Tuesday, January 19, 2010

An Open Letter from a Capitalist To the Kleptocrats

from the Capitalist who posts on the POLITICO message boards:

The “Silent Majority” has spoken. Your views and ideology have been rebuked. The sooner you accept this fact, the sooner we can all work together and straighten out this country.

We’ve had enough of your “Hope and Change”.
We don’t want leaders who promise transparency, yet fail to deliver it.
We don’t want the government to own auto manufacturers.
We don’t want the government to own banks.
We don’t want Obamacare.
We don’t want a government that FORCES us to buy health insurance.
We don’t want cap-and-trade.
We are tired of being raped by the UN.
We are not convinced that global warming exists.
We don’t want our children and grandchildren taxed into oblivion.
We don’t want the government telling us which light bulbs to use.
We don’t want Guantanamo closed.
We don’t want international terrorists tried in our federal courts.
We don’t want leaders who are weak on national security.
We don’t want leaders who make us look weak and apologetic on the international stage.
We don’t want 1o% unemployment.
We don’t want leaders who think capitalism is our enemy.
We don’t want leaders who do not support small business.
We don’t want leaders who promise to reduce pork-filled bills, then sign pork-laden bills.
We don’t want leaders who promise “no lobbyists”, then fill their administration with them.
We don’t want “special deals” for unions. 87% of U.S. workers don’t belong to unions.
We don’t want to be called racists, tea baggers, wing-nuts, etc. simply because we disagree with your views.

And finally…..we’re tired of hearing that “it’s Bush’s fault”.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Hey Barack, How About "Equal Protection Under the Law"?

President Obama has decided to EXEMPT his union buddies from the tax on all "Cadillac Health Insurance Plans."

Is there ANY sort of corruption that is beyond their grasp? Is there anything these kleptocrats (Dems) won't do to further their power? Goodbye Representative Republic (or representative democracy if you prefer) and hello banana republic! I guess some pigs are just more equal than others?

We have three more years to suffer this 3rd world dictator wannabe. G-d help us!

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/unions_get_pecial_treatment_in_health_AB053CwqPIJlIxXAm37DOM

Unions will dodge O's health tax

By CARL CAMPANILE

Last Updated: 7:12 AM, January 15, 2010

Posted: 2:49 AM, January 15, 2010

Big Labor got some big love from President Obama and congressional Democrats yesterday after they agreed to exempt union workers from the whopping “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health-care plans until 2018.


The sweetheart deal, hammered out behind closed doors, will save union employees at least $60 billion over the years involved, while others won't be as lucky -- they'll have to cough up almost $90 billion.

The 40 percent excise tax on what have come to be called "Cadillac" health-care plans would exempt collective-bargaining contracts covering government employees and other union members until Jan. 1, 2018

In another major concession to labor, the value of dental and vision plans would be exempt from the tax even after the deal expires in eight years, negotiators said.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A Tribute To My Buddy Mike, Rest in Peace Brother

Mike was one of my best friends from FrontPage magazine. As much as any person who posts in the blogosphere can shape opinion, Mike did shape opinion. He was an intellectual GIANT who wrote in terms the rest of us could comprehend. I'm not ashamed to say, Mike dumbed it down for us mere mortals and did it seemingly without an ego. He was the greatest and most artriculate champion for human freedom that I've ever encountered on any message board, and his loss leaves a terrible vacuum. G-d bless and keep you pal.

Around three years ago Mike was involved in one of his vaunted "discussions" at FrontPage with an atheist. I enjoyed it so much that I asked his permission to copy the discussion and make a blog post. From 2007:

A Conservative Answers An Atheist

Last night one of the regular posters at FrontPage Magazine.com, "DumbLikeAFox", let loose with an atheist screed that was terribly hostile and misinformed, but one I'm rather familiar with. Atheist hostility towards people of faith is sometimes so palpable that one is left with the impression that atheists view themselves in "competition" with the faithful. There are many thoughtful exceptions to this rule, but this hostility seems to be the rule.

As an aside, when self-professed atheists control the state we invariably end up with Communism or Fascism. Atheist governments feel no compunction to respect any "G-d given" rights of the people. They seek to perfect the imperfectable humans in their midst. We round humans just REFUSE to fit into square holes! That's when the bloodletting commences. Refer to Robespierre, Mussolini, Hitler, or Stalin.

(I've Italicized the correspondence for ease of reading)


This is DLAF's atheist rant from last night:

"Religion has to be the greatest bull-hit story ever told. Think about it, religion has actually convinced people that there's an INVISIBLE MAN...LIVING IN THE SKY...who watches everything that you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten special things that he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry for ever and ever 'til the end of time...but he loves you."---DLAF


Mike's reply to this hostile rant was beautiful, and dare I say--poetic.

"Interesting. I'm glad you're a physicist because you'll have a much deeper understanding than most.

To be an atheist physicist you have to believe that billions upon billions of galaxies composed of billions of stars spreading across an area so vast that it takes around 15 billion years for light traveling 6.2 trillion miles per year to reach from one side to the other.

