Islam is Not the way – for it is a death cult.

 Follow the word of God, and you shall see Heaven..

The price of Liberty is eternal vigilance.

ThoughtRogue:  I’ll heartily admit that Dr. Sowell is one of my personal heroes.  Hear, Hear him!  BTW – a so-called “Birther” is someone who believes the Constitution should be followed to the letter (e.g. “No Person except a natural born Citizen..”).  Those who castigate and persecute us, Birthers, should be called “Constitution Deniers!”

Think Things, Not Words

Random thoughts on the passing scene.

By Thomas Sowell

Wise Man.

Upon learning that the Constitution requires a president to be a natural-born citizen, a college student asked: “What makes a natural-born citizen any more qualified than one born by C-section?”

Airlines that keep passengers trapped for hours in planes sitting on the runway should be prosecuted for unlawful imprisonment.

When politicians propose some hugely expensive new program and are asked how the government is going to pay for it, a standard ploy over the years has been to claim that they will pay for it by eliminating “waste, fraud, and abuse.” At a recent town-hall meeting, a citizen raised the obvious question: If you can do that, why haven’t you done it already?

Marxism is an ism that has become a wasm.

What is called “universal health care” can turn out to be universal “don’t care” medical treatment, when Washington bureaucrats can overrule what you and your doctor want to do.

What ever happened to Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel? Could she have met with foul play? Where is the FBI when we need it?

The older I get, the more I learn to tolerate human shortcomings — and the less I tolerate bad attitudes.

After political crusades for “affordable housing” ended up ruining the housing market and much of the economy with it, many of the same politicians are now carrying on a crusade for “affordable health care.” But what you can afford has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of producing anything. Refusing to pay those costs means that you are just not going to continue getting the same quantity and quality — regardless of what any politician says or how well he says it.

Want to win an easy bet? Bet someone that Babe Ruth had a lower lifetime earned-run average than Cy Young, Whitey Ford, or Sandy Koufax. During his early years with the Red Sox, Ruth pitched nine shutouts in a season, which is still the American League record for a left-handed pitcher. He would have made the baseball Hall of Fame, even if he had never hit a home run.

Joe Wilson got into more trouble for telling the truth than Barack Obama got into by telling a demonstrable lie about adding millions of people to the insurance rolls without adding a dime to the deficit. As regards providing medical insurance for illegal immigrants, I doubt that the president will do that. More likely, he will legalize them first and then give them medical insurance.

The way Hollywood elites have sprung to the defense of Roman Polanski to keep him from being extradited to the United States, despite the heinous crime he is accused of, suggests that — like other egalitarians — they consider those who are “one of us” to be more equal than others.

When I contemplate the direction in which this government and this society are moving, my biggest consolation is that economists’ predictions are often wrong. I can only hope that my expectations are wrong by miles.

What is most frightening about the political Left is that they seem to have no sense of the tragedy of the human condition. All problems seem to them to be due to other people not being as wise or as noble as they are.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Think things, not words.” In words, many see a need for “social justice” to override “the dictates of the market.” In reality, what is called “the market” consists of human beings making their own choices at their own cost. What is called “social justice” is government imposition of the notions of third parties, who pay no price for being wrong.

Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Moammar Qaddafi, and Vladimir Putin have all praised Barack Obama. When enemies of freedom and democracy praise your president, what are you to think? When you add to this Barack Obama’s many previous years of associations and alliances with people who hate America — Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfleger, and so on — at what point do you stop denying the obvious and start to connect the dots?

ThoughtRogue:  Considering America’s now rampant economic illiteracy and widespread ignorance of history and philosophy, I wonder whether we’re now past the tipping point and the American Dream is doomed?  You’ll notice that every policy decision that our beloved, alleged President makes is to further impoverish Americans – to make them wonderfully dependent, EQUALLY impoverished.

Two excellent books that lay a rock-solid foundation in economics is Henry Hazlitt’s famous Economics in One Lesson, and Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell.  Both explain economics to the layperson, without the use of formulas, with expert precision, allowing the reader to easily dissect for themselves the plethora of economic fallacies they are bombarded with daily.  These should be required reading of all students – not to mention of all politicians especially.

Turning the American economy around is really simple:

• Reduce the taxation monstrosity
• Reduce government spending even more
• Reduce onerous regulations and restrictions
• Reduce bloated, unconstitutional programs and bureaucracies
• Reduce the shackles on individual work and innovation

But, what has the Usurper-in-Chief accomplished and/or supported at every turn?

• Increased Taxes – net jobs killer and wealth destroyer.
• Gigantic Bailouts – net jobs killer and wealth destroyer.
• Increasing Federal Spending and Debt – net jobs killer and wealth destroyer.
• Repeal of Bush Tax Cuts – net jobs killer and wealth destroyer.
• More Money and Power to Unions, Lobbyists, and Government – net jobs killer and wealth destroyer.
• The ‘Cap and Trade’ Energy Bill Boondoggle – net jobs killer and wealth destroyer.
• Support for an Ever-Increasing Minimum Wage – net jobs killer and wealth destroyer.
• The Mass Amnesty of Tens of Millions of Illegal Aliens – net jobs killer and wealth destroyer.
• The Takeover of the Medical and Insurance Industries – net jobs killer and wealth destroyer.
• The National Socialization of Banking, GM, Mortgages, Education.. – net jobs killer and wealth destroyer.

