THERE IS SOMETHING REALLY WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE

 Seventy years ago America was in the midst of an unspeakable war of horrors, fighting two enemies on opposite sides of the world.  One Japan.  The other Germany.  The German National Socialists, otherwise known as NAZIs, used terror to control and annihilate citizens into submission.  If the American history I was taught has any grain of truth to it, America lost nearly a half a million people in the effort to beat the tar out of enemies in WWII.  As has happened in so many places throughout history, oppression is often replaced with just another version of oppression.  But in the aftermath of WWII, America rejoiced in the victory over NAZI and Japanese terrorism.  America did not replace the governments of enemies with more oppression.  America was proud and gave honor to all of the sacrifices made.  Supposedly, the narrative goes, America had triumphed over evil oppressors and forever forward would reject the oppression of Socialism, Communism, Fascism, and tyrannical government of all stripes.  America was the best of the best and the strongest of the strong.  America earned respect and admiration for freeing the slaves in the 1800's and Europe in the 1940's.  We did what no other nation has ever done.

Fast forward to 2013.  Nelson Mandela dies and all of the victories America has earned have been shoved in the dust bin.  Now America's twisted and lame leadership is determined to show honor to a terrorist who was known for "necklacing" opposition.  The so-called President of the United States has ordered flags flown at half staff for a man who is responsible for thousands of deaths and singing tributes to Communism and killing white people.  To throw salt in this wound, the American people are going to be forced to pay for a trip to South Africa for our so-called President and family to attend the funeral of Nelson Mandela.  South Africa is not our ally and, I don't believe, has ever been one.  Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain was our ally, but our so-called President showed no such interest in her passing and no such respect to Britain when she died.  

Did America send up tributes to Lenin or Stalin?  Or Hitler?  Has America sent up tributes to Mugabe, Ghaddafi, Mubarak?  What the heck is America doing by gushing kudos and kisses to Nelson Mandela?  America has lost its leadership minds! 

Tributes to a Communist?  Just like putting a Mao Tse Tung Christmas ornament on the White House Christmas tree a couple of years ago?  Just like flying Islamic flags to honor Muslims during Ramadan?  The leadership of America has lost its bearings.  My / our nation is no longer standing on the solid and hallowed ground of protecting freedom.  The American people are insulted.  I am insulted.  I am appalled and disgusted.  There is something really wrong going on here.  I just wonder if the news media, and those kissing up to the Mandela mania market, have a clue what sick insanity this really is.  Even Fox news and Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee,  and others, are sending out messages of tribute and respect for Nelson Mandela, a man who had no respect for America.  Today we hear that Ted Cruz is going to South Africa for the funeral after paying tribute to Mandela on his Facebook page.  Really.  Such a slap in the face of American families and American history is beyond Orwellian. News flash to the media and those political opportunists who jumped on this bandwagon; Americans may be dumbed down, but we're not THAT stupid.  I don't imagine there is any substantial amount of Americans who give a rip about Nelson Mandela's passing from this earth. The up-coming South African photo ops for the O and family?  Send them to someone who cares....not here.

Mandela Changed Apartheid Into Black on White Genocide  

The Real Mandela

THE HEALTHCARE PICKLE

Why do we find ourselves in this healthcare pickle?  How did the federal government get the idea they could insert themselves into our health insurance industry?   People forget that government is force.  And that it is force at the point of a gun.  A model for the Obamacare law can be found in the federal seat belt law, requiring car manufacturers to install seat belts in every car....just as the Obamacare law requires insurance companies to place Obama's requirements into your health insurance policy. 

When seat belts in cars became mandatory in 1968, there was national debate on whether or not the federal government had the authority to force you to wear a seat belt...or even if the federal government had the authority to force car manufacturers to only sell cars with seat belts installed.  The federal government does not force you to wear a seat belt, and is forbidden by law to do so.  BUT, the power of the federal government doesn't stop there, even though it should.  What the federal government did regarding seat belts is threaten more legislation to force car manufacturers into installing passive restraints /air bags.  The idea was that if air bags were installed, seat belts would no longer be necessary, quelling the debate.  But the automakers rebelled and said the passive restraints would push the price of cars out of reach for most car purchasers.  The automakers, at the behest of the Department of Transportation, then lobbied state governments to pass seat belt laws, forcing drivers and passengers to be fined if caught not wearing a seat belt.  Supposedly if the automakers did this, the passive restraints would not become mandatory.  But guess what?  The Federal government proceeded to make air bags mandatory anyway. And the cost of cars has escalated greatly, just as health insurance is now.

The Fraud of Seat Belt Laws

"While the hundreds of millions of dollars spent in support of seat-belt laws has been a horrendous financial burden to society, the greatest cost is really not money. It’s the loss of freedom. Seat-belt laws infringe a person’s rights as guaranteed in the Fourth, Fifth, and the Ninth Amendments, and the civil rights section of the Fourteenth Amendment. Such laws are an unwarranted intrusion by government into the personal lives of citizens; they deny through prior restraint the right to determine one’s own individual personal health-care standard."
"While seat-belt use might save some people in certain kinds of traffic accidents, there is ample evidence that in other kinds, people have been more seriously injured and even killed only because they used seat belts. Some people have been saved from death in certain kinds of accidents only because a seat belt was not used. In those cases, the malicious nature of seat-belt laws is further revealed: such persons are subject to fines for not dying in the accident while using a so-called safety device arbitrarily chosen by politicians."

Sound familiar?  Now replace the car manufacturers with insurance companies and you can see the federal government through Obamacare has mandated what insurance companies MUST provide, selling health insurance policies because of federal force.  As with seat belts, some will benefit, but others will suffer.  The Federal government got away with an unconstitutional law in 1968 regarding cars and your driving choices, and since then Congress has had a jolly old time of it regulating and mandating toilets, light bulbs, insulation, dry wall, paint, and nearly every other product you might want to purchase.  Now it's health insurance.  The unconstitutional precedent was set to using the force of federal law to mandate what product providers must offer to the marketplace.  In the case of Obamacare, insurance policies, someone(s) in the Federal government decided what the insurance policies must cover and not cover.  But if you have any respect for being American and for the U.S. Constitution, you realize the Federal government has no legitimate role to play in any of these areas of the market.  The prosperity of our nation was created by a free market, and whenever the force of government manipulates that, there are winners and losers.  Mostly losers.  This is what Mussolini did in fascist Italy.  It is also what the debt-laden Europeans have done, to create their own economic destitution. I can give you many historical precedents of failed and failing nations whose governments took this kind of power away from their people.  But that's a long story and I am told, sadly, that no one wants to hear about it today. 

