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Are politicians politicizing of this crisis in fact making it worse than it really is?
We all realize that there are significant issues with the credit and finance system but just how many of them are true problems and how many of them are being caused by the doom and gloom of Washington politicians. Several of the banks that have failed have only done so after members of government, in an effort to make political hay, have pointed to one or another bank as an example of "a institution at risk". Next thing you know the bank that was struggling but still viable is getting run on, which of course pushes it over the edge. This of course allows the government to step in and take it over, force it's immediate sale outside of normal channels, or watch it die and it's assets move to more lucrative institutions. This article shows how a comment by Harry Reid effected the value of insurance companies. Were these companies losses manageable prior to politicizing of their troubles, most likely. Are they now? 33% loss after a comment by an idiot are hard for a company to swallow.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/02/news/companies/insurance_stocks/index.htm
Harry Reid once claimed that the war was lost and our troops were dying for nothing, public opinion toward the war swung and many people started parroting the line that the war was lost, despite the truth on the ground that almost daily indicated the exact opposite. To this day many still try to claim the war in Iraq is a lost cause even though province after province are being returned to Iraqi control and estimates place the draw down of troops to garrison or advisory levels well within sight.
At what point do we begin to ignore the doom and gloom coming from congressional and senate leaders and start to realize that like losing the war, they have everything to gain by keeping the crisis going? At what point does the nation out weigh their political 'need'?
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Ok so there is some question on the right about McCains nomination of Sarah Palin to the VP slot. If you pay attention to the left there can be no question it was the right thing to do. I mean there can only be one explination for the hatred, and down right visciousness of the attacks by the left on this poor woman hand her family. She must scare the living crap out of them!! I mean obviously it's pretty scary that a well educated successful woman has managed to make it in life without an abortion, having 5 children and achieving the highest office in the state of Alaska (not exactly a femanin stronghold there). Has dealt with a pregnant teenage daughter AND doesn't consider her as "punished" for having a baby instead of aborting it like the Messiah would get his daughter to do. (Amazing how a republican would face the 'trouble' of a pregency while for democrats it's easy. Abortion records are sealed.) But NOTHING speaks volumns like the wacko lefts attacks on this lady and her family. I mean come on, the lady has been the pick for what 4 days and you know more about her than Bidden who has a week headstart. It's all ok for Bidden to call the GOP Vice pres pick a "Very good looking Woman", I just hope he keeps that attitude to the VP debate when she rips his head off and looks good doing it. The forum muse is even better, the place where Lefties really act like who they are. Feminism goes out the window faster than Bill Clinton out Paula Jones window when her husband coems home. She is not a successful woman, she is not a mother of a normal American family, she is a ****** CONSERVATIVE!! GASP!! How can this be? I will tell you how. Democrats are all for the little guy, except for the fact that they have more Millionairs in Congress than any party in history. They are all for minorities, until they whoop their queen Bee. They are all for the working guy, as long as he doesn't wish to make up his own mind about joining the union. And they are all for Fisical responsibility, as long as you cut the defense buddget by 60%, and increase taxes, and commit to tarrifs, and let them increase spending by (400 million {socialized health care cost to Mass} times 52, better make it 53 Texas is pretty big), AND are willing to give up your freedom to disagree on the airwaves. They are the party for Women, unless you were raped, taken advantage of, or happened to be in the same car with, one of their own. Truth? I am sick to my heart for this country and the Democrat Party. When any political establishment goes this far, how much farther will they go? I am very afraid we will see, because one thing I have learned in Sarah Palins short time on the national stage, she seems like a fighter and as scared as the left is I am truely afraid of how far they will go.
