so-called Europe” is lowering…. This is a present statistical fact. But why? Is the present generation so “material-survival” conscious that sharing a limited amount of material resource among more people is self defeating? Why is there such a “material” shortage? Could it be that in order to keep “living” easy, the governments have adopted ideas and regulations that encourage less effort and more government subsidy? Therefore, the production of more “material” has become less important than “living the easy life”? To keep the same standards of “living”, less material equals less people to share it with… lower birthrates!
2).If the so-called “standard of material living” is lowered, (i.e. less food, older homes, less maintained roads, schools, less of “material” things….) and there is no negative response, the populace merely acknowledges and will do with less … NO PROBLEM!!! BUT…. If there is an outcry, a discontent, what then? Do we look for someone or something to blame? Do we change our government, our policies, “our living is easy” culture? Do we just declare a war and divert our attentions to “victory is the only successful result in war” and try and figure out what to do “after”? There are choices!
3).Can we look to history for any constructive ideas? Some think America offers nothing to look at. After all, America is new… untested! America has, after all, survived many unique trials and tribulations in its 300 year old history. It’s not 3000 years old but certainly something that has stood a few hundred years has something to look at! America has, after all, achieved at least a “material standard of life” that is being envied by some. America has adopted laws and regulations that has encouraged individual rights and entrepreneurship. It’s not perfect but there is a continuing effort. America may not be everyone’s image of a “good life” (including some Americans themselves) but certainly there is SOMETHING to be studied and considered.
Some think that other cultures have other things to be considered… Religious theocracy, Monarchy, Dictatorship, Anarchy, Tribal rule, etc. All have something to be evaluated! Both good and bad!!! Even if war is not an answer, it will be inevitable unless thinking people once again are a major influence in policy. An intellectual idea is not a replacement for a human being… any human being.
Because you possess an idea, a policy, does not necessarily mean that it would work or be successful … “for the greater good”. But war is the result of running out of useful ideas and the ability to communicate them to the majority of the people.
Do we have any real thinkers left?
Are we running out of ideas … ideas for “the greater good” of the people?
Do we have successful communicators?
Is a real “leader” a communicator or a “mighty ruler”? … Is physical force the only answer?
There is nothing in this world we can’t learn something from … good or bad!
Are we learning or don’t we want to be bothered?
Are we leaving the future to “momentum” or are we thinking?
“WAR is inevitable if we don’t learn, change and adapt.”
BUT …“Victory is the only successful result in war!”
This is a “future” world….fifty years from now!
The birthrate in so-called Europe is so low that there will be less people of younger age in Europe in 20 or 30 years than there will be an the increase in Moslem population throughout the world.
“Europe” will find itself becoming more Moslem. It will probably go to war to protect itself. It won’t be a civil war, it will be another type of conflict. But it will seem a war of “survival”. Survival of a type of “European culture” versus a survival of a so-called “Moslem culture” based on its religion.
Then, of course, “American democracy” and its so-called idea of “culture” will be at war with the surviving cultural battle between “Europe” and the “Moslem” culture or religion.
It looks like “war” is inevitable. As Winston Churchill said “…victory is the only successful result of war!!!”
After all, war is “survival of the fittest” .. the “survival of the strongest”.. the “survival of the most warlike”!
It is great to muse over the “results” of war, but, first and foremost, “victory is the only successful result of war”! Then go ahead and muse on….!!!
Perhaps this subject is giving you a headache!
Perhaps you may not wish to go on? …… Bye now!!! … But for those that wish to think ahead……
This “inevitability” aspect is a harsh thing to think about. There simply has to be “a successful alternative”!
Suppose we take a look at what made us think “war was inevitable” in the first place….
1).Birthrate in “so-called Europe” is lowering…. This is a present statistical fact. But why? Is the present generation so “material-survival” conscious that sharing a limited amount of material resource among more people is self defeating? Why is there such a “material” shortage? Could it be that in order to keep “living” easy, the governments have adopted ideas and regulations that encourage less effort and more government subsidy? Therefore, the production of more “material” has become less important than “living the easy life”? To keep the same standards of “living”, less material equals less people to share it with… lower birthrates!
2).If the so-called “standard of material living” is lowered, (i.e. less food, older homes, less maintained roads, schools, less of “material” things….) and there is no negative response, the populace merely acknowledges and will do with less … NO PROBLEM!!! BUT…. If there is an outcry, a discontent, what then? Do we look for someone or something to blame? Do we change our government, our policies, “our living is easy” culture? Do we just declare a war and divert our attentions to “victory is the only successful result in war” and try and figure out what to do “after”? There are choices!
3).Can we look to history for any constructive ideas? Some think America offers nothing to look at. After all, America is new… untested! America has, after all, survived many unique trials and tribulations in its 300 year old history. It’s not 3000 years old but certainly something that has stood a few hundred years has something to look at! America has, after all, achieved at least a “material standard of life” that is being envied by some. America has adopted laws and regulations that has encouraged individual rights and entrepreneurship. It’s not perfect but there is a continuing effort. America may not be everyone’s image of a “good life” (including some Americans themselves) but certainly there is SOMETHING to be studied and considered.
Some think that other cultures have other things to be considered… Religious theocracy, Monarchy, Dictatorship, Anarchy, Tribal rule, etc. All have something to be evaluated! Both good and bad!!! Even if war is not an answer, it will be inevitable unless thinking people once again are a major influence in policy. An intellectual idea is not a replacement for a human being… any human being.
Because you possess an idea, a policy, does not necessarily mean that it would work or be successful … “for the greater good”. But war is the result of running out of useful ideas and the ability to communicate them to the majority of the people.
Do we have any real thinkers left?
Are we running out of ideas … ideas for “the greater good” of the people?
Do we have successful communicators?
Is a real “leader” a communicator or a “mighty ruler”? … Is physical force the only answer?
There is nothing in this world we can’t learn something from … good or bad!
Are we learning or don’t we want to be bothered?
Are we leaving the future to “momentum” or are we thinking?
“WAR is inevitable if we don’t learn, change and adapt.”
BUT …“Victory is the only successful result in war!”
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Government - #101 - # 22 - What’s a “Fact”? - The “Target” Stores story
Recently, I was sent an email which purported to be a copy of a memorandum sent to all employees of the Target Department Stores. It was profoundly anti-American. Among other things was a prohibition against any U.S. marine from collecting toys for children at Christmas time for charitable giving to Iraqi children. Again, I say, “Among other things”!
John Michael Domino, Major, USAF, Ret.
Dick Forrey of the Vietnam Veterans Association
Recently, we asked the local TARGET store to be a proud sponsor of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall during our spring recognition event.
We received the following reply from the local TARGET management,
"Veterans do not meet our area of giving. We only donate to the arts, social action groups, gay & lesbian causes, and education."
So I'm thinking, if the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and veterans in general do not meet their donation criteria, then something is really wrong at this TARGET store. We were not asking for thousands of dollars, not even hundreds, just a small sponsorship for a memorial remembrance.
As a follow-up, I e-mailed the TARGET U.S. corporate headquarters and their response was the same. That's their national policy.
Then I looked into the company further…….
They will not allow the Marines to collect for 'Toys for Tots' at any of their stores. And during the recent Iraq deployment, they would not allow families of employees who were called up for active duty to continue their insurance coverage while they were on military service. Then as I dig further,
TARGET is a French owned corporation.
Now, I'm thinking again. If TARGET can not support American Veterans, then why should I and my family support their stores by spending our hard earned American dollars and to have their profits sent to France. Without the American Vets, where would France be today?
Feel free to pass this along to whomever you want.
Target Stores vs. Vietnam Veterans - Netlore Archive Click here for further remarks on what happened!...... Boy! was the internet a mess!!
I began to research “who owns the controlling stock interest in the Target Stores”?