  

One big difference from the seat belt analogy to health insurance is that now, with Obamacare, the federal government has taken one more huge step into your life by mandating that you purchase that product, a product you may or may not want or need, or can afford.  (You weren't forced to buy a car, however, if you did, it had to have a seat belt.)  

Just as car manufacturers were vilified if they balked at Federal mandates, insurance companies have been vilified if they dare to fight off Obamacare.  So instead, just like the car manufacturers, the insurance companies got on board with the Feds and tried to comply. They had no choice in the matter, not if they wanted to survive.  Now Obama is making them the scapegoat for his failing program as Obama moves closer to his stated goal of single-payer socialist healthcare.  Someone tell me, what can Obama know about your personal healthcare that you would give him the right to dictate to you what you need or want in health insurance?   Same question of DC bureaucrats and politicians.  What is your doctor or hospital going to be allowed to do?  And what choice will you have? 

Well,  there is the pickle.  As long as you are willing to give government the power over your personal decisions about your life, what products you buy or offer, the American promise of freedom, economic or otherwise, is shot to hell.  This is a pickle I didn't "choose" to be forced to eat.    

COMPARE THE LEVIATHAN OBAMACARE TO THE FAIR TAX AND WHAT DO YOU GET?

I've begun looking at candidates for a U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina to replace the Obamabot Kay Hagan.  We have a crowd stepping up for that seat, 5 running so far.  They all seem like nice folks.  One woman and four men.  One is a doctor and one is a medical nurse practitioner.   One a broadcaster personality.  Two libertarians.  One is the current Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives.  One a pastor, representing the Christian conservative side of things.  There is rumored subterfuge, some of which has credibility with Karl Rove backing one or two of them.  Rove's rumored scheme is to back one of them as a spoiler to knock out the most likely Tea Party contender.  Party politics is becoming uglier.  I'm sure it always was and I am just seeing more of it.  

So as I've been looking at these candidates I am finding one or two of them are promoting the Fair Tax.  Red flags for me, if you have read my former posts about that.  All of the candidates are saying they would make the effort to get rid of Obamacare.  Green lights all around on that one.  But what is a person thinking... that they know Obamacare is bad, but they want to say the Fair Tax is good? Am I crazy or are these folks disconnected from reality?

Both Obamacare and the Fair Tax are leviathan programs of taxation.  Both programs grab a huge amount of the economy for control by the Federal government.  Oh...yeah..those Fair Tax guys say it doesn't control anything, but just taxes new goods and all services.  They say you would be in control by deciding to purchase or not.  Uh huh.  Obamacare taxes medical devices and insurance policies.  Obamacare takes over 1/6th of the economy.  The Fair Tax would take over most of the economy, all but the 'used goods' part.  You don't have to pay the taxes unless you want to get your hair cut or buy a new house or car, or new clothes or dishes, or pay someone to wash your car, or buy Christmas gifts for your family.   But that's o.k.  You don't have to pay Obamacare taxes unless you buy an insurance policy, or want a knee replacement or a pump for your diabetes medications.  No problem.  What?

Both Obamacare and the Fair Tax require a new IRS scheme of collections.  Both require a new technological solution of reporting your activities to the Federal government.  Both are expensive, comprehensive, unwieldy, and use an untrustworthy government bureaucracy to implement all of the processes.  

I'm going to say the obvious once again about the Fair Tax.  The Revolution that created this nation was begun by fighting off consumption taxes by a controlling government.  What has happened since then?  Today we have people promoting themselves as patriots who are promoting consumption taxes.  What is the difference between Obamacare which taxes your health insurance and the Fair Tax which taxes your purchases of goods and services?  Again, both using the Federal government to decide what will be taxed and using technology to track your purchases?  At least if the tax is based on your income, the minutiae of your daily life is not tracked by the IRS.  Granting that tracking everything by the Federal government is now becoming the norm, there is another disconnect; some of the same people who like the Fair Tax also say they are against Smart Meters and Black Boxes which track every kw hour you use and every mile you drive.  This gives me whiplash!    

Surely we can do better than this.  Libertarians, such as the Reason Foundation, are lately promoting 'public private partnerships' for roads using tolls, too.  They pretend this is a "free market" solution, when it is nothing but a taxpayer guaranteed profit scheme for some corporate entities who manage infrastructure projects.  The Fair Tax is nothing more than a different name for the VAT (value added tax) used in the EU.  And as long as you are using VAT type taxation, then just pile on carbon taxes while you are at it.  As far as I can see, the Fair Tax is a VAT tax and is all too similar to Obamacare taxes.  Instead of, or in addition to, taxing your healthcare, the Fair Tax taxes everything else. I just can't get excited about a candidate who wants to promote that for America.  I want the Federal government taken down to its proper size...the one where DC is only in charge of national security and foreign relations.  All of this domestic manipulation of citizens' personal lives needs to bite the dust as all other socialist tyrannies eventually do.  Let's get rid of it now while we still can.

I'd say I'm confused, but I don't think I am.  Something doesn't compute with this kind of thinking.  And I'm definitely NOT happy about candidates promoting themselves as conservative constitutionalists, but are then promoting programs that are anything but constitutional solutions to shrinking the out of control Federal bureaucracy.

I'm continuing to look at the candidates for this Senate seat.  I hope I can land on one that makes me happy.  And if I do find that candidate, is it one who can win?  The search continues.

THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING - CAMPAIGN DONATIONS

I'm not equipped enough to go into the Federal Reserve details with the continual printing of some $85 billion per month that is being pumped into the nation.  I just know the problem continues and escalates.  But I came across an article this morning that explains something about where the money is going.  Consider the price of anything and ask what is in that price...what does the supplier do with the money that you spend to purchase anything?  Does the price have any true relationship to the cost of production with added profit for the company producing it?  (economics is not my tour de force...just warning you.)