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I hear the new drumbeat coming out of the MSM and it is starting to drive me nuts. "The higher price is an effect of supply and demand, and the only thing we can do is reduce our demand." WOW, how much agenda can you stuff in less than a sentence. First thing there are several factors effecting gas prices, and demand IS the largest, but you also have the deflation of the dollar, mainstream investors shifting to commodities, political and production issues in oil producing countries, inflationary pressure in China and India, etc etc. As you see there are a significant amount of factors that directly affect the price of oil and we haven't even discussed shipping and refining that oil yet. HOWEVER, if you believe our media giants the ONLY effect on the price of oil will be the reduction in demand. Change your lifestyle, NOW!!! Quit driving, buy a bike and a horse and SUFFER, "it'll be good for you and for America". Umm excuse me mister brightest journalist in the room, last I heard there are TWO parts of the supply and demand equation. Every journalist I hear open their lying, biased, and agenda driven mouth is saying that increasing supply won’t help. BULL PUCKY!!! If you have a significant increase in demand increasing the price of something an increase in the supply of that item has a balancing and price lowering effect. We have not opened an oil field in the US in longer than I care to discuss and we haven't built a new gasoline refinery in over 30 years. And to top it all off Democrat activists are all ready filing friend of the court and protest papers to prevent YOU from getting any. So as long as we remain stuck on stupid and allow the 'alternative fuel' and 'peddle your a$$' crowd to run the show we will continue to see the rise in gasoline prices. As an alternative, imagine the reaction if America announced it's plans to open 100 billion barrels of new drilling and 40 new refineries (would be 50 but there are at least 10 states that would rather die than go red).
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“You are correct that the economy regularly cycles through ups and downs. I'm curious to know your opinion in regard to energy prices: do you expect the price of gasoline/electricity/heating oil to go up or down in the next 5-10 years? Or what about wages: We all see what happened to wages in the last 8 years. Do you expect wages to go up or down? What about taxes....up or down? Or prices....up or down? What are you basing your predictions on (and please don't say that's its normal for the market to fluctuate. We all know that fluctuations are normal, but these particular set of market conditions have never existed before - the credit mess, NAFTA, the falling value of the dollar).” On the contrary, One of the exacerbating influences of the great depression was the government imposing tariffs and protectionist policies. We have been here before my friend. Every time the media claims something is new look behind you because they sticking something somewhere. Admittedly things have changed in the names and the amounts but the general influences have always been there. If you would like a SWAG I will do my best. Energy Prices: They are here to stay as is the price of iron, copper, nickel, coal, lumber, corn, and just about every other commodity under the sun. We have enjoyed 10+ years of price stagnation in most commodities with only minor fluctuations in value. Welcome to the world of market adjustment. The good news is that the increased price will translate into more jobs, exploration, and research. The bad news is until wages catch up the increased cost HURTS. There will be winners and losers as there always are, my beef is that the US is poised to be a huge loser this round because of our unwillingness to utilize the natural resources that made us a great nation in the first place. Wages: Wages will go up. Most businesses are not stupid. They want and need good people and when the location of a job becomes more important than the job itself most companies begin to compensate those good people which in turn requires they increase others. that may not explain it very well most economists take 30 minutes or more to explain it and I am trying to do it in a sentence. Suffice it to say that people don't like being broke, and companies don't like it when we are broke, consequently wages will begin to rise. It isn't going to happen right away, we still have several fluctuations in the adjustment cycle to go through but wages will come up to meet the new prices. Taxes: This is sticky. Republicans have abandoned the principles of the 90's that allowed them to keep taxes low and government small. Democrats have slid inexorably toward socialism which demands significant taxes to maintain let alone enact. I would have to say we are going to see a period of significant tax increases. Of course this will obsentially be targeted at the rich, but for some reason when they say that it always has a direct impact on the poorest among us, you figure that one out. I expect the ratio will remain the same with the top 1% paying 35-38% of the tax bill, the remaining top 5% paying 70-80% of the tax bill and we will pick up the rest, same as it has always been the only thing that will change is the size of the bill. Prices: Prices have all ready climbed, they will follow the commodities market as they must. As things begin to stabilize over the next few years wages will rise to meet them until just before the next bump we will go through a period of stagnation where luxury goods will once again be the thing. This happens every time guys. During adjustment luxury items drop off drastically (if you own XM or Niokia stock I suggest you get out) and people have to tighten down to necessities more. Then once the adjustment stabilizes wages eventually meet and surpass the