1. I spoke to a dual citizen of France and America, a very educated and aware person. He said the French would never be interested in buying an American company like this. Besides, most of the products sold there were cheap and mostly from China. But he said he would call the business division of the Los Angeles French consulate’ That was January 9, 2004. Still no word!
2. I asked a personal business acquaintance in New York to verify the “controlling stock interest” of Target. “Not simply available…” was the reply!
3. I sent an email to the Public Relations person on Target’s web site. No reply!
4. I asked a person who knew an employee of Target the same question. It came back to me that Dayton was the owner of Target. They also owned Marshal Field and other like department stores. I again asked “who controls Dayton”? To date, no response!
5. I found these websites just recently, and I’m including them for your consideration.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blxcompanies2.htm
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blxcompanies2.htm
These are good "fact checkers"! .... Netlore is the same one but the subjects are different
This represents most of the “reasonable energy” I wish to expend on this subject. Is this internet email “true or real…”? I do not know. One thing I am sure of is that the internet is a sad place to find “true facts”!!
So, “What is a fact?” ….. Who really knows? Is it the “experts”, the “researchers”, the “internet”, the “media”, the “politicians”? ….. “What’s a fact?”
****************************
I have come to a state of mind where I resent “just dropping out” but I, also, realize that I lack the intellect and effort to determine a “fact”…. (if that is ever a prospect!)
I always have an “opinion” about almost everything!
I never want to be “absolutely positive about anything!
I want to be informed about different ideas.
I want to change my point of view anytime I’m confronted with, what I consider to be, a better idea.
A “FACT” is what I consider to be a “fact”. My motivation up to now has been my desire to have folks consider other ideas or questions……. This was incorrect!
My desire, now, is to live the best way I can, in my personal understanding of the world.
I do not wish to “drop out”!.....I only wish to understand!
John Michael Domino, Major, USAF, Ret.
Dick Forrey of the Vietnam Veterans Association
Recently, we asked the local TARGET store to be a proud sponsor of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall during our spring recognition event.
We received the following reply from the local TARGET management,
"Veterans do not meet our area of giving. We only donate to the arts, social action groups, gay & lesbian causes, and education."
So I'm thinking, if the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and veterans in general do not meet their donation criteria, then something is really wrong at this TARGET store. We were not asking for thousands of dollars, not even hundreds, just a small sponsorship for a memorial remembrance.
As a follow-up, I e-mailed the TARGET U.S. corporate headquarters and their response was the same. That's their national policy.
Then I looked into the company further…….
They will not allow the Marines to collect for 'Toys for Tots' at any of their stores. And during the recent Iraq deployment, they would not allow families of employees who were called up for active duty to continue their insurance coverage while they were on military service. Then as I dig further,
TARGET is a French owned corporation.
Now, I'm thinking again. If TARGET can not support American Veterans, then why should I and my family support their stores by spending our hard earned American dollars and to have their profits sent to France. Without the American Vets, where would France be today?
Feel free to pass this along to whomever you want.
Target Stores vs. Vietnam Veterans - Netlore Archive Click here for further remarks on what happened!...... Boy! was the internet a mess!!
I began to research “who owns the controlling stock interest in the Target Stores”?
1. I spoke to a dual citizen of France and America, a very educated and aware person. He said the French would never be interested in buying an American company like this. Besides, most of the products sold there were cheap and mostly from China. But he said he would call the business division of the Los Angeles French consulate’ That was January 9, 2004. Still no word!
2. I asked a personal business acquaintance in New York to verify the “controlling stock interest” of Target. “Not simply available…” was the reply!
3. I sent an email to the Public Relations person on Target’s web site. No reply!
4. I asked a person who knew an employee of Target the same question. It came back to me that Dayton was the owner of Target. They also owned Marshal Field and other like department stores. I again asked “who controls Dayton”? To date, no response!
5. I found these websites just recently, and I’m including them for your consideration.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blxcompanies2.htm
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blxcompanies2.htm
These are good "fact checkers"! .... Netlore is the same one but the subjects are different
This represents most of the “reasonable energy” I wish to expend on this subject. Is this internet email “true or real…”? I do not know. One thing I am sure of is that the internet is a sad place to find “true facts”!!
So, “What is a fact?” ….. Who really knows? Is it the “experts”, the “researchers”, the “internet”, the “media”, the “politicians”? ….. “What’s a fact?”
****************************
I have come to a state of mind where I resent “just dropping out” but I, also, realize that I lack the intellect and effort to determine a “fact”…. (if that is ever a prospect!)
I always have an “opinion” about almost everything!
I never want to be “absolutely positive about anything!
I want to be informed about different ideas.
I want to change my point of view anytime I’m confronted with, what I consider to be, a better idea.
A “FACT” is what I consider to be a “fact”. My motivation up to now has been my desire to have folks consider other ideas or questions……. This was incorrect!
My desire, now, is to live the best way I can, in my personal understanding of the world.
I do not wish to “drop out”!.....I only wish to understand!
Government - #101 - #21 – Sears takes care of its own
Yes, this one is true. I checked it out. For future reference these two sites are reliable. For verification, see either …….www.truthorfiction.com …..or www.snopes.com .
NOW THIS IS SUPPORT OF OUR COUNTRY!!!
I assume you have all see the reports about how Sears is treating its reservist employees who are called up? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years. I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution.
Suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement it well deserves.
Pass it on……….
So I decided to check it out before I sent it forward. I sent the following email to the Sears Customer Service Department:
I received this email and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your store. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item even if it was cheaper at the other store.
Here is their answer to my email. ……….
Dear Customer:
Thank you for contacting Sears.
The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback. Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time.
Bill Thorn
Sears Customer Care
webcenter@sears.com
1-800-349-4358
Please pass this on to all your friends, Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military.
Again, please send this on……Bill T.
NOW THIS IS SUPPORT OF OUR COUNTRY!!!
I assume you have all see the reports about how Sears is treating its reservist employees who are called up? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years. I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution.
Suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement it well deserves.
Pass it on……….
So I decided to check it out before I sent it forward. I sent the following email to the Sears Customer Service Department:
I received this email and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your store. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item even if it was cheaper at the other store.
Here is their answer to my email. ……….
Dear Customer:
Thank you for contacting Sears.
The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback. Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time.
Bill Thorn
Sears Customer Care
webcenter@sears.com
1-800-349-4358
Please pass this on to all your friends, Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military.
Again, please send this on……Bill T.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Government - #101 - #20 - The Ant and the Grasshopper
CLASSIC VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THIS STORY……. Be responsible for yourself.
MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NEC, ABC and CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so.
Kermit the frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing "It's Not Easy Being Green."
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing "We Shall Overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
Tom Daschle & Walter Mondale exclaim in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."
Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act," retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.
The ant loses the case.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THIS STORY: Vote Republican!!!
MORAL OF THIS STORY……. Be responsible for yourself.
MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and
demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NEC, ABC and CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so.
Kermit the frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing "It's Not Easy Being Green."
Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing "We Shall Overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.
Tom Daschle & Walter Mondale exclaim in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."
Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act," retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.
The ant loses the case.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THIS STORY: Vote Republican!!!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Government - #101 - #19 - What’s “better”mean to “them”!
We can make life “better” for them!!
Nobody should have to undergo their hardships!!
But what do “they” want?
Will our type of “better” actually be “better” for them?
Is it even possible for “them” to establish “our” type of institutions?
Is it just possible that “our” institutions developed in an entirely different environment from “them”?
Is it just possible that “our” civilization was lucky and was just blessed with certain basic material and climactic conditions which are not worldwide?
Could it be, that because of these certain conditions, we established certain institutions, or, did the conditions caused this establishment?
Could it be, that because of these special conditions, ways of living, thinking, and existing became established?
What is our purpose in trying to establish “our” type of institution and culture in places which are not similar to our environment and to our “blessings”?
Are the blessings of business, money, taxes, financial institutions, politics, education, etc. really a “blessing” that everyone wants?