Because our government has become a corrupt soviet socialist + fascist system of "pay to play," the companies from which we purchase goods and the non-profits to whom citizens donate are paying off politicians for "favorable" legislation.  Trust me, there will never be enough money in your pocket to get into this club.  And trust me, the supposed "favorable" legislation is not "favorable" to you, but is designed to strip your pockets and grease the skids for government clients.  

The article that caught my attention was this  From the Daily Caller on the subject of how environmentalist groups spent fortunes on the VA governor's race.  Ask yourself why they would do that?  

Two of McAuliffe’s biggest funders were the Virginia League of Conservation Voters and  NextGen Climate Action. They each spent about $1.7 million on the former Democratic National Committee chairman’s campaign. The Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club gave nearly $500,000 to McAuliffe. 

  Green groups also spent millions on TV ad buys during the campaign. NextGen Climate Action, which was founded by San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer, spent more than $2.4 million — the most spent on TV buys by any group.

Steyer, a major Obama fundraiser, has been a large backer of anti-Keystone XL campaigns and his political group, NextGen, also supported the election of Democrat Ed Markey of Massachusetts to the Senate.

Environmentalists were successful at making global warming a central issue in the campaign, having former University of Virginia climate scientist and global warming activist Michael Mann stump for McAuliffe.

 The same article explains that the coal industry also donated to McAuliffe, but didn't contribute anywhere near the huge amounts that the environmentalists did.  As you know, the coal industry is being decimated by the leftists in elected and unelected positions.  I would guess that the coal industry doesn't have the disposable funds to play this game any more.  Whether or not you agree that fossil fuels are evil, you would have to conclude that the fossil fuel industries have afforded us all a great life of prosperity AND that America has the cleanest energy industry on the planet.  Your energy rates and costs keep going up and up in your house.  You also know that wind, solar, and biofuels are not going to provide anything close to the energy needs we have or will have in the future....And that they are more expensive alternatives.  You also have to know that environmentalist groups who are pushing the hoax of global warming / climate change are not interested in your energy security. 

Lest you think I am raining on the environmentalists only, no I am not.  Corporations are doing the same thing; pouring buckets of money into campaigns.  Some do it through the Chamber of Commerce.  Some do it through the US Green Building Council.  Some just do it directly.  Pay to play.  

The point I am trying to make is that the price of your cup of coffee, your gallon of gasoline, your house, your light bulbs, your everything, is paying to elect people who have no interest at all in the free market system, but have every interest in picking your pocket.  You see, these campaign contributions aren't manifested out of thin air.  They come from you when you purchase something....and then you wonder why the price of everything is going through the roof.  You are paying to elect people who don't care if your standard of living goes into the basement as long as they get their piece of your pie.

Campaigns for candidates run on money.  Karl Rove is now worth millions of dollars.  And gee, I guess we've all seen the Clinton's coffers fill up and overflow. I honestly don't know how to change the system of campaign contributions to something less corrupt.  I don't believe we should have a government run campaign system, so scratch that.  If you have a better answer on this, I'd like to hear it.

Just saying...all of this Fed printing isn't going into your pocket as I'm sure you noticed.  But it is going somewhere.  I think a large part of it is going straight back to those who are shoveling it as fast as they can into the pockets of government legislators.  In the meantime, inflation is rolling right along.  Too many dollars in chase of too few goods.  So all of this money is not going into production of needed goods.  You pay more for the goods you need and the politicians are laughing all the way to the bank. 

I'm not sure how small government conservatives will ever win another election with this scenario in place.   As the old saying goes: Is this any way to run a railroad?

COMMON CORE & OBAMACARE - BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Birds of a feather flock together.  What do Common Core and Obamacare have in common?  Lots.  Both are huge programs that started out as ideological theories foisted onto the states by way of deception.  Governors were placed in the cross hairs to implement both of these monoliths of control over citizens' lives.  

Common Core came into the states with a bribe.  "Play our little game of winning grants called Race To The Top and you will win a Federal curriculum to be implemented in every school in your state."  The states who took Race To The Top money had to agree to this Federal curriculum called Common Core.  Sound familiar?

Obamacare was to waltz into the states with Federal Healthcare Exchanges (bribes) with the attached Federal spending on those.  Take the money for the Exchanges and your state can "win" by having more Federal monies for Medicaid.  Same methodology of bribes.

In both situations, governors of the states had to make a decision.  Go for the Federal money?  Or stand for state sovereignty and remain independent.  (North Carolina did not accept Federal Exchanges for Obamacare.  Thankfully.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, most citizens have been left out of the decision process and in the dark on what exactly Common Core and Obamacare are.  As usual, the devil is in the details.  And the Federal mob of money pushers don't want citizens to know exactly what is in these two gems being foisted upon them.  Americans are finally finding out "what is in it."  (as Pelosi would say.)

What else to these two giant atrocities have in common?  Data collection is at the top of the list.  The Federal government wants to know everything about everything about everyone's life.  As Mark Steyn said today on Rush Limbaugh's show, they want to know how many bisexual drug addicts you've been having sex with and if you own guns.  Can there be a good reason for this?  No.  But teachers and doctors are now being tasked with collecting data on you, your children, your family life, your sex life, your eating habits, your energy use, your transportation choices, ad infinitum. 

Both, Common Core and Obamacare, are illegal under the Constitution of the United States.  The Federal government has NO authority to compel curriculum for public schools.  In fact it is forbidden for the Federal government to do so.  They make it seem "voluntary" by wrapping it in Federal funding with poison strings.  Take the money..and bingo bango...they have you by the you know whatsits. 

On Obamacare, every aspect of it is illegal from the process of passage to the implementation of it.  The bogus argument that we are hearing from legislators and the media that "this is the law and we have to follow it," must be beaten down with the light of Constitutional truth.  

The other thing I would mention they have in common is reduction in quality and standards.  Both, Common Core and Obamacare, are intentionally designed to lower the quality and standards that Americans have been able to access.   Both programs have been rolled out without due diligence to the results.  Both programs have been designed by globalist factions who are determined to bring Americans down to the level of either European socialism or the third world.  Both programs are designed to force people to look to government for all of the answers in life.  And the answers both programs provide are illogical, unaffordable, and filled with Marxist ideology. 