prices of goods and services, finally there is enough of a surplus that people begin to again buy luxury items. This turn around probably wont take as long as the last one which was shorter than the one before. As for where I get this information? I watch, read, and smell test a lot of different sources (NPR has some good starting places but is socialist leaning). Most of this information is common knowledge in any intellectual environment but is typically ignored infavor of loud fear mongering and class warfare from people who know better but can't further their agenda with the truth. Rockefeller said about his survival of the stock market crash in '29 "I knew it was time to get out of the market when the elevator operator was discussing his portfolio". This is not new guys, in fact compared to past adjustments this isn't even bad, at least not yet. I do worry about how the Fed has swapped value of the dollar for swallowing out the dive but they know more about this stuff than I ever will and considering the foreign capital and investment coming into the US they may have the right ticket. Time will tell but the only difference will be in the how long and the how deep not in if or if not. Watch for promises of quick fixes and offers from politicians to "save" you, every time they have tried they have not only failed but typically have driven it deeper and longer than if they had left it alone. To illustrate this I will explain the conservative view of Clintons economic policy, "At least he was smart enough to leave it alone"
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As this primary season continues we hear more and more policy gobblygook from the candidates and more hype by the media. I have been trying to analyze it into something coherent I could bring to those who have honored me by seeking my opinion. I can research and pick through individual issues with my limited time and by applying my personal smell test to the candidates words and media people, but I haven’t been able to stuff any of it into a neat, presentable box. Until now that is. I had a ‘eureka moment’ this morning, a divine inspiration, an epiphany if you will. Instead of trying to pick out and prove the fallacy of the media and talking heads why not take a look at just WHO will celebrate the election of the Democrat party? This isn’t hard, it happened in 2006 even though the media ignored it. So lets break it down shall we; On the domestic front since this is most dear and near to our hearts who will celebrate a democrat win in ’08? The immediate list comes to mind of the usual suspects; the ACLU, the government workers unions, a large number of felons, illegal immigrants (though they wont mind McCain either), the sierra club, the NAACP (though if Clinton steels it from Obama it may not be a friendly celebration), move on.org, and of course George Sorros. There are numerous others including CARE but their influence is less obvious or astute. These are the domestic groups and unions that have poured huge amounts of money into democrat coffers, enough to typically out raise republicans 2-3 to 1 in many races. These are also the groups that most want a democrat government to sieze control of the states and individual freedoms so they can impose their agenda on all of us, “for our own good”. Of foreign countries we have some sterling names; Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Sudan, China, North Korea, and Syria top the list. Some of the less obvious well wishers for the democrat party are harder to believe; Hamas (I list them as a country here because of their immediate control of the Gaza Strip, an autonomous country from Palestine at the moment), Lebanon (Hezbohla controlled southern Lebanon to be more specific, without US and Israeli assistance the current democratic government of Lebanon will fall), Ecuador (FARQ rebels using Ecuador and Venezuela as a base have been trying to overthrow the pro-US government in Columbia for some time, Democrats do not oppose those efforts even if they don’t blatantly support them). In addition to these obvious enemies of the US that hope for a democrat win in November there are some less obvious countries that would love to see the US in dire straits; The socialist party of France, they got their butt kicked in their last election and a Democrat run US would help them regain power). Spanish socialists, next year they face a tough election with the Spanish Democrats as their failed policies have brought serious misgivings in the population. Now lets look at the international organizations that will celebrate a return of democrat power to the US. First and foremost is the UN. Under President Bush the power of the UN to influence American policy has been significantly reduced. While we pay 40% of the tab for UN programs their general policy has been of opposition to the US, Democrats have a stated willingness to restore the UN’s influence over America. Even so far as allowing the UN to dictate American foreign policy AND LAW. This in and of itself is by far the scariest proposition of a Democrat controlled government. Then we have Al Quada, after the 2006 elections Al Quada released several congratulations to the Democrats seizure of Congress and the Senate. Of course these only received cursory coverage in the media but it is a telling event when your worst enemy supports your “saviors”. Then there is of course GreenPeace, the World Health Organization (thank you for Aids you murdering bastards), and of course Amnesty International (the ACLU of the western countries). So as we go forward in this election season, I ask you to consider, if you don’t KNOW the candidates do you know their friends? We all do and the list does not bode well for the future or safety of our children or their children for that matter. Choices have consequences. Consider yours carefully. God Bless and keep you safe.