Are we prepared to reorganize and finance the environment of others first, so we can recommend “our” own solutions? Do we want everyone to be the same? …. Is this even possible?
In a place where water is scarce and land is hardly arable, do we encourage larger populations knowing that there is already a shortage of natural human sustenance?
Is this a place where education, welfare, politics and government should be introduced? Is this a case of “survival” rather than “growth”?
Is it just possible that there are many places where mere “survival” is more important than “growth”?
Is it just possible that certain customs have grown up in certain areas that have been found more lasting , less complicated, than what we have to offer?
Doesn’t it really all come down to the protection of “our” survival, “our National interest”?
Unless we are willing to make the environments of all areas the same, we had better just “share” the knowledge of our systems rather than actively pursue the “use” of our systems.
The tried customs of other cultural and geographic areas are better left alone. Unless our “National security” is threatened, we should merely “share” our knowledge with any that wish to know rather than pursue an active role in “giving” or “establishing” our way of life.
If our “National security” is threatened we have no choice but to protect ourselves in any way available to ourselves. If we perceive a danger, we must preempt rather than wait for the “gun to start smoking”!
BUT BEWARE…. We had better be correct in our understanding of a threat! We elect the people who make these judgments. For those who disagree, they acknowledge that they do not wish to join our Nation in its judgments, in its security and in its National interest. These people have announced their desire to NOT to become part of the U.S.A. This is NOT a mere matter of disagreement. This IS a matter of citizenship, being a part of a Nation!
Nobody should have to undergo their hardships!!
But what do “they” want?
Will our type of “better” actually be “better” for them?
Is it even possible for “them” to establish “our” type of institutions?
Is it just possible that “our” institutions developed in an entirely different environment from “them”?
Is it just possible that “our” civilization was lucky and was just blessed with certain basic material and climactic conditions which are not worldwide?
Could it be, that because of these certain conditions, we established certain institutions, or, did the conditions caused this establishment?
Could it be, that because of these special conditions, ways of living, thinking, and existing became established?
What is our purpose in trying to establish “our” type of institution and culture in places which are not similar to our environment and to our “blessings”?
Are the blessings of business, money, taxes, financial institutions, politics, education, etc. really a “blessing” that everyone wants?
Are we prepared to reorganize and finance the environment of others first, so we can recommend “our” own solutions? Do we want everyone to be the same? …. Is this even possible?
In a place where water is scarce and land is hardly arable, do we encourage larger populations knowing that there is already a shortage of natural human sustenance?
Is this a place where education, welfare, politics and government should be introduced? Is this a case of “survival” rather than “growth”?
Is it just possible that there are many places where mere “survival” is more important than “growth”?
Is it just possible that certain customs have grown up in certain areas that have been found more lasting , less complicated, than what we have to offer?
Doesn’t it really all come down to the protection of “our” survival, “our National interest”?
Unless we are willing to make the environments of all areas the same, we had better just “share” the knowledge of our systems rather than actively pursue the “use” of our systems.
The tried customs of other cultural and geographic areas are better left alone. Unless our “National security” is threatened, we should merely “share” our knowledge with any that wish to know rather than pursue an active role in “giving” or “establishing” our way of life.
If our “National security” is threatened we have no choice but to protect ourselves in any way available to ourselves. If we perceive a danger, we must preempt rather than wait for the “gun to start smoking”!
BUT BEWARE…. We had better be correct in our understanding of a threat! We elect the people who make these judgments. For those who disagree, they acknowledge that they do not wish to join our Nation in its judgments, in its security and in its National interest. These people have announced their desire to NOT to become part of the U.S.A. This is NOT a mere matter of disagreement. This IS a matter of citizenship, being a part of a Nation!
Government - #101- #55 - Without Comparisons, how can “people” think?
Without comparisons, how can you tell whose hungry, whose ready for freedom, etc. How can we sell anything if the people have no comparisons?
If “people” have no previous experience, how can they know what their “alternatives” are, what their choices could be?
How can you expect people to do or to act in any way if they do not understand what their “alternatives” are?
People vote for a better life…..but better for whom?
When the people can’t make a living, then they’ll want a radical change. Until that time, there will be no radical change and things will go on with confusion (but no radical change)…
We have Democrats and Republicans…. "Confusion" but no radical change.
In less than fifty years America will be ruled by a Dictator or ruled by the Military if things don’t change!
“Exert additional diplomatic “leverage” on Iran? ……(Does that really mean….anything?
Everyone wants freedom….Freedom from what?….Freedom from whom?
Hunger? …. By whose standard?...... (Live grubs or caviar are o.k. in some societies! )
Unless we have someone to elaborate the “American standards”, how can we judge the outcomes? The people we supposedly “give” the American values have no previous experience to compare it with. How do they know if this is better or worse than before we “gave” them?
In Iraq, for instance, what is “freedom” for them. Just to be away from Sadaam? How do we expect people to act when they have lived a certain way for thirty years? Do we expect to have them give up their religious preferences once they are free of Sadaam?
So they voted….Do they know the ramifications of a “unified government”? Who explained this to them? Did they vote to also agree that’s what they wanted?
How do we expect any answer?..... From whom do we expect an answer?
"Without comparisons", how can you tell whose hungry, whose ready for freedom, etc. How can we sell anything if the people have no comparisons?
If “people” have no previous experience, how can they know what their “alternatives” are, what their choices could be?
How can you expect people to do or to act in any way if they do not understand what their “alternatives” are?
People vote for a better life…..but better for whom?
When the people can’t make a living, then they’ll want a radical change. Until that time, there will be no radical change and things will go on with confusion (but no radical change)…
We have Democrats and Republicans…. "Confusion" but no radical change.
In less than fifty years America will be ruled by a Dictator or ruled by the Military if things don’t change!
“Exert additional diplomatic “leverage” on Iran? ……(Does that really mean….anything?
Everyone wants freedom….Freedom from what?….Freedom from whom?
Hunger? …. By whose standard?...... (Live grubs or caviar are o.k. in some societies! )
Unless we have someone to elaborate the “American standards”, how can we judge the outcomes? The people we supposedly “give” the American values have no previous experience to compare it with. How do they know if this is better or worse than before we “gave” them?
In Iraq, for instance, what is “freedom” for them. Just to be away from Sadaam? How do we expect people to act when they have lived a certain way for thirty years? Do we expect to have them give up their religious preferences once they are free of Sadaam?
So they voted….Do they know the ramifications of a “unified government”? Who explained this to them? Did they vote to also agree that’s what they wanted?
How do we expect any answer?..... From whom do we expect an answer?
"Without comparisons", how can you tell whose hungry, whose ready for freedom, etc. How can we sell anything if the people have no comparisons?
Friday, June 13, 2008
Government - #101 - #18 - History should be our best teacher.
General Pershing had the “answer” …….
Born: September 13th, 1860 near Laclede, MS
Died: July 15th, 1948 in Washington, D.C.
1891 Professor of Military Science and Tactics University of Nebraska
1898 Serves in the Spanish-American War 1901 Awarded rank of Captain
1906 Promoted to rank of Brigadier General
1909 Military Governor of Moro Province, Philippines
1916 Made Major General
1919 Promoted to General of the Armies
1921 Appointed Chief of Staff
1924 Retires from active duty
Education: West Point
One important thing to note beforehand is that Muslims detest pork because they believe pigs are filthy animals. Some of them simply refuse to eat it, while others won't even touch pigs at all, nor any of their by-products. To them, eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from paradise and doomed to hell.
Just before World War I, there were a number of terrorist attacks on the United States by; you guessed it, Muslim extremists.
So General Pershing captured 50 terrorists and had them tied to posts execution style. He then had his men bring in two pigs and slaughter them in front of the, now horrified, terrorists.
The soldiers then soaked their bullets in the pig’s blood, and proceeded to execute 49 of the terrorists by firing squad. The soldiers then dug a big hole, dumped in the terrorist's bodies and covered them in pig blood, entrails, etc.
