The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, freedom
and individual liberty
"There
is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it
steadily." --George
Washington
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Liberty and Freedom Versus The Slavery of Debt
Our
country is more than $16,923,890,431,000 dollars in debt. (By the time you read
this MILLIONS more dollars will be added to that figure) Yet the federal
government continues to overspend. One sixth of our economy, the entire health
care system, is on the verge of a government takeover. Profit is demonized. The
money supply is systematically manipulated. And many Americans are increasingly
pessimistic about the future. If we are to find a way out of our financial
crisis, we as Americans must have a
fundamental understanding of economics and be able to have this understanding
with their children and fellow citizens.
~~~~~~
Embarrassing our
president looks like a girly boy/Pot Head compared to Russia's president.
View pics with funny comments at http://www.tomatobubble.com/putin_obama.html
~~~~~~
Confusing
evil - Inside the mind of a suicide bomber
An Israeli criminologist who has studied suicide bombers for almost two decades and conducts research for the National Security Council peers into the mind of mass murderers --- Islamic jihadis and Western gunmen
Aaron Alexis murdered 12 people and injured at least eight more at the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard before he was shot and killed by law enforcement professionals. It is tempting to compare Alexis to a suicide bomber, especially now that we have heard rumors he opened a website under the name "Mohammed Salem." However, clear thinking demands that temptation be resisted. Let me explain why.
As an Israeli criminologist who has studied suicide bombers for almost two decades—making extensive observations of and conducting numerous interviews with those who failed, as well as with those who dispatch the bombers, with family members of suicide bombers and decision makers and elites in their society— I can say with confidence that the differences between mass killers in the West such as Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris at Columbine, and yes, Aaron Alexis at the D.C. Navy Yard, and suicide bombers are categorical and insurmountable.
After the Sandy Hook tragedy, Eric Lankford, an American criminal justice professor, sought to show that America's lone shooters have more in common with suicide bombers than is commonly believed. But his op-ed piece, "What Drives Suicidal Mass Killers" (New York Times, 12/19/12), is fundamentally flawed. America has certainly suffered enough with the recent Sandy Hook, Aurora and other tragedies, but clear thinking demands we realize that even if someone is characterized as a "shaheed" (a martyr for the sake of Allah, including suicide bombers), the differences between mass killers in the West and suicide bombers are categorical and insurmountable. Click the link above to read the full story.
~~~~~~
In A World Of Coincidences
Any one of these 'coincidences' when taken
singularly appear to not mean much, but when taken as a whole, a computer would
blow a main circuit if you asked it to calculate the odds that they have
occurred by chance alone. Sit back, get a favourite beverage, and then read and
ponder the Obama-related 'coincidences' ... then super-impose the
bigger picture of most recent events i.e. Fast and furious, Benghazi, the IRS
scandal and the NSA revelations ... then pray for our country. Continue
reading here..
~~~~~~
American v German Democrat Voters
Angela Merkel, Germany's
first female chancellor, won re-election Sunday by an overwhelming margin -- the largest
since Helmut Kohl's post-reunification victory of 1990. Merkel's right-leaning
Christian Democrats defeated the opposition Social Democrat candidate, Peer
Steinbrueck. The Christian Democrats, however, fell five seats short of winning
an absolute majority in the 630-seat Bundestag -- Germany's lower parliament
house -- leaving them in need of a coalition partner, which most likely will be
the Social Democrats. Serving another four-year term means Merkel will eclipse Margaret
Thatcher as Europe's longest-serving female head of state.
What led to Merkel's
victory? Well, economic austerity measures, which have left Germany, Europe's
largest economy, with the lowest unemployment rate in almost two-decades, and
the virtual elimination of the nation's budget deficit.
So how are American and
German voters different? A majority of American voters re-elected a candidate
whose policies have failed miserably, leaving the nation with record debt and
real unemployment, and a stagnant economy.
~~~~~~
Defending Food Stamps Ignores Reality
by Mark Horne
At the outset I should say I don’t understand why
they are a priority for conservatives. Food stamps are a drop in the bucket
compared to social security and Medicare. It seems to me that the food stamp
program, because its spending has been increasing so horrifically in recent
years, is an easy target. Meanwhile, the coming entitlement-driven fiscal
apocalypse looms large.
But since food stamps are an issue right now, I
might as well point out that they are not a good idea if you want economic
growth, more jobs, and productive people. Jordan Weismann argues in the
Atlantic that people can’t help that there are no jobs available or they have
to take care of relatives or go to school—“taking away their meal tickets won't
fix any of those problems.”
The fact that Weismann throws college in there as a
legitimate reason to not get a job to support oneself makes me wonder if he
even believes what he is saying. Weismann never mentions that people who
qualify for food stamps often do so in order to keep their cable or satellite
dish, or to continue their cigarette habit, or do anything else since money is
fungible. The idea that people who get
food stamps really can’t afford food is nonsense. They simply get to free up
their budget for other things. People often face hard choices in how
they make money and spend money. Why should the Federal government be utilized
as a crutch to keep people from dealing with reality—especially since none of them are in danger of starving?
Weismann also doesn’t mention the growing amount of money
devoted to advertizing food stamps to people who don’t know or care about them,
including to illegal aliens. But what bothers me most about Weismann’s piece is that he presents a
vision of helpless people who have to sit around and wait for “the economy” to
recover. But we are the economy. Unless all of us kick
into gear there will never be a recovery. What is really horrific is that
Weismann is in favor of the minimum wage law that is making it impossible to
offer more jobs in this economy. No,
that wouldn’t be pleasant, but it is the only way we can build a prosperous
future. America never became wealthy by food stamps or minimum wage laws.
More people sitting on their behinds and getting food stamps means economic
recovery will never happen.
~~~~~~
What Obama Didn’t Tell You About Obamacare Exchange Plans
Not only are premiums
going up, but deductibles have skyrocketed. Today
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report regarding
premiums and plan offerings in Obamacare’s exchanges for next year. Despite the Administration’s claims,
premiums are going up due to Obamacare—and the quality of the “coverage” is, in
many cases, going down.
In both today’s report
and an earlier report released in July, HHS claims that premiums are “lower
than projected.” HHS bases its claim on a March 2012 Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) estimate stating that premiums for a family would average $15,400
per year on the exchanges. The Administration report claims that weighted
average premiums are “16 percent below projections” based on that CBO
report—therefore Obamacare is lowering premiums.
What HHS didn’t mention is that CBO also estimated in a
November 2009 analysis that individually purchased insurance premiums would go
up by an average $2,100 per family, due to the increased mandates and
requirements included in Obamacare. So when HHS says that premiums are “below
projections,” it really means that premiums are still going up as a result of
Obamacare—just by less than originally advertised.
~~~~~~
"Nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of
his constituents, as the certainty of returning to the general mass of the
people, from whence he was taken, where he must participate in their
burdens." –George
Mason, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788
No comments:
Post a Comment