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		William Ayers stopped using bombs, hired Barack Obama, & now has orchestrated a political takeover of the USA.
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More Demented Than Imaginable

At The 9/11 10-year Memorial Service... Two US Presidents

A Really Big Thank You
	Dear American Taxpayer,
What more might Americans do? Read their thank you note to you.

They Fail Econ 101

The US economic recovery is faltering. It had been recovering because this is America, the home of freedom and capitalism. However, under the redistributionist, limited freedom, big government programs of BO, the potential US economic recovery will continue to falter.

Some Americans wonder why BO's programs are not producing economic growth and jobs. Other Americans understand why his programs are not producing economic growth and jobs.

The relevant fact is that to BO and his administration's operatives, the faltering US economic recovery indicates that their programs are working and will be successful. Success has a different definition for them than for most Americans.

In 2006, Bernardine Dohrn lectured in arrogant confidence to a group at Northwestern University. She stated that their goal is to take control of the nation and then work to "dismantle capitalism, that evil thing".

The people she was alluding to are led by her husband, Bill Ayers, and the billionaire, George Soros.

The election of BO brought both Ayers, Soros, unions operatives, and other dedicated anti-capitalists to power by directing the BO administration's actions.

Now, after more than two years of implementation of their programs by the BO administration, the Ayers-Soros regime is reaping results of their programs.

They have used the USA as their laboratory. The BO administration has been implementing their programs. The results are becoming clear. US economic faltering denotes -- to the Ayers-Soros group -- success of their theories.

The Ayers-Soros group fails to understand that the faltering US economy while operating under their policies actually denotes the failure of their programs, not the failure of capitalism. The USA became the world's largest and most successful economy and provided prosperity for more people than any other nation in history. It accomplished this feat using freedom and capitalism, not socialism, Marxism, or big government.

The US economy is now faltering because it has been forced to operate under the Ayers-Soros big government programs that follow Marxian Econ 101 principles. Its objective is not economic success for America. Its objective is control of people, industry, and all else through the use of big government.

America, The Pathetic

America's song "America The Beautiful" has been erased. It has been replaced by "America The Pathetic".

Americans are a pathetic bunch. We bicker and yell at each other across real and imagined divides. All the while we accept and elevate the most unworthy among us and empower them to rule over us.

Americans argue amongst themselves. We ally with others to battle forces that could rescue us. We reinterpret the Constitution, laws, rules of civility, and ethics that allowed America to build itself into America, the most important and successful experiment in history.

Americans, some openly, some privately, demand of a higher power that He remedy the darkness that for decades they allowed to be imposed upon them.

Americans have become unworthy, self-involved, lazy. Americans are confused, lost, groping for an easy fix. Americans plead to their favorite special force or God to effect release from their self-imposed dungeon. They promise that, since they follow His directives, He should effect their release.

In typical American lazy fashion, after having permitted a poisonous being to usurp their liberty, they now plead to another Being to mystically release them from a dungeon that they herded themselves into.

Americans do not deserve anyone's sympathy. We allowed this poison to infest our paradise. Now our paradise is being transformed into a prison. Will none of us stave off this poison? Will we continue to allow this poison to divide us leading us to further decay?

Will Americans permit a potential restorative leader to come forth? Is there a restorative leader willing to sacrifice enough to evoke Americans' innate love of liberty? Or will we further permit the poison to divide us?

Americans do not deserve their own sympathy, however, we will provide it to ourselves. While wallowing in self-pity we pretend to have faith that our America will somehow mystically rejuvenate itself while we pretend to have faith in some higher power.

Americans, continue to bicker amongst yourselves while praying that some high power delivers you from your passively accepting self-imposed dungeon. This is the road to the lowest, most painful, and least productive place. It is the road to serfdom.

Americans are receiving that which they deserve. We have proven ourselves unworthy of the liberty and freedoms passed willingly from the Founding Fathers and the many who sacrificed their ALL so that Americans forever might be free to achieve their most. Today's Americans have failed.

Now You Know How It Feels

All Americans Are Subordinated To An Unskilled, Self-centered, Malevolent, Place-holding Inferior

May 1, 2011, the USA's Navy SEALS used CIA-obtained and calculated intel to wipe Osama off the earth. On May 1, 2011, Obama initiated his regular plan. He did as he has always done. He took credit for other people's accomplishments. Then, for several days and no doubt throughout his ongoing campaign for the 2012 presidential election, he spiked the football, posing for campaign images with 9/11 victims, at 9/11's Ground Zero, with military men and women, and with anything that might make him appear instrumental in having eliminated Osama bin Laden.

All Americans should learn by watching BO take credit for doing something that he could not do, could not imagine doing, has no idea of how to do, would never have the courage to do, is not and never will be prepared to do, and has no concern except for how it may be twisted to convolute and masquerade his weak, lying, cheating, un-American, anti-American communist being.

All Americans should experience first hand some of what many Americans have experienced for several decades. That is, millions of Americans working in offices, factories, restaurants, shops, applying to enter prep schools, colleges and universities, studying subjective curricula, and applying for myriads of positions have been relegated to back of the line status simply because they did not fit the proper profile or have a once-wronged parentage. These often more qualified and more skilled Americans have been barred from entry, given lower grades, passed over for promotions, and disallowed from earning raises.

All Americans now suffer a lowered standard of living, a decayed work force operating in an degraded work place because their management, coworkers, and subordinates are not up to the tasks at hand. Too often inferior workers must be carried and their work must be supplemented by that of the more qualified.

All Americans now are subordinated to an unqualified, unskilled, sociopathic, juvenile president. America has saddled itself with an affirmative action president who is not capable of growing into the presidency, cannot adapt using his experience, will never consider anyone but himself, refuses and is incapable of learning, who will push, shove, and lie America into complete economic, cultural, moral, and global trade ruination.

One day too far from today, he will slither away, chin raised, to retire with his sycophants still adoring him as they forever fail to realize that he has degraded their lives, lifestyles, and their futures.

But BO will be fully prepared for the one role that will suit this empty suit: Head of the United Nations.

This Right Is Your Entitlement
	Too many of today's politicians are politicians because they suffer a desperate need to control people.
We allow these malevolent weaklings to float into political power -- we abdicate our power to them -- because we choose genuine and productive lives. We choose to live productively, not administratively. We do not have need to control others. We control ourselves, thereby earning satisfaction and contentment while being productive in our professions. Learn more here about your right.

Operation Tragedy Real
	It is sad, destructive, and horrific. It will result in the ongoing waste of resources, deep human suffering, and daily misery impacting decent people everywhere.
A decade after 9/11/2001, problems pertain to issues of appearance. Ten years after 911....

Who Deserves Credit For Cleansing Civilization?

You will wish you could say that you wrote this piece. It comes from one of the many anonymous Armed Forces veterans to whom we owe our undying gratitude.

Read the facts here.

Broke. Out of money. There is no more money. You have no money. Your money is all gone. You do not earn enough to pay your bills. You cannot meet your financial obligations.
You have no money to spend.

If America taxed everyone who makes over $100,000 at the rate of 100% -- that is, if America took all of these people's money -- America still would not have enough money to balance Obama's budget, let alone to pay off any debt.

Funny. Funny?

World Terrorism Alert Levels by John Cleese

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Libya and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

-- John Cleese - British writer, actor and tall person

P. S. America, under their new Socialist administration, has decided not to be the World Leader this time and to hand over control to the UN and NATO, who are still debating if Iran really is developing nuclear weapons. The American policy is to call for removal of only Dictators who mean no harm to them, and to defend the rebels, even if they may be Al Qaeda.

Israel anyone?

America's Future
	The Chevy Volt is GM's version of the electric hybrid auto that is designed to save energy and be green at the same time. Nissan manufactures its version called the Leaf. Both autos are equally effeminate.
The Chevy Volt -- or any other electric-gasoline or gasoline-electric hybrid -- runs on gasoline when needed, and also electricity that was previously stored in its battery.
But where does the electricity that over several hours charges its battery come from? Where does the owner get electricity to charge the battery?
Owners will have some choices as to where they obtain the electricity to charge the Chevy Volt's battery over the several hours required for a full charge.
Some choices include: 1.) Regular house current; 2.) Special $2,500 charging station installed in their garages; 3.) Public charging stations.
Where will the electricity supplied to these charging sources come from?
Nuclear reactors, coal-fired electric generating facilities, natural gas power generators are the most common sources of electric generation.
Of course, each of these uses non-green carbon-based sources or nuclear fission: They are carbon-based or nuclear derived.
Therefore, the use of carbon and nuclear is simply shifted from the automobile itself to power generation facilities.
And you thought it was a cute little car that would save the earth....

America has become a nation of takers, not makers.

Over recent decades we have seen the number of potential jobs decline while the number of people needing to support themselves or be supported has increased. This trend will not change. We are approaching a permanent state wherein individuals will need to create jobs for themselves or serve in bureaucratic mediocrity.

Learn the depths of America's depression here.

Ayers Admits He Wrote Obama Book

On March 24, 2011, Bill Ayers volunteered to cameras and the crowd at Montclair State University that he wrote Obama's so-called autobiography, Dreams From My Father.

Read of the facts here.

And America Has No President

"Once upon a time there lived an emperor. One day two crafty weavers turned up at the palace and offered to make a new suit of clothes for the ruler -- clothes so marvelous that they would be invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid or incompetent. And so when the emperor stepped out to show off his brand-new attire, the courtiers, fearful of being found out and ridiculed, would not admit to themselves the truth of what their eyes were telling them. Until an innocent child in the crowd of onlookers cried out, "He isn't wearing anything at all!", and the spell was broken.

Hans Christian Andersen did not indicate whether the weavers' names were David Axelrod and David Plouffe, but the similarity is striking. The two Davids brilliantly succeeded in packaging and selling to the country an unknown tyro from Chicago without a past or any visible qualifications other than imposing looks, a resonant voice and an ability to use the teleprompter. Like the weavers in the great Danish writer's fairy-tale, the Obama handlers insulated their candidate against criticism by preemptively warning that any doubt as to his fitness for office was proof positive of mean-spiritedness and racism. And the liberal crowd swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker.

The famous Occam's razor principle states that the simplest explanation is the most plausible one. Applying it to dispel the fog of propaganda, it becomes glaringly obvious that Obama is an accidental president, a lazy and indecisive incompetent devoid of any ability or desire to perform the job to which he was elected by a gullible majority, who loves the perks but hates the duties of his office; who loves to play but hates to work.

Have a good look at the man occupying the White House: what you see is what you get. The Emperor has no clothes."

Victor Volsky, AmericanThinker.com

Aftershock Shock

Japan was devastated by the tsunami and earthquakes of March, 2011.

Following this devastation, there have been no reports of looting, no increase in serious crime, and no civil disobedience. There have been no reports of cannibalism.

Apparently the Japanese people want to rebuild their nation. They understand that recovery requires civil behavior and teamwork.

Americans should recall the days, weeks, months, and years following Hurricane Katrina's infliction of damage to New Orleans. Americans should question why days after that devastation there were reports of cannibalism, looting, and an increase in serious crimes. Americans should question why the reports of cannibalism were proven to have been contrived. Americans should question why so many people of New Orleans defrauded the government handout of debit cards by making false claims and multiple claims.

Apparently the people of New Orleans approach disaster in a manner different from the Japanese people. The people of New Orleans demonstrated that to them a disaster is an opportunity not to rebuild, but to take, take, take.

Japan's Recovery From Its Long Recession Is Now Assured

Japan was hit by one of the worst earthquakes and tsunamis of recorded history in March, 2011. Japan experienced massive destruction and death.

The Japanese are industrious, productive, intelligent people. They will cooperate, organize, and rebuild.

Japan will be required to spend and borrow heavily in order to finance its recovery and reconstruction. Unlike the borrowing and spending by America recently, Japan's resources will be invested in its long term prosperity. Japan will spend its borrowings and regular revenue on tangible projects that will provide jobs for its people for many decades. This, in contrast to America which has and continues to spend its so-called stimulus monies on service jobs and patch work infrastructure. America's spending merely maintains the failing status quo rather than providing jobs that will produce needed products and services over the long term.

Tomorrow's reconstructed Japan will be an advanced, precise machine designed and methodically constructed with thoughtful vigor. It will outshine and potentially surpass nearly all competing nations for economic supremacy and improved lifestyles for the majority of its people.

Japan will demonstrate to the world how to recover and become stronger as a result of a catastrophe rather than how to whine and remain a victim.

Japan will contrast starkly against the city of New Orleans which experienced Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and has yet to recover. New Orleans continues to rot rather than recover. The people of New Orleans have chosen, and continue to choose, to remain Katrina's victim. They choose to not rebuild New Orleans into a stronger, more substantial home and business center.

Japan will rebuild itself as fully and rapidly as did the people of Homestead, Florida when they were devastated by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

The contrast between New Orleans, Homestead, and the future Japan is the major tragedy of America.

NOTE: No, Bastiat's broken window parable does not apply here. Japan will replace old, destroyed, and damaged with new, greatly improved, designed to be more efficient, technologically advanced infrastructure, equipment, housing, farming, and electric generation. This is not, as in Bastiat's parable, a simple, equal in function window replacement.

Beethoven Is Dead

Heifetz is no longer playing his violin.

Hayek is no longer theorizing and teaching economics.

The space shuttle is no longer a symbol of contemporary America's desire to explore and learn, thereby providing hope for productive change and improvement of life styles while enjoying the music of the master composers, artists, and thinkers.

Instead, the American people have succumbed to a moron who promises hope and change. The American people failed to realize that they voted themselves lives of living not their hopeful and oft improving lives, but rather Obama's hope and change. His hope and change is implemented using the thoroughly tested and failed schemes known as socialism and communism. Obama's hope and change is dictated by that empty headed nothing organism, the pathological narcissist, Obama.

American people, what was so very, very, very wrong with America that you fell for this socialist who wants to take from you your liberty, your wealth, and your innate ability to pursue and achieve your dreams?

Beethoven is dead and he will not be replaced in today's America -- nor in today's Germany.

Perspective

If you think the decline in the DJIA from the October, 2007 all-time high was severe, consider the following quantitative history of human psychology.

The DJIA's all-time high reached in October, 2007, faded throughout 2008 to the low reached in March, 2009.

September 3, 1929: The DJIA reached 381.17, the closing peak for the bull market of the 1920's.

October 28, 1929: The DJIA lost 38.33 points to close at 260.64, losing 12.8% of it value.

October 29, 1929: The DJIA lost 30.57 points to close at 230.07 losing 11.7%.

Over the two days October 28 and 29, the total DJIA loss was 24.5%.

October 30, 1929: The DJIA rose 28.40 points to close at 258.47. That was 12.34%, the second largest percentage gain of the DJIA.

October 6, 1931: The DJIA rose 12.86 points to close at 99.34, largest percentage gain of the DJIA, 14.87%.

July 8, 1932: The DJIA fell .59 to close at 41.22. The decline from September 3, 1929 to July 8, 1932 totaled 339.95 points, 89.19%.

It was not until 1954 that the DJIA returned to the all-time high it had reached on September 3, 1929.

Beware of false valuations that have been created through arrogant and ignorant market participants groping for bottoms.

Six-month Report Shows Obamacare To Be Even Worse Than Critics Thought

Mosque Of 911 Triumph

A National Issue Centered In NY City

Why does the Cordoba Initiative insist upon building a mosque within 500 feet of the World Trade Center's towers?

When a people are conquered, the victorious have earned the right to mark their newly won territory.

Has America been conquered? Read more here.

Every American

Each and every American, whether American-born or naturalized, has been guaranteed all rights and the liberty to build himself into any type of success he chooses. He is protected and guaranteed all rights and liberty by the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and innumerable legal precedents that confirm and reconfirm those guaranteed rights and liberty.

Any American, man or woman, who complains, whines, demands more, or lectures to others about not having yet achieved a deserved level of success, is merely demonstrating his own ineffectual capabilities. Anyone who complains that America is not yet an equal opportunity society is self-promoting at the expense of other Americans.

Any American who accepts today's complaining and whining, whether from a successful individual or unsuccessful, street screaming radical, is simply looking to take more than his fair share from America without contributing his fair share.

Each complainer and whiner should shut up, direct his energy, meager as it may be, toward achieving something meaningful rather than distracting others from their potential and endeavoring to destroy the reality of the American dream.

	What Is The Purpose Of Your Life?
Hey, You Who Were Hoping For... What...? Change From What You Had... To What...? Was Your Life Really So Bad?

Each American, natural-born and immigrant alike, should comprehend and acknowledge that all that he and she is, all that they possess, all that they ever hope to achieve, has been and will be made possible by all that is provided at little cost to each by the free republic and capitalistic system of the United States of America.
American style liberty and capitalism provide prosperity for all who work. The American Dream will be preserved and cherished.
Wise Americans who understand this concept refuse to be confused or dissuaded by falsifiers of the American Dream. Wise Americans will not abdicate control or surrender America to an America-hating, socialist regime.

Did you know that the world has been provided a refuge where hundreds of millions have already come hoping for change? Most who are willing to work get change for their hope beyond their wildest dreams.
This refuge was invented, built, and fought for in the late 18th century by America's Founding Fathers. It has been defended frequently ever since. It is called The United States Of America.

Then Over There. Now Over Here.

Attention all you anti-American Americans, you haters of the United States of America, you socialists, you fascists, you who fail to have the guts to attempt to make it in a fair, competitive capitalistic economic environment wherein your skills and fortitude will be tested.... Attention you who undermine America and abuse its goodness, generosity, intellectual and economic accomplishments.... Attention you traitorous weaklings....

You have had the privilege to be born or somehow due to the open generosity of America, assumed the rights and privileges of citizenship. You have endeavored to abuse the US Constitution, Bill of Rights, and educational and political system to get far enough along in society, to develop physically strong enough, to gain enough status, to use your rights and acquired resources from the USA to now be empowered to attempt the undermining of the USA.

You can only fail in your damaging, destructive wishes and efforts for the United States of America.

Any damage you inflict will result in there being less for you and others like you to take -- steal, that is -- from America and the good and generous Americans who worked to build the resources available for you. We have overlooked and tolerated your traitorous behavior for too long.

When today's Great Civil War is ended the United States of America will be cleansed of your sort of traitors. Certainly all good, decent Americans, operating in our optimism, expect and know that you will lose.

If by chance, in our American decency, we fail to muster enough venom to defeat you traitorous sorts, you will be left a nation that is not a nation. You will fight on amongst yourselves for diminishing resources. You will live amongst nasty co-conspirators, jealous cohorts, envious friends, and others who would never want to operate with you according to rules of decency, fairness, and open opportunity. You will live amongst only those who will never give you the opportunities that the USA made available too freely and readily for your consumption.

When Irving Berlin wrote the song "Over There", when the Japanese sneak-attacked Pearl Harbor, when maniacal fanatics attempted to damage America on 9/11, worthy Americans stood up and rallied. True Americans rallied and banded together in traditional American team spirit to defeat the dark forces of imperialism, despotism, and destructive ideology.

Worthy Americans continue to stand up and rally on the American Team. We rally against those would-be foreign destroyers and you would-be domestic destroyers.

You cannot win America from Americans. Your efforts will end in your own destruction because you are losers, you are not team players, and you will eventually rot among yourselves into a poverty of moral and ethical destitution.

We true Americans who remain true to our Constitution and successful heritage will survive to live, make progress, and prosper... and attain genuine happiness.

Pumpkin Stuff Shortage

The Nestle company manufacturers most of the canned pumpkin product sold in America. It markets these products under the brand name Libby.

Nestle's Libby announced that there may not be an adequate supply of canned pumpkin product for the 2009 holiday season. Libby stated that its production of canned pumpkin products may be sold out before the end of the holiday season.

This is one of the first shortages in food products to hit the United States since World War II. It will not be an anomaly.

Americans should expect more shortages because manufacturers are conserving resources -- that is, cutting back on production.

Americans should expect additional shortages in many product lines and in various other manufactured and processed goods.

Manufacturers will continue to scale back production, consumers will continue to buy less, and the downward economic spiral will proceed.

This sort of downward spiral in production is a result of increased taxation on businesses during recessions as exist today. Increased taxes force businesses to reduce labor costs. Businesses reduce labor costs by laying off employees. When people lose jobs, they have reduced or no income. That results in consumers' increasing inability to buy products and services. When consumers buy less, businesses lay off additional workers because they are producing products and services that consumers cannot not buy. This cycle results in less employment and fewer consumer products and services.

Amidst the coming shortages, people will long for the gasoline lines of 1973 and 1974.

Dumb. Simply Dumb.

Imagine that you were entrusted to run history's most successful experiment in liberty and opportunity. What would you do? You would promote all that has made that nation successful.

Obama is using his privileged position to dismantle capitalism, disrupt opportunity, and destroy the inventiveness and security of the American people.

It is no wonder BO would not release his college and law school transcripts. He is displaying how dumb he really is.

Hoping For What?
Change From What We Have To What...?
Is Your Life Really So Terrible?

Each American, natural-born and immigrant alike, should comprehend and acknowledge that all that he and she is, all that they possess, all that they ever hope to achieve, has been and will be made possible by all that is provided at little cost to each by the free, democratic, and capitalistic system of the United States of America.

American style liberty and capitalism provide prosperity for all who work. The American Dream must be preserved and cherished.

Wise Americans who understand this refuse to be confused or dissuaded by falsifiers of the American Dream. Wise Americans will not abdicate control of America to an un-American, socialist regime.

Did you know that the world was provided with a refuge where hundreds of millions have already come hoping for change? Most who are willing to work get change from their hope beyond their wildest dreams.

This refuge was invented and built in 1776 by America's Founding Fathers. It is called The United States Of America.

Obama's Experience
Executive	None
Military	None
Education	Law degree
Work	Community organizer
Legislative	IL State Senate, US Senate 140+ days
Childhood	Educated & raised in Indonesia & Hawaii. Came to mainland America to live when he entered college.

It Can't Get Any Worse?

By David Bueche
American Thinker
September, 2008

Idling behind a Lexus this morning I saw the latest bit of agitprop from the Obama campaign -- a "Got Hope?" bumper sticker. The first question that popped into my mind was, "How bad can it be if you're driving an ES 350?"

It seems that the racially polarized, economically dysfunctional country our Obama supporter is so keen to change has treated him pretty well. Maybe he's in it for the other guys. You know - the 95% who keep making their mortgage payments on time, the record breaking numbers of college graduates, the millions of Americans who consume iPods, flat screen TVs or hundreds of other accoutrements of a society so wealthy it has no historical parallel.

I hate to burst the dystopian bubble the Leftists have persistently inflated during the nightmare known as The Bush Administration, but people have never had better food, medicine and housing than they do at this very moment. A typical home in America today has central heat and air, the cheapest car is a paragon of safety and efficiency compared with its ancestors, and people are routinely treated for, and survive, conditions which were fatal less than half a century ago.

Yes I'm aware that there's a mortgage crisis -- if by crisis you mean a lot of people buying houses way beyond their means while a sub-set of financially myopic lenders goaded them on. But looked at another way, for those of us who didn't drink the Kool-Aid and purchase radically overpriced real estate so we could use the equity to finance trips to Vegas, what's so horrible about falling home prices? For many, when speaking of housing, couldn't we reasonably substitute the word "consequences" for "crisis"?

Yes I'm aware there's an insurance coverage crisis -- not medical access, (which is available to anyone who presents themselves in a emergency room), or quality, (which no one really debates is still the benchmark for the world). But I do find it puzzling that the majority of the people you see in public emergency rooms can somehow afford cell phones and top of the line running shoes.

As a matter of fact, the U.S. Census bureau estimates that 20% of the uninsured can actually afford insurance, and another 25% are eligible for government coverage, bringing the estimated total of 47 million uninsured down to 26 million. An issue to be worked on, most definitely. But a county that current does, or can, provide access to the best health care in the world for 91% of its population, (including a large percentage of non-citizens who significantly skew the statistics), is, by definition, not a country with a health care crisis.

As to the issue of food, do you know what the food crisis looked like in the early twentieth century? It looked like a lot of very thin, hungry people. No talk of banning trans-fats I can assure you. As Greg Easterbrook points out in "The Progress Paradox", if you traveled back in time and spoke to your not so distant relatives about the crisis of obesity in poor people, they would be completely confused because in their day being poor meant going hungry. If there is any crisis surrounding food in the United States it is the result of incredible prosperity and abundance; all in all, not a bad problem to have.

When you look at these "big picture" issues you can generally divide society into two opposing worldviews; the romantic and the tragic.

The romantic looks at the United States, compares it to perfection, finds it wanting, and demands that we start over from scratch. Arguments for moderation and caution are dismissed as greed or indifference. "Obviously anyone who can accept the wretched state of healthcare in this country is an idiot or a monster".

Romantics are generally the ones you see with the communist-inspired art advocating one word solutions like Hope or Change. It doesn't get much more transparent, (or vacuous), than that.

The tragic perspective takes exactly the opposite approach. Instead of saying, "What a mess, how can I make this better?", the response is something like, "Thank God this works so well, lets be careful not to screw it up!"

And when you think about it, there's a hell of a lot we can all be thankful for.

Thank God I was born here and not in North Korea. Thank God I've never seen a tank come rolling into my town. Thank God there's so much to eat, and so many jobs, such access to information, and on and on.

There are many things, even in our "crisis" areas that work very well in the United States of America. This is not pre-ordained.

It's perfectly possible for self-righteous, naïve idealists to destroy an excellent system in the process of "improving" it. Anyone who doubts me should take some time and read up on the imposition of socialism to British healthcare. How about Stalin and collective farming, Mao's Great Leap Forward, and Pol Pot? Don't even get me started on the Schwarzenegger Administration...

Even though liberals like to see themselves as the thinking man's alternative, anyone with moderate intelligence and the willingness to do even minimal research will inevitable conclude that there is much, much, more right than wrong about present-day America. The glass is, most assuredly, well more than halfway full.

Next time you feel hopeless and swept up in an emotional desire for change remember the ultimate conceit in the words - "It can't get any worse".

Trust me: it can.

Looking For Friends In The Streets

August, 2008 -- The number of chronically homeless people living in the nation's streets and shelters has dropped by about 30% to 123,833 from 175,914 between 2005 and 2007.

These statistics have been collected by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development each year from over 3,800 cities and counties.

Officials attribute much of the decline to the "housing first" strategy that has been promoted as federal policy and increasingly being adopted across the country.

Salvaging

August, 2008 -- A report by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank, states that the number of illegal immigrants dropped about 11% between August and May, 2008. This is a decline from 12.5 million to 11.2 million.

The study was based on analysis of census data. It concludes that if today's rate of decline is sustained, the number of illegal immigrants will be halved in five years.

The federal government started more aggressively enforcing workplace laws after Congress last year failed to pass immigration overhaul. In the months since, thousands of workers have been arrested in scores of raids and many illegals have left of their own accord.

Fight To The Death For Peace

Travel back with me to the presidential election of 1864 where the Democratic Copperhead movement inserted this plank in the party’s platform.

“…after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war … justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States or other peaceable means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the basis of the federal Union of the States.”

Substitute U.N for States and Iraq for federal Union of the States and you’ve got Reed, Pelosi or Obama in 2008.

Aside from the interesting historical parallels - (I wonder if the Copperheads were indignant with people questioning their patriotism?) - the salient point is the definition of peace. The 1864 party platform goal was, “that at the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored”. And this was to be accomplished through “cessation of hostilities” and a “convention of the states or other peaceable means”.

If the Democrats had won the day in November of 1864 they would have called a cease fire and negotiated with the Confederacy arriving ultimately at one of two possible outcomes:

1.) Dissolution of the Union, with the Confederacy continuing as a slave holding enterprise in North America;

2.) Restoration of the Union with some form of slavery tolerated and continuing in the Southern States.

So in reality, the “peace” so valued by the Copperheads was a relative term for it would have been purchased with the continued enslavement of others. The modern day equivalent is a “peace” that is secured through the almost certain ethnic cleansing that would ensue if we were to hastily retreat from present day Iraq. The lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, many who bravely stood up and fought by our sides, would be sacrificed so we could declare peace.

All this seems fairly obvious. How is it that the Copperheads and their contemporary counterparts reach totally alternate conclusions? It has to do with the difference between self definition on a personal level - the realm of preference and fashion - and mature, objective moral judgment.

When I buy a leather jacket and motorcycle boots instead of a polo shirt and dress pants I’m making a statement about who I am and how I see myself. In another case, the purchase of a minivan or station wagon projects a whole different set of values and priorities than a sports car or a motorcycle. In both cases, the result, (other than a potentially annoyed spouse), is ultimately inconsequential and not linked to the fate of other parties.

However, the same cannot be said for political and policy positions. In this case, the choice to be “for peace” is not a private decision in that its consequences could be potentially disastrous for other individuals with no say in the matter, (i.e., a 12 year old Sunni boy in Fallujah). In this case - the choice of peace could very well be someone else’s death sentence, and viewed in light of this reality - not very peaceful at all.

It would be nice if we could choose peace as simply as picking out a shirt. It would be great if there was a policy equivalent of taking the old wardrobe to the Goodwill and starting over with a totally new look, (which seems to be the appeal of some candidates running on platforms suspiciously similar to the Copperheads of old). Needless to say - the world is a messy place, not at all like a mall or retail outlet.

Political choices are more than fashion statements. They set in motion a chain of events impacting other people - most of whom have no say in the matter - who desperately need us to make the right decision.

Being a citizen of the United States in the 21st century is an enormous blessing which carries an equally large responsibility. Like our distant, departed cousins in New England, we too are facing momentous choices in a war which has become tiresome and unpopular. And like them we must ask ourselves -

Is this choice really going to bring peace?

Am I being honest about what will happen if I get my way?

Am I truly standing on the moral high ground or simply the space which casts the most flattering reflection?

(Originally published on Primetime Politics - 5/29/08)

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Subject: Ignorant electorate

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Don't American voters realize the damage the democratic candidate for president could cause if Obama were to be elected?

He has demonstrated he has a socialist viewpoint and he would implement all the wrong policies at the wrong time.

God help the United States if Obama is elected -- and if Congress is in the hands of democrats as well, the madness of self-serving fools will reign!

NH, Canada