They set the 50th man free.
For the next forty-two years, there was not a single Muslim extremist attack anywhere in the world.
Born: September 13th, 1860 near Laclede, MS
Died: July 15th, 1948 in Washington, D.C.
1891 Professor of Military Science and Tactics University of Nebraska
1898 Serves in the Spanish-American War 1901 Awarded rank of Captain
1906 Promoted to rank of Brigadier General
1909 Military Governor of Moro Province, Philippines
1916 Made Major General
1919 Promoted to General of the Armies
1921 Appointed Chief of Staff
1924 Retires from active duty
Education: West Point
One important thing to note beforehand is that Muslims detest pork because they believe pigs are filthy animals. Some of them simply refuse to eat it, while others won't even touch pigs at all, nor any of their by-products. To them, eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from paradise and doomed to hell.
Just before World War I, there were a number of terrorist attacks on the United States by; you guessed it, Muslim extremists.
So General Pershing captured 50 terrorists and had them tied to posts execution style. He then had his men bring in two pigs and slaughter them in front of the, now horrified, terrorists.
The soldiers then soaked their bullets in the pig’s blood, and proceeded to execute 49 of the terrorists by firing squad. The soldiers then dug a big hole, dumped in the terrorist's bodies and covered them in pig blood, entrails, etc.
They set the 50th man free.
For the next forty-two years, there was not a single Muslim extremist attack anywhere in the world.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Government - #101 - # 17 - “Just thought you’d like to know!!!!”
The Governments Money Comes From.........
33% - Individual Income Taxes
7% - Corporate Taxes
30% - Social Security and Medicare taxes from both individuals and their Employers
7% - Excise Taxes and other Fees
23% - Treasury borrows from other countries, U.S. Bonds, etc.
_________ called (the “Interest on the National Debt and the Deficit”!!!)
100% - Total
********************************
Ques. #1 : If the National Deficit goes up, from where do you think the money can come?
Ans. : Increase “Taxes”? ....and /or.... Increase “Borrowing”? …. (i.e. Just sell more bonds and increase the National Debt???)
Ques. #2 : If the National Debt goes up, where do you get the money for the increased interest payment on the new Debt???
Ans. : Increase “Taxes”?....And/or.... Increase “Borrowing”?
(i.e. Just sell more bonds and increase the National Debt???)
“GET THE PICTURE?”
Also… Some more “POLITICAL FACTS” ... (as of Jan. 1996)
Since 1960:
1. Population has grown "41%"
2. (Adjusted for inflation..) The Gross National Product has risen by "300%"
( From a total cost of all goods and services of $1,971 bil. to a total $4,920 bil.)
3. Social spending by Government has risen "500%"……( from $143 bil. to $787 bil.)
4. Welfare spending has increased "630%"
5. Education spending has increased "225%"
( from $63 bil. to $207 bil!!)
( S.A.T. scores have dropped 80 points...)
( Spending per student has increased from $2,035 to $5,247 )
IMMIGRATION ….
As of 1992 :
1. 750,000 legal immigrants of working age were admitted to the USA.
2. "In Addition", 60,000 foreign professionals were admitted on "extended work permits".
(Most of these were in skilled , highly paid occupations such as engineering, medicine, computer programming, etc.)
3. 2/3rds. of the legal immigrants enter this country as "low-skilled".
(Entering markets of disappearing occupations and competing with our own "low- skilled")
4. 90,000 of these legal immigrants are over 55 years of age and we have a $4800 billion debt.
Our schools are overcrowded,inefficient and can't successfully cope with the student load now.
Our welfare and free medical costs are a national emergency.
Are "more people" the ANSWER? ……. (“What’s the successful alternative?)
(The following so called facts were "recycled" from other sources! They may be TRUE!!)
1. Teen births have increased from 15.3 per 1000 to "42.5" per 1000 births … ( Has nothing to do with population growth! )
2. Births to Unmarried Women have risen from 5.3% of all births to "28%" of all births
(Whites from 2.3% to "21%"....Blacks from 23% to "65%")
3. Marriages (per 1000) women have decreased from 73% to "54%"
4. Divorces (per 1000 Married women) have increased from 9% to "21%"
5. Marriages (per every 1000 Unmarried women) have decreased from 73 to "55"
6. Single parent families have risen from 9% to "28%" ( of all families with children)
* Need to know more?
* Get the picture?
* Do you have any detailed, "understandable" proposals?
HOW MUCH?....WHO PAYS?
( WE'RE waiting!!!!)
33% - Individual Income Taxes
7% - Corporate Taxes
30% - Social Security and Medicare taxes from both individuals and their Employers
7% - Excise Taxes and other Fees
23% - Treasury borrows from other countries, U.S. Bonds, etc.
_________ called (the “Interest on the National Debt and the Deficit”!!!)
100% - Total
********************************
Ques. #1 : If the National Deficit goes up, from where do you think the money can come?
Ans. : Increase “Taxes”? ....and /or.... Increase “Borrowing”? …. (i.e. Just sell more bonds and increase the National Debt???)
Ques. #2 : If the National Debt goes up, where do you get the money for the increased interest payment on the new Debt???
Ans. : Increase “Taxes”?....And/or.... Increase “Borrowing”?
(i.e. Just sell more bonds and increase the National Debt???)
“GET THE PICTURE?”
Also… Some more “POLITICAL FACTS” ... (as of Jan. 1996)
Since 1960:
1. Population has grown "41%"
2. (Adjusted for inflation..) The Gross National Product has risen by "300%"
( From a total cost of all goods and services of $1,971 bil. to a total $4,920 bil.)
3. Social spending by Government has risen "500%"……( from $143 bil. to $787 bil.)
4. Welfare spending has increased "630%"
5. Education spending has increased "225%"
( from $63 bil. to $207 bil!!)
( S.A.T. scores have dropped 80 points...)
( Spending per student has increased from $2,035 to $5,247 )
IMMIGRATION ….
As of 1992 :
1. 750,000 legal immigrants of working age were admitted to the USA.
2. "In Addition", 60,000 foreign professionals were admitted on "extended work permits".
(Most of these were in skilled , highly paid occupations such as engineering, medicine, computer programming, etc.)
3. 2/3rds. of the legal immigrants enter this country as "low-skilled".
(Entering markets of disappearing occupations and competing with our own "low- skilled")
4. 90,000 of these legal immigrants are over 55 years of age and we have a $4800 billion debt.
Our schools are overcrowded,inefficient and can't successfully cope with the student load now.
Our welfare and free medical costs are a national emergency.
Are "more people" the ANSWER? ……. (“What’s the successful alternative?)
(The following so called facts were "recycled" from other sources! They may be TRUE!!)
1. Teen births have increased from 15.3 per 1000 to "42.5" per 1000 births … ( Has nothing to do with population growth! )
2. Births to Unmarried Women have risen from 5.3% of all births to "28%" of all births
(Whites from 2.3% to "21%"....Blacks from 23% to "65%")
3. Marriages (per 1000) women have decreased from 73% to "54%"
4. Divorces (per 1000 Married women) have increased from 9% to "21%"
5. Marriages (per every 1000 Unmarried women) have decreased from 73 to "55"
6. Single parent families have risen from 9% to "28%" ( of all families with children)
* Need to know more?
* Get the picture?
* Do you have any detailed, "understandable" proposals?
HOW MUCH?....WHO PAYS?
( WE'RE waiting!!!!)
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Government - #101 - #16 - Charlton Heston’s remarkable Speech (4-20-02)
For 50 years, the Harvard Law School Forum has been sponsoring speeches by luminaries ranging from Fidel Castro to Gerald Ford to Dr. Ruth. Sometimes the speeches have generated a bit of media coverage, sometimes not. But one given last month (Feb. 1999) by Charlton Heston has taken on a life
of its own.