Here is a difference in the two programs: 

In the case of Common Core, state leadership is key.  With Common Core, the legal authority is still there, with the states, to comply or not.  It is still slightly possible to avoid Common Core by taking your children out of the public school system.  However, the testing and materials in curriculum are gearing all toward Common Core.  It isn't easy to avoid, but it can still be done somewhat. 

In the case of Obamacare, Washington leadership is critical. In healthcare, we have only one choice and that is to get representation in Washington to call off the dogs.  Because Obamacare is designed to kidnap every individual citizen, we are at the mercy of our representation to get rid of it.  And you can see where that went with the debt ceiling vote.  So far we are up the proverbial creek without a paddle.  There is no escape route short of Washington representation.  I hope those of my readers are very busy working toward changing that representation to Constitutionalists. 

The same "progressive," "globalist,"crew of one world government is bringing both Common Core and Obamacare into America, no matter which political party is doing it.  These two programs are part of the same package.  We WILL get rid of them.  Yes, I mean the rid of progressives as well as their horrific programs.  If not, America bites the dust.  I'm not ready to bite the dust yet.

( Note:  In case you are wondering what is slowing down my posts again here lately, I am fine.  But I am busy.  I have been working hard, networking with our state legislators on issues.  Two issues in particular lately; Smart Meters and proposed toll roads.  I've been attending events for these legislators to continue to develop relationships with them.  We are very fortunate to have some locally elected legislators who are on our side and who truly are working hard for us.  Also, a Lt. Governor who is admirable in his efforts and his convictions.  I attended a 'meet and greet' fundraiser for our Lt. Governor Tuesday with Rick Santorum as guest speaker.  I've also been working with our Tea Party, creating resolutions and planning our work on local issues.  We have a candidates' forum next month for contenders in the race to gain the Senate seat currently held by Democrat Kay Hagan.  Last Thursday evening we had our Tea Party meeting and three of our state legislators came as well as two city councilmen and a candidate for sheriff.  I am proud of our Tea Party here.  It's tough work, all volunteer, and the people on our board are giving it the best they've / we've got.  The Tea Party is hardly dead where I live, thankfully!  All of this is hardly what I thought was going to be my job description for this time in my life....but here we are!  It never seems enough.  Am reporting this for Jim G., my buddy in Venezuela....so he knows we are not giving up! )

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES? I DON'T THINK SO....

Our local newspaper today printed and editorial lamenting the so-called "unintended consequences" of ethanol mandates in our gasoline supply. Surely, I thought, they have to be joking. Unintended? You would not have to be a rocket scientist to realize the impact to corn prices and, therefore, food supply chain reactions because of ethanol mandates and subsidies. Unintended my foot!  I'm not a rocket scientist and I'm pretty sure that if you deliberately reduce supply of a commodity to support food staples, whether for livestock or humans, the price of food "necessarily sky rockets!"

The crazy thing is that I see the phrase "unintended consequences" all over the media lately.  I guess the authors of articles for mass public consumption want us to believe the government is made of really smart smart people, but the results of their policies are unintended?  Does the media want you to sympathize with the policy makers? Do they want you to think those brilliant geniuses didn't really mean to screw things up for certain people?  This is proof positive that media is convinced the public is too stupid to learn the truth, and / or media is deliberately dumbing down the public on purpose, which becomes a self-fulfilling, circular prophesy.

Here is an article headlined, " 100 Unintended Consequences of Obamacare."  Who are they kidding?  If you think any of the fallout from Obamacare is unintended, I've got a bridge in Arizona to sell you.

And now we have the Debt Ceiling argument and no one is talking about generational theft.  Well, actually some people are talking about it.  Before It's News  Obama HAS to raise the debt ceiling or the U.S. can't borrow enough money from future generations to pay for Obamacare. 

The image above is from an article written in 2009.  (ref. below)  So you think the Obama administration and the communists who put this thing in place didn't know what damage this was going to do to the United States' economy?  It looks to me that the implementation of Obamacare is going to cost more than Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid put together and strap the cost on younger future generations, our grandchildren and their children.  That is assuming the nation even has a chance of surviving this at all, which I believe it cannot.  So that debt is "unintended?"  Just another unintended consequence of horrific policies...just like the Social Security authors never projected or anticipated the shift in population equations?  Oh, poor geniuses.  They just can't seem to extrapolate the outcomes of their own creations.  OR...if they can, this entire current scene we are witnessing is completely deliberate...not "unintended" at all.  I pick both...dumb and evil.  Theft is always evil.  Putting dumb AND evil people in positions of authority in our nation is suicidal. 

Poor poor Obama was out there explaining away the online glitches of Obamacare this week, saying  the glitches were just some normal occurrence from opening such a large government run marketplace to the public.  Obama didn't really mean to triple insurance costs for most people. Nah. That is just an "unintended" consequence.  He didn't really mean to force so many out of work and off their current insurance plans. It MUST be unintended. Otherwise the public would realize the O in the White House would be a lying, mean, vindictive S.O.B.  we can't have that, now can we?  People might get a wee bit angry with the POTUS.  (They've got that covered with FEMA and DHS, so not to worry if things get a bit heated.  The intention there is to shut down any dissention...with intended  and violent force.)

From articles I've seen the past day or so, the shutdown has only shut down 15% of Federal government activities.  And those that are shut down are selected by the White House.  How's that for "unintended?" 

Friends, nothing you see is "unintended" from the Obama administration.  NOTHING.  All of it is intended.  Obama and the people running this government right now are nothing more than an extortionists / thieves, just like the mob. 

Image from Styner - Just Thinking blogspot

JUST COME-UP'NS FOR THE NON-ESSENTIAL - NOT EVEN CLOSE

For the last year we have been watching private sector companies lay off employees, close facilities, stop covering health insurance for employees, and generally struggle to survive, if at all. The announcements are coming faster and more prevalent every day.  All of this is due to the devastation caused by government policies, and especially Obamacare.  Livelihoods gone.  Joe Citizen's or Jane Citizen's private sector livelihood was / is essential to him or her.  But the government enforcers don't give a rip about that.

Now, today, we finally ....finally...get to watch the same Obama government scream and holler about just being furloughed with pay?  Now we find out that 93% of the EPA employees are considered "non-essential."  John C. and Jane C. have been struggling to pay their taxes and bills, only to find out today that 93% of that EPA agency isn't even necessary.  Wow.  Now there is a revelation.  93% of EPA Employees Considered Non-Essential. 

