The Right Lane update 3.30.13

The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, free markets and individual liberty

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington

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Today’s Young People Are Dying For The Truth

 “The reports that you are getting about the beliefs of students in public schools is not coming from the students, but rather the sick media spin-doctors and their disinformation.” – Bradlee Dean

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., have introduced sex-education legislation limiting funding for “ineffective” abstinent-only programs, while expanding the dangerous comprehensive sex-education program. At the same time, a student at Clear Lake Middle School in Florida was punished for wearing an abstinence T-shirt.  As shown in the example above, America has allowed themselves to be deceived by the mainstream media, so much so that they believe that young students across this country are accepting of all forms of immorality, when in fact they are rejecting it. Amidst a generation that suffers the highest suicide rates, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, abortion and anti-depressant usage – this is hardly the case. I have seen this firsthand. This is a generation of survivors, and rightly so. The media wants you to believe the myth that your children ARE NOT affected by what they hear and see in the mainstream media.  This is so they can continue to propagandize your children and pollute their morals and principles.  I can and you as well sight many instances where people that want to appeal to the survival side of our young are prohibited from high school and college campuses across the country.  Neuropsychologists can prove and demonstrate how beliefs and norms become the "rules of life" for anyone.  The media and socialist teachers want you NOT to know this and believe the myth.  All the while the children are DYING for the lack of truth!  See Below......

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The left is winning the war for the hearts and minds of your children; Carson Willing to Step Down as Commencement Speaker After Protests

A pediatric neurosurgeon who has become a national sensation since speaking against nationalized healthcare is now under fire for comments he made about same-sex marriage. Dr. Benjamin Carson told MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on Friday that he would be willing to step down as commencement speaker at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine after faculty and students signed petitions asking that he not speak. “I would say this is their day, and the last thing I would want to do is rain on their parade,” Carson told Mitchell.  Carson said in the interview that he has not notified the university he won’t be speaking. “I am waiting for appropriate channels,” he said. “I don’t think television is the appropriate channel.”

The petitions began after Carson told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, “My thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality — it doesn’t matter what they are — they don’t get to change the definition.”

One of the petitions, quoted by The Hill newspaper, reads: “We retain the highest respect for Dr. Carson’s achievements and value his right to publicly voice political views. Nevertheless, we feel that these expressed values are incongruous with the values of Johns Hopkins and deeply offensive to a large proportion of our student body.” Really???  So, where do you think these young people came to believe that having a person like Ben Carson speaking on campus is an outrage and incongruous with their values? You think this came from years of classroom propaganda or from around your dining room table?  The highest and greatest responsibility is for parents to put clear thinking moral and principled adults into the world.  That cannot happen if parents abdicate teaching values and principles to public institutions and the media!

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“Gay Marriage More Important Than Our Economy and National Security”   - A Liberal Chick

She’s back and whacked. Liberal Chick says the gay marriage issue trumps our $17 trillion in debt, our national security and she says that those who don’t agree with her will be judged by God. She’s out of her mind! Watch

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Bitter Scalia Leaves The Court (The Borowitz Report)

Justice Antonin Scalia dropped a bombshell on the Supreme Court today, announcing his decision to resign from the Court “effective immediately” and leave the United States forever. Calling this week “by far the worst week of my life,” Justice Scalia lashed out at his fellow-Justices and the nation, saying, “I don’t want to live in a sick, sick country that thinks the way this country apparently thinks.” Justice Scalia said that he had considered fleeing to Canada, “but they not only have gay marriage but also national health care, which is almost as evil.” He said the fact that nations around the world recognizing same-sex marriage are “falling like deviant dominoes” would not deter him from leaving the United States: “There are plenty of other countries that still feel the way I do. I’ll move to Iran if I have to.”

Throwing off his robe in a dramatic gesture, Justice Scalia reserved his harshest parting shot for his fellow-Justices, screaming, “Damn you! Damn each and every one of you to hell! You call yourself judges? That’s a good one. You’re nothing but animals!”

Breathing heavily after his tirade, he turned to Justice Clarence Thomas and said, “Except you, Clarence. Are you coming with me?” Justice Thomas said nothing in reply.