Heston, the actor and conservative activist, delivered a stem-winder to about 200 listeners about "a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what resides in your heart. He knew he was coming to a liberal environment, and clearly a group of his listeners was conservative and another was more liberal," said David Christopherson, president of the forum.
About half respectfully challenged him during the questions. It generated a lot of debate around the campus.
But what happened caught us off-guard.
What happened was Rush Limbaugh's radio talk show. On March 15, Limbaugh read the entire speech on the air, only to find himself bombarded with thousands of requests for a copy of it. The same thing happened at Harvard Law. "We couldn't keep up with all the requests," said Mike Chmura at Harvard. “Itreally didn't have legs and might have been forgotten if Mr. Limbaugh hadn't decided to deliver it.
(Winning the Cultural War' - Charlton Heston's Speech to the Harvard Law School Forum, Feb 16, 1999.)
I remember my son when he was five, explaining to his kindergarten class what his father did for a living. "My Daddy," he said, "pretends to be people." There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo. If you want the ceiling repainted I'll do my best. There always seem to be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy.
As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: If my Creator gave me the gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use that same gift now to reconnect you with your own sense of liberty of your own freedom of thought ... your own compass for what is right.
Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America, "We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure." Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you ... the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is.
Let me back up. About a year ago I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now I serve ... I serve as a moving target for the media who've called me everything from "ridiculous" and "duped" to a "brain-injured, senile, crazy old man." I know ... I'm pretty old ... but I‘m sure, Lord, am not senile.
As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts
and speech are mandated.
For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist.
I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe.
I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.
Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.
From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they're essentially saying, Chuck, how dare you speak your mind. You are using language not authorized for public consumption!" But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys -- subjects bound
to the British crown.
In his book, "The End of Sanity," Martin Gross writes that "blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction.
Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don't like it."
Let me read a few examples.
At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from kissing to petting to final copulation .... all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive.
In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDs --- the state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not.....Need Not..... tell their patients that they are infected.
At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team "The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name.
In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.
In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic.
At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students.
Yeah, I know ... that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes." Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said "black." But it's a no-no now.
For me, hyphenated identities are awkward ...particularly "Native-American." I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side, my grandson is a thirteenth generation native American...with a capital letter on "American.
Finally, just last month ... David Howard, head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate used the word "niggardly" while talking to colleagues about budgetary matters.
Of course, "niggardly" means stingy or scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and resign. As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David Howard got fired because some people in public employ were morons who (a) didn't know the meaning of niggardly, (b) didn't know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance."
What does all of this mean?
It means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far behind.
Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it?
Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression?
Let's be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they really believe? It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason. You are the best and the brightest. You, here in the fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River, you are the cream.
But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that ...and abide it ... you are -- by your grandfathers' standards -- cowards.
Here's another example.
Right now at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs. Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor's pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers.
I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you.
Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas, if not you? Who will defend the core value of academia, if you supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead, "Don't shoot me."
If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist.
If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist.
If you think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion.
If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe.
Don't let America's universities continue to serve as incubators for this rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism.
But what can you do?
How can anyone prevail against such pervasive social subjugation?
The answer's been here all along. I learned it 36 years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people.
You simply ....disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely.
But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom.
I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr. King ... who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might.
Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in Viet Nam.
In that same spirit, I am asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous laws that weaken personal freedom.
But be careful ... it hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be humiliated ... to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water cannons at Selma.
You must be willing to experience discomfort. I'm not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have taken their toll on me. Let me tell you a story.
A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called "Cop Killer" celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so - at least one had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black.
I heard Time/Warner had a stockholder meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so I decided to attend. What I did there was against the advice of my family and colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer"- every vicious, vulgar, instructional word.
"I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFF. I GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF. I'M ABOUT
TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFF. I'M ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF..."
It got worse, a lot worse. I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. The Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that. Then I delivered another volley of sick lyrics brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore.
"SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST MY...."
Well, I won't do to you here what I did to them. Let's just say I left the room in echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps, one of them said, "We can't print that." "I know," I replied, "but Time/Warner's selling it." Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warner's, or get a good review from Time magazine.
But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk.
When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself ... jam the switchboard of the district attorney's office.
When your university is pressured to lower standards until 80% of the students graduate with honors ... choke the halls of the board of regents.
When an 8-year-old boy pecks a girl's cheek on the playground and gets hauled into court for sexual harassment ... march on that school and block its doorways.
When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you...petition them, oust them, banish them.
of its own.
Heston, the actor and conservative activist, delivered a stem-winder to about 200 listeners about "a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what resides in your heart. He knew he was coming to a liberal environment, and clearly a group of his listeners was conservative and another was more liberal," said David Christopherson, president of the forum.
About half respectfully challenged him during the questions. It generated a lot of debate around the campus.
But what happened caught us off-guard.
What happened was Rush Limbaugh's radio talk show. On March 15, Limbaugh read the entire speech on the air, only to find himself bombarded with thousands of requests for a copy of it. The same thing happened at Harvard Law. "We couldn't keep up with all the requests," said Mike Chmura at Harvard. “Itreally didn't have legs and might have been forgotten if Mr. Limbaugh hadn't decided to deliver it.
(Winning the Cultural War' - Charlton Heston's Speech to the Harvard Law School Forum, Feb 16, 1999.)
I remember my son when he was five, explaining to his kindergarten class what his father did for a living. "My Daddy," he said, "pretends to be people." There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo. If you want the ceiling repainted I'll do my best. There always seem to be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy.
As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: If my Creator gave me the gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use that same gift now to reconnect you with your own sense of liberty of your own freedom of thought ... your own compass for what is right.
Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America, "We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure." Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what resides in your heart. I fear you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you ... the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is.
Let me back up. About a year ago I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects the right to keep and bear arms. I ran for office, I was elected, and now I serve ... I serve as a moving target for the media who've called me everything from "ridiculous" and "duped" to a "brain-injured, senile, crazy old man." I know ... I'm pretty old ... but I‘m sure, Lord, am not senile.
As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts
and speech are mandated.
For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist.
I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe.
I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.
Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.
From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they're essentially saying, Chuck, how dare you speak your mind. You are using language not authorized for public consumption!" But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys -- subjects bound
to the British crown.
In his book, "The End of Sanity," Martin Gross writes that "blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new anti-intellectual theories regularly foisted on us from every direction.
Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the nation, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don't like it."
Let me read a few examples.
At Antioch college in Ohio, young men seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process from kissing to petting to final copulation .... all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive.
In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who had been infected by dentists who had concealed their AIDs --- the state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not.....Need Not..... tell their patients that they are infected.
At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team "The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs truly like the name.
In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.
In New York City, kids who don't speak a word of Spanish have been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their last names sound Hispanic.
At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students.
Yeah, I know ... that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes." Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said "black." But it's a no-no now.
For me, hyphenated identities are awkward ...particularly "Native-American." I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side, my grandson is a thirteenth generation native American...with a capital letter on "American.
Finally, just last month ... David Howard, head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate used the word "niggardly" while talking to colleagues about budgetary matters.
Of course, "niggardly" means stingy or scanty. But within days Howard was forced to publicly apologize and resign. As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David Howard got fired because some people in public employ were morons who (a) didn't know the meaning of niggardly, (b) didn't know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance."
What does all of this mean?
It means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far behind.
Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you continue to tolerate it?
Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression?
Let's be honest. Who here thinks your professors can say what they really believe? It scares me to death, and should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason. You are the best and the brightest. You, here in the fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River, you are the cream.
But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the land, are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that ...and abide it ... you are -- by your grandfathers' standards -- cowards.
Here's another example.
Right now at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs. Why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayor's pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers.
I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you.
Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas, if not you? Who will defend the core value of academia, if you supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead, "Don't shoot me."
If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist.
If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you a sexist.
If you think critically about a denomination, it does not make you anti-religion.
