Given much of the junk floating around the internet, and even more dangerously, published on the pages of supposedly respectable newspapers and magazines, it has become impossible to believe anything you read anymore. Each side of the political spectrum publishes propaganda extolling the virtues of their candidates for public office and condemning the wickedness of their opponents. Neither side has a monopoly on veracity, and a lot of what is said, published or broadcast is distorted, misleading, inaccurate and often outright lies. Unfortunately, a lot of people do believe the biased propaganda without question. Which makes it all the more interesting that so many ignore the information that is indisputable.
Most American political leaders over the years have believed in the values and goals established by our founding fathers. Of course many of the politicians have been corrupt charlatans focused on their own self-interest rather than the interests of those who elected them. But generally they understood and believed in the American legacy of individual liberty, personal responsibility, free enterprise and democracy. Today that is no longer true. One party seems to believe in none of those things.
We now have a president whose formative years were spent associating with and under the tutelage of radical and subversive Marxist mentors. Barack Obama has always identified with and been influenced by anti-American radicals. These include Bill Ayers, a co-founder of the Weather Underground, a self-described communist revolutionary group that bombed several public buildings in the 60's and 70's; Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a pastor who preached condemnation and hatred of white Americans; leftist agitator Franklin Davis Marshall; and many others whose goals are to destroy the traditional economic system and society that gave America freedom, justice, prosperity and equal opportunity. Obama's relationships with these people is indisputable, and nearly every action he has taken as president has advanced their goals of rejecting our economic system and traditional social values. But of course in this campaign season it is off limits to question those relationships.
Throughout our history Americans have always been able to improve our aggregate standard of living through individual initiative and taking advantage of opportunities that exist provided by the incentives of private enterprise and limited government interference. That is what has driven progress and created widespread affluence. But this president and his supporters believe big government is the solution to every aspect of our existence, with government bureaucrats dictating the proper way to conduct our lives. They prescribe what is best for everyone, eliminating freedom of choice. They think that providing subsidies and grants encouraging their agenda and a politically correct education for the young will produce the ideal society. But they are wrong.
Government determined industrial policy and generous welfare programs destroy progress and living standards. Already we are near the inflection point where the majority of the population has become dependent on government to sustain their current lifestyle, and a government directed economy cannot possibly do that. A government subsidized college education is worthless when there are no jobs for the younger generation to fill. Those with the ability and ambition to better their lives through personal achievement will find they do not have the opportunity to do so. They will not enjoy the lives their parents did because the government will determine what opportunities they have, and they will be limited.
All one has to do is observe how such policies have worked out elsewhere around the globe whenever they have been tried. One can observe the limited choices of low quality merchandise available to buy and the depressing tenements that are prevalent in socialist countries to see that dependency on government cannot possibly improve their lives. One can look to Europe today to see the result of decades of policies that support people from cradle to grave. Greece is on fire as the citizens riot in the streets demanding the lifestyle that can no longer be provided. Other European countries are next unless they pull their heads out and confront reality. Those countries are Obama's vision for us as he strives to implement the same policies here that have brought 'progressive' countries to their knees. The historical record of inevitable failure of socialist policies is indisputable. Those who vote for Obama this fall may get lucky and die before the most serious consequences of that mistake arrive in America. But they will have doomed our children.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
The Real Fairness Issue
Barack Obama likes to talk about fairness. He continually vilifies Republicans as being against fairness while at the same time supporting the public employee unions against any reform of their compensation and benefit packages that are better than the average non-government worker performing similar jobs. An April 11, 2012 Wall Street Journal editorial reported that a Bureau of Labor Statistics study published in the Winter 2012 Journal of Economic Perspectives found that state and local government employees receive salaries 10% higher and current benefits 21% higher on average than private sector employees. Similarly, a recent Congressional Budget Office report found that federal employees retirement packages of pensions plus health care benefits were 3.5 times more generous than those in the private sector.
How fair is that given that the private sector workers are the very people paying the salaries of those government employees? Maybe it would be a good idea for Republicans to make that a fairness issue and campaign for reform of the overly generous government compensation deals. I suppose it is possible that reducing the pay of government employees might cause minor disruptions in the provision of some government services. Therefore the changes could be gradual but on a specific schedule in order to get the bloated ship of state turned around and heading in a more fair and rational direction.
Perhaps we need something like what the airlines have gone through, basically abandoning the old operating methods through attrition and starting over with a lower cost structure with new employees. Freezing salaries for some period of time may be all that is needed regarding current payroll outlays. But changes definitely need to be made in retirement and health care benefits. Even though most private sector employers have changed to the more rational defined contribution pension plans, most government employees still enjoy unaffordable defined benefit retirement plans. Defined benefit plans assuming 8% returns in a 3% world is unsustainable, and these funds will run out of money to maintain benefits much sooner than most expect unless we mandate that our children and grandchildren sacrifice their living standards to support us. Are people today really that selfish as to not care about what legacy we leave our children?
Over the last two decades the salaries and benefits for public employees have grown much faster than they have for those in the private sector. That disparity has to be addressed whether the public unions like it or not, or we will be in the same situation Europe finds itself in with bankrupt governments, high unemployment, no growth and civil unrest. That is clearly the direction we are heading. European countries must make across the board cuts in public sector salaries and benefits in order to reduce their government debt and reposition their economies for future growth. That will take time and be very painful, but they really have no choice. It would be much better for our country to undertake those actions now before we get into the same chaotic situation as Europe. Why is that reality so hard for Congress and public employee union leaders to understand?
How fair is that given that the private sector workers are the very people paying the salaries of those government employees? Maybe it would be a good idea for Republicans to make that a fairness issue and campaign for reform of the overly generous government compensation deals. I suppose it is possible that reducing the pay of government employees might cause minor disruptions in the provision of some government services. Therefore the changes could be gradual but on a specific schedule in order to get the bloated ship of state turned around and heading in a more fair and rational direction.
Perhaps we need something like what the airlines have gone through, basically abandoning the old operating methods through attrition and starting over with a lower cost structure with new employees. Freezing salaries for some period of time may be all that is needed regarding current payroll outlays. But changes definitely need to be made in retirement and health care benefits. Even though most private sector employers have changed to the more rational defined contribution pension plans, most government employees still enjoy unaffordable defined benefit retirement plans. Defined benefit plans assuming 8% returns in a 3% world is unsustainable, and these funds will run out of money to maintain benefits much sooner than most expect unless we mandate that our children and grandchildren sacrifice their living standards to support us. Are people today really that selfish as to not care about what legacy we leave our children?
Over the last two decades the salaries and benefits for public employees have grown much faster than they have for those in the private sector. That disparity has to be addressed whether the public unions like it or not, or we will be in the same situation Europe finds itself in with bankrupt governments, high unemployment, no growth and civil unrest. That is clearly the direction we are heading. European countries must make across the board cuts in public sector salaries and benefits in order to reduce their government debt and reposition their economies for future growth. That will take time and be very painful, but they really have no choice. It would be much better for our country to undertake those actions now before we get into the same chaotic situation as Europe. Why is that reality so hard for Congress and public employee union leaders to understand?
Thursday, May 03, 2012
A Day In The Life
A day in the life of our beloved leader. This is President Barack Obama's schedule every day of the year, Sunday through Saturday -
8:00 a.m. - Check in with my PR Department at the New York Times and the Networks and tell them to step up the propaganda and invent more denigrating bullshit, better yet some criminal charges, against my opponents and their supporters.
8:15 a.m. - Call up Genachowski at the FCC and tell him to step up the effort to get Limbaugh and Hannity off the air.
8:30 a.m. - Press Conference. Remember to -
1. Blame Bush for something bad that happened.
2. Take credit for something good that happened.
9:30 a.m. - Give campaign speech to impressionable college students who think I'm a rock star. Make sure to include:
1. Slandering of Republicans and the Supreme Court.
2. Promise to give free health care, abortions, birth control, food, and money for all other necessities such as big screen HD TV's, iPhones, bling, tats and recreational drugs of their choice to everyone who votes for me. Oh, yeah, and also student loans they don't have to pay back.
3. Lie about how much these freebies will cost and say we can pay for it by taking money from the rich.
11:30 a.m. - Ride on Air Force One.
1:00 p.m. - Play golf.
4:30 p.m. - Touch base with my homies Dmitri, Vlad, Cristina and Hugo. If Hugo croaks before I make the call, check with the other three to pick a suitable successor. Remind them all I will have more flexibility after my next election.
4:45 p.m. - Call Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright and tell them to say something outrageous about the unfairness and greed of America and capitalism.
5:00 p.m. - Call Eric at the Justice Department and have him locate something that occurred somewhere in the country and have our inhouse PR people blow it up into a hate crime that demands justice for whichever side is the minority - doesn't matter which was the perp and which was the victim. If both are minorities, prosecute the one that is the lightest color.
5:15 p.m. - Tell Jack (Jack Lew, Chief of Staff) to spend whatever it takes to keep Michelle and the kids on vacation.
7:30 p.m. - Party with my entourage. Invite some Wall Street and union backers.
8:00 a.m. - Check in with my PR Department at the New York Times and the Networks and tell them to step up the propaganda and invent more denigrating bullshit, better yet some criminal charges, against my opponents and their supporters.
8:15 a.m. - Call up Genachowski at the FCC and tell him to step up the effort to get Limbaugh and Hannity off the air.
8:30 a.m. - Press Conference. Remember to -
1. Blame Bush for something bad that happened.
2. Take credit for something good that happened.
9:30 a.m. - Give campaign speech to impressionable college students who think I'm a rock star. Make sure to include:
1. Slandering of Republicans and the Supreme Court.
2. Promise to give free health care, abortions, birth control, food, and money for all other necessities such as big screen HD TV's, iPhones, bling, tats and recreational drugs of their choice to everyone who votes for me. Oh, yeah, and also student loans they don't have to pay back.