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The Danger of Freedom By Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo

One of the greatest lessons that Judaism has taught the world:

When reading the story of the Exodus from Egypt, we are confronted with a strange phenomenon: the mashchis (destroyer). After the Jews were told to mark their doorposts with the blood of the korban pesach (paschal lamb), they were informed that G0D would pass over their doors "and He will not allow the destroyer (ha-mashchit) to enter your homes and attack you" (1). Later, at midnight, Moses would call them to leave their homes after they had had a family meal, and they would subsequently leave Egypt. Commentators struggle with the term "the destroyer." Who or what was this? G0D? A plague? Some other power? One of the most remarkable explanations is that the destroyer was freedom itself. Often in history, national liberations were followed by long periods of chaos and violence. Many bloody and ruthless insurrections erupted by slaves eager to settle a score with their cruel masters. The brutish drive for vengeance, for gratification of the satanic impulses within man, was often irresistible. At the time of the French revolution, many of those who were liberated initiated mass killings. The same is true of the upheavals after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Victims of harsh slavery tend to throw off the shackles of moral behavior and become criminals themselves, taking their revenge on innocent bystanders. The turmoil that often follows the experience of sudden freedom is too much for people to handle. 

When we look at the story of the Exodus, we are struck by the fact that an upheaval of revenge was completely absent. No Egyptian babies were snatched from the embrace of their mothers and thrown into the Nile, as had been done to the Jewish male babies just a short time before. Not one Jew beat up his taskmaster who mercilessly tortured him only a few days earlier. There was not one Egyptian hurt; nor was there an Egyptian house destroyed or vandalized.  At that crucial hour, when the Jews had the motivation, opportunity and ability to take revenge for 210 years of exceedingly cruel treatment, they chose to be restrained and quiet. Instead of rioting in the streets of Goshen, they remained in their homes, ate a festive meal—which included the korban pesach—sang praises to G0D, and waited until they were told to leave. Would anyone have blamed them for beating up a few taskmasters who had thrown their babies in the Nile? Yet, not one Jew raised a hand against his enemy. Once it was certain that they would be free at any moment, and that there was no longer a need to defend themselves, revenge would be meaningless.  This is one of the greatest lessons that Judaism has taught the world. Freedom should be experienced in a prudent manner, far removed from chaos, bloodshed and revenge.  Freedom can be very dangerous if one does not think it through, control it, and apply it carefully. It is therefore quite understandable that Pesach—which celebrates freedom, powerfully symbolized through the Seder rituals—has a large number of restrictions, to the extent that even a crumb of bread is forbidden. In our chaotic world, this is a most important lesson. Today, when so much freedom has been given to man, most people do not know what they are free from. We have confused the free with the free and easy. "He only earns his freedom and existence," says Goethe, "who daily conquers them anew".

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How Obama Decided God Was OK With Gay Marriage

How? That one is easy. Polls. If you think you can put logic to the liberal mindset you really don’t understand their goals. The progressive movement isn’t about what God wants for our country, it’s about government power. They attempt to explain Obama’s lies in this article. Check it out:

In 2004, Barack Obama cited his Christian faith while explaining his opposition to same-sex marriage. “What I believe, in my faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God, and it’s not simply the two persons who are meeting,” he said.

Eight years later, he cited his faith again when he became the first sitting president to endorse marriage equality.

“When we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the golden rule, you know? Treat others the way you’d want to be treated,” Obama said.

What changed in Obama’s understanding of the Bible and Christianity in between 2004 and 2012 is one of the last mysteries of his transformation from opponent to champion of marriage equality. While the president has explained this evolution in personal and political terms — citing conversations with gay friends, and the changing attitudes of the public — he has never directly explained how he came to believe that God approves of same-sex marriage.

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Pelosi: Same Sex Marriage ‘Honors Constitution’

Term limits would honor the constitution too!
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, suddenly an expert on the Constitution, said on Wednesday that she and Barack Obama are “honoring the Constitution” in their attacks on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Pelosi pontificated:

"And given a choice I think we would all say we’re honoring, as the president does, the Constitution. When you pass a bill in the House, as we did with the health care bill, we made it iron clad constitutionally. You have a responsibility to honor the Constitution. In fact, we take an oath to do just that, and that is the oath that President Obama is upholding."

This is one person that looks okay until she opens her mouth; she then exposes the idiot she really is.

