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

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

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
***********************************
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

…POWER IS CENTRALIZING

By Al Cronkrite

The world has come to an intersection and is now rolling down a new highway. Major changes are in progress:

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement sprang up almost magically as an agent of impending change.

Mary Gabriel, author of the Karl Marx biography “Love and Capital” points to a renewed interest in Karl Marx and the similarity of his era to ours. She cites the industrial revolution as the engine for change in his era and the electronic age in ours.

South Korean economist, Dr. Ha-Joon Chang, a graduate and associate at Cambridge University, wades into the economic foray with terrible diction but a fresh approach.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), a far left, government financed, change agent, is a source of support for OWS and was previously a domicile for President Obama. Acorn seeks a Red tinted change.

Pregnant with power Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren is running for the Senate in 2012. New York Times writer Jeff Madrick said of her book “The Two Income Trap”, ”The upshot is that two-income families often have even less income left over today than did an equivalent single-income family 30 years ago, even when they make almost twice as much.” Hear here.

We have veered from the highway of the maverick nationalism of Pat Buchanan onto the road to the new world order of David Rockefeller

The World Bank writes about change as if it is a natural evolutionary process but the dethroning of the United States of America and the theft of the wealth of its citizens has been planned and executed over a period of several decades by stealth and treachery. The exact source remains opaque but the results are clearly visible. Elections have not had nor will they have any effect on the process which proceeds inexorably regardless of political party.

All efforts to stop this evil plan will fail. Even with the mass resistance to the coddling of illegal aliens we have lost the State of California and citizens across the country remain harnessed to supporting foreigners who are breaking our laws and are intent on overthrowing our government. If we cannot solve the immigration problem how can we expect to be successful against the mysterious progress of world government?

We are fighting a powerful, invisible enemy with the useless weapons of a shredded Constitution and loud complaints. We listen to the interminable remedial rhetoric of political candidates which seems to provide solutions but when the candidate is elected the promises are forgotten and the office holder quickly cow tows to the mysterious powers that seek to destroy us. It has been repeated over and over again with the same results. In this video Adam Kokesh interviews a warmongering woman who when confronted with the truth simply walks away. She, like most Americans, cannot and will not hear the truth! This serious malady is rampant at the bottom and at the top.

Kevin Barrett interviews columnist and former presidential candidate, Pat Buchanan, confronting him with serious questions about 9/11 (Near the end). Buchanan stubbornly refuses to consider either the thought or the evidence.

Someone recently sent me this beautiful rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It is a beautiful song but it is also pure propaganda. Our Triune Christian God supports neither illegal wars nor the armies that carry them out. The mass murder of millions of human beings created in His image is an unimaginable abomination.

The Daily Bell recently published an article that referred to the injustices (Genocide) done to the American Indians. Christians assume that God’s blessing is detached from behavior and like the Pharisees arrogantly cling to their erroneous assumptions. With pompous righteousness we decorate the bumpers of our cars with stickers that read “God Bless America” falsely assuming that He will bless us on demand without regard for our behavior.

There are demonstrations going on around the world, Egypt, Syria, Greece, and now in the United States. The demonstrations may bring a change in government but the change will be toward consolidation of power, not toward freedom. Greece has installed a new government that will consolidate power and bring Greece back in the European Union.

The OWS demonstrations here in the United States are ostensibly leaderless but if these demonstrations continue order will come through a tyrannical consolidation of conspiratorial power.

The viable candidates for president of the United States are already bought and paid for. It makes no difference whether Obama is re-elected or Gingrich or Romney is successful, the loss of freedom and the destruction of our nation will continue unabated. Complaints that the Constitution is being ignored will continue to fall on deaf ears. New travesties will constantly appear. We will complain but our complaints will be ignored.

Though you will not like it and may not be able to hear it let the ancient prophet Jeremiah tell you why we are losing our freedom and our nation is being destroyed. “O Lord do not Thine eyes look for truth? Thou has smitten them, but they did not weaken; Thou hast consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent.” Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 3.

Consider, gentle reader, that in all the political discourse there is no reference to the Creator or to His Law. There is no effort to bring politics under the jurisdiction of the Great God of All Creation. Instead we look to His egotistical, erratic, sinful, political creatures to solve our national problems. Failing to understand that Christians are usually part of the problem we think that the solution is to get Christian men elected to high positions.

Over nearly five decades of captivity to Christ I have been betrayed, cheated, maligned, and condemned more times by Christians than by pagans. Antinomian Christians are often more dangerous than pagans because we expect more from them than their level of maturity warrants.

It is the refusal to be corrected and the refusal to repent that sets God’s face against the United States of America. Loss of freedom is a punishment from God; it was in ancient Israel and still is today. God is not blessing America; we are losing our freedom!

The Christian Church is the center of God’s judgment. When the Church begins to face reality, recognize the crown on the head of King Jesus, and preach obedience, then freedom will commence to return. Unfortunately, humility is scarce and there is no evidence that repentance and obedience are close at hand. We are traveling on a dark road. Governments killed more of their own people during the Twentieth Century than have died in all the wars of history. Elements involved with the OWS movement would gleefully wipe out the White Race.

“Published originally at EtherZone.com

Al Cronkrite is a free-lance writer from Florida. He a is regular columnist for Ether Zone.
We also invite you to visit his website - http://www.verigospel.com

Al Cronkrite can be reached at: fmsinfla@hotmail.com

 

WesternFront America

An old friend and I were conversing recently and reminiscing about the world we grew up in as opposed to the world we actually live in today. It is something “old-timers” like us have been doing since the dawn of time.

We were comparing the price of gasoline where he lives as opposed to the price for the same gasoline here, where I live, on the edge of a coastal resort area.

We live in neighboring states, but here in NC we have one of the highest state gasoline taxes in the United States. Add to that the proximity of that resort area and I, unfortunately, fall into one of those pricing zones set up for the tourist trade. As a result, the price for gasoline is consistently higher where I live than where he lives… substantially higher.

Of course, we began comparing the price of gasoline today to what we paid for it as teeagers. There is no comparison. Regular gasoline was 13 cents a gallon and high test was 15 cents per gallon. Really expensive gas was 17 cents a gallon for regular and 19 cents a gallon for high test – and that was before gas wars. Then it was not unheard of to pay 11 and 12 cents for a gallon of regular gasoline.

When you went out to purchase a car, you didn’t buy a car that got the best gas mileage – you bought a car you actually wanted! They had lots of steel and lots of chrome. Cars of that age had character unlike these generic models that are so similar you can’t tell who made the cussed thing without getting a good look at the trademark on the hood or trunk lid.

We both remembered the early gas pumps. They had five-gallon glass containers on top. There were manually operated. They had no electric pumps inside them. YOU pumped five gallons of gas from the underground tanks up into that glass container atop the pump with a pump handle. Then you placed the nozzle of the hose into your gas tank and gravity transported the gas from the glass container to the tank of your car. You could only pump five gallons at a time. If you wanted more, that meant you had to repeat the process.

It was quite an experience when it was raining or sleeting – or worse. A dollar’s worth of gasoline would last you all week!

A teenager on a date could have a ball on five dollars — and still have money in his pocket when he got home.

A hamburger was 15 cents and a coke was a five to seven cents, depending upon whether we were in North Carolina or South Carolina. Since we lived right on the border we were then, and remain today, as much at home in one state as the other.

NOBODY, in their wildest dreams, ever thought gasoline would sell for three to four dollars, and more, per gallon. NOBODY. It was inconceivable … period. This was America and such things just did not happen.

But it did happen — all because we were not paying attention. We trusted our government to do what was right for America… not what was politically correct. Suddenly there was something called the Environmental Protection Agency, and something else called the Department of Energy — and by that time — we were well and truly had! We were then, and we are now, sitting on a sea of oil. Yet, our government will not allow us to knock holes in the dirt and suck it out.

We have oil containing rock and oil containing sand and we have vast deposits of oil just off our coasts — in our own territorial waters. It’s just sitting there while we pay through the nose for oil we have to purchase from countries that hate us even after we debase ourselves just for the privilege of buying their oil.

What kind of government does that to its people? Answer: The kind of government we have in Washington, DC.

See, back in the good ole days, we made a terrible mistake. We trusted our government. Now that we KNOW better — it is too late.

Or is it?

If, as some are suggesting, we are about to have a global financial collapse, we’ll get a “do over.” It won’t be pretty and it is going to hurt like the dickens, but if there is a bright side to an economic apocalypse, it may be that we will get a chance to clean our government of the socialists, Marxists, progressives, and left-wing liberals that spent us into this mess.

Some say the Good Ole Days were not all that good. Having lived in both I can tell you the Good Ole Days beat the heck out of the mess we live in today!

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

I have determined the time has come to examine the last few decades of American History, do some analysis, and ask some poignant questions to allow the reader to draw some conclusions and to question some presumptions.

Let’s start with the 60s.  A time when racism was common, segregation, discrimination and bigotry were institutional, and “the man” truly was keeping the black community down.

But “the man” wasn’t your typical right-wing conservative!  It was primarily the DEMOCRATS!

The early civil right movement was supported and encouraged by the GOP and conservatives.  Civil rights legislation was OPPOSED and even filibustered not by those evil right-wing conservatives, but by the LEFT WING Democrats!  (The filibuster of the Civil Rights Act was led by 18 Democrats and a lone Republican, and the HIGHLIGHT of the show was Senator Robert Byrd!)

Bull Connor, whose name is practically synonymous with racism and civil-rights opposition, was not only a Democrat; he was Democratic National Committeeman for Alabama!  He ran for Governor on the Democrat ticket.  He led the Alabama delegation to the 1948 Democratic National Convention to walk out over a civil-rights plank in the platform!

Another iconic Democrat, George Wallace, served as Governor of Alabama.  In his INAUGURAL SPEECH he made the following statement:  “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”

Lyndon Johnson is hailed today as a liberal pioneer and champion of civil rights, but Johnson himself was a notorious racist and no lover of our black brethren.  He did, however, view them as a malleable resource.  He did not oppose civil rights legislation  (which, by the way, was supported by the GOP and opposed by many democrats, and would never have passed without the GOP).  Instead he supported it as a means of securing power for Democrats.  He is famously quoted as saying “I’ll have these (n-words) voting Democrat for the next 100 years!”  He was right!  For the last half of that predicted century – the black community has been a monolithic voting bloc, supporting democrats about 97%.

How’s that workin’ out for ya?

Johnson doubled down on Civil Rights – sensible, reasonable, moral and appropriate legislation – and ushered in the “War on Poverty”.

Vastly expanding on FDR’s New Deal Welfare State, Johnson ushered in a whole new culture, creating generational dependency and a paradigm of the entitlement mentality.

By providing a bare subsistence, but requiring nothing from the recipients; by subsidizing out of wedlock childbearing; by setting the “soft bigotry of low expectations”; a new “system” was created and the “underprivileged” soon learned the rules of the game to receive a meager but adequate living at government expense… without having to learn, earn or contribute to their own subsistence.  Add to this the deference to the Educational Cabal which promoted the teaching unions and denied vouchers and school choice, and the urban schools became cesspools where thriving educationally was virtually impossible.  A new dependency class was born – and could be counted on to vote for their “benefactors”.

How’s that workin’ out for ya?

The “war on poverty” is lost!  More people live near or below the poverty line than when the programs were started.  And for the record, there are as many poor whites as blacks, gaming the same system.  There are as many whites on assistance or food stamps today as blacks.  The “dependency culture” is not melanin specific!

Now let’s look at the 70s

Carter instituted the “Community Reinvestment Act” – ostensibly ending the banking practice of “redlining” which essentially declared entire neighborhoods to be bad loan risks.  A laudable purpose… but the real result of the Act was to force banks to abandon sound underwriting principles and risk assessment, and to make unwise loans to those who were at high risk of default.  This was the beginning of the “Sub Prime” Housing Debacle!

Nevermind that Carter’s other leftist policies drove the country to a “malaise” that brought us to the brink of another 30s style depression.  The CRA (and Clinton’s doubling down on it under the direction of ACORN in the 90s) set in motion the mortgage crisis, the Fannie/Freddie crisis, the banking crisis and ultimately all the economic woes currently being blamed on George Bush!

So how’s THAT workin’ out for ya?

The 80s saw a brief respite!  Reagan’s tax cuts DOUBLED revenues and spurred economic growth unparalleled in at least 30 years!  Despite the Tip O’Neal Congress increasing spending $1.84 for every dollar in new revenue, thus creating the so-called “Reagan Deficits”… the economy generally thrived and expanded.  Unemployment was down.  Interest rates came down.  Inflation came down.  Standards of living went up.  There was optimism in America.

Are you old enough to remember?  Do you miss those days?

The 90s were a mixed bag.  Clinton strengthened and expanded the Community Reinvestment Act – placing even more odious regulations on the banks and essentially telling them they MUST make loans to people who can’t afford them.  The mentality that homeownership is a right superseded the notion that Americans have a right to purchase any home they can afford!  The stage was set for collapse, and collapse it did in the latter half of Bush’s 2^nd term.  But remember that it was the Bush Administration and the GOP in Congress who raised the red flag in 2005, with the Fannie Freddie Hearings (check ‘em out on YouTube!) They sought to curb the problem while it WAS addressable…while the powerful Dems – Dodd, Frank, Waters, Clay etc. all stood up to defend Fannie/Freddie and it’s leadership.  “Nope, no problems here!  Nothing to see here, folks, move along.  Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

How’s THAT workin’ out for ya?

Still there was a silver lining to the 90s.  In 1994 the Gingrich Revolution and the Contract With America swept the GOP into power in the Congress.  With Newt at the helm, Clinton was dragged kicking and screaming to a balanced budget and the first actual SURPLUSSES in 50 years – which of course Clinton took credit for, and which the complicit press has turned into accepted fact over the subsequent decade!  The positive numbers continued until 9/11 and the War on Terror.

The millennial decade is largely misunderstood.  Bush is touted by the left as the worst president ever.  They blame him and the wars for our economic difficulties at the end of his presidency.  But the reality is different from the narrative.

It’s true that the dot-com bubble burst, 9/11 and the wars took a toll on the economy.  We fell from surplus to deficit as we ramped up military action.

Still, Bush’s WORST deficit in his first 6 years (while he had a GOP Congress) was around $430 Billion in 2003.  Yup, His WORST deficit was around half the cost of the Obama Stimulus alone!  Still, that was a big number for its time.  So what did Bush do?  He instituted the Bush Tax Cuts that are once again in the news today!  The result?  3 consecutive years of reducing deficits!  The last year with a GOP Congress, the deficit was cut to only $120 Billion, a reduction of nearly 2/3 in 3 years.  Still, six years into his presidency, Bush was soundly and rightly criticized four raising our 4 Trillion Dollar National Debt by 50% to 6 Trillion.  And the reins of Congress were turned over to Pelosi/Reid.  By the time Obama took office, Pelosi/Reid had added a TRILLION to our annual deficit, and 3 more Trillion to the Debt!  NOTICE that in 2 years Pelosi and Company added 3 Trillion, while it took Bush and the GOP 6 years to add 2 Trillion.

So Obama comes into office with a 9 Trillion dollar debt.  In his time occupying the White House, we’ve seen the debt balloon from 9 Trillion to 15 Trillion… more than a 50% growth in 3 years!

How’s THAT workin’ out for ya?

Are you starting to notice a pattern here?

It’s been said that if you tax something, you get less of it.  If you subsidize something you get more of it.  Why, then, do we tax success and subsidize failure?

How’s that workin’ out for ya?

Copyright © 2011 by Doug Edelman

Doug Edelman is a conservative political analyst and commentator, writes for the St Louis Examiner, at http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-st-louis/doug-edelman and was a contributing editor for The Conservative Voice.  His work has appeared on ChronWatch, Western Front American, Small Government Times, Western Journalism, News By Us, The American Daily, The Post Chronicle, New Media Journal, Capitol Hill Coffee House and more. Mr. Edelman is also an IT Consultant/Contractor and owner of a Computer Services Business.  He has taught PC Maintenance & Repair and Networking at his local Community College, and maintains a blog at http://starboard.blogtownhall.com

 

WesternFront America

Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

~ Margaret Mead (1901-1978)

Chapter 13 of Dr. Benjamin Wiker’s opus, “10 Books that Screwed up the World,” has a remarkable critique of “Coming of Age in Samoa” by the anthropologist Margaret Mead. This secular scripture of the left is a logical fallacy created out of whole cloth in the mind of a young graduate student in anthropology who in 1925 sailed to the island of Tau in American Samoa. According to Wiker, Mead’s work in essence explained “how the pansexual paradise described in ‘Coming of Age in Samoa’ turned out to be a creation of her own sexual confusions and aspirations” – a Freudian psychological projection she wrote with fanatical zeal as a curse upon American society.

To the extent that Mead’s work was immediately and universally heralded by the academy and throughout progressive, socialist and liberal circles was not only an affirmation of the hedonistic times of the “Roaring Twenties” and the Jazz Age when the book was published, in 1928, Mead’s propagandistic attack against the Judeo-Christian sexual morality of the West by slandering the Samoan culture more pointedly is a prophetic utterance of the even more revolutionary times to come during America’s sexual revolutions of the 1960s and ’70s, from which the nation has never recovered.

That Mead used fraudulent methodology in gathering “facts” from primitive myths to suit her philosophical bias is shared by pre-eminent philosophers of the past. For example, Thomas Hobbes’ “Primitive Man” painted a grotesque picture of our natural condition based completely on a myth he created. Rousseau and Freud built upon Hobbes’ “Primitive Man” myth. All these men in essence shamelessly interjected their own personal policy perversions dressed up as trenchant philosophical reasoning and evidence to argue that human nature was best understood in man’s primitive state. Their fundamental supposition can be stated in the simple principle: the natural = the primitive = the good. Whether the savage be good or evil, a mischievous child or a brutal beast, he was the original Adam in the Garden of Eden in whose image our nature was originally created, and in whose image humanity must redeem itself by deconstructing all vestiges of civilization.

Was Mead a dispassionate, serious scholar, or did she have an agenda? Allegedly, she traveled to Samoa to discover whether “rebellion against authority, philosophical perplexities, the flower of idealism, conflict and struggle” were “difficulties due to being an adolescent or to being adolescent in America.” In other words, was adolescent angst and anarchy a natural phenomenon or purely a Western Christian aberration? Her real goal, according to Wiker, “was to convince the West that the rigors of Christian sexual morality were unnatural, and that its anxiety-producing inhibitions are something we’d all be happier without.”

Besides projecting her own perverse sexual proclivities upon the hapless Samoans, Mead was championing a radically new approach to education. “Education for Choice” for Mead meant to reject any importance of fundamental belief, and whose fundamental belief was that there was no fundamental belief. Echoing the infamous ideas of progressive education guru John Dewey, Mead famously wrote, “The children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”

Mead’s solution: Since we cannot go back to an agrarian society and Puritanical values, we can adopt the Samoan carefree attitudes about all things sexual into our culture; to free American society from the chains of morality and create a generation who would “tune in, turn on and drop out,” as SDS leader Timothy Leary notably said in the 1960s. If Shakespeare wrote, To each his own, then, Mead argues, how can there be a right if there is no wrong, and how can there be a wrong if we can find no one that can be definitively right?

In 1983, five years after her death, Mead’s scientific fraud was exposed to the world by anthropologist Derek Freeman who argued that “the main conclusions of ‘Coming of Age in Samoa’ are, in reality, the figments of an anthropological myth which is deeply at variance with the facts of Samoan ethnography and history.”

Later another anthropologist, Martin Orans, was even more direct. Orans asked: “How could anthropologists and other eminent scholars have largely ignored such blatant defects? How could generations of university professors have included CA as required reading for students? How could such a flawed work have served as a steppingstone to fame?” The answer to the first, Orans reasoned, is “ideological.” “We wanted Mead’s findings to be correct. We believed that a more permissive sexual code would be of benefit to us all,” Orans wrote. More importantly, her findings were a coup for progressive intellectuals, liberal politicians and for Marxist academics who believed in solving human problems by Marxist social engineering and biology based on Darwinian evolutionary theory.

Mead presents a classic illustration of the power of ideology (manipulating truth to what we happen to desire) over philosophy (the love of wisdom) in creating an existential pseudo-science methodology. As Orans makes obvious, the craving to generate a sexual revolution created a perfect storm in the secular minds of the progressive academy and in the minds of all too many very intelligent scientists who should have known better but nevertheless accepted and praised Mead’s work without putting it through the standard rigors of the accepted canons of science. Had they analyzed Mead’s work even on a perfunctory level, perhaps progressive scientists and academics would have deduced that her scientific research, arguments and conclusions were filled with holes and fraudulent misrepresentations. But they wanted it to be true.

On Jan. 19, 1979, President Jimmy Carter announced that he was awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Mead.

The Occupy Wall Street movement consists of the unwashed hordes of unreconstructed ’60s hippies, gay activists, anarchists and youthful savages defecating in parks and squatting in public squares across America, fomenting anarchy, committing vile sexual and lewd behaviors in broad daylight and turning liberty into license with the blessings of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party. The protesters are in a sense legions of little Margaret Meads – the glorification of “Primitive Man,” the psycho-sexual fruit of her pseudo-scientific book, “Coming of Age in Samoa.”

© Ellis Washington

Ellis Washington is a former editor of the Michigan Law Review and law clerk at The Rutherford Institute. He is an instructor at Spring Arbor University, the American College of Education, and the National Paralegal College. Washington is a co-host on “Joshua’s Trial, a radio show of Christian conservative thought which airs Sat. 8-10 am on www.WDTKam.com. He is a graduate of John Marshall Law School and has written extensively on constitutional law, history, politics, philosophy, critical race theory and other subjects. His latest book is “The Nuremberg Trials: Last Tragedy of the Holocaust” (2008) and law review article, “Natural Law Considerations of Juvenile Law” (2010). Visit his website, Ellis Washington Report.

 

WesternFront America

“Politics” is rotten … period.

The form of government the American people chose at their founding was unique.  It still is.  Many have sprung up around the globe in imitation of the American constitutional “representative” republic.  None have yet hit the mark — though they have come close.

Ours is an imperfect form of government. It is a government “of,” “by,” and “for” the people. The key word, of course, is “people.” And therein lies the problem.

The American government was flawed from its beginning.  It is a result of the human touch.  It could not and cannot be helped.  But it has worked miraculously well, for over two centuries.

From time to time, America has touched on destruction, even self-destruction. But, so far, we have managed to pull back, at the last moment, and survive to become a colossus astride the world.

There have been costs. There will be more.

Some say America is hard on the world.  Maybe.  But America is hardest on itself.  The internal war between Americans to determine what we will become still rages. For, you see, America is never static. America is always “becoming.”

The continuous swirling vortex that is America wounds and wounds deeply.  Our leaders come and go.  They ascend to the pinnacle of power with grandiose ideas only to be swept to the kneeling benches below by the American people, fickle, as they are, who choose not to accept those ideas or that leader’s choice for the direction of travel he intends to take America. We have seen it time and time again.

America’s current leader, Barack Obama, is experiencing the backhand of the people of America. His policies, his directions, his political philosophies have been rejected by “the people.”  He is in a desperate fight to salvage something for posterity.

Obama’s mistake was to drag America, kicking and screaming, in a direction it did not want to go. As a result he will earn an asterisk by his name in the history books as America’s first black President — and very little else.

America finds itself at another crossroads.  We have one chance to take the right direction.  The cost of choosing wrongly is the destruction of our great nation.

The process of choosing a leader for the future of America is well underway.  It is a spectacle seen nowhere on earth save for America.  We push forward a number of men and women we think we would like to see lead America  — then we begin the process of striping the flesh off their bones.  There is no mercy.

Candidates who survive the process are not necessarily good leaders just very good at perseverance and dodging those proverbial slings and arrows.

America is rich in citizens who would be leaders about whom future generations would sing songs.  But they will not step from the safety of the sidelines and join the fray.  But then, who can blame them. Of course, that means America tends to be led by the second best, or the least best, or the lesser of two evils, all soaked in mediocrity.   It is a rare occurrence, indeed, when America actually gets a better President than it voted for.

The fact is – there is no outstanding leader among the candidates for President from either side of America’s political spectrum in this election cycle.  At the very moment America is in desperate need of a lion at the helm — we have only mice from which to choose.

America can do better than this. The nation deserves better than this. But THIS is where we are.

From today’s perspective, the American future is bleak with decay as far as the eye can see. Why? — Because we are no longer a single people. We have become far too diverse a population. Until we decide, again, who we are and coalesce around that certain, singular, American character, we will remain, for all intents and purposes, ungovernable.

Diversity and inclusion have murdered the singular American character and culture. We are adrift, unclaimed, and unclaimable. Electing another mouse to lead us will do nothing more than seal our destiny as just another consignment to the dustbin of history.

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

It’s Also Getting Beaten Almost to Death, Due to Being Suspected of Being an Intestine-Eating Satanist!

Reader warning: Intestine-eating Satanists and penis thieves, and those hunting them may both find this item offensive.

When our son was born, he was, in our thoroughly objective judgment, the most beautiful newborn in the entire hospital nursery. In addition to his handsome visage, he was distinguished by a goofy expression and a birth mark. (In spite of what one hears, not all newborns look that great. And yes, goofy and handsome can go together.)

Nowadays, parents whose children are born in urban hospitals have to worry about their baby being accidentally or deliberately switched with another baby, not to mention prowling kidnappers. Hence, parents immediately look for distinguishing marks, just in case.

However, one concern we didn’t have was whether a prowling Satanist would put his hand on our son’s mouth, and gut him like a fish, in order to sup, Hannibal Lecter-style, on his intestines.

Note that one cannot conclude from the below-linked story that “intestines eating Satanists” really are on the prowl in Zimbabwean hospitals. Indeed, no evidence is provided for their existence, scrutiny of the language used suggests that they are a phantasm existing only in the minds of evil hysterical rumor-mongers. Granted, equally depraved forms of evil, such as child sacrifice, certainly have precedent among sub-Saharan black Africans, both in the motherland, as well as abroad, but “intestines eating Satanists” are likely yet another African fever of the mind, like the “magical penis thieves” who make black African men’s sexual organs disappear and reappear at will.

Whether or not “magical penis thieves” or “intestine-eating Satanists” exist, large swathes of sub-Saharan black society believe in their existence, and are willing to kill those accused of, or even rumored to have committed said crimes. And in the stories I’ve read about the falsely accused being beaten, maimed, and even murdered, no one ever expresses any regrets, after the fact. Note the relish, for example, with which reporter H Metro writes below about the beating two apparently innocent men received, and the similarly supportive statement from a witness Metro quotes.

Do we really want to accept any such people, let alone potentially millions of them, as immigrants and refugees into America?

If you have taken up mental residence in The Diversity Zone, the answer must be an unequivocal yes!

Two men were given a hiding fit for a devil before being detained at the Harare Central Hospital’s pediatric unit after they were allegedly caught loitering there and messing with a five-year-old patient’s clothes last Wednesday.

They were beaten up by the public under suspicion that they were Satanists trying to extract the child’s intestines. The accused have however, denied being evil saying their hands are very clean.

This follows a rumour that satanists were on the prowl in the country and especially at Hospitals. However, the Harare Central Hospital authorities have refuted [N.S. read: rejected] this claim.

The two, Shepherd Tabarwa and Claytos Dzinumwe, were found loitering around the five-year-old’s bed where they appeared to be measuring his clothes as they held him by the waist.

However, the two DENIED being satanists and justified their illegal action and presence in the ward by saying that their company was contracted to supply the hospital with clothing hence they were surveying on the pattern that would suit the new borns!

“Its a problem when dealing with people who do not know how to handle business. Hospital security wanted to get us killed by the crown [crowd?] after one of the women whom we are training as a tailor raised false alarm and told the crown that we are satanists. I am not a satanist, I am a Christian with an apostolic sect.”…

It is not clear whether he also enjoyed [?!] the thorough beating he received since he got his personal defence outline. His ‘accomplice’ Shepherd claimed that his ear was damaged in the beating after he was slapped stupid!…

We caught up with the owner of Power 6 Trading which has since relocated [I wonder why?]. She identified herself as Mai Mpopoma.

She CONFIRMED that her workers were detained on allegations of unlawfully entering the children’s ward prompting people to suspect that they were part of the Satanists that have taken a prowl at the children’s ward.

“Yes my employees were detained but circumstances surrounding their detention are not true. We are not Satanists, we won a tender to supply the hospital with clothing and the guys were just checking out the pattern. In fact this will discredit my company at a wrong time because i was also bidding for the same tender at Chitungwiza Central Hospital.”…

However, residents from neighbouring Southerton and some staffers told us that there has been a fear of evil elements invading the children’s ward.

“Children are dying in unclear circumstances amid rumours that Satanism is taking toil [toll?]. How can the security personnel leave people getting into the pediatric ward without verifying if they are the parents or next of kin?”

“If it was measuring the size of the clothes or taking the patterns as claimed, they could have followed the official channels,” charged one of the visitors who witnessed the incident.

[Suspected intestines eating satanists beaten up in Harare Hospital children's ward by H Metro, Zimbabwe Online Press, 27 October, 2011.]

 

© Nicholas Stix

Mr. Stix blogs at Nicholas Stix, Uncensored

 

WesternFront America

There’s a woman who lives near me with a personalized license plate that proclaims she’s a WICCAN. If her idea of theology is a penetrating discussion with a pecan tree and she wants to proclaim her lasting commitment to cellulose; that’s her right. Even though the sentiment appears on a plate issued by the Commonwealth.

She’s joined by motorists displaying plates with DRUID, PAGAN and even VEGAN.

Although the thought processes behind the adoption of these belief systems are opaque to me — much like the decision to go out and get a tattoo — knowing religion–oriented plates are out there is not disturbing.

However, one can’t say that for atheists who are very easily disturbed. Evidently their dedication to their lack of faith is so fragile that exposure to slightest whiff of Christianity has the potential to propel them backwards into darkness and superstition. The next thing you know they’re eating Wednesday night dinner in a Baptist Fellowship Hall and wondering why there are never any salt shakers on the table.

Atheists and the separation–of–church–and–state crowd are busy banning Bibles in schools, crosses from Utah roadsides and the phrase “God bless you” from funerals in a Houston VA cemetery. Consequently, they aren’t focused on license plates, but I have a feeling it’s on a To–Do list.

Readers who rely on the news media for their Constitution instruction may not know this, but the document is not actively anti–religion. The founders were believers and the thought of banning government from even the most glancing connection with God would have seemed absurd to them.

The Constitution only prohibits the establishment of a state religion, for example: Emperor worship during the Roman Empire or the Anglican Church in England under Henry VIII.

The phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution. This atheist catchphrase originated in a private letter written by Thomas Jefferson and has no more force of law than this column.

And Jefferson, bless his heart, had his idiosyncrasies. Acting as the Gutenberg of the scissors and a paste–pot set, Jefferson produced his own Bible by literally cutting out the parts he didn’t like and keeping what he did.

This may make him the first Unitarian Universalist and would probably qualify Jefferson to be ordained as an Episcopal bishop, but it does not make him a reliable source on the religious views of the founders.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume the religion scrubbers are correct and the Constitution justifies purging all trace of worship from the public square. The question is what type of government do they think will result?

A cool, clean empire of intellect ruled by Mr. Spock? Maybe, but China is more likely.

This would make many progressives very happy, including those in the White House. China is a communist government run by experts. (A two–fer in progressive circles.) These experts don’t get bogged down in partisan gridlock caused by annoying Republicans who smoke. Decisions are made based on science, not politics. Plus, the experts are Asian and everyone knows how smart they are.

China is also rich. And it has bullet trains that fly between major cities. State–sponsored abortion is legal. (You could almost call it human sacrifice, but that sounds too much like religion.) And since there is only one party, there are no messy political campaigns and tacky commercials.

China is everything a secular humanist could wish for, until a toddler gets hit by a truck.

Then you learn the price for removing religion from the public square. 18 different people in Guangzhou watched as a two–year–old girl, who wandered into traffic, was smashed by delivery van. They left her lying bloody in the street until she was run over by a truck. Finally, after seven long minutes, an elderly scrap peddler, who may not have had anything to lose, dragged her out of the street.

People don’t help injured two–year–olds in China because helping others is not state–approved behavior. In 2007 a young man was sued after he helped an elderly woman with a broken leg to the hospital. The Wall Street Journal reports the court ordered the rescuer to pay 40 percent of the woman’s medical bills because “according to common sense” he would not have helped her if he had not been in some way responsible for her fall.

This is social Darwinism as a governing philosophy. Altruism only creates suspicion in a government where religion is banned.

This is why over time the religion haters won’t like the government that results from their efforts. Because when you jettison God you also jettison the Good Samaritan.

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
703-583-6277
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http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrshannon
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-washington-dc/michael-shannon

 

WesternFront America