3. Lie about how much these freebies will cost and say we can pay for it by taking money from the rich.
11:30 a.m. - Ride on Air Force One.
1:00 p.m. - Play golf.
4:30 p.m. - Touch base with my homies Dmitri, Vlad, Cristina and Hugo. If Hugo croaks before I make the call, check with the other three to pick a suitable successor. Remind them all I will have more flexibility after my next election.
4:45 p.m. - Call Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright and tell them to say something outrageous about the unfairness and greed of America and capitalism.
5:00 p.m. - Call Eric at the Justice Department and have him locate something that occurred somewhere in the country and have our inhouse PR people blow it up into a hate crime that demands justice for whichever side is the minority - doesn't matter which was the perp and which was the victim. If both are minorities, prosecute the one that is the lightest color.
5:15 p.m. - Tell Jack (Jack Lew, Chief of Staff) to spend whatever it takes to keep Michelle and the kids on vacation.
7:30 p.m. - Party with my entourage. Invite some Wall Street and union backers.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
The Left's Big Opportunity
People's Socialist Workers of the World Unite -
The Progressives (i.e., communists) of the world are outraged. This blatant crime against humanity must be avenged at the very top (does anyone remember what the crime was?). Left wingers in the UK Parliament have gone into full scale attack mode as they see an opportunity to rid the world of all capitalist and conservative news sources by declaring war on News Corp. The socialist backbenchers have determined that Rupert Murdoch is unfit to lead a major international company, and naturally the liberal press around the globe has gone ballistic in reporting the news.
Did one British tabloid (News of the World), one small component of a company that owns over 300 separate entities throughout the world (see below), do something wrong? Certainly. Was Rupert Murdoch intimately involved in the wrongdoing? Almost certainly not. Does the crime deserve the attention it is getting? Of course not, but that doesn't matter. The vast majority of the global media is liberal, and they will go for the throat when they see a chance to kill off the dominant opposing voice. And the world's Marxist politicians will most assuredly go all out to help them do it.
It makes one wonder which category of media outlet is more legitimate, the traditionally creative sensationalist tabloids found at the grocery store checkout counters or the formerly respectable but newly creative sensationalist rag sheets of the mainstream press? When it comes to newspapers it might be most informative to stick to the sports pages.
A sample of News Corporations global holdings -
Publishing -
More than 150 newspapers, including:
The Wall Street Journal
The New York Post
Barron's
The London Times
The Sun
The Australian
Dozens of books and magazines, including:
HarperCollins Books
Zondervan Christian Books
Cable Programming -
Fox News Channel
Fox Sports Network
Fox Movie Channel
FX
Fox College Sports
Big 10 Network
National Geographic Channel
Filmed Entertainment -
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox TV
Fox Filmed Entertainment
Television -
Fox Broadcasting Company
Satellite TV -
BSkyB
And countless more business entities, including probably just for the hell of it, 15% of the Colorado Rockies baseball team. Rupert Murdoch would have to be one hell of a multi-tasker to know what is going on in all of these organizations.
The Progressives (i.e., communists) of the world are outraged. This blatant crime against humanity must be avenged at the very top (does anyone remember what the crime was?). Left wingers in the UK Parliament have gone into full scale attack mode as they see an opportunity to rid the world of all capitalist and conservative news sources by declaring war on News Corp. The socialist backbenchers have determined that Rupert Murdoch is unfit to lead a major international company, and naturally the liberal press around the globe has gone ballistic in reporting the news.
Did one British tabloid (News of the World), one small component of a company that owns over 300 separate entities throughout the world (see below), do something wrong? Certainly. Was Rupert Murdoch intimately involved in the wrongdoing? Almost certainly not. Does the crime deserve the attention it is getting? Of course not, but that doesn't matter. The vast majority of the global media is liberal, and they will go for the throat when they see a chance to kill off the dominant opposing voice. And the world's Marxist politicians will most assuredly go all out to help them do it.
It makes one wonder which category of media outlet is more legitimate, the traditionally creative sensationalist tabloids found at the grocery store checkout counters or the formerly respectable but newly creative sensationalist rag sheets of the mainstream press? When it comes to newspapers it might be most informative to stick to the sports pages.
A sample of News Corporations global holdings -
Publishing -
More than 150 newspapers, including:
The Wall Street Journal
The New York Post
Barron's
The London Times
The Sun
The Australian
Dozens of books and magazines, including:
HarperCollins Books
Zondervan Christian Books
Cable Programming -
Fox News Channel
Fox Sports Network
Fox Movie Channel
FX
Fox College Sports
Big 10 Network
National Geographic Channel
Filmed Entertainment -
20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox TV
Fox Filmed Entertainment
Television -
Fox Broadcasting Company
Satellite TV -
BSkyB
And countless more business entities, including probably just for the hell of it, 15% of the Colorado Rockies baseball team. Rupert Murdoch would have to be one hell of a multi-tasker to know what is going on in all of these organizations.
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