According to Obama, the private sector is non-essential.  The only reason in his mind for the private sector to exist, if at all, is to prop up a larger and larger government sector, so for five years he has been sucking all of the life out of the private sector.  As he deliberately puts the private sector out of business, his prop can't possibly prop up his grand scheme of all government all of the time.  You would think that any living breathing human being in the middle kingdom with a brain could see where this leads, but no.  We have seriously demented idiots in this nation who have no clue, sadly.  Some of them still admit they don't care.  My hope is they will be made to care when they suffer the sorry fate of Obama's policies.  Meanwhile, the scales are over their eyes and they are blind.

Let the hew and cry come forth from the government employees who are suddenly facing ....what?  Paid vacations?  There is no justice in this.  Paid vacations?  Let's make these vacations permanent with no pay, shall we?  That would be justice.  The only other suggestion I have is to permanently rid ourselves of the current family that occupies the White House, along with all of the Congress members who have supported the unconstitutional government in place right now.  Permanently.  Meaning... not a lay-off or a furlough. 

Zero Hedge

ETHICS IN JOURNALISM - THE PUBLIC DESERVES THE TRUTH

To paraphrase a rather crude phrase, "Opinions are like (blankety blank blank), everyone has one." But when the public is denied access to the facts, opinions are a worthless use of air and print.  People have nothing upon which to base their opinions other than the rantings of mainstream media hacks.  There are people in this nation who have realized the supposed "facts"  in the mainstream media are unfounded rubbish and went looking for truth and facts elsewhere.   The deceptions in the mainstream media are so prevalent now that it has become cliché.  A large part of the public is either misinformed or not informed at all.

How do you converse with someone or respect their opinions when their opinions are based on what you know to be lies?  Impossible.  The trigger used on such people is emotional response to fiction.  Well, we all have emotional responses, but you would hope you are responding to something attached to reality.  (That is, unless you buy into Freddie Kruger movies and LOVE to entertain yourself with horror stories.) Reading the newspapers or listening to the news can trigger all kinds of emotional responses.  But what if what you are reading and hearing is pure fiction, deliberately intended to yank your emotions into high gear?  This is where Madison Avenue and the government meet the press room.

A drug company wants to sell more of its product. The drug company advertises in the newspaper, magazine, or on the TV network.  The next thing you know, there is some news story that says your physical well-being depends on taking that drug or one like it.  The news reporter will tell the public that some affliction is SO predominant in the human race that everyone should be tested for whatever that drug will cure.  Uh huh. 

An energy sector company wants to sell wind turbines to the public.  The wind turbine manufacturer advertises the benefits of their new system on the news station. The next thing you know, there is a news story on how we are running out of fossil fuels and the nation MUST switch to alternative power sources.   Uh huh.  And you never see a news story that shows the detrimental effects of that wind turbine farm on the channels who sold the advertising to the wind turbine manufacturer.  Never.  Sadly, your neighbors and friends saw the news stories about peak fossil fuels and swallowed the whole fiction.  They didn't connect the dots between the advertising and the news reports.

The government is an advertiser, too.  How many public service announcements from the government do you hear and see?  Every one of those is a tax deduction for the news provider.  The radio station or TV station sets a rate per second or per minute for air time.  The government then grants them a tax break based on those rates for every public service announcement aired.  The broadcaster doesn't want to jeopardize that tax break, now does it?  Next thing you know there is a news story on the benefits of X, Y, or Z government program.  But you never hear anything to the contrary.  Ah....the benefits of depending on the government.  "Big Gov will take care of me," is the message that gets through to those emotional wrecks who want the government to ....take care of them. Or, "Look at what great things the government is doing with my tax dollars!!"  "What a great thing!!"  The poor consumer of that message never connects the dots...that their tax dollars were just used to convince them, subsidizing the broadcaster at the same time.

The mainstream media is making up stories and choosing stories to hit triggers of emotional response.  That may sound naive.  Editors have always chosen the stories to feed to the public.  They need consumers. They also need advertisers to pay the bills. But advertising used to be separate from the news.  I'm good with advertising, branding, and Madison Avenue.  I am NOT good with Madison Avenue buying out the truth and having the mainstream media print and broadcast lies to the public.  And I am NOT good with the government using my tax dollars to advertise itself and dupe the public.  

Years ago, when I was in high school, I thought I would pursue a career in journalism.  I was fairly proficient in English and writing.  Between my Junior and Senior years I was offered a summer program for two weeks at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.  One of the classes I recall was a class on journalistic ethics.  Seems like a hundred years ago now, but there was such a thing as journalistic ethics taught at a State university in this country.  The major lesson of that particular class was to never let anything get between your writing and the facts.  Do research to verify what you are saying.  Check your sources.  At the least, do all you can in those efforts.  If you fail at that, print retractions and caveats that correct the mistakes.  Don't fail the public's need for truth.  This is the responsibility of journalists.

The public still needs the truth, but is starving for it.  The case for journalistic ethics has been tossed aside for a different agenda, purposely manipulating the public with lies and deception. 

Ted Cruz and a few other Republicans did yesterday what journalists have failed to do.  He spent 20+ hours on the floor of the Senate telling the truth about the so-called "Affordable Care Act."  The mainstream media and sycophantic pundits have mocked him for his efforts.  If we had ethics in journalism, or ethics in government, we would not be suffering through the worst presidency of our lifetimes or the consequences of it.  Our nation is suffering from a lack of truth.

Kudos to my blogger friends and facebook friends who are exposing the deceptions.  You are doing what my journalism class instructed.  We are all citizen journalists now.
     

CRUZ - LIVE FROM THE SENATE FLOOR

Go watch here:

C-Span

YUPPIES + HIPPIES = YIPPIES - STARBUCKS AND GUN CONTROL

I was paying attention to a few news stories on Starbucks over the last few days and all that crossed my mind is .....Yuppies must have "the Yips."  I come from a golfing family and "the Yips" is the condition of confidence crisis that grabs you over your next shot and you duff it or you mishit the ball.  The Yips...a crisis of confidence.  Combine the Yuppies with the Hippies...and what you get are Yippies with the Yips!  I hope the Millennials are not taking notes on how to run a country. < href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=millennial">Millennials

From what I can tell, we have two types of mass shooters in the last 5 years.  We have the Islamic terrorist.  And we have the deranged, mentally ill.  In both of those categories, the government has neglected to protect the public from such persons.  In all instances the shooters have picked a place where guns are forbidden to be carried by law abiding citizens.  The movie theater.  The schools.  The military bases.  But what does the liberal want to do about this?  Disarm the entire public even more and deny innocent, law abiding citizens, the opportunity to defend themselves.  (It suddenly just occurred to me that the same people who claim their property rights for a "gun free zone," are also the same people who deny property rights to people who don't want Smart Meters or squirrelly light bulbs or 1.5 gallon toilets. Hmmmm....)

We are living in a society where a lot of people have lost confidence in their abilities to do much of anything real.   Real, like working to create something real.  I know people like this.  They dismiss any possibility that they could run a business or make a product that people would buy, or work for a company that does.  They dismiss their ability to stand up to anyone who is doing something wrong.  They don't change the oil in their cars anymore or know how to change a tire.  They don't know how to bang a hammer into a nail to fix something.  Occasionally they will grab a hammer for a couple of hours at a Habitat project and pat themselves on the back.   They take their own bags to the grocery to save the planet, while at the same time buying tomatoes grown and shipped from Mexico or Central America.  They are terrified of using up their carbon footprint, so they fool themselves by buying hybrid vehicles...or they are fooling everyone else and purchase the car so they can get the $7500 Federal tax deduction.  It looks good to their friends, I guess.  If they do any manual work at all, they boast about how martyred they are for doing it.  They are usually the first ones in line to reduce their property taxes when revaluations come through.  They are seldom grateful for the labors of someone else, but talk about anything they have done as if they created the Holy Grail.  Too many people are pushing papers, collecting data on other people, shoving their noses into other people's business, and generally creating nothing but a chaotic mess.  Let something bad happen and bingo...you have the Yips!

Ask them about carrying a gun to defend themselves or someone else against a thug.....WHOA....no, no, no.   Ask them if you should walk into Starbucks to buy a latte with a concealed carry on your person.....OH MY HEAVENS, DON'T EVEN SUGGEST IT!

The normal human reaction to violence is to defend one's self and one's family.  The reasonable action in case of an attack is to try to stop the attacker, be it a snake, a wolf, or a predatory human.  Hence we have laws on the books that allow a self-defense plea .....you are reasonably allowed to defend yourself and your family. (Or you used to be allowed.)  If society and / or government renders you defenseless, who is to blame when the deranged, the terrorist, and the criminal take you and several others out?  Well, the way things are going I don't expect those self-defense laws will continue to hold up, given the culture of moral relativism and the idiocy being taught in law schools over the last years.  The Yippies want us to show understanding and sympathy to the attackers.  (Meanwhile, you aren't allowed to shoot a bear or other animal predator on your own property....poor predators.) This way, the Yippies don't have to take any responsibility upon themselves for disarming an entire nation that has a 2nd Amendment right to defend themselves.  And they also get to feign shock and dismay when a mass tragedy occurs against defenseless people.   

Just another day in Wonderland!

RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM THE RECOVERY ROOM

UPDATE ON MY ABSENCE -  Over the last several weeks I have had some crazy health issues.  First of all, a neighbor's dog bit me in the face on August 7th.  Fortunately, this dog had its rabies vaccinations, but unfortunately, has a habit of doing this to people.  I was healing nicely from that when I came down with a very high fever.  I discovered several insect bites on my legs, swollen ankles and feet, and spent a week of misery with those symptoms, plus more.  I couldn't eat by this time and had horrendous leg cramps that would not allow me to sleep.  I went to our Doctor who shot me full of antibiotics and said he thought maybe I had a sinus infection???  Say what?  Still sick a week later they sent me for a battery of blood tests and a sonar-gram.  The outcome of that was it must be a virus, and oh by the way, I have a gall stone.  The gall bladder was not infected or inflamed, but they sent me to the surgeon who said he'd be happy to take out my gall bladder anyway, but he didn't think that was the cause of all of these symptoms.  I went home to contemplate this.  The high temperatures by this time were going down.  Then I was sent to an infectious disease Dr. who said he thought I had some mysterious unnamed virus and it would go away in a few weeks.  Suffering three more days, I decided that if the gall bladder was causing the eating problem, I'd better get that fixed...so back to the surgeon.  And he is a good one at that.  Two days later...voilá...the gall bladder was out and I could eat again.  Now, I am a week beyond that.  The swelling and cramps in my legs are gone, things are slowly getting back to normal.  BUT, I am as weak as a kitten and going to take a few more weeks to regain my strength.  So that's the story on me...just letting you know what happened.  I must have looked like a delicious target to something(s) evil.  Do you suppose it was a communist plot?  LOL

O.K...so....before I was hit with all of that, I started to write this:

Random thoughts as I witness the theft of freedom and the most idiotic, stupid, moronic, lying, and evil people in leadership in this nation who ever lived.

Gee, do you think the House of Representatives has control of the purse strings?  Not if you listen to some of the GOP who swear they cannot defund Obamacare. But...but...wait....Obama knows how to get Congress to stay with the program!  Exempt them all, their families, and their staff personnel!  That way they can't deny the funding because they won't care anymore!!  Great idea....

Since when is Charleston, South Carolina on the Gulf coast?  Since the Emperor with no clothes says so on late night entertainment?  But the audience applauded.  Who is dumber?  The Emperor?  Or the audience? 

Let's keep cheap available energy away from the third world nations so they can continue to live the poverty life.  Yep, great idea.  We wouldn't want the third world to be too comfortable, now would we?  They might actually be able to produce something of value for themselves and rest of the world if they had available energy.  We can't have that.

And while we're at it, let's put the American coal industry out of work for good.  What have they done for us, anyway?  Really.  Just keeping us in productive comfort for years and years...that can't be a good thing, now can it?  Yeah.  Shut 'em down. 

Oh, how about putting low income housing into every neighborhood in America?  That's the ticket!  Let's do that.  Everyone should live next to or in a ghetto.  It's only fair.  We can all be like Chicago and the crime rate there...or like Detroit where no one can live anymore.  Perfect!! 

Here's great idea!  Let's make every road a toll road.

 Oooooohhh, I really like that one.  That'll keep those slippery citizens from moving around!  You know.  They use those very bad cars to get to work and school and ...the grocery and the mall.  Sometimes they are really indulgent and drive on vacations.  Make 'em pay even more to even try to do those things.  That'll show those bad Americans what it's really like to live.  Bicycles and sidewalks, subways and light rail, bullet trains and greenways...."these are a few of my favorite things!!"  (I think I feel a song coming on.)

Meanwhile, back at the school system:  Let's make sure those little munchkins get it through their little minds full of mush that whatever they do will kill the planet! Global Warming is the ticket!! How dare they consider growing up, having more children, owning homes, eating hamburgers...those bloodsucking parasitic kids.

Now let's move on to the Smart Grid, shall we?   The good Dems have put a bill forth that will make sure EVERY citizen will be attached to the Smart Meters we spent so much money on as we subsidized the high tech energy companies. We can radiate everyone and at the same time we'll be able to control every appliance and HVAC system in the nation!  Whoo hoo....that is going to be sosoooo much fun!!  When Suzy goes to turn on that washer, BINGO, we can turn it off...or turn her refrigerator off while she washes her clothes. 

Black boxes on every car by 2014!!  Of course!  That way we can hijack anyone's car at will.  We can control the speed, too! 

Oh yeah, don't forget to instruct the kids how to be homosexuals.  That ought to fix things.

Today:

On top of all of this chaotic destruction, by all means let's bomb Syria!!  Yeah, that'll get our minds off of Obamacare, Common Core, Amnesty, Benghazi, the NSA, and all of the other corruption in Washington DC.  Keep the focus elsewhere.  Let's bomb Assad without any concrete proof that he is responsible for using chemical weapons and let's, by all means, arm the same Al Qaeda that is our known enemy.  What a great idea!! 

You can't make this stuff up.   

Those are just a few of my random thoughts as I went through the trials of this last month.  I am going to be taking it slow and steady to get my strength back.  As the Dr. reminded me after the gall bladder surgery, "Lady, you have four very deep stab wounds.  You need to take time to heal."  

All's well that ends well.  I'm going to rest again now.  Back later!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

THE FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT? ARE YOU PAVLOV'S DOG?

Somehow I don't think this is what the Founders had in mind when they created limited government for the sake of our freedom.  

The federal government is hiring what it calls a "Behavioral Insights Team" that will look for ways to subtly influence people's behavior, according to a document describing the program obtained by FoxNews.com. Critics warn there could be unintended consequences to such policies, while supporters say the team could make government and society more efficient. 

While the program is still in its early stages, the document shows the White House is already working on such projects with almost a dozen federal departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.

I've known people throughout my life who thrive on telling other people what to do, how to live, and generally advocate control tactics using power over individuals.  I don't like them.  I have avoided them whenever I've discovered this about them, something I consider a fatal flaw.  Otherwise known as "control freaks," these are people who normally think they sweat perfume and think it is their job to run your life.  

Meet Cass Sunstein, the ultimate control freak.  He has longed for the power to rule your life and has now gained that power through the Obama administration.  His book, "Nudge," reveals his passion for manipulating behaviors.  This is what makes him tick.  The power of unconstitutional government is a dream come true for such people as Cass Sunstein.  

From Mr. Sunstein:

How many U.S. citizens have been nudged that way—and do they know it?
A very large number. Automatic enrollment is a common practice now; many millions of people have benefited from it. People recognize they've been automatically enrolled—there's nothing secret about it, and it's explained by employers. But they wouldn't think, "I've been nudged."

Yep.  Don't bother your little head about serious things, we will just sign you up "automatically." It's our call, not yours.  I can't wait to see what else Mr. Sunstein would automatically sign me up for!  I'm sure it will be just dandy!  This is not a "nudge," folks.  This is tyranny.  He has the gall to call this "freedom of choice."  Sort of like ...do you want to do what I want?  Or do you want me to force you to do what I want?  Either way, you WILL do what I want.

Mayor Bloomberg fits this category to a "tee."  These are very sick psychopathic people and don't belong anywhere near government positions.  Can this country find a few good men to run for elected office?  Please?

WHO ARE THE SEDITIONISTS IN AMERICA TODAY?

 From Wikipedia comes this definition of sedition:

"In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent (or resistance) to lawful authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are seditious libel. A seditionist is one who engages in or promotes the interests of sedition."

Here is the dilemma:  When government officials, appointees, representatives, and all in supposed positions of power are actively involved in sedition against our Constitution, what do you call it and who will enforce the sedition laws? 

Here's another definition from The Free Dictionary, Legal Dictionary

Sedition is the crime of revolting or inciting revolt against government. However, because of the broad protection of free speech under the First Amendment, prosecutions for sedition are rare. Nevertheless, sedition remains a crime in the United States under 18 U.S.C.A. § 2384 (2000), a federal statute that punishes seditious conspiracy, and 18 U.S.C.A. § 2385 (2000), which outlaws advocating the overthrow of the federal government by force. Generally, a person may be punished for sedition only when he or she makes statements that create a Clear and Present Danger to rights that the government may lawfully protect (schenck v. united states, 249 U.S. 47, 39 S. Ct. 247, 63 L. Ed. 470 [1919]).

Before you go all crazy on me and cite the abuses of the Alien and Sedition Act from John Adams, please know I am not talking about eliminating free speech.  I am talking about government officials, elected and otherwise, who are "transforming America" by seditious acts against the Constitution thereby creating a "clear and present danger" to our rights.  The most egregious assault on us is coming from elected officials who have sworn to protect our rights under the Constitution.  These people are supposedly representing us.  But they aren't.

Authority in America is granted only for the purpose of upholding our Constitution.  However, that authority has been abused.  Unelected agents within our government are creating regulations and so-called laws that are unconstitutional, both by virtue of the agents' lack of authority to do so, and by virtue of the particular laws and regulations not allowed by the Constitution itself. 

So let's look at the NSA surveillance situation.  Here is an agency, unelected by the people, directed by the Executive Branch of the government, who is now engaging in an outright attack on the 4th Amendment to the Constitution.  The rights of people to be secure in their homes and possessions is ignored.  Has Congress stepped in to protect the 4th Amendment?  Nah...not so much.  In fact, many in Congress have stepped in to support this abuse of the 4th Amendment.  Instead of the rights of the people, we are now looking at the rights of unelected agencies, as the Supreme Court affirmed by allowing the EPA to define CO2 as a pollutant, and further leaving Congress out of the decision making process altogether.   Again, did Congress step in to defend against this abomination of the rules?  Nah....not so much.

How about the Justice Department?  Under the direction of the Executive Branch, Justice was told to ignore the DOMA law and immigration laws.  Those laws that were passed by Congress and signed by previous Presidents were / are ignored by the current administration.  It is government itself in these circumstances that is committing seditious acts, but so far we are seeing no one in authority going after the culprits.  With this current Executive Branch and this Justice Department, the laws of the nation are to be tossed aside and ignored.  This is subversive / seditious activity by the government itself.

Congress is becoming both seditious and irrelevant at the same time.  Irrelevant by refusing to support the Constitution and prosecuting those who actively undermine it, seditious by passing laws that are unconstitutional, such as the misnamed Affordable Care Act.  (There are a few in Congress who are doing their best to combat all of this, but too few to be able to yank the entire mess in DC back to its original concept of limited government.)

Calling it like I see it, it is apparent the checks and balances are not working and our Constitution is being thrown into the dust bin of history.  As long as this goes on, I can't help but wonder where is the tipping point.  Egypt lasted only one year of abuse before their people stood up.  Our nation is full of groups of patriots ranting every day on social media about the latest subversion of our rights.  What is it going to take? Just wondering.

WHAT GAMES ARE WE PLAYING? MUSLIMS, COMMUNISTS, AND US

Hi everyone.  I gladly took some time off from writing and managed to rest my brain somewhat during the last three weeks.  Still, I read reports every day.  It is difficult for this avid reader to keep up with all of the "you know what" hitting the fan, so I can imagine why a lot of people just give up and tune out.  The mainstream news is mostly garbage and the real news that you find in the blogo-sphere is so troubling that no mere mortal can manage to digest the implications of it all. 

While I was gone from here, Egypt sort of blew a fuse and threw everyone a curve. 

So what do I mean about the "games we are playing?"  What I mean is;  our government is shoveling so much propaganda garbage at the American people, that I wonder that any Americans have any idea of what is going on behind the curtains, from both inside and outside forces.  While the members of the political class are busy shoveling the garbage, Americans are confused.  And this didn't start just in the O era.  Most of my regular readers know that.  But how bad is it?

This afternoon I came across an interesting website that might just give a clue to the outside forces working to destroy us.  You'll love it.  It's got to be the motherlode of double double on enemies.  The International Pan Islamic Communist Party of Proletarian Islam  How's that for a mouthful!  Betcha didn't know about that cute organization.  Here is their mission statement:

The International Pan Islamic Communist Party of Proletarian Islam is an International Pan Islamic Communist Party  the ideology of our Party is Proletarian Islam which is Islam thought from the standpoint of  the international  Pan Islamic Working Class  our goal is the reunification of the Pan Islamic homeland which stretches from West Africa to  Indonesia  into one Nation State an Proletarian Islamic  Socialist Superstate and Caliphate. which will be under the leadership of the Pan Islamic Working Class. with an Proletarian Islamic Socialist Government moving towards World Proletarian Islamic Communism

O.K.  You might not take that too seriously, thinking that is obviously ginned up by a bunch of crazy people. I have no idea who they are or where they are.  So I kept looking.

It seems both the Soviets and the West have been courting the same goons from Islam.  And, it looks like one of two things is happening.  Either the U.S. government has gotten in bed with both the Soviets AND Islam, or the Islamics are just like little brats who are playing both ends against the middle, i.e. playing one parent against the other.  Neither scenario seems very good to me.  It may be a combination of both those things.  As we know, George Bush "looked into Putin's eyes and saw his soul."  And we know George Bush began the whole nonsense about Islam being a "religion of peace."  But he also took that bullhorn and called out, "Can you hear us now?"  Which is it?  Then we have Obama telling Medvedev to tell Putin that after the election he'll have "more flexiblity."  And also, telling the American people that we are "no longer a Christian nation," while keeping company with Muslims in his own administration.  Something doesn't quite sound right to me.  How about you?

This article from American Thinker gives you some background on the history of these strange bedfellows.  The article is a book review and starts out like this:

The presence of Muslims in the West is not a recent phenomenon; on the contrary, it reaches back many decades, to Nazi Germany.  Then, a group of former Soviet Muslims, seeking better treatment in Germany, defected and aided the Nazi effort.  Muslim Brotherhood (MB) cohorts in the Middle East conducted a parallel effort.  Later, under the control of U.S. intelligence, many of these same Muslims were harnessed as a bulwark against worldwide Communist domination during the Cold War.  Eventually completely taken over by the MB, these German Muslim cohorts were courted by the West as a most curious partner to counter Islamic extremism.  The locus for much of their activity, which they later used to spread Islam throughout Europe and plan major terrorist attacks in the West, including 9/11, was to become a beachhead in Europe -- the Munich mosque.

All of which makes me think that either the Muslims are the ultimate useful idiots, or the U.S. is the ultimate useful idiot.  Again, either way, this does not sound good.  A precedent in geopolitical relationships has been set between the West and the Muslim Brotherhood.  Relationships that have gone quite sour, if you ask me.  Dangerous games being played by people who don't have American interests at heart, that's for sure.  

I can't pretend to have this figured out.  The players are chameleons.  Disinformation is the order of the day.  Egypt seemed to have stepped up and thrown out the Muslim Brotherhood, but now we hear the outcome of that may be worse.  And I don't expect the MB to go away quietly. 

Bad enough to realize the Communist threat has not only NOT gone away, but mix it up with Muslims and it rather looks like a perfect storm swirling in us and around us, from the inside and the outside. 

I just sent off an order for Diane West's latest book called American Betrayal, on the subject of Communist infiltration into our American government and society.  While I am aware of most of the premise of this book, I am looking forward to seeing the recount of history brought up to our current affairs in chronological connections from Ms. West.  

I don't like these games being played, with deadly rules and too many conscripted pawns. 

If only we could just opt out....says the wishful thinker here.