Yet all this impossible to imagine tremendous amount of mass was compressed into an area 1 x 10 to the -48 centimeter. And in an instant (where time and space itself ,not to mention the word "instant",have no meaning) this amount of energy exploded forth from an area no larger than the distance of an electron from it's nucleus. After some time the energy accelerated in a way governed by scores of arbitrary constants. Any one of these scores of constants being of any other value then they just happened to be and matter would not exist, let alone suns, planets, plants and cocker-spaniels.

And there is the rub. All these perfectly tuned variables have the probability of near zero of simply randomly occurring the way they did.

But they did, now didn't they? That's where the evidence takes you. That's what you have to believe. And somehow you think that tale happening randomly is somehow less fantastic and bizarre than suggesting their is a greater purpose behind it? That it was intended?

So let me answer your question this way. I have a logical mind. In all my years I have never once purchased a lottery ticket. Not for any moral or anti-gambling reason, but simply because I understand the mathematical odds. In fact, I believe the lottery to be a tax on the mathematically illiterate. My loving and dear wife, on the other hand, has purchased a ticket every week for the past 27 years.

Now I ask you, another person with a logical mind and an understanding of numbers, to do two things....

1) I want you to calculate in rough terms the odds of the universe occurring the way it did with all its myriad variables randomly falling into place in just the precise way it did so that matter itself is possible and its subsequent evolution into a universe no doubt full of life conscious enough to ask the question "Where did I come from? Why I am I here?".

2) When, in much frustration, you've calculated that the odds of you winning the lottery are nearly infinitely greater than the universe unfolding in the precise way it did, then I want you to go drop to your knees and pray to the Great Void and thank it for THAT happy random coincidence.

Care to buy a lottery ticket? It sure looks more attractive now, doesn't it?"---Mike

I've come to much the same conclusion, and had that conclusion reinforced while helping my daughter with her Physical Science and Algebra homework. The world we live in has RULES! It seems as though we live in an ordered universe, at least as we perceive it. The atheist with his telescope or microscope or chalkboard will always miss the hand of the Creator in the natural world that he observes and uncovers, while the believer will appreciate His work. You don't have to believe in the creation myth or be a Biblical literalist to understand the brilliance of the Creator.

To be an atheist you are a believer in coincidences--THOUSANDS as a matter of fact!

People who think of Evolution as a refutation of G-d's very existence are almost childlike in the simplicity of their thought processes. For example they never stop to ask, "Is it possible that He created evolution as a means for animals to adapt and survive when the rest of nature throws us a wicked curveball?"

This morning a friend of mine, Z (from geeeeez and Mac n' Geeez) sent me this link of the renowned astrophysicist Owen Gingerich discussing the intersection of faith and the Periodic table. It's a must see!

http://meaningoflife.tv/video.php?speaker=gingerich&topic=complete

Saturday, January 9, 2010

The Republican Resurgence: A Game Plan

I wrote this in the aftermath of the bloodbath that was the general election of 2008. People are finally waking up, and we have the opportunity to inspire them with the TRUTH! The masses will never be inspired by the compromisers and the wishy washy RINOS in our party. DEFEND freedom and our freedom-based way of life and we will once again renew this country. Let us once again be the party of Reagan!

The Republican Party would be well-advised to heed the lessons of Bush v. Clinton in 1992, Dole v. Clinton in 1996, and now McCain v. Obama in 2008. When the electorate is faced with the choice between a liberal or moderate Democrat and a “moderate” Republican, they seem to prefer the real thing! They’ll pull the lever for the Democrat every time. The "independants" broke for Obama in a HUGE way on election night. They tend not to be God’s smartest creatures and will usually look for the candidate handing out the most goodies or the smoothest sounding of the two. Advantage Democrats and Barack Obama. The Republican Party threw it’s full weight behind John McCain late in the primaries, and did they EVER make a mistake!

I was never a fan of John McCain, but I gave him 14 hours or so of my time waving signs and doing other volunteer work because I understood the terrible danger of an untested socialist rookie like Barack Obama. Nine out of ten of the other volunteers I ran into told me something like this: “You know, I can’t stand John McCain, but…” All I could do was sigh, I understood that sentiment completely.

John McCain spent the first five and a half years working hard to infuriate conservatives from his position as head of the liberal Republicans (RINOS) in the Senate. He undermined the President’s judicial nominees by requiring approval from his hand picked bi-partisan group, attacked Bush’s tax cuts using left-wing populist rhetoric, fought against border security (even calling some of us “racist” for wanting to build a fence on the Mexican border), gutted the 1st Amendment with the McCain-Feingold bill, was never a friend of the 2nd Amendment until two years ago, fought to close down Guantanamo Bay while decrying the treatment of the terrorists there at the hands of our soldiers, and was a big proponent of the “Cap and Trade” system which was intended to limit global warming gases by over-taxing utilities and consumers. Drinking the global warming kool-aid is a PERFECT way to alienate smart conservative voters. John McCain would have been FAR more at home in the Democrat Party. He’s a liberal.

During the debates Barack Obama served up some huge lies, along with some hanging curveballs. While I found myself shouting out the obvious responses to Obama’s nonsense and drivel, McCain remained silent or even apologetically demured and changed the subject. A friend told me, “You’re expecting him to think the same way you do, as a Conservative.” The profundity of that statement struck me like a fist to the solar plexes. We had an imposter standing in there, pretending to be FOR tax cuts, FOR smaller government, FOR going all out to win the war on terror (remember Gitmo?), FOR conservative judicial nominees, etc.. It doesn’t surpise me at all that the answers didn’t come to him instantly, it wasn’t in his heart.

For conservatives there is a silver lining to this election night horror story. The Republicans In Name Only (RINOS) caused this electoral disaster and they will now take a back seat! Conservatism won last night everywhere it was tried on every ballot. CA and FL both had initiatives banning gay marriage that passed and MOST states had tax cutting initiatives on the ballot--which all passed--even in Massachusetts! Obama even lied like hell to people saying he was “going to cut your taxes, for 95% of the people.” He tacked towards the center on nearly every issue. Conservatism didn’t lose, but many faux Republicans certainly did pay the price for betraying conservative principles. This is a fantastic opportunity for the Republican Party to purge itself of liberalism and losing elections.

We MUST retake this party and GET RID of “compassionate conservatism” and other idiotic ideas! Conservatism is, by definition, COMPASSIONATE! We view it as compassionate when people no longer need a handout. We view it as compassionate when a formerly dependent person has the pride that goes with being a productive, tax paying member of society. We view it as compassionate and moral to give a tax cut to anyone who actually pays federal income taxes. We understand that the primary role of the Federal government is national defense, NOT income redistribution! We understand that the engine of American prosperity is the entrepreneur and the businessman, NOT the bureaucrat and his accompanying red tape.

Republicans, we have an opportunity to retake this party and return to our Reagan/Goldwater ideological roots. This is a party built on the brilliance of the Founders. We truly stand on the backs of giants: Men like George Washington, Edmund Burke, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, and women like Margaret Thatcher and Jean Kirkpatrick. The ideological foundation for victory is rather simple and brilliantly laid out. Will we follow this path to victory?

Or will we live through repeats of election night 2008?

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Class Warfare and the Plague of Economic Ignorance

An anonymous letter writer opined in the Florida Times Union, Rants and Raves section on 1-7-2010:

According to the T-U we have on the City Council an arch conservative who has attended a local church all his life and is very proud of both. He votes no on every piece of social spending legislation to help those he represents. Apparently he agrees with the economist Milton Friedman. Greed is good. Profit should be the only concern of business. No regulation as this interferes with profit. Government should provide no services and everything should be privatized, including the police and military. ... I hope he sleeps well.

This is so typical of the leftist worldview that I took the time to respond with remarks of my own, placed after each line of this nutty screed.

According to the T-U we have on the City Council an arch conservative who has attended a local church all his life and is very proud of both. Ooooh, an "arch conservative" ooooh. And he's attended church all his life, what a dangerous wacko he must be. Has someone contacted the local authorities? LOL!

He votes no on every piece of social spending legislation to help those he represents. Oh my God! He's responsible with other people's money, the horror! He'll never be a national Democrat doing that.

Apparently he agrees with the economist Milton Friedman. Greed is good. "Greed" is a word used by leftists and the economically ignorant (but I repeat myself) to demonize those who have money that they'd like to seize. The person who worked hard to earn that money is said to be "greedy" when he resists the state sponsored theft of those funds. Interestingly enough, elected Cleptocrats (think Barney Frank & Chris Dodd) are never said to be "greedy" for the hundreds and hundreds of taxes they impose in order to redistribute that money to those who didn't earn it.

*About the late, great Milton Friedman, to whom we owe so much...watch this.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2024617864923164175#

Profit should be the only concern of business. You're right, profit should ONLY be important for those businesses who want to keep the doors open. Outside of that, profit is irrelevant. :-)

No regulation as this interferes with profit. NOBODY is arguing against minimal regulations that allow us to live peacefully with each other. Good strawman argument though. Having few laws which are strictly enforced is the best policy. The stifling spiderweb of regulations that we now endure is a form of tyranny.

Government should provide no services and everything should be privatized, including the police and military. ... I hope he sleeps well. Ease off strawman arguments already! The military and police are legitimate functions of government. Governments duties are few, and enumerated in our Constitution.


PS--This level of idiocy is becoming more commonplace. If we are going to save this great Republic, every single one of us needs to confront misinformation and ignorance of this sort in whichever venue at appears. If the schools refuse to educate our children on the subject of Basic Economics, WE will have to step up to the plate. Oh, did I tell you about the drowning polar bears? LOL!

Thanks,
JINGOIST