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Household income tumbles during the Obama “recovery”

The New York Times delivers some news so grim that it had to cook the headline to hide it: “Median Household Income Down 7.3% Since Start of Recession.” Well, yes, but as the Times reluctantly admits in the very last paragraph of the story, 5.6 percent of that decline has occurred since the Obama “recovery” began. And median annual household income just fell by 1.1 percent in a single month – February 2013 – after the Obama “recovery” has supposedly been in progress for years. That’s after $6 trillion in deficit spending to “stimulate” the economy, supposedly for the benefit of the average household. What’s behind this decline in household income, which has become so drastically pronounced throughout the Obama era? Median household income is a big number driven by enormously complex calculations, so there are many factors involved, but maybe it’s time for these media analysts to think about the tectonic shift to part-time work inspired by fear of ObamaCare.  Not only does part-time work pay less, but the dissolution of full-time career positions means fewer opportunities to build high income through a long relationship with a single employer.  High unemployment in general drives median income down, and the number of people who exit the workforce entirely because they can never find work has increased.  The media used to fret about such things under Obama’s predecessor, when unemployment was a little more than half what it is today.

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Planned Parenthood Stands Up For Women’s Right To Infanticide by Philip Hodges

Florida is considering a bill that would require abortion providers to provide medical care to an infant that survives an abortion. It doesn’t sound like a bill that I would like since it still seems to endorse the abortion industry. They just want abortionists to take care of any infant who ends up not being born dead. On a purely incremental level, pro-lifers might argue that at least it’s a step in the right direction. Maybe. One of the bill’s opponents is Planned Parenthood. Alisa LaPolt Snow, the Planned Parenthood lobbyist, testified before the committee stating that their concern with the bill was that it infringes on the woman’s and the doctor’s rights to do with the baby as they see fit. The lawmakers were dumfounded to say the least. Here’s some of the exchange:

Rep. Jim Boyd:  “So, um, it is just really hard for me to even ask you this question because I’m almost in disbelief. If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?”

Lobbyist Snow:  “We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”

Planned Parenthood objects to the bill because it infringes on the rights of the woman to decide what she can do with her born child. Whether to have the baby killed or let the baby live. It used to be that you could question an abortion proponent about when killing an unborn child is permissible. One week into a pregnancy? Absolutely. Three months into a pregnancy? Sure. One second after birth? Absolutely not. How about 1 second prior to birth? No. One month prior to birth? Probably not. You know the line of questioning. So, now where do they draw the line? After the child is weaned? Six months? Nine months? A year post-birth? They’ll still argue that every person should have equal rights. But they’re redefining “person” just like they’re redefining marriage.

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If You Hate Liberty Move to New York

Professors William Ruger and Jason Sorens have just released their Freedom in the Fifty States Index, which ranks the states based on public policies affecting economic, social, and personal freedoms (e.g., bans on trans fats and the audio recording of police, licencing laws, taxes, mandated family leave, etc.). They also included specific policy prescriptions for each of the 50 states based on their data as well as a survey of state policy experts. Check out the whole project and its great website here. You will find the ranking for each state as well as the methodology. They have videos for every state, and you can choose what freedoms you care about to build your own rankings. This year’s most free state is North Dakota. The state is followed by South Dakota,Tennessee, New Hampshire and Oklahoma. Among the the explanations for North Dakota’s ranking is its regulatory process:

A big part of North Dakota’s high ranking on regulatory policy is due to the state’s excellent liability system. North Dakota also scores well on land-use freedoms, with better-than-average residential land-use regulations and significant eminent domain reform. North Dakota possesses a strange workers’ compensation funding policy: all private and self-insurance is banned, and employers are required to contribute to a state fund. However, it is a right-to-work state. Occupational licensing is excessive but the fees and education/experience requirements are relatively low. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants have greater scope of practice than they do in many other states. Health insurance coverage mandates are a bit worse than average, but the state only has rate bands. Cable regulation has not been reformed.

However, as Ruger and Sorens note, the state could be even better if it cut spending and adopted other free-market policies. Not surprisingly, and as it did last year, New York State ranks last. It is followed closely by California and then New Jersey.

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Pouty Obama Attempts to Shame Congress into Compliance on Gun Control

President Obama moved Thursday to put the muscle of the White House and his network of supporters behind a gun control package tracking toward the Senate floor, calling on voters to pressure Congress into backing it as the proposal runs into resistance on Capitol Hill. The president, in a set of brief remarks from the White House Thursday surrounded by the mothers of shooting victims, raised concern that the shock from the Newtown elementary school shooting could soon fade. “Less than 100 days ago that happened. … Shame on us if we’ve forgotten,” Obama said. “I haven’t forgotten those kids. Shame on us if we’ve forgotten.” Amid signals from Washington that the Senate bill could be losing momentum and high-dollar ad campaigns on both sides, the president was there to deliver a message to wavering lawmakers. “Don’t get squishy,” he said. Obama, accusing opponents of drumming up “fear,” urged supporters to call members of Congress and pressure them into backing the package.

More from the Propagandist In Chief.  No, we have not forgotten.  Yes, we see through your attempt to use the horrendous tragedy to further your far left agenda. Shame on you Obama!!

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Central Banking Is Central Planning By Anthony Wile

The new system, probably some sort of gold standard, will not merely inch into position but will be the result of various problematic failures of current monetary policy. It may be driven, in fact, by catastrophic failure. The seeds are being sown even now, and the review in the Journal examines some of them. What is noteworthy is not the discussion but that it has appeared at all and that it is conducted within a historical context. In fact, this is the point we've been making here long before, that the timeline is now sufficient to counteract any arguments that might support the institution. One hundred years of damage, economic ruin and institutionalized prevarication is enough. Here's something from the review itself:

What role should the Federal Reserve play in the U.S. economy? That question is at the heart of any study of the economic crisis that began in 2007 and any consideration of how to prevent further crises. A year ago the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, delivered four lectures at George Washington University, in which he argued that the Fed's response to the crisis—including its conspicuous and contentious bailouts—fell within the traditional role of a central bank. Those lectures and Mr. Bernanke's answers to some audience questions have now been edited and published in a slim volume. Pitched to a general audience, "The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis" is part of the chairman's praiseworthy effort to increase Fed transparency.

The first two lectures cover the origins and history of the Fed. Mr. Bernanke identifies three primary functions of central banks: to conduct monetary policy (i.e., controlling of the supply of money by setting interest rates); to serve as lenders of last resort (i.e., providing liquidity for important institutions to stave off financial crises); and to regulate the financial system (i.e., limiting the risks that banks and other players in financial markets may take). Yet he hardly discusses the quantity of money in circulation or the Fed's effect on it. The omission reflects the fact that Mr. Bernanke has dramatically altered the nature of central banking. Under his management, the Fed now tries to determine to which sectors the economy's savings flow, and monetary policy has become solely about setting interest rates.

To his credit, Mr. Bernanke considers the merits of the classical gold standard, in which the dollar was fully redeemable for a specific quantity of gold. He believes that its gains in long-run price stability were more than counterbalanced by the short-run economic fluctuations it caused. But as University of Georgia economist George Selgin pointed out after the lectures were delivered, the chairman's argument against the gold standard suffers from some severe weaknesses. For starters, it ignores the path-breaking research of Christina Romer, former chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, which demonstrated that the frequency and severity of recessions weren't significantly greater before the Fed's creation in 1913 than after World War II. This casts doubt on the ability of the Fed with its fiat money to tame the business cycle any better than did the gold standard without the Fed's intrusions. Mr. Bernanke's case against gold also exaggerates the economic difficulties associated with the mild, long-run deflation of the late 19th century, a period of robust economic growth.

The review goes on to enumerate various Fed failures, though not in great enough detail so far as I am concerned, and inexplicably is not as vehement about current Fed-inspired disasters as past ones. The most interesting aspect of current central bank policy is the manipulated tightening of monetary policy in 2007. History may well examine that incident with greater interest than it now receives. Of course, Bernanke made up for seemingly precipitating the Great Recession by subsequently screwing rates down disastrously. Whatever the real rates of interest are, you can bet that for the past five years the Fed, like other central banks, has held them lower than they ought to be.

The result is threefold. First, there are literally trillions locked away on bank books that can circulate if and when Western economies become more active. Second, when the money DOES begin to circulate, interest rates will inevitably begin to move up, causing countries like the US to devote more and more cash to interest payments. Finally, so much money printing has almost terminally distorted the US's economic picture. Companies that should have failed have not and markets – especially stock markets – have moved up hard because so much paper and electronic money has been printed.

When one looks back at the current era of ruinous Fed policies, one will be struck by two things: The rashness of Ben Bernanke's actions and the surprising consensus surrounding him regarding perhaps the most egregious example of money printing ever launched within a modern establishment context. The review's title alludes to Fed "central planning," and this may be the boldest and most straightforward characterization made about current Fed policy that has appeared in a mainstream publication in years. What the Fed under Bernanke has done is every bit as egregious as setting up a series of five-year plans. That plans are made via monetary policy instead of industrial policy is probably beside the point. Central banks fix the price of money and its value. And price fixing never works. The Fed, controlling the world's reserve currency, is the most powerful central bank and the most destructive. The destruction accomplished under Bernanke will linger long after he slips away.