If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe.
Don't let America's universities continue to serve as incubators for this rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism.
But what can you do?
How can anyone prevail against such pervasive social subjugation?
The answer's been here all along. I learned it 36 years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people.
You simply ....disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely.
But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom.
I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr. King ... who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might.
Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in Viet Nam.
In that same spirit, I am asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives and onerous laws that weaken personal freedom.
But be careful ... it hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be humiliated ... to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water cannons at Selma.
You must be willing to experience discomfort. I'm not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have taken their toll on me. Let me tell you a story.
A few years back I heard about a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called "Cop Killer" celebrating ambushing and murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the world. Police across the country were outraged. Rightfully so - at least one had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around it because the rapper was black.
I heard Time/Warner had a stockholder meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills. I owned some shares at the time, so I decided to attend. What I did there was against the advice of my family and colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer"- every vicious, vulgar, instructional word.
"I GOT MY 12 GAUGE SAWED OFF. I GOT MY HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF. I'M ABOUT
TO BUST SOME SHOTS OFF. I'M ABOUT TO DUST SOME COPS OFF..."
It got worse, a lot worse. I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. The Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that. Then I delivered another volley of sick lyrics brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing two 12-year old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore.
"SHE PUSHED HER BUTT AGAINST MY...."
Well, I won't do to you here what I did to them. Let's just say I left the room in echoing silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps, one of them said, "We can't print that." "I know," I replied, "but Time/Warner's selling it." Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warner's, or get a good review from Time magazine.
But disobedience means you must be willing to act, not just talk.
When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself ... jam the switchboard of the district attorney's office.
When your university is pressured to lower standards until 80% of the students graduate with honors ... choke the halls of the board of regents.
When an 8-year-old boy pecks a girl's cheek on the playground and gets hauled into court for sexual harassment ... march on that school and block its doorways.
When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you...petition them, oust them, banish them.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Government - #101 - #15 - Again, someone said “it”!!!
THIS DOES SAY IT ALL!!!
After hearing that the state of Florida changed its opinion and let a Muslim woman have her picture on her driver’s license with her face covered, I believe this is even more appropriate. Read on, please! This is an Editorial written by an American citizen, published in a Tampa Newspaper. He did quite a job; didn't he?
***************************
IMMIGRANTS, “NOT AMERICANS”, MUST ADAPT!!!
I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Americans. However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the "politically correct" crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.
I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to America. Our population is almost entirely comprised of descendants of immigrants.
However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand.
This idea of America being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity.
As Americans, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle. This culture has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language.
Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language! "In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools.
If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.
If Stars and Stripes offend you, or you don't like Uncle Sam, then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from.
This is OUR COUNTRY, our land, and our lifestyle. Our First Amendment gives every citizen the right to express his opinion and we will allow you every opportunity to do so. But, once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our national motto, or our way of life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great American freedom, “THE RIGHT TO LEAVE”!
After hearing that the state of Florida changed its opinion and let a Muslim woman have her picture on her driver’s license with her face covered, I believe this is even more appropriate. Read on, please! This is an Editorial written by an American citizen, published in a Tampa Newspaper. He did quite a job; didn't he?
***************************
IMMIGRANTS, “NOT AMERICANS”, MUST ADAPT!!!
I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Americans. However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the "politically correct" crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.
I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to America. Our population is almost entirely comprised of descendants of immigrants.
However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand.
This idea of America being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity.
As Americans, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle. This culture has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language.
Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language! "In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools.
If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.
If Stars and Stripes offend you, or you don't like Uncle Sam, then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from.
This is OUR COUNTRY, our land, and our lifestyle. Our First Amendment gives every citizen the right to express his opinion and we will allow you every opportunity to do so. But, once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our national motto, or our way of life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great American freedom, “THE RIGHT TO LEAVE”!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Government - #101 - #14 - What would “Democracy” look like if it was totally “free”?
Would Democracy last if it were totally “Free”?
If my town was attacked and I had the right to “freely” express my choice as to whether I wished to defend my town or not, could my “democratic” town exist?
Is “Freedom” without laws, regulations and restrictions viable?
Can I freely commit “murder”?
Can I “freely” run through a red light?
Is a “Democracy” totally “free”?
Perhaps an ideologue could argue the point, but in the “real world” a Democracy must have limitations for it to survive. We must have a society, which is “mostly free”. We must try to have laws and restrictions which allow our society to be viable, to last, with as few restrictions as possible.
But who makes the definition of what’s “possible”?
What, indeed, allows the “possibility” of the most “freedom”?
Here’s where the controversy begins. Who is this “ruling” person or group? How are they chosen? How long do these rules apply? What do you do if everyone does not agree? Suppose I have good reason not to protect my town? What then?
And so the rule of “logic” and “reason” comes into play. What’s “logical”? What’s “reasonable”?
Those of us who live under the influence of “Democracy” have our own ideas of what it takes and why it’s important to make a “Democracy” viable. Others may not agree! So be it! Let them live in a society with a different belief. The two societies never have to agree! (i.e. So long as they have no need of each other.) But when they have to share, when they cannot ignore one another, there should be no need to agree except as to the specific endeavor that they are trying to share.
Here again is the problem! It depends on what has to be mutually shared. Suppose the oxygen in the air has to be shared. Neither side can avoid the confrontation. But suppose the issue is “safety”, the physical protection of its members? We have a problem! Either side has a point of view. Who is the “arbiter”? Who selects him? On what basis?
Emotions and egos run high. They can cloud “reason and logic”. We have personal egos we have national egos. We have expressions from the streets which have their own reasons for being… imagined or encouraged!
What to do now …what are the choices?
We have physical force …i.e. war!
We have “negotiations” .. but that requires “logical and reasonable” men.
We have continuing “mutual disagreement” … sometimes “physical”, sometimes “verbal
Are there any other choices?…. Is it quite that simple?
Can we act on our choice and remain what we are, what we believe?
Are we truly “free”?
If my town was attacked and I had the right to “freely” express my choice as to whether I wished to defend my town or not, could my “democratic” town exist?
Is “Freedom” without laws, regulations and restrictions viable?
Can I freely commit “murder”?
Can I “freely” run through a red light?
Is a “Democracy” totally “free”?
Perhaps an ideologue could argue the point, but in the “real world” a Democracy must have limitations for it to survive. We must have a society, which is “mostly free”. We must try to have laws and restrictions which allow our society to be viable, to last, with as few restrictions as possible.
But who makes the definition of what’s “possible”?
What, indeed, allows the “possibility” of the most “freedom”?
Here’s where the controversy begins. Who is this “ruling” person or group? How are they chosen? How long do these rules apply? What do you do if everyone does not agree? Suppose I have good reason not to protect my town? What then?
And so the rule of “logic” and “reason” comes into play. What’s “logical”? What’s “reasonable”?
Those of us who live under the influence of “Democracy” have our own ideas of what it takes and why it’s important to make a “Democracy” viable. Others may not agree! So be it! Let them live in a society with a different belief. The two societies never have to agree! (i.e. So long as they have no need of each other.) But when they have to share, when they cannot ignore one another, there should be no need to agree except as to the specific endeavor that they are trying to share.
Here again is the problem! It depends on what has to be mutually shared. Suppose the oxygen in the air has to be shared. Neither side can avoid the confrontation. But suppose the issue is “safety”, the physical protection of its members? We have a problem! Either side has a point of view. Who is the “arbiter”? Who selects him? On what basis?
Emotions and egos run high. They can cloud “reason and logic”. We have personal egos we have national egos. We have expressions from the streets which have their own reasons for being… imagined or encouraged!
What to do now …what are the choices?
We have physical force …i.e. war!
We have “negotiations” .. but that requires “logical and reasonable” men.
We have continuing “mutual disagreement” … sometimes “physical”, sometimes “verbal
Are there any other choices?…. Is it quite that simple?