Why Big Government Doesn’t Work

by DOCTOR ZERO, HotAir.com

A person living entirely on their own produces very little, beyond the bare minimum necessities of survival. He has no real “wealth” – no surplus production, to spend on discretionary endeavors. He has few real options in life, beyond daily survival. His moments of real choice come when he gets lucky. An exceptionally fortunate hunt might feed him for a few days, and give him some precious leisure time. Otherwise, he does what he must do, and rarely has time to think about what he could do. Some people enjoy living this way, but most do not.

The situation improves somewhat in a small, voluntary collective: a partnership with a trusted friend, or a small family living on its own. Their combined efforts produce more surplus food, and they can address the necessities of life with less individual effort. They may develop skills and talents that prove valuable to each other. Some people are content to live this way, with a small and isolated family that maintains very little contact with the rest of humanity – but, again, most are not.

When families begin cooperating with each other, production and wealth explode. Communities generate tremendous amounts of surplus production, and commerce allows people access to goods and services they could never produce themselves. The amount of time required to deal with personal survival dwindles away to virtually nothing. Doubtless the reader works hard at his or her job, but your job probably has very little to do with feeding or clothing yourself, or defending yourself from predators. Instead, you produce goods and services that would be unimaginable to a more primitive society – could you explain your job to someone from the tenth century A.D.? In exchange, you earn money, which you spend to purchase what you need – and, more importantly, what you want. Even the poorest member of an advanced society has options.

An advanced society requires a method for allocating its huge amount of surplus production, and meeting the basic needs of its members. There are two general mechanisms for doing this: commerce and government. Every society uses a mixture of these methods. Even the most totalitarian government has a black market, and even the most free-wheeling capitalist society will have a government. Attempts to artificially engineer a society without either commerce or government are doomed to failure, because they will form spontaneously, no matter how strictly they are forbidden.

Government and commerce don’t just co-exist in an uneasy truce. They need each other. Commerce, the free exchange of money for goods and services, produces wealth through choice. Remember the example of the man living alone: the poverty of his existence comes from his lack of choices. The value of money flows from the way it allows consumers to express their choices. For a simple illustration of this principle, compare a ten-dollar restaurant gift certificate to a ten-dollar bill. The ten dollar bill is more valuable than the gift certificate, because you have more choice in how to spend it. A government increases the wealth of its citizens by providing security – stable currency, secure borders, protection from criminals, respect for property rights, and legally enforceable contracts, to name a few of government’s duties. This has the effect of increasing the citizens’ wealth, by increasing the choices available to them. A ten-dollar bill has more value in a large, lawful city than on a tiny island where few goods are available, or a den of thieves where nothing can be bought with confidence.

Consider the example of the impoverished loner versus the citizen of a prosperous society again. The citizens’ money represents wealth, thanks to his many choices, but it represents something else of enormous value: extra time. The loner spends most of his waking hours staying alive, and seeing to his minimal needs. The wealthy citizen spends almost no time on these things – he uses it for economically productive work, self-improvement, and leisure. A ten-dollar bill will purchase you a shirt that you probably don’t know how to make yourself… and even if you had the knowledge, it would most likely take you longer to make the shirt than it takes you to earn ten dollars.

Government allocates wealth through top-down commands, imposed by force. There would be no need for massive tax and spending bills if everyone was freely choosing to spend their money the way the government wants them to. Capitalism has priorities, while government has imperatives. Capitalists fulfill their ambitions through competition, which increases the choices available to consumers. The ambitions of the working class lead them to work harder, and engage in increasingly valuable and productive labor, to earn a better living for themselves and their families. This system is not perfect – there will always be people who try hard but don’t get ahead, and people who don’t make a very productive contribution to society – but over the long run, and measured against a population of millions, free market commerce will tend to produce increased choices, improved technology, and greater value through competition.

Government fulfills its ambitions through compulsion, which reduces choice. Sometimes compulsion is necessary – you can’t fund national defense by passing around a collection plate. When government exceeds the minimal functions necessary to provide stability and security, and begins interfering in the economy for the benefit of certain constituencies, by definition it reduces the overall choices available to its citizens. It doesn’t matter if the government’s intentions are noble – every law it passes to redistribute wealth inevitably reduces wealth, because it reduces choice.

In an economy dominated by the government, the ruling class fulfills its ambitions by serving faithful constituencies at the expense of others. It tries to address its failures by increasing control, which reduces wealth even further, in a downward spiral. It’s not in the nature of government to abandon failed programs, because if government was intelligent and morally superior enough to assert control over a situation in the first place, it will not see the logic in surrendering that control to inferior free-willