Recently outraged Internet theologians took umbrage at my refusal to join the effort to transform Jesus into a big government, liberal Democrat that supports the Occupy squatters.

Most echoed secular interpreters of Christ who claim, “Jesus shares many of the values of those in the Occupy movement.”

I contend Jesus had plenty of time to confront civil authority, yet Christ focused on religious authority. He didn’t discuss politics with the centurion or tax rates with Matthew. In fact the only system of government approved by God was that of the judges, and the Jews disliked that arrangement so much they demanded a king.

Democracy and social justice are not mentioned in the New Testament because it’s not a political science or economics text. The Word is directed at individuals and not Wall Street, corporations, the GOP, Congress or the Koch brothers.

Solutions will come, if ever, from individuals acting on their own and not collectivists like Nancy Pelosi telling us what to do. But I try to keep an open mind. Maybe I haven’t spent enough time with Occupy to form an accurate opinion.

Fortunately, my daughter saved me a trip and reported back on her encounter with those New Testament individuals working to establish the Kingdom here on earth. Last Saturday night Occupy was marching through Downtown DC to block Obama’s appearance at that den of inequity, the Alfalfa Club Dinner. My daughter’s car was stopped at an intersection blocked by Occupy marchers and in no time at all these “Christ–like” crusaders for Justice saw she was a young woman alone.

They surrounded her vehicle and began the spreading their word. Some dropped their pants to expose my daughter to the persuasive message contained in their genitals. Others sat on the hood and pounded their fists. All this took place accompanied by an inspiring soundtrack of curses, vulgarities and sexual harassment.

She wasn’t mistaken for a member of the 1 percent, gloating over the misfortunes of the poor. She drives a rice burner approaching 135,000 miles that’s decorated with dents, dings and rust spots courtesy of dad’s attempt to repair a broken window.

She was singled out because Occupy harbors an increasing collection of gutless thugs who get off on frightening women and the weak.

There were approximately five offenses worthy of arrest: genital exposure, attempted destruction of property, blocking an intersection, disorderly conduct, assault and wearing a mask to conceal identity (particularly ironic since these laws were passed by “progressives” to fight the Klan). Yet the DC cop standing and idly watching did exactly nothing and the media seldom reports this type of outrage.

I’m wracking my brain here, but I can’t find equivalent behavior on the part of the Apostles. Josephus writes of a Roman soldier starting a riot when he mooned Jews from his perch in Antonia Fortress overlooking Jerusalem, but that’s hardly part of the Gospel.

What’s amazing is how Democrats and fellow–travelers in the media demonize the TEA party and romanticize Occupy leeches. When the ugly undercurrent of the real Occupy movement finally makes headlines, the excuse is always these lawbreakers are “fringe elements” and not part of the main movement.

Really? Then why have there been almost 4,000 Occupy arrests? That’s an active fringe. You don’t find that when searching arrests at TEA party events.

But even the TEA party has a fringe, so lets compare.

TEA party fringe believes the Bilderberg Group is a real threat. Occupy fringe defecates on police cars.

TEA party fringe believes the moon landing was faked. Occupy fringe discourages a rape victim from contacting police.

TEA party fringe believes there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll. Occupy fringe smashes its way into Oakland City Hall, vandalizes children’s artwork and burns the American flag.

TEA party fringe believes the US should return to the gold standard. Occupy fringe urinates on food vendors in NYC when they stop giving free food to Occupy parasites.

Law enforcement wizards in DC may finally be noticing a trend. U.S. Park police commanders have decided, after four months of hand wringing, that it might be time to enforce the law against camping in McPherson Square.

Warnings have been issued against camping and its related activity, sleeping. According to spokesman Sgt. David Schlosser officers have been ordered to investigate tents for clues that include “sleeping bags, teddy bears and kitchen equipment.”

After reading that it’s difficult to decide which group is more pathetic. The unfortunate Park Police officers forced to search for binkies and blankets before making an arrest; or the Occupy cheering section that continues to insist this confederacy of creeps is on board with the teaching of Jesus.

Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He can be reached at
michael-shannon@comcast.net.

Michael R. Shannon
MANDATE: Message, Media & Public Relations

 

WesternFront America

A magazine article in 1989 caught my eye about a black child, a Confederate President’s First Lady and the Southern Presidential Family. The story was written by Gulfport, Mississippi freelance writer Mrs. Peggy Robbins and is entitled, “Jim Limber Davis.”

This is my summary of Mrs. Robbin’s wonderful story.

On the morning of February 15, 1864, Mrs. Varina Davis, wife of Southern President Jefferson Davis, had concluded her errands and was driving her carriage down the streets of Richmond, Virginia on her way home. She heard screams from a distance and quickly went to the scene to see what was happening.

Varina saw a young black child being abused by an older man. She demanded that he stop striking the child and when this failed she shocked the man by forcibly taking the child away. She took the child to her carriage and with her to the Confederate White House.

Arriving home Mrs. Davis and maid ‘Ellen’ gave the young boy a bath, attended to his cuts and bruises and feed him. The only thing he would tell them is that his name was Jim Limber. He was happy to be rescued and was given some clothes of the Davis’ son Joe.

The Davis family were visited the following evening by a friend of Varina’s, noted Southern Diarist-Mary Boykin Chesnut, who saw Jim Limber and wrote later that she had seen the boy and that he was eager to show me his cuts and bruises. She also said, “the child is an orphan rescued yesterday from a brutal Negro Guardian.” and “there are things in life that are too sickening, and such cruelty is one of them.”

There were some children who addressed Jim as Jim Limber Davis for fun. This was fine with him because he felt he was indeed a member of the family. The Davis letters to friends are an indication of his acceptance as they were written that he was a member of their gang of children.

The Christmas of 1864, would be memorable for the Davis family and probably the best Christmas Jim Limber would ever have. A Christmas tree was set up in Saint Paul’s Church, decorated and gifts placed beneath it. On Christmas evening orphans were brought to the church and were delighted with the presents they got. Jim was happy to help decorate the tree.

Mrs. Robbin’s wrote, in her story, that Mrs. Jefferson Davis was a very good story teller who was able to make sounds of different animals in the stories about the critters. Jim was always eager to help.

The end of the War Between the States was coming and Richmond was being evacuated. Varina and the children left ahead of Jefferson Davis. The president and his staff left just hours before the occupation of Union troops.

Varina and the children were by the side of Jefferson Davis at his capture near Irwinville, Georgia and again the family was separated. Jefferson Davis was taken to Virginia to spend two years in prison.

Mrs. Davis and her children were taken to Macon, Georgia and later to Port Royal outside of Savannah. At Port Royal their Union escort, Captain Charles T. Hudson, made good at his earlier threats to take Jim Limber away.

As the Union soldiers came to forcibly take young Jim, he put up a great struggle and tried to hold onto his family as they to him. Jim and his family cried uncontrollably as the child was taken. His family would never again see him or know what happened to him. The Davis’ tried in later years to locate Jim but were unsuccessful.

The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia is home to a portrait of Jim Limber Davis in the Eleanor S. Brookenbrough Library. I thank Mrs. Peggy Robbin’s who wrote the Jim Limber Davis story in 1989 and the Southern Partisan Magazine for publishing her story in the second quarter Issue-Volume IX of 1989.

Calvin E. Johnson, Jr., Speaker, Writer, author of book “When American Stood for God, Family and Country and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, www.scv.org.

 

WesternFront America

“The Miami Herald reports that Sen. Rubio’s ‘sweeping’ immigration speech took swipes at both Republicans and Democrats for playing politics with an issue so crucial to Hispanics, calling for a compassionate approach for dealing with the issue of illegal immigration.”

http://conservativebyte.com/2012/01/the-marco-rubio-speech-on-immigration-that-everyone%e2%80%99s-talking-about/

In Answer to Senator Rubio

Nobody is “playing politics here,” except those who want the United States of America to fundamentally transform its institutions; law; culture and dominant racial composition.

Hispanic political darlings and “La Raza” need to “get a grip” on reality.

This message of Sen. Rubio is hardly “sweeping” in scope and I would wager to say the whale of inspiration Rubio feels, hardly makes a flutter in the oceanic consciousness of the American people, as to being any kind of national priority.

Anyone who talks of a “compassionate approach” toward our porous borders and those who breach them, is in truth, soft-in-the-head and that individual should be put out to pasture with a nose bag, by the deliberate resolve of voters in this country.

One has to ask why this issue is so “crucial” to Hispanics, especially in light of the fact that what should be the topic of conversation here, is what is crucial to those who identify themselves as Americans.

The real crux of the issue is that this nation belongs to the American people and no one special interest group, based exclusively on a racial identification.

People who identify themselves as “Latinos” first, are NOT really Americans and their opinions should be discounted as nothing more than part of a concerted effort to undermine the Anglo-Saxon foundation of this republic.

America does NOT belong to the world and it is NOT a mini- United Nations, where the people “henceforth” pledge their allegiance to the New World Order of the international bankers and their “tangle of squabbling nationalities.”

America must not play Santa Claus to the world, nor should it surrender its national self-determination to the hostile foreign power of Mexico.

As the state of our Union currently stands; an illegal alien usurper occupies the White House, to impose his tyranny over the American people. Of course he wants to remove all obstacles to his own personal power and glory and ensure his reelection, by opening the floodgates of Fortress America, to the third world incursion.

The nation cannot afford to allow Barack Hussein Obama to miscast himself in the role of Abraham Lincoln, while tolerating a Mexican occupation army, engaged in full annexation of American territory.

Resident Obama does not hold the best interests of the American people at heart, for his degenerate policies and abject failure to enforce the border, would allow alien cultures to run roughshod over the American landscape, to wreak their havoc with impunity.

The largest contingent of Hispanics is coming from Mexico, to prosecute “La Reconquista,” through a blatant race war, predicated on the so-called “anchor baby.”

Americans feel that they are under no compulsion to adopt the Mexican Lebensborn movement, by incubating Mexican hatchlings in the nest of the American Eagle, nor do they feel honor-bound to correct the mistakes of interlopers, no matter how long they have been here.

Now that the children of these Mexican nationals have grown to college age, these interlopers expect massive concessions to be extended to their offspring, when they came to this country with full knowledge and intent to fundamentally transform America into Mexico, as evidenced by the entitlement mentality they display.

Those who speak of a “comprehensive immigration reform,” are parroting a broken record, which finds no resonance with the American people. This is because those who mouth this mealy mantra have NO fundamental grasp of what is at stake for the future survival of America, under a Marxist “multicultural” paradigm.

America is under no compulsion to adopt the wretched citizens of alien cultures, who would impose their weltanschauung over the deliberate American people.

True recognition of the problem lies with exactly what is meant by a “comprehensive” approach to the attempted annexation of American territory for Mexico, by “redistricting” through sheer demographics.

The American people define “comprehensive immigration reform,” as a hollow political slogan, designed to perpetuate the Marxist “politically correct” mythology that any person in the world can just come here and start making demands, in the form of his alleged “civil rights.”

Moreover, the American people are expected to suffer the spectacle of seeing Los Angeles and other American cities occupied by armies of “guest workers” marching 500,000 strong, while raising the Mexican banner over buildings and federal installations in an overt act of war.

Further, this faux ideology decrees that America should just “snap to attention” to better serve as a safety valve for failed nations and those who come here in the name of conquest, whether it be named “jihad,” Sharia law, or “La Reconquista.”

Those who adhere to this half-baked political theory, harbor the fantastic notion that Americans–who stand up to defend the territorial integrity and racial make-up of our nation– be labeled as “cowards” in the discussion of race matters, or be dismissed as “racists,” by degenerate lawmakers and media personalities. These elites have no clue as to the real meaning of words.

While there is a certain ethnocentrism involved with maintaining cultural balance, it hardly behooves the discerning mind to capitulate to the idea that Americans should just hand over their country to those bent on cultural genocide against the unwitting host nation.

The “unhappy campers” who come here to “squat and drop,” are not content to follow the failed national paradigm and social proposition imposed over America by the bankers who weave the fiction, that our nation is a so-called “melting pot.”

These alleged “immigrants” disavow the title, except when it suits their nefarious purpose. The rest of the time, they proclaim themselves the “lawful owners” of North America, while at the same time demanding that the Anglo-Saxon presence return to Europe.

They rend the fabric of American society with acts of lawlessness and chaos, diametrically opposed to the established order and balance of Western Civilization.

The plain truth is that the border did not cross these individuals—as they maintain—but they broke into our national house and now they must leave, because they are enemy combatants who came to eclipse the Anglo-Saxon race in its own homeland.

As it turns out; the real “coward” in racial matters, is Attorney General Eric H. Holder, who has failed to enforce the laws which protect our nation from invasion.

What is behind this misconception by lawmakers, of societal obligation which comes under the rubric “compassionate conservatism?” Does it mean that this nation must turn the other side of its throat to the Mexican Deguello, during a time of war for our national survival?

The plain truth is, that our politicians do not recognize the face of The Second Mexican War and this telegraphs a dangerous message of weakness and lack of national resolve, to all adversaries of this great nation.

The real litmus test of national survival is to define a nation by its borders and not subscribe to the failed theory of a Marxist usurper that America be redefined by a “sense of fairness,” in submitting to wholesale invasion of our shores by intruders who come from every corner of the globe.

Nor does this test decree that everyone must pay his “fair share” of danegeld payment to the Federal Reserve Bank, which extorts trillions of dollars from a people enslaved to the chains of usury, at the hands of a central molesting bank.

Definitions are most important, when drafting grand plans of social engineering or defining a problem for our national perusal and consideration—not hollow political slogans, like “Built to last.”

Just what is exactly meant by the so-called “comprehensive immigration reform,” which keeps turning up like a bad penny, every time it is swatted down by the American people?

Does it really mean that America must accommodate the hostile foreign power of Mexico in its delusions of grandeur and conquest of America? Does it involve solving Mexico’s social ills, to the exclusion of the God-given right of the American people to secure their country and political process from infiltration by those who would bring this republic to its knees and eclipse our national self-determination?

These matters must come under closer scrutiny and discussion which enlightens degenerate politicians as to what exactly the American people will or will NOT tolerate– especially in light of the glaring fact that these alien cultures are inassimilable to the national body, as evidenced by the crimes they commit after gaining admission to our shores.

Our country has unwittingly served to incubate the eggs of a parasitic agenda, of the deadliest hostility to the national security interests of the United States of America.

This failure to hold politicians accountable for saying exactly what they mean and who they represent and stand for, is the great task for which the American people must be the architects of a solid structural foundation, based on reality they convey to their “leaders.”

“La Raza” is that alien entity, which seeks to subvert the American political process with “Latino civil rights.”

The glaring reality which now confronts Americans, is the open race war prosecuted against our dominant Anglo-Saxon culture by those minorities which feel entitled to eclipse the white race, by employing baby-making as a strategy of war.

“You don’t speak for me,” is the mantra and name of an organization of Hispanics, who beg to differ with the fiction in the Mexican mind—as openly expressed by a long line of Mexican presidents—that the borders of Mexico extend into the United States of America.

The position of the American people is that there will be NO sappy sentimentality, nor will there be a “compassionate” approach to the hostile overtures coming from Mexico and the ten Central and South American countries, which set the outrageous precedent of filing legal suit against the state of Arizona, for alleged “racism.”

“To survive as an independent nation, America must discriminate. America must exclude, and no longer tolerate its enemies. America must be prejudiced.”

Dr. David A. Yeagley

http://www.badeagle.com/2011/03/03/amercia-must-discriminate/

“Today in the United States, 70 million immigrants later and pouring in at 2.3 million annually–both legal and illegal–our nation shudders from San Francisco to New York and from Chicago to Miami. We rose from 200 million to nearly 300 million in three decades. What was once a benefit to our country is now a full-scale overpopulation and societal crisis.”

Frosty Wooldridge

http://www.frostywooldridge.com/articles/art_titanic_united_states_2003dec.html

Politicians will not like to hear that “true comprehensive immigration reform” means defining the word “immigration,” to mean a euphemism for war. It is offered as the “Newspeak” of Big Brother oligarchy, which employs the so-called “guest worker” as an unwitting third world corporate shock troop, designed by the corporations to subvert the autonomy of the nation-state concept.

The true definition of CIR, means holding Mexico accountable for prosecuting a race war of cultural extinction against the American people.

There can be NO toleration of a Marxist “dual citizenship” paradigm, which comes under the guise of poor, hapless Mexican peasants just wanting a better life…at the expense of the American people, who are resolved on maintaining the cultural integrity of their nation.

America—along with the rest of the globe—finds itself in the midst of worldwide depression, with nations falling like dominoes to the wiles of the international bankers.

These banking swindlers are the dream weavers who impose the “multicultural” model, in the vain hope America will be destroyed by a mish-mash of peoples.

Despite this planetary crisis, the alleged “president” of the United States—who cannot provide a paper trail, as to his identity and qualifications—is importing hundreds of thousands of Muslims, citizens of El Salvador and other nations, into what has become Zoo America and a Tower of Babel.

This transparent subversion of our economy, coming from an obvious quisling, must be met by the firm assertion of the American people that Hispanic concerns are NOT American concerns, especially in light of the fact that every facet of American life has now been infiltrated by an alien influence—which comes at the behest of the international bankers.

The White House and Department of Justice have colluded with the Mexican incursion and must be met toe-to-toe by the American people, who will wag their collective finger in the face of our usurper, Marxist “president.”

The Obama administration has foolishly imagined that it can winnow-out the state of Arizona, for “special handling,” never realizing in its supreme folly that the states are indivisible.

The entire country will back Arizona’s play against federal tyranny.

An attack on one state, is an attack on all of the American people, and will be firmly met by the outrage of the entire country.

The Department of Justice has opted to selectively enforce the law, under color of authority.

Attorney General, Eric H. Holder, was too lazy to even read SB 1070, before coming to the conclusion that Arizona was “racist.” This failure on Holder’s part, illustrates his complete incompetence as a lawmaker, as evidenced by his coming to a judgment, without first examining the facts of a legal case.

The Obama administration has comported itself as a fifth column and despot over the American people.

As things currently stand; a guest worker program for Mexico would definitely be to the benefit of both nations, but it must have certain prerequisites, before it can be enacted—among them; the formal signature of Mexico in abandoning all claims within the United States of America, as defined by the international border.

Mexico must understand that there will be NO reconquest of American territory for Mexico and that the host/parasite arrangement between our two nations has come to an end.

Any concessions made to Mexico must include the fundamental understanding that America is NOT Santa Claus, in gifting American citizenship to the world, nor is it a safety valve for failed nations.

The alleged “president” who fashions himself a “Citizen of the World,” has failed to fathom this fundamental concept. That is because he is an illegal alien.

Mexico must pay for the welfare of its own citizens while they are true “guests” in this country and the American people are in no way obligated to provide a social safety net for Mexican nationals—or perks of American citizenship, for that matter.

In short, Mexico will pick up the tab for building housing and educational centers for Mexican workers while they are in this country. Mexico will also provide social security benefits, medical care, food bank assistance for underemployed Mexican workers and all the other amenities and hallmarks of a civilized society, which they have historically failed to provide for their own people.

Such things are not the obligation of America.

Mexico is fantastically wealthy in natural resources, tourist beaches and Indian temples. That nation can well afford to pay its own way with silver, Mexican oil and agricultural products, without having to comport itself as a parasitic leech on the United States of America.

Mexico must understand that should it fail to come into alignment with the demands of the American people, the border will be sealed and the lid allowed to boil off the pot in Mexico City, for the Second Mexican Revolution.

The violence coming from the drug war spilling across the border, may actually necessitate a U.S. military occupation of Mexico.

Due to the millions upon millions of unemployed Americans; Mexican nationals will only be allowed to work in the agricultural industry and possibly the equestrian industry, where their special talents are badly needed. This must be a defining parameter of any new treaty, based on real friendship and mutual consideration, between our two countries.

All other American jobs will be off limits, as there are too many Americans wandering the streets, homeless, dirty and hungry—who can use the landscaping and other jobs currently held by Mexican nationals and other foreigners.

America abandoned slavery during the Lincoln administration, so the American people naturally want to see the Mexican people succeed and prosper, just so long as it is not at the expense of Americans and their cultural identity.

Americans must have the political self-determination as to who comes here and for how long they can stay, rather than having an unwanted Mexican occupation army forced on them, along with the responsibility of its care and feeding.

This writer read the story of two Mexican men, who walked across a fiery desert, bare-footed, in order to save their shoes for employment. Americans admire this kind of resolve and would truly prefer to be a “welcoming nation” for those who really want to improve themselves and provide for their families.

These Mexican nationals would be honored guests and treated with the utmost respect, by a generous American people. But as things now stand, our two nations are in a state of race war.

What politicians must understand, is that Americans are generous-to-a-fault, but that generosity does not extend to giving our nation away to the Mexican invasion and its attendant crime wave, which currently runs rampant over the Southwestern states of our Union.

It also means that the American people will NOT be seduced by hollow political slogans, which are sound and fury—signifying nothing, but capitulation, in this Second Mexican War.

The message here for Senator Rubio, is that the American people too, “have the courage and bravery to raise their voices” as well as the children of Mexican nationals.

Let us hope that the resolute message of the American people, is not lost on those who have thus far failed to differentiate their constituents from bold interlopers.

© Thor H. Asgardson

 

WesternFront America

The only constant in the life of individuals and nations is change. Since the beginning of the last century, the process or rate of change has accelerated with the invention and availability of a myriad of machines, technologies that have altered the lifestyle of Americans as well as of millions around the world.

Let me put it in personal terms. When I was born in the late 1930s, my Mother washed the family laundry by hand and hung it out to dry on sunny days or in the basement of our home if it was raining. We were not poor. We were middle class. My Father was a Certified Public Accountant and we lived in a spacious suburban home in an upscale New Jersey community. Mass produced washers and dryers would arrive after the end of World War Two.

The differences between lower economic classes, the middle class, and upper classes were well defined back then. All, however, generally held the same values regarding societal institutions such as marriage, religion, national pride. Those values have eroded since the 1960s and Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, whose new book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010” ($27.00, Crown Forum) tells you how and why.

Murray takes the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22,, 1963 as the starting point, noting, for example, that “Not only were Americans almost always married, mothers normally stayed at home to raise their children. More than 80 percent of married women with children were not working outside the home in 1963.”

“Part of these widely shared values lay in the religiosity of America in 1963” and Murray compares this to a 1963 Gallup poll in which “Only one percent of respondents said they did not have a religious preference, and half said they had attended a worship service in the previous seven days. These answers showed almost no variations across classes.”

“The racial differences in income, education, and occupations were all huge, noted Murray. “The civil rights movement was the biggest domestic issue of the early 1960s…” By 1963, “Poverty had been dropping so rapidly for so many years that Americans thought things were going well.”

The changes in values that many Americans deplore today were coming. “The first oral contraceptive pill had gone on the market in 1960 and its use was spreading widely.” Murray points out that “The leading cohorts of the baby boomers were in their teens by November 21, 1963, and, for better or worse, they were going to be who they were going to be. No one understood at the time what a big difference it could make if one age group of a population is abnormally large. Everyone was about to find out.”

“This book,” wrote Murray, “is about the evolution in American society that has taken place since November 21, 1963, leading to the formation of classes that are different in kind and in their degree of separation from anything that the nation has ever known.”

The culture that Americans shared uniquely and in contrast to much of the world, warns Murray “is unraveling” as “America is coming apart at the seams—not the seams of race or ethnicity, but of class.”

Murray defines the new upper class “as the most successful five percent of adults ages 25 and older who are working in managerial positions, in the professions (medicine, the law, engineering and architecture, the sciences, and university faculty), and in content-production jobs in the media.”

“As of 2010, about 23 percent of all employed persons aged 25 or older were in these occupations, which means that about 1,427,000 persons constituted the top 5 percent. Since 69 percent of adults in these occupations who were ages 25 and older were married in 2010, about 2.4 million adults were in new-upper-class families as heads of households or spouse.” That’s a very small slice of 330 million Americans.

They are not the “millionaires and billionaires” that President Obama is always blathering about. They are the new “establishment” that determine much about the nation’s culture, economy, and future.

To boil down Murray’s extensive research and reporting, that top 5 percent are largely isolated from the rest of the population because they tend to live where their counterparts live and interact mostly with one another in all aspects of their lives. They are the new “elite.”

“Rolling back income inequality won’t make any difference in the isolation of the new upper class from the rest of America.” They are wealthy by most standards and Murray expects them to become wealthier over time. Thus, all the talk of “fairness” and “a fair share” is meaningless.

“Fairness” as many point out, is just another word for “class warfare.” It has always been the siren call of communism.

Efforts in America and in Europe to create “fairness” in the form of our “entitlement” programs and the extensive European socialism have reached a point where they threaten to collapse our own and the economies of many European nations.

Murray says “We have been the product of the cultural capital bequeathed to us by the system the founders laid down; a system that says people must be free to live life as they see fit and to be responsible for the consequences of their actions; that it is not the government’s job to protect people from themselves; that it is not the government’s job to stage-manage how people interact with one another. Discard the system that created the cultural capital, and the qualities we have loved about Americans will go away.”

The system, of course, is free-market capitalism, deregulation, and lower marginal income tax rates, all within the context of the U.S. Constitution. It is under attack by the President of the United States and a cohort of civil service and industrial unions, along with liberal members of Congress.

It is why the Republican primaries have been, in part, a desperate effort to educate Americans to the reason America is in peril and why Americans must strive to restore the values that were shared on November 22, 1963.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

 

WesternFront America

It is the crime of the century that America, home to some of the world’s greatest reserves of coal, natural gas and oil, is being deliberately destroyed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior as they do everything in their power to restrict access and drive energy producers out of business.

It is common sense that a nation that cannot produce sufficient electricity to turn on its lights and power its manufacturing sector will be destroyed if current Obama administration regulations and actions continue. Our vital transportation sector and all others that utilize petroleum-based products will suffer, too.

While President Obama babbles about millionaires and billionaires, everyone will be impoverished by the loss of jobs and revenue our energy sector produces now and can produce in the future.

This isn’t an “energy policy.” It’s a “no-energy policy” and it is a guarantee of economic disaster.

Obama’s decision to reject a permit for Canada’s XL Keystone pipeline is just one example. It is a job-killer and a revenue-killer. There are thousands of pipelines serving America’s energy needs and the XL Keystone pipeline would ensure that Canada’s own vast energy reserves would flow to America. It is one of our key trade partners and Obama has slapped it in the face.

In early January, Ken Salazar, the Secretary of the Interior, announced a new 20-year, million-acre ban on uranium mining for federal lands in Arizona, despite the fact that these lands hold the highest-grade of known uranium deposits in the United States. It is an outrage that a new GOP-Congress will have to overturn if the nation is to be assured of sufficient uranium to power its nuclear plants and for weapons development. If the ban remains, these uranium resources would be inaccessible until 2023!

Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research said that Salazar’s announcement “further compounds a man-made energy crisis that has been planned and executed in Washington, D.C.”

At the same time we are learning of enormous natural gas discoveries that can reduce our energy bills and turn sleeping little towns into boomtowns, environmental organizations have launched a vast propaganda campaign against “fracking”, a technology that has been safely used for more than fifty years. Their claims about dangers to the nation’s supply of fresh water are baseless. Their claims that fracking has caused earthquakes in Ohio are absurd.

Need it be said that the Environmental Protection Agency has turned its eyes on fracking and is working on a report due later this year that will likely call for harsh crackdowns on its use and more regulations to throttle the expansion of natural gas extraction?

The EPA has just released a report of those power plants that top the list of its regulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. There is no basis in science to justify the reduction of CO2. Indeed, since it is a gas on which all vegetation depends, much as oxygen is vital to all animal life, reducing it would impair great crop yields and healthier forests.

These regulations are based on the global warming hoax that blamed CO2 for warming the earth. That is utterly false. The Earth is currently in a perfectly natural cooling cycle and the climate of the Earth is almost entirely based on the Sun—solar radiation—along with the actions of oceans, clouds, and even volcanic activity that spews tons of particulates into the atmosphere.

Coal-fired power plants account for fifty percent of all the electricity generated in the United States. Fifty percent! And yet the EPA is determined to shut down dozens of them providing that vital factor in the lives of all Americans and the economy, nor does this take into account the billions that energy producers have spent to upgrade their technology to reduce emissions.

The Obama administration fuel economy agenda, a call for 54.5 miles per gallon ignores simple physics. There is a finite amount of energy a gallon of gas can generate. If you dilute it with ethanol as is currently required, you get even less mileage. The administration is trying to circumvent Congress by issuing standards based on regulating “greenhouse gas emissions”, but there is no need for this. It is a false argument. The Center for Automotive Research says that the proposed new standards would cause the retail price of average motor vehicles to increase by more than $11,000.

Americans and the nation’s future are being victimized by Obama administration policies. The 18th annual Index of Economic Freedom, was released on January 12th by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, measures the many factors that contribute to the economic health of a nation—things like property rights, regulatory efficiency, open markets, free trade and labor policies.

Economic freedom is declining worldwide as governments try to spend their way out of the global recession. The United States fell to 10th place. In 2009 it ranked 6th, in 2010 it was 8th, and in 2011, it was 9th.

We are witnessing the deliberate murder of a superpower.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

 

WesternFront America

It’s time to apply endangered species, wildlife and economic laws fairly and equitably .

“… gleaming white wind turbines generating carbon-free electricity carpet chaparral-covered ridges and march down into valleys of Joshua trees.” This is “the future” of American energy – not “the oil rigs planted helter-skelter in [nearby] citrus groves,” nor the “smoggy San Joaquin Valley” a few miles away.

The Forbes article’s poetic paean to Aeolian energy nevertheless voiced consternation that a 300-megawatt “green” turbine project might kill some of the magnificent California condors that are just coming back from the edge of extinction – and the project might be cancelled as a result.

Indeed, the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has asked Kern County to “exercise extreme caution” in approving projects in the Tehapachi area, because of potential threats to condors. The “conundrum will force some hard choices about the balance we are willing to strike between obtaining clean energy and preserving wild things,” the article suggested. Hopefully, it concluded, new “avian radar units” will be able to detect condors and automatically shut down turbines when one approaches.

All Americans hope condors will not be sliced and diced by giant Cuisinarts. But most of us are puzzled that so few “environmentalists” and FWS “caretakers” express concern about the countless bald and golden eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures, ducks, geese, bats and other rare, threatened, endangered and common flying creatures imperiled by turbine blades.

And many of us get downright angry at the selective, indeed hypocritical ways in which endangered species and other wildlife laws are applied – leaving wind turbine operators free to exact their carnage, while harassing and punishing oil companies and citizens.

In 2011, following an intensive million-dollar, 45-day helicopter search for dead birds in North Dakota oil fields by FWS officials, US Attorney Timothy Purdon prosecuted seven oil and gas companies for inadvertently killing 28 mallard ducks, flycatchers and other common birds that were found dead in or near uncovered waste pits. Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the companies and their executive officers faced fines of up to $15,000 per bird, plus six months in prison. (They eventually agreed to plead guilty and pay $1,000 per bird.)

Also in 2011, an FWS agent charged an 11-year-old Virginia girl with illegally “taking” a baby woodpecker that the girl had rescued from a housecat, even though she intended to release the bird after ensuring it was OK. The threatened $535 fine was finally dropped, after the FWS was deservedly ridiculed in the media.

The mere possession of an eagle feather by a non-Indian can result in fines and imprisonment, even if the feather came from a bird butchered by a wind turbine: up to $100,000, a year in prison or both for a first offense. Poisoning or otherwise killing common bats that have nested in one’s attic can cost homeowners thousands of dollars in fines.

Wind turbine companies, officers and employees, however, are immune from prosecution, fines or imprisonment, regardless of how many rare, threatened, endangered or migratory birds and bats they kill. In fact, FWS data show that wind turbines slaughter some 400,000 birds every year. If “helter-skelter” applies to any energy source, it is wind turbines, reflecting their Charles Manson effect on birds.

The hypocritical Obama-Purdon-FWS policy certainly protects, promotes and advances an anti-hydrocarbon, catastrophic global warming agenda that is increasingly at odds with environmental, scientific, economic, job-creation and public opinion reality. It also safeguards wind turbines that survive solely because of government mandates, taxpayer subsidies … and exemptions from laws that penalize and terrorize the rest of us.

It may be true that housecats and reflective windows kill more songbirds than turbines do. However, that oft-cited defense of wind energy Cuisinarts is irrelevant to the birds and bats discussed here.

Even if avian radar and turbine shutdown systems do eventually work, and can actually and abruptly stop turbine blades before they butcher an approaching bird, should they be limited to condors? Shouldn’t they be required for eagles and falcons – and for hawks, ducks, flycatchers, bats and other protected species? Geese, for example, to prevent a repeat of the December 7, 2011 massacre of numerous snow geese by wind turbines along upstate New York Route 190, as reported by a motorist?

Why aren’t wind developers and permitting authorities required to consider the lost economic benefits of butchered birds and bats, which do so much to control rats and insects that carry diseases and destroy crops? Shouldn’t that analysis be made mandatory, as more wind projects are proposed, thereby posing an ever-increasing threat to numerous species – and even to the survival of some?

Of course, even condor protection alone could reduce affected turbine electricity output to 20 or even 10% of rated capacity, instead of their current 30% average. Adding other protected species would drive nearly all actual wind turbine electricity output down below 5% – making the turbines virtually worthless, and driving the exorbitant cost of wind energy even higher.

But why should wind turbines be above the law? In fact, why should we even worry about reducing their electricity output?

America’s environmentalists, legislators, judges and bureaucrats have already made hundreds of millions of acres of resource-rich land off limits – and rendered centuries of oil, gas, coal, uranium, geothermal and other energy unavailable. The Environmental Protection Agency’s anti-coal zero-pollution rules, intense opposition to the Keystone pipeline, and looming restrictions on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas are already further impairing electricity and other energy availability and reliability.

This government-imposed energy deprivation is already driving families into energy poverty and sending more jobs overseas.

Put bluntly, wind energy is unsustainable. It kills unconscionable numbers of bats, raptors and other birds. It requires billions in perpetual subsidies – and billions more for (mostly) gas-fired backup generators. It impacts millions of acres of scenic, wildlife and agricultural land – and depends on vast amounts of raw materials, whose extraction and processing further impairs global land, air and water quality. Its expensive, unreliable electricity kills two jobs for every one supposedly created.

A far more rational public policy would cut out the costly, unreliable middleman. It would forget about wind turbines, simply build more gas, coal and nuclear generators, to generate reliable, affordable, sustainable electricity – and apply the same laws fairly and equitably to all energy sources.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death.

 

WesternFront America

In 1991, the Soviet Union, arguably the greatest experiment in Communism, collapsed. After Mao Zedong died in 1976, his successors moved to shift its Communist economy to one that embraced Capitalism while retaining centralized government control.

Following World War Two, the recovering nations of Europe were rescued from Communism by the Marshall Plan, but adopted Communism-Light in the form of Socialism. The U.S. was already headed in that direction, creating programs that we now call “entitlements.” For most of the nation’s history, such “entitlements” did not exist.

What binds together the financial problems of the West is the common thread of infantile behavior and thought. One might call it wishful thinking. Instead of encouraging people to provide for old age and possible illness, politicians decided to turn government into Big Daddy, the eternal source of money for everything.

Need to go to college, start a business, or plan for retirement? Government would be there to help. All this ignored the need to actually pay for these programs. In the case of Social Security Congress began to dip into its funding to pay for other programs! This is what children do.

One can look around the world and see what a failure both Communism and Socialism have been. Governments spending more than their tax and other revenues have suffered grievously from this path to default and that includes the United States of America. It can be argued that, with few exceptions–the Reagan years come to mind—Presidents have been poorly served by their economic advisors.

Politicians make poor economists because, in America, members of the House must think of getting reelected every two years and Senators every six. Moreover, being politicians, they believe that the more federal largess they can bring back to their State and then brag about is the one true path to reelection.

At the very beginning of the nation, Thomas Jefferson said it best. “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”

How many commissions and special committees have earnestly produced reports intended to deal with a government grown too large? At the federal level, some two million or more Americans are employed promulgating a deluge of regulations and pushing paper.

Now President Obama says he wants to streamline the federal government.
The real issue is not “streamlining” government agencies by gathering them together under one roof and one administrator, but the failure to end government departments and agencies that no longer serve a useful purpose and whose removal would also remove countless obstacles to economic growth.

In April 2011, Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute warned that “the federal government is on track to spend more than $3.5 trillion this year. What most people don’t know is that government actually costs about 50% more than what it spends. That’s because complying with federal regulations costs an additional $1.75 trillion—nearly an eighth of GDP. And almost none of that cost appears on the budget.”
The United States of America, the greatest engine of wealth the world has ever seen, is bankrupt. The national debt exceeds the Gross Domestic Product, the sum total of all revenue generated by goods and services.

The President has asked that the debt ceiling be raised another trillion or so and Congress will comply. That, I submit, is insane.

I also submit that, since Barack Obama was sworn into office on January 20, 2009, the nation has been witness to the economic insanity personified in the man and in the Democrat-controlled Congress that was his partner until 2010 when the control of the House of Representatives was wrested away by the Tea Party movement and its support for Republican candidates.

The only constant in life is change. America’s demography has changed. We have, thanks to medical care and other advantages, a much older segment of the population than ever before, but the nation from the 1930s to the 1960s had committed itself to ensure they would have Medicare and Medicaid at a time when people more often than not died in their 50’s and 60’s. We now have an average life expectancy of 78 years. My parents lived into their 90s.

Politics, not economics, continues to make it impossible to revise and restructure both Medicare and Social Security to reflect this reality. Instead, we had Obamacare foisted upon us which took trillions from Medicare and imposes rules that will let elderly heart attack or stroke victims die rather than pay for a level of care to which they contributed during their working years.

If the Supreme Court declares Obamacare unconstitutional it will go away. If we elect a Republican Senate, the repeal already passed in the House will be passed and it will go away.

But America’s economic problems will not go away until Americans insist that the shackles of Big Government be cut loose to enable the growth of an energy industry that can not only make the nation energy independent, but produce billions in revenue as far as the eye can see into the future.

The tax system with its thousands of pages must be revised to a simpler, fairer program. It makes no sense that forty percent of Americans pay no taxes at all.
It’s not that we don’t know what must be done. Conservative think tanks like The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, The Heartland Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and others have spelled out programs that can and will save America, but the nation must be led by a president who understands that Capitalism involves budgeting, planning, hard work, and—yes—risk.

The federal government is running on “continuing resolutions.” It has not had a formal budget since Obama arrived. This is no way to run the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. America is on a suicide watch and we are just an election away from saving it.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

 

WesternFront America

With eyes of the world focused on South Carolina this last week before the primary election on Saturday, January 21^st, we felt now would be a good time to offer some insight into the people of my home state and the “Southern People” as a whole.

Every four years, I offer my little primer as an introduction and a navigation aid to those who suddenly find themselves about to be immersed in southern culture for the first time.

If you are representing the mainstream media, and this is your first visit to my country, prepare for a culture shock.

The southern people are distinctively different from the folks “up north.” The South was settled primarily by Scott-Irish with a smattering of Germans in the Mid-Atlantic area, as well as French Huguenots, and some Spanish along our coast. Our heritage IS very different.

You don’t hear it spoken of much anymore, but there still exists a “Code of the South.” No, it is NOT a myth.

You can sum it up in one word. “HONOR”. We cherish honor above everything else. Without honor, all that remains has no value.

Southerners believe each man and woman has a duty, a responsibility, to seek nobility in life and in purpose. No matter his, or her, station in life, or the social strata he, or she, was born into. There is nobility in fighting the good fight, on your job, on the field of battle, at anything you turn your hand to do.

Southerners believe we were, indeed, created in the image of God. We have a duty to uphold that image as best we can. It is a continuous battle against the trials of life, but to shirk one’s duty, in this respect, is unforgivable. It is dishonorable.

We are a culture apart. We like it that way. We have no intention of changing. To do so would be to dishonor all those who have gone before us as well as their creation of this sanctified, set apart, land. “The South” is to Southerners what the Holy Land is to the Jewish people.

Never question the honor of a Southerner. It is considered a challenge and your challenge WILL be answered.

A Southerner will go to the wall to defend honor. No matter the size of the opponent, no matter the place, or the time. Honor will be defended.

There is an inviolate line, which must never be crossed. Where does that line lie? Everywhere. For instance, you do not disparage our women. That is at the top of the list of inviolate things. Others include: our homes, our friends, our religion, our military abilities, and you surely do not speak disparagingly about our ancestors. To violate any of these will bring the wrath of the South down on your head in an instant.

You may have noticed Southerners do not back down. We refuse to accept defeat.

We are accused, often, of still fighting the War Between the States. That is true. We consider this era of forced quietude only half time between us and the North. We have never laid the war down. To quit, to surrender, is not acceptable in our code of honor. So, we fight on. Understand… we will win. It may take another hundred, or even two hundred, years, but we will prevail. We never forget, and we never quit.

It has been said that Southerners are America’s true “Warrior Class.” Consider the great warriors of America. For the most part, they were/are Southerners.

War comes naturally to Southerners. The Scot-Irish-German blood flowing in our veins and the Southern Code of Chivalry we learn from birth creates the most fearsome warrior on the face of the earth.

The true Southerner is a gentleman, or lady, always. Well, right up ‘til he takes your head off. He will knock you down then offer his hand to lift you back to your feet. If you make the same mistake again, you will find yourself in need of that helping hand to get you off your backside … again.

Southerners are deeply religious people. We unashamedly believe in God. We believe the Bible is His Holy Word. At the same time we know one cannot be perfect, but we believe every Southerner is born into this world with the obligation to strive for perfection. Anything less is totally unacceptable. It has been said this is the Southern interpretation of the European “Noblise Oblige.” Southerners know in the depths of their being they have an obligation to strive for nobility.

The Southern society is not a classless society. We acknowledge our society has an upper, middle, and a lower class. But we believe the obligation to nobility crosses those boundaries and emboldens even the least of us to carry the honor of his name, and his family’s heritage, without stain. Anything less is unacceptable.

Yes, you WILL see the Confederate Battle Flag snapping in the pine-scented southern breeze. Get used to it. It is flown in honor of our heritage – and—as a warning that the people of The South will not suffer tyranny from ANY quarter.

There exists a divide between the Northern People and the Southern People in this nation. The divide is vast and unnavigable. We are two different peoples held together by law. The bayonet enforced the bondage of the Southern peoples. We have not forgotten. Nor will we. We know these bonds are only temporary. We work tirelessly for the day we will once again be ruled only by God and voice of the Southern people.

Tis honor, above all else. It is our code. It is written on our hearts.

So — I hope this little primer on “The South” is helpful to you media types and political apparatchiks. Remember, always: You are visitors in our home and we expect you respect our hospitality and generosity and do not besmirch what you most certainly do not understand.

And finally, if we like you, you will be sent on your way with the now world-famous: “Y’all come back – ya hear?”

J. D. Longstreet
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VOTE CONSERVATIVE IN NOVEMBER 2012
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Conservative? Then visit “INSIGHT on Freedom” at http://www.csadispatch.blogspot.com/ Find conservative comment on nearly everything at “INSIGHT on Freedom!”

 

WesternFront America

This is one of the most important columns I’ll ever write and I’ve written several thousand over the years.

While millions were guzzling the booze, the usurper, Barry Soetoro aka Barack Obama, decided to sign the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year’s eve while playing in Hawaii on borrowed taxpayer dollars.

As millions who are informed about the internal destruction of this country read the language of S. 1867 and the house version, H.R. 1540, controversy arose over several sections (1021, 1022 and in the senate bill 1032); in particular the word requirement.

SEC. 1032. REQUIREMENT FOR MILITARY CUSTODY continues over to page 362:

(b) APPLICABILITY TO UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS.

(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS. The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.

 

WesternFront America

Back in August of 2008 I wrote the following:

“When is America going to wake up? WILL she wake up? Will she wake up in time? Or, will time run out? We have been sliding down that slippery slope at an every increasing velocity since the 1960’s. We’re not losing our freedom. We’re not losing our country. No. We’re giving it all away.

We have compromised and compromised until we have little left TO compromise. Yet, we have two presidential candidates, right now, who are BOTH believers in compromise. They make a big deal of their willingness to compromise. What is needed is the testosterone to stand up on our two feet, like men, and shake our fist in the face of our enemies and say, NO MORE! This is it! We are done giving you what you want just to be left alone in our comfortable little cocoons.

The wolves have been gathering in an ever-tightening circle. They are closing in one step at a time. And we Americans don’t see it. Instead we continue to feed them while telling ourselves if we give them what they want they will be our friends. We have chosen to forget one of the laws of Nature. Wolves are what wolves are. They do what wolves do. Even a wolf, thought to be domesticated, is liable to turn and leap for the throat of the person who supposes he is the wolf’s master. Yes, wolves do as wolves have always done… because they ARE wolves.

America’s enemies are gathered against us. They are tightening the circle. Even now they are among us. Sadly, a look in the mirror will reveal the identity of America’s worst enemies.” (SOURCE)

At the time I wrote that dire prospective, America was nearing a Presidential Election …  an election that would fundamentally change our country for the worst.  It was an election, as it turned out, that has nearly destroyed, especially,  America’s Middle Class.

As we had warned, many times, neither of the men on the ballot would be good for America.  One would continue the (then) agenda of the current administration and the other would, most certainly, take the country into socialism and set America up to become a communist dictatorship.

Many thought I could not be more wrong – and said so. Today, however, many of those people who derided my dark prognostications then, will not communicate with me today for their embarrassment.  They need not be embarrassed.  Being wrong is a part of the human condition.  But one of the traits that sets us above the other animals inhabiting the earth is our ability to learn from our mistakes — and not repeat them.

Now we have the chance to put what we have learned in the past years of Obama’s Administration into practice.  We have a chance to right the wrong and to begin an American recovery.  I say “begin” because I am still not convinced Mr. Romney has the heft to do what is going to be necessary to reverse Americans deep plunge into Obama’s sewer of socialism and communism.  But he WOULD be a start.  And let’s not kid ourselves:  The scars of the Obama regime are deep and ugly and they will last forever.

Look.  Let’s be clear about this:  The mess we are in, as a nation, is going to take generations to neutralize.  I use the word “neutralize,” because first — we must stop the slide into that sewer I mentioned above.  Then, and only then, can we begin to reverse ourselves and begin to claw our way upwards into the sunshine again.

I asked the question in the title:  Is it already too late for America?  I titled this piece that way because I think each of us, as Americans, must look in the mirror and ask the same question of ourselves.  For it is WE who will decide the answer.

I cannot tell you have often I have had friends, in recent years, remark to me:  “I don’t recognize this country, anymore.  This is not the America I knew.”  That is true.  But the thing I find most interesting about their depressed musing — is the lack of bitterness and anger.  There was remorse in their words and tone, but none of that famed American determination aimed at correcting whatever had thrown America off course.  It is as if they have simply thrown in the towel, given up, and admitted defeat to themselves — if not quite to others yet.  I am terribly afraid that the fire, for many, has gone out.

Understand:  The primary tool of the political left, all over the world, against those who do not hew to the leftist line, is to denigrate, degrade, rebuff, mock,  and hold up to public ridicule all those who do not think the way they do.  And when rhetoric fails, as we learned from the 1930’s, they quickly resort to physical abuse by leftist thugs.  We saw some of that in the 2010 political cycle right here in America.  Look for physical abuse to be more wide spread this year as we draw nearer to the Presidential Election.

To answer my own question — whether or not it is already too late for America – we will all know the answer to that in November.  If Obama wins – yes, it IS all over for America.  If his opponent wins, well, we have a chance, a small one at best — but a chance, nevertheless, to save our country.

J. D. Longstreet
***********************************
VOTE CONSERVATIVE IN NOVEMBER 2012
***********************************
Conservative? Then visit “INSIGHT on Freedom” at http://www.csadispatch.blogspot.com/ Find conservative comment on nearly everything at “INSIGHT on Freedom!”

 

WesternFront America