And as an article in yesterday's issue of The Daily Bell pointed out, once the reality of the destruction is entirely evident there will be many apologias appearing in the form of books, articles and media interviews. Those involved will admit ruefully to lapses of judgment or a lack of courage in not speaking up sooner. But all of it will be beside the point. Those in charge likely now know full well what they have done and undone. They have planted the seeds for a new economic system and no doubt initiated it with a cold-blooded and even globalist perspective. The idea is that once catastrophic failures afflict the current system even more internationalist solutions can be applied. I tend to doubt the strategy of this program and I think that the Internet Reformation is making it increasingly difficult for the architects of such program to generate believable deniability. Maybe, therefore, a decision has been made in certain circles to be more forthright about the reality of the terrible and manipulative money system under which we currently live and labor.

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Americans Favor Work Over Welfare As Response to Poverty

Americans overwhelmingly agree that the best way to stay out of poverty is to work and like the idea of shifting government money spent on welfare programs to jobs for the poor.  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 80% of American Adults agree with the statement, “Work is the best solution for poverty.” Only nine percent (9%) disagree, while 11% are not sure.

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Mark Levin’s fantastic rant: “I am sick and tired of my country being attacked from within!”

Spurred by a caller trying to argue that America did something horrifically wrong in Iraq, Mark Levin goes on an awesome rant against people attacking this country from within, whether it be from “left-wing creeps” who hate this country or from pathetic Republicans who are too weak and foolish to bother defending it. In fact, Levin says the central question is this: “Is there nobody left in public office who will defend our way of life?” And you can hear that question echoed throughout his rant. One of the more hot spots of his rant was when he slammed Obama today for trying to shame people into supporting ‘gun control’ legislation:

"Obama today going on and on about gun control telling us it’s time to move on, we’ve waited long enough. Who the hell does he think he is? Is he more powerful than the Constitution itself? Is that what we’ve become, ladies and gentlemen? That 2nd amendment is there to protect us from him! That 2nd amendment is there to protect us from Dianne Feinstein! That 2nd amendment is there to protect us from the whole damn bunch of these bastards! That’s why that 2nd amendment is there! And all the rest of them! And they demand that we surrender to them."

Well where does it end? It doesn’t end of we don’t speak up!

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Economy Rebounding, but Record Number Still on Food Stamps By Lisa Barron

While the economy continues to show signs of recovery, the size of the government’s food-stamp program is expanding. Since 2008, enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP as it is called, has jumped 70 percent, reaching a record 47.8 million people in December 2012. Budget experts believe it will increase again this year, according to The Wall Street Journal. That is largely because of the sluggish job market and a rising poverty rate.  “While the perception may be different, the actual raw numbers, almost 50 million people [under the federal poverty level], is certainly one of the principal reasons why we see the enrollment increases in the SNAP program,” Kevin Concannon, undersecretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services at the Department of Agriculture, told the Journal.

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Keynesians Are in Panic Mode: Another Desperation Move   by Gary North

The latest country to invoke panic spending is South Korea. Its economy is faltering. What is needed? A bigger deficit, of course. Then what? More central bank inflation. The central bank is expected to cut interest rates on short-term government bonds next month.  All over the world, East and West, the politicians are desperate. So are central bankers. The system is coming unglued, but all that the politicians think they can do is increase spending and borrow more money. They want central banks to supply this money. The economies are staggering. The recoveries should be in self-sustaining mode by now, but they aren’t. Politicians are trying to keep their national economies from sagging. But why are they sagging? Because Keynesianism bleeds capital formation. Every time an investor buys a government IOU, he does not invest in capital formation. We are in a debt spiral. The government deficits keep getting larger. This requires more purchases of IOUs, because of the roll-over factor. These debts are never paid off. They are always rolled over. But the new deficits increase the size of the debt that must be rolled over. So, new deficits get less bang for the buck — or won, in the case of South Korea.  The blood-letting from the private capital markets guarantees slower economic growth in the future. The appetite for more debt is now insatiable in legislatures around the world. They cannot stop. There is no exit strategy.

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