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Ok it is official, Americans have slid to the lowest intelligence quotient in known history. What the heck are you people doing out there? Pull your heads out of the oven and breath some fresh air. I am so sick of the "OMG the Bush deficit is going to destroy us" and the "Evil Oil Companies are out to drive us into a depression", or one of my personal favorites, "Big business needs to PAY for what they are doing to us". Lets learn a few things shall we people? First off the deficit of 9 trillion dollars is butkis, we could pay that entire amount in a heartbeat simply by suspending Nasa. That is only 1 item in our entire government and there are millions of items. You people who are falling for the rhetoric of selling ourselves to the Chinese are morons, you pay a higher percentage of your income for your car than we pay the Chinese for our debt. I don't care if you hate the guy or love him, blaming one man for our governments run away spending is asinine and you all re-elected something like 80% of incumbents. You want to know who to blame the deficit on? take a look in the mirror. The point is, for a war time deficit 9 trillion is chump change, we are fighting this thing on the cheap so far. So what about the price of gas that is hurting us all so much. It HAS to be the big oil companies and Bush doesn't it? Only in the fantasy world of the NYT and CNN. You have to be a completely disconnected sociopath to not know about the concept of supply and demand. Oil companies STILL make approximately 9-12% profit per gallon of gas, their "windfall" profits come from the fact that 12% of 3.00 (0.36/gallon) is a hell of a lot more that 12% of 1.40 but it is still only 12%. "They were doing ok on the 0.17 they were making why should they get to make 0.36 now?" some of you will ask. And I will tell you. Oil company profits pay for exploration, research, and more importantly dividends. Something like 40% of oil companies are owned by retirement and 401K plans. Oil companies are one of the reasons your 401K didn't tank after Katrina when the economy slipped. They are one of the big reasons your 401K will only lose a few percent during the projected recession. To blame them for making the same amount of profit they always have is moronic. And on to my favorite, "We need to tax big business for making money". Ummm how many of you work for GE, directly or indirectly? How about Ford? GM? Philips? Sony? I can go on and on and just in that short list I work indirectly for all of them. Now lets add to their taxes, which are already something like 300% more than anything you or I pay. What do you think they are going to do? Well the choices are few but painful. They can of course just raise their price to maintain the same profit margin. Most will, to some extent, but they will probably combine the price increase with a downsizing effort to lower overhead. This causes inflation and unemployment. BRILLIANT. Now because they increased their price above current market the demand will decline, so they make fewer widgets which require less parts or materials. Sooooo those indirectly working for them also have to scale back operations, oops more of that unemployment thing. Do corporate CEOs make too much? I guess it depends on how important you consider that position to the success or failure of your company. When you pay a severance package to a CEO you are not only paying for his work but you are showing incentive to those who you hope to replace him. It can get out of control and in several cases has but since most board of directors own a direct stake in the company it tends to correct itself without assistance for your exceptionally bright local politician. Now since we have discussed the idiocy that has become the common sense of economics lets take a look at a couple things you might want to REALLY be afraid of. One of the biggest influences on the price of a gallon of gas recently is not the profit hungry oil companies or the slavering hedge fund speculators. It is the fact that a few years ago what is $112 a barrel oil now would have been $90 a barrel or even less. How can this be? Part of the price increase you think you are seeing is a deflation of the value of a dollar. Oil by demand and supply should be around $70 a barrel, you can expect a slightly higher price due to high demand and volatility speculation but the rest is simply because what someone doesn't sell to the US they can sell to Europe or Asia. Well when a dollar that used to be worth .75 Euro becomes a dollar worth .45 Euro than you are going to pay more dollars for that same barrel of oil. Needless to say the politicians don't want to stress the fact that their p***poor management and willingness to "throw more money at it" has driven down the value of the dollar and begun the swing toward recession. When we as Americans stop taking the spoon fed line of BS from the mainstream media and start applying some real common sense to it maybe we can regain control of our country and our freedom. Until then I suggest thinking real hard about what your politicians are saying and ask yourselves, "Am I really going to fall for this again?"
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Posted on April 7th, 2008 by Smokeraven I really love the amazing ignorance of people from the cities that consider rural, north central Pennsylvanians rednecks. By definition we are hillbillies not rednecks. “What’s the difference”, you ask? Rednecks are everywhere and display their ignorance through bigotry and a lack of personal hygiene. I will not deny that we have our fair share. Hillbillies on the other hand are of average intelligence and have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the world on the other side of the mountain. Rednecks don’t care, hillbillies care too d***much. Rednecks are found in the cities in Churches like the one in Chicago that has been in the news, hillbillies have an innate understanding that God is there even if they haven’t decided just how to relate to him/her yet. As hillbillies family and neighbors are important to us, the Jones and Smiths may fight among themselves at every turn but when one of their cars break down or kids get in trouble the other is there to lend a hand. We have had to be that way, we live in valleys and on the sides of mountains that make flatlanders seasick. We send a congressman to Washington who has to explain everyday that there are people more than 20 miles north and south of I-80. We even have a Governor that needs reminded of it once in awhile. Our parents fed and clothed themselves and more than a few people still know how to do that around here today. We are self-sufficient, we are reclusive, and more importantly we look out for each other. Pittsburgh might as well be Paris for many of us, and Philadelphia is another planet. It takes a long time to become one of us, but once you are no where else on earth will feel like home. It is with this understanding that I write to the church that calls our most recent tragedy an act of God. We know God, our grandparents and great grandparents counted on him to get them through things that we will never face, and God didn’t burn down that house in Brockway. Our churches were filled on Sunday with prayers and donations for the families lost and our communities have rallied around the survivors. Something like this brings out the absolute best in our hillbilly roots. It brings out the love we feel for one another, regardless of our circumstance or consequence. So call us what you will, but know this. If you call us redneck, hillbilly, hick, or rube, we will thank you and smile. Because we have that one thing that can’t be found, bought, or owned. We know who we are, and we are d***glad it aint you. BTW the letter I refer to was to the WBC who wished to picket the Funerals in Brockway Pennsylvania and reads thus; "I pray if you come to PA that you are blessed with all you deserve. Righteous rage and retribution are tools of an angry god, wielded by the men and women who follow his spirit. Come to PA and expect to meet such Men and Women. We love our neighbors as ourselves and we have felt the pain of this loss in ways YOUR leaders will never understand. Please find it in the blackened hole of your hearts to stay out of PA or expect to see how the people of rural PA support their neighbors in time of need."
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With the dismal offering in the Republican presidential race this year is it time for conservatives to consider an exodus from the Republican Party? We stepped aside in ’06 and allowed the surrender of several conservative stalwarts in Congress and the Senate because they hadn’t stemmed the rush of the Republican Party to the country club Republican’s centrist elite. Any hope that they would hear us went out the window when the Republican establishment abandoned Gov. Allen, Representative Hunter, and federalist Fred Thompson in favor of the populist McCain. Maybe they should listen to the core message of Democrat Barak Obama, We the people are sick of the status quo in Washington, we the people are sick of elected officials playing constant games with OUR money, and we the people are just plain fed up with the Beltways lack of any sustentative leadership. If the Party leadership is hearing that message on either side they are not showing it, and this time the price may be more than just an exodus from the polls. Radio pundit Sean Hannity has all ready announced his intention to register conservative in his home state of New York, and I expect more will follow. Even conservative icon Rush Limbaugh has discussed, without endorsing, the possibility than conservatives will not vote again this election. I imagine an even worse scenario; what if when the general election campaigns begin Obama reaches out to our values and principles? I am not talking about the single-issue conservatives that submarined Mitt Romney’s campaign, Obama can’t come out against abortion. I am talking about Obama coming out to reform the Washington establishment, promoting fiscal responsibility, showing strength in national security (something older democrats have failed at miserably), offering support for family values independent of government control, and maybe even offering up a true blue dog as vice president (Richardson or a half dozen others come to mind). As a dyed in the wool conservative I would be hard pressed to give another country club Republican the nod over such a message. Admittedly this would abandon our more stridently religious members to the annals of also-ran, but they wouldn’t even consider Romney in their desire to maintain ‘purity’. They gave us Bush. And they would give us Huckabee if they were able. I no longer feel kinship with such as those. The abomination of Roe vs. Wade is important to me but I am realistic enough to know that in a state by state race 80% of states would select a better regulated, watered down form of what we all ready have. So their one issue blindness, even if successful, will only lead to an endless effort akin to using your thumbs to plug a dam. Instead I am seeking an exit strategy from the Republican Party and from elitist politicians, can the Democrats give me a viable one? I doubt it at this point, but they have courted every other minority in these United States, perhaps a change of course in their ranks could spell a change of course for conservatism as well.
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I received this in an e-mail and it made me step back and take a look at a couple things. Such as the directions of the democracies of France, Germany, and several other European nations apparently sliding toward, or actively practicing, socialism. We ourselves are only two votes away from a similar system, just how long before our children lose the promise our grandparents and parents passed onto us from their parents and grandparents? This is politically written but the statistics check out and the message is scary, whichever side of the political coin you fall on.
"Those who can not remember the past are doomed to repeat it" George Santayana
How Long Do We Have? About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. "A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury." From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. "The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years" During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence: 1. from bondage to spiritual faith; 2. from spiritual faith to great courage; 3. from courage to liberty; 4. from liberty to abundance; 5. from abundance to complacency; 6. from complacency to apathy; 7. from apathy to dependence; 8. From dependence back into bondage" Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul,Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election: Number of States won by: Gore: 19 Bush: 29 Square miles of land won by: Gore: 580,000 Bush: 2,427,000 Population of counties won by: Gore: 127 million Bush: 143 million Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Gore: 13.2 Bush: 2.1 Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..." Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase. As I stated above, I do not se this as a Republican/Democrat concern. The history mentioned here is well documented as is the path of ruination suffered by great nations, I want my children and grandchildren to share in the prosperity of this free nation but I must remain ever vigilant of the need to remind them hard work and effort are what got us here and hard or and effort are the only things that will keep us here.
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A recent Supreme Court ruling offers an excellent opportunity to highlight the difference between constructionist and liberal Judges and how they are treated in both our media and thinking. In the USSC decision in question 5 out of 9 Justices determined that a lower courts decision regarding a discrimination lawsuit was incorrect. While Lilly Ledbetter had in my opinion been discriminated against due to gender for 19 years the civil rights act of 1964 only allows 180 days for a suit to be filed. The lower court awarded the entire 19 years worth of compensation, $3.5 Million. While in my personal opinion is sympathetic, that is not what the law states or allows. The Supreme Court decision awarded the last 6 months of discriminated wages and interest. Obviously, the civil liberties lawyer acting for the plaintiff declared the decision a travesty and the lawyer for the business called it fair and in keeping with the law. They are both right, but the question is why? If you listen to Washington Post, New York Times, and CNN reporters it is the justices fault and shows how the “balance” of the court is shifting to the right and how horrible this is for all of us. I would like to offer a different view. Is it the judges’ job to make decisions based on the constitution and the laws passed by our legislature? Every description I can find of the role of a judge is just that. So how can it be their fault for following the law? Here is where the disconnect occurs. Liberals feel that it is the role of the court to hand down justice as they see it, regardless of the law passed by their elected legislators. The dissent by Justice Ginsburg exemplifies this mentality, "In our view, the court does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination". However distasteful it may be to her Justice Ginsburg at least does recognize the proper owner of the responsibility for writing and passing our laws as she called on congress to correct “the court’s mistake”. This aspect of course has been ignored by the media who, agreeing with liberals, sees it as the courts job to correct the mistakes of elected officials where the subject of social and religious ‘justice’ is concerned. So who is to blame for the mistake highlighted so brilliantly by Mrs. Ginsburg? I believe all of us can share in that blame. This law was passed in 1964, has been reviewed and amended several times since, and no one has taken up this clause in all that time. The media and liberals will continue to bash and target constructionist judges for not being ‘active’ enough but that is simply an abdication of our responsibility to hold our elected officials responsible for passing laws that properly represent the people who elected them in the first place. “We the people…” is not 8 men and 1 woman in black robes, it is the core of our freedoms and values and with it comes a responsibility that we have abdicated for far too long.
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I apologize for my recent inactivity, my Grandfather died recently and I have been taking his death hard, he personified the greatest generation to me. He has been my compass all of my adult life. My greatest moments are the ones where I made him proud and my hardest were those that caused him disappointment. I know he was proud of the man I have become and I will spend the rest of my life to become the man he was. In addition to his passing I have been in the middle of a significant job change. It is a change that will lead me from the safety of what I know back into the uncertainty of doing a job that I understand but do not have sufficient training or experience in to consider myself competent. Of course what I consider competence in myself has no bearing on how others see me. I have survived and prospered in every such attempt in my life but the concern is still very real. Needless to say this has been a stressful and tumultuous time and being politically aware I have been more prone to accept the liberal view of doom and gloom. I have found myself doubting both this country and her electorate. People who could send our soldiers to war only to look more than 3000 of their families in the eye and say, “oops” and then use it as a tool to point fingers and gain political advantage. I have been doubting the values, strength, fortitude and backbone of this less than great generation who has never known the sacrifice required to defeat true evil in the world. Who only 3% of are willing to do what is necessary to protect the great things this country stands for and embodies. I have been truly disheartened and despondent in our future both as a nation and a people. That was until today. Today I went home. It is unbelievable what a small town memorial day can and will do for your faith in this country. Heartfelt speeches by true warriors, warmth and hospitality of fellow Americans, no agendas, no BS, just good people remembering even better people. My hometown reads Flanders Field and the Response every year, if hearing that poem read by an old warrior and answered by a young one doesn't touch you somewhere deep down where the Americans of the past live, well there is nothing I can say to you that will. IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. RESPONSE: Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died. We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a luster to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields. And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
I am not including the authors of these poems here as I don’t believe either of them wrote these from themselves but embodied the subjects they so successfully honored in their writing. The Authors names and pertinent websites are available upon request.
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We have allowed the media and those who seek to destroy us to define the terms we use to describe ourselves. I can’t blame them, we have allowed it. So I am setting out tonight to define for myself and for those who read this what it means to be a Conservative. Not the modern, media defined, twisted definition of others but what it really means to be Conservative as taught to me by the last great citizen politician of this country and expanded through experience. Conservatism is the ultimate in human compassion. This statement alone is the basis for everything that follows. I say this because through conservatism all people can and will achieve their fullest potential and there can be no greater compassion than that which sees others succeed. Success is defined on a personal level and is difficult to define, for some it will be financial success, for others it may be spiritual success, and for others still it may be life success, but however you define it conservatism offers the best road to reach that goal. Conservatives politically seek to limit government’s involvement in peoples every day lives. We see this through limited taxes, smaller government, strong military defense, and free market economics. Conservatism does not believe that it is the governments role to make you successful by penalizing those that are and giving you the fruits of their labors. This is antitheism for conservatives. It causes you to not reach for your goals and potential and it makes those that do wish they hadn’t. Instead Conservatism seeks to remove the blocks that prevent people from reaching their full potential, instead of a handout conservatives look to give someone a hand up. We do not believe in the elimination of welfare but the use of welfare to promote the personal ability and potential of each person. When limits were set on welfare recipients duration, many people who had always been on welfare found out that they could not only work, but could succeed. Limits on governmental interference in our lives is the political air a conservative breaths. Conservatism is the understanding of personal responsibility. Conservatism is compassionate in its desire to see each person reach their fullest potential and beyond but Conservatism does not take the credit for the heights a person manages to achieve. Nor does it accept responsibility when a person fails to uphold the laws and order of their nation. There are consequences for actions and the person who commits a crime or fails in an obligation has a price to pay for that failing. Conservatives recognize there is evil in the world and accept the responsibility for combating it because failure to do so condones it, which we can not and will not do. I often ask my liberal friends a question; If you walk out the door of a building and down on the corner a woman is being hit by a man what would you do? The question makes them uncomfortable because the answer they would give in truth is not one they wish to share with the world. A Conservative will answer the question confidently and without hesitation, a conservative will stop it. Many claim this black and white view of the world is a weakness, but my answer is that grey is just someone trying to paint over black. No matter how you look at it, it is still black at the root. Conservatism is not about a political party, though we tend to find our values reflected more often in the Republican party there are democrats that are screaming to be heard over the liberal loudspeakers at their conventions as well. Conservatism is a way of looking at both the world and the person, it has room for all parties and affiliations in it’s ranks. We do not determine a persons worth based on their color, gender, or creed, in fact we see all people as having the potential for greatness and as such promote the success of all people. America has been a shining light in this regard and we have found a home in her embrace. Americans have done great things in our history, we have done away with slavery, combated and defeated socialism, communism, and fascism in the world, and we have never turned away another in need. Every year America gives more to nations and people in need than any other people in the world and conservatives have led that effort in huge ways. Conservatives however expect results for our compassion. No one has ever been able to explain to me why after trillions of dollars pored into the African continent there is still famine and disease. The details of this are available elsewhere and I am all ready into a novella here. Suffice it to say that conservatism is a compassionate ideology of ideas but that we do not accept the liberal premise that effort without result is success. As an example above if we give south Africa enough money for every person in that country to live at middle income for 5 years and the poverty level is still at 70% than maybe what we are doing isn’t working and we shouldn’t pore any more money down that hole until we find out why. I hope in this entry I have given you a small taste of what it means to be a conservative. Many who hear or read this will have pieces and parts to add, but if they are truly conservative they will tie into one of the premise I have listed. It will include the openness of ideas to achieve results, the rights and responsibilities of the individual, and the lack of government coercion. These are the things that brought me to conservatism in the first place, and have kept me here as I learned the right and wrong of what I was taught. I have seen the failings of liberalism, we do every day in the war on poverty, the war on corporate America and the disregard for the true potential and future of the little guy. I have seen the failings of socialism and it’s slow decay of our nation and her people. I have seen the defeat of the morally and intellectually corrupt beast of communism. Through it all I have learned more and more that the core principles of conservatism are the American dream, the American strength, and the American ideal.
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I am looking to begin a blog for topics concerning politics and Conservatism. I found this site through a web search and look forward to utilizing it as a tool to express my views on news, politics, and our country. I am a Reagenite by heart and nature. I believe Liberalism destroys the human drive to succeed and that Conservatism is the most compassionate ideology in today’s political spectrum. I do not espouse neo-conservatism (what we used to refer to as country club republicanism) nor do I espouse a close minded approach to political debate. Conservatism is the ideology of ideas based in results and freedom. Therefore all responses are not only welcome but sought. As a Blog author I hope to avoid single source statements, opinions stated as facts, and ideology in place of logic and reason. I hope to learn as I pursue this to express both my conservatism and my pride in the American ideal in ways that people can understand and relate to. If I am very lucky I might even convince someone away from liberalism, but that is simply the idealist in me and I don't expect to be that good at this. I hope you find my posts enlightening and informative. I hope my opinions make sense and reach those that share them. Most of all I hope to do justice to those who have gone before me and given us this great nation that even today we must fight to maintain and support against all enemies foreign and domestic. Thank you for reading and I look forward to our future together.
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