Can we act on our choice and remain what we are, what we believe?
Are we truly “free”?
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Government - #101 - #69 - What is the missing word in today’s debate?
“DEFINITION!!!!!”
What is “change”? ...... What “changes”? …. What “changes” to what?
What does America want to be?...... Is it “policeman of the world”? ….. Does everyone have the same standard of living ….(or just our friends?) …... What militarily does this require? …. Who pays? …. Is the U.S. economy strong enough? ….. How do you get the U.S. economy stronger without “globalization” (counting on our friends and enemies!) ….. Who grows the food for the ever expanding third world expansion? …. How do give a part of the world the U.S. standard of material wealth or do they even want it?
First, “What does America want to happen?..... and “why”?
“Without DEFINITIONS”…… All this current debate is meaningless…….
“Gay marriage”, “No child left behind”, “Ethanol” based on corn, the “economy”, “jobs”, the current war in Iraq and the threat of a war in Iran, the election…(blue versus red), “Gitmo”, “Welfare” and the current housing crisis, New Orleans and the hurricane, etc. upon etc.
A bunch of garbage compared to the “real” issues.
What is the "true meaning"?…. Not some more meaningless rhetoric…. Not some more generalizations …. Not some more “lawyer’s talk” !
What do you really mean? …… What do you want?
One half of the current frustration by the ordinary people of America wants to know more about where we’re going; the other one half just wants to know we’re going to be better and doesn’t know or care how. (They listen to and believe in words!) How can we give both sides the information that will satisfy them without giving the enemy the store? Is it “possible”? If not, then what?
Our form of government relies on an “informed and responsible populace”. If we can’t do this, we failed!!!
Do you think this is important?
What is “change”? ...... What “changes”? …. What “changes” to what?
What does America want to be?...... Is it “policeman of the world”? ….. Does everyone have the same standard of living ….(or just our friends?) …... What militarily does this require? …. Who pays? …. Is the U.S. economy strong enough? ….. How do you get the U.S. economy stronger without “globalization” (counting on our friends and enemies!) ….. Who grows the food for the ever expanding third world expansion? …. How do give a part of the world the U.S. standard of material wealth or do they even want it?
First, “What does America want to happen?..... and “why”?
“Without DEFINITIONS”…… All this current debate is meaningless…….
“Gay marriage”, “No child left behind”, “Ethanol” based on corn, the “economy”, “jobs”, the current war in Iraq and the threat of a war in Iran, the election…(blue versus red), “Gitmo”, “Welfare” and the current housing crisis, New Orleans and the hurricane, etc. upon etc.
A bunch of garbage compared to the “real” issues.
What is the "true meaning"?…. Not some more meaningless rhetoric…. Not some more generalizations …. Not some more “lawyer’s talk” !
What do you really mean? …… What do you want?
One half of the current frustration by the ordinary people of America wants to know more about where we’re going; the other one half just wants to know we’re going to be better and doesn’t know or care how. (They listen to and believe in words!) How can we give both sides the information that will satisfy them without giving the enemy the store? Is it “possible”? If not, then what?
Our form of government relies on an “informed and responsible populace”. If we can’t do this, we failed!!!
Do you think this is important?
Government - #101 - #13 - Wouldn’t I like to hear “ someone (anyone!)” make “this” speech!
Good evening “TAXPAYERS”!
In case you forgot if you’re a little “short” right now, if you can’t afford to send that beloved child of yours to that “special” school, or if you can’t get those credit card balances down or if you’re beginning to feel lost when your personal monthly bills roar in, or if etc., etc., etc.; just remember that you are paying people not to work; you are paying your hard earned dollars to send a USA standard of living to people you don’t even “know about”. You are supporting public servants, public employees, and public bureaucrats to maintain a standard of living you, even you, can’t afford.
With your dollars you are supporting regulations, laws ,and rules that are destroying your motivation, your businesses, and the fabric of your families. YOU are paying for all of this!
There is no such thing as “ENTITLEMENTS”! You are paying your money so that the government , (those guys you did or didn’t bother to vote for) can give away your money to people and programs “they” decided were GOOD for YOU!
They decided to give your money to people who rebuild houses and businesses in the flood plains, when the flood, indeed, predictably destroys everything in its path every four years or so; or;…. near oceans and have their properties blown down every three or four years. It is “your” money that helps people rebuild when they choose this “expensive view lot” in a fire hazard. You pay for people who want to live and enjoy the ocean and river views. It is your money that pays to have them rebuild in the same stupid area..
You pay for the “human” breeders who create life with absolutely no idea or concern about “WHY”. People with no idea of the meaning of the word “responsibility”, with no idea about “plans for the future”, with no idea why they have a “litter”.
You, my “Taxpaying Friends” are paying for these things whether you agree or disagree.
You are at the mercy of what was once known as “responsible Government”. It’s all changed! A few, a very few, are trying their darndest to fight for sanity, for logic, for reason. Many of these few have quit the Government in despair, disgust, and in the realization that the government is now a separate entity from the people. The government seems to be in business for itself. They are protecting their salaries, their reelection, their “perks”, and their seeming unlimited protection from “accountability”.
We now have the new “POLITICS”. The politics of polls, of selected focus groups. The politics of “gotta’ keep my job and my perks No matter what!! This is the “politics of politics”. Yes, it has changed. This type of politics leaves you, the Taxpayer, out! Your concerns are taking a backseat to “gotta’ keep my perks “NO MATTER WHAT”!
Just remember......
The only money the government spends is YOUR money!!!!!!
The money YOU PAY in taxes!!!!!!
The money the government takes from you, the Taxpayer!!!!
If the Government spends more than they get from you (by the way that’s called “the DEFICIT”), they just print I.O.U’s!! (and,by the way, they’re called BONDS).. These Government BONDS say that if someone gives the Government hard cash “now”.for these pieces of paper, you, (yes all of you taxpayers) will guarantee to pay these I.O.U’s. back in the future, with interest.
The total of all these promises and guarantees made, in the past and in the present, is called the “NATIONAL DEBT”.It is now, almost $5500 billion dollars worth!!!.....(By the way that’s $5 1/2 trillion dollars worth!!!)
But in case you didn’t make the connection, this is now referred to as “having your grandchildren pay for it!” After all, your grandchildren will be the only Taxpayers around to pay the interest and principle on these I.O.U.’s (Bonds, that is!)
(This is also politely referred to as “mortgaging our future”! In other words, who is left to pay this future debt, this so called “mortgage on our country”?)
Right now my young friends, we all work until May of each year for the Government. The total sum of all of the money you earn from January to May goes to the Government to pay off it’s expenses; the bureaucrat salaries; their wonderful special health plan; their “perks and special privileges”; their gifts to the “non-working; their gifts to the “illegitimates”; their gifts to the “illegals”; the costs of the “unelected” staffs and attorney firms that draw up the rules and regulations; and, oh yes, if anything is left over, the necessary and vital costs of the defense, the legal system, the highway systems, etc. that are indeed the machinery of a responsible Government.
The problem is that they are all mixed up in a huge, thousand page document called the “BUDGET”. It contains accounting tricks that pay things “over a length of time”, “offsets”, “off-budget items”, etc. after etc
It takes a staff of thousands to put it all together and I, for one, can’t possibly understand it. But what you will understand, and believe me you’ll have a very good understanding of it, is what the ultimate cost to you is! You’ll know when they increase your taxes.
When you realize that you will be working for the Government through June, (yes , from January through June), and the total of all the money you earn, all the risks you take, all the things you can’t afford just to pay for all the “gifts” you are forced to give because they are now in the “Budget”; then maybe, just
maybe, you’ll begin to finance and support the various groups and individuals that are trying to do something!
There are groups of citizens, honestly concerned citizens, that have the time and expertise to leverage their voting influence to help control these outright “gifts” and phony political financial programs that are used to gain local political votes to keep “my guy” in office.
But how do I know which groups and which specific persons to believe in?
How can I be sure?
This I know!....
If you do nothing, you can be sure things will be the same!!!!
If you do something, you can be sure things might be different!!
WHAT’S THE SUCCESSFUL ALTERNATIVE??
In case you forgot if you’re a little “short” right now, if you can’t afford to send that beloved child of yours to that “special” school, or if you can’t get those credit card balances down or if you’re beginning to feel lost when your personal monthly bills roar in, or if etc., etc., etc.; just remember that you are paying people not to work; you are paying your hard earned dollars to send a USA standard of living to people you don’t even “know about”. You are supporting public servants, public employees, and public bureaucrats to maintain a standard of living you, even you, can’t afford.
With your dollars you are supporting regulations, laws ,and rules that are destroying your motivation, your businesses, and the fabric of your families. YOU are paying for all of this!
There is no such thing as “ENTITLEMENTS”! You are paying your money so that the government , (those guys you did or didn’t bother to vote for) can give away your money to people and programs “they” decided were GOOD for YOU!
They decided to give your money to people who rebuild houses and businesses in the flood plains, when the flood, indeed, predictably destroys everything in its path every four years or so; or;…. near oceans and have their properties blown down every three or four years. It is “your” money that helps people rebuild when they choose this “expensive view lot” in a fire hazard. You pay for people who want to live and enjoy the ocean and river views. It is your money that pays to have them rebuild in the same stupid area..
You pay for the “human” breeders who create life with absolutely no idea or concern about “WHY”. People with no idea of the meaning of the word “responsibility”, with no idea about “plans for the future”, with no idea why they have a “litter”.
You, my “Taxpaying Friends” are paying for these things whether you agree or disagree.
You are at the mercy of what was once known as “responsible Government”. It’s all changed! A few, a very few, are trying their darndest to fight for sanity, for logic, for reason. Many of these few have quit the Government in despair, disgust, and in the realization that the government is now a separate entity from the people. The government seems to be in business for itself. They are protecting their salaries, their reelection, their “perks”, and their seeming unlimited protection from “accountability”.
We now have the new “POLITICS”. The politics of polls, of selected focus groups. The politics of “gotta’ keep my job and my perks No matter what!! This is the “politics of politics”. Yes, it has changed. This type of politics leaves you, the Taxpayer, out! Your concerns are taking a backseat to “gotta’ keep my perks “NO MATTER WHAT”!
Just remember......
The only money the government spends is YOUR money!!!!!!
The money YOU PAY in taxes!!!!!!
The money the government takes from you, the Taxpayer!!!!
If the Government spends more than they get from you (by the way that’s called “the DEFICIT”), they just print I.O.U’s!! (and,by the way, they’re called BONDS).. These Government BONDS say that if someone gives the Government hard cash “now”.for these pieces of paper, you, (yes all of you taxpayers) will guarantee to pay these I.O.U’s. back in the future, with interest.
The total of all these promises and guarantees made, in the past and in the present, is called the “NATIONAL DEBT”.It is now, almost $5500 billion dollars worth!!!.....(By the way that’s $5 1/2 trillion dollars worth!!!)
But in case you didn’t make the connection, this is now referred to as “having your grandchildren pay for it!” After all, your grandchildren will be the only Taxpayers around to pay the interest and principle on these I.O.U.’s (Bonds, that is!)
(This is also politely referred to as “mortgaging our future”! In other words, who is left to pay this future debt, this so called “mortgage on our country”?)
Right now my young friends, we all work until May of each year for the Government. The total sum of all of the money you earn from January to May goes to the Government to pay off it’s expenses; the bureaucrat salaries; their wonderful special health plan; their “perks and special privileges”; their gifts to the “non-working; their gifts to the “illegitimates”; their gifts to the “illegals”; the costs of the “unelected” staffs and attorney firms that draw up the rules and regulations; and, oh yes, if anything is left over, the necessary and vital costs of the defense, the legal system, the highway systems, etc. that are indeed the machinery of a responsible Government.
The problem is that they are all mixed up in a huge, thousand page document called the “BUDGET”. It contains accounting tricks that pay things “over a length of time”, “offsets”, “off-budget items”, etc. after etc
It takes a staff of thousands to put it all together and I, for one, can’t possibly understand it. But what you will understand, and believe me you’ll have a very good understanding of it, is what the ultimate cost to you is! You’ll know when they increase your taxes.
When you realize that you will be working for the Government through June, (yes , from January through June), and the total of all the money you earn, all the risks you take, all the things you can’t afford just to pay for all the “gifts” you are forced to give because they are now in the “Budget”; then maybe, just
maybe, you’ll begin to finance and support the various groups and individuals that are trying to do something!
There are groups of citizens, honestly concerned citizens, that have the time and expertise to leverage their voting influence to help control these outright “gifts” and phony political financial programs that are used to gain local political votes to keep “my guy” in office.
But how do I know which groups and which specific persons to believe in?
How can I be sure?
This I know!....
If you do nothing, you can be sure things will be the same!!!!
If you do something, you can be sure things might be different!!
WHAT’S THE SUCCESSFUL ALTERNATIVE??
Friday, June 6, 2008
Personal - #501 – #48 - “The devil is in the details”!
How often have you heard this saying "The devil is in the details!"..... by “both sides”!(and the so-called pundits)
And then it was completely ignored in the answers!
All parties in this discussion that starts with this saying MUST give easily understood, mutually agreed upon words to exactly state what it is there trying to say. For instance… those that say “We can do better”…… Yeah, but how? “We can be more successful in diplomacy”….. Yeah, but how? “We can have a more productive society”…… Yeah, but how?
You bet “The devil is in the details!”
Failure to follow through with the :details: can mean one of these things……
1.The party making the original statement doesn’t have a clue except to complain.
2.The party making the original statement doesn’t have the desire to get specific.
3.The party making the original statement doesn’t have the political will to want to be specific.
Either way, the mere complaining or the mere bleating about how things are doesn’t solve anything!
As a matter of fact, the people in general are losing faith in their so-called leaders, the people are so upset they won’t even vote! (That is the “thinking people”….
“the mob” can always be counted on!
So the poetically motivated will have to make a guess, "Can they afford to lose the “thinking people” or can they afford to lose “the mob”?......... At least they have to make a choice!
Certain people can tell whether it’s an honest to goodness understandable alternative or just another "bleating".
Are the politicals interested in the number of people who just turn off?
This is the essence of leadership.
Explain what you are doing!
The “WHY: is very important,
You do not lead by “edict”! Id you do, you just “rule”!........ America is NOT “just ruled”!
And then it was completely ignored in the answers!
All parties in this discussion that starts with this saying MUST give easily understood, mutually agreed upon words to exactly state what it is there trying to say. For instance… those that say “We can do better”…… Yeah, but how? “We can be more successful in diplomacy”….. Yeah, but how? “We can have a more productive society”…… Yeah, but how?
You bet “The devil is in the details!”
Failure to follow through with the :details: can mean one of these things……
1.The party making the original statement doesn’t have a clue except to complain.
2.The party making the original statement doesn’t have the desire to get specific.
3.The party making the original statement doesn’t have the political will to want to be specific.
Either way, the mere complaining or the mere bleating about how things are doesn’t solve anything!
As a matter of fact, the people in general are losing faith in their so-called leaders, the people are so upset they won’t even vote! (That is the “thinking people”….
“the mob” can always be counted on!
So the poetically motivated will have to make a guess, "Can they afford to lose the “thinking people” or can they afford to lose “the mob”?......... At least they have to make a choice!
Certain people can tell whether it’s an honest to goodness understandable alternative or just another "bleating".
Are the politicals interested in the number of people who just turn off?
This is the essence of leadership.
Explain what you are doing!
The “WHY: is very important,
You do not lead by “edict”! Id you do, you just “rule”!........ America is NOT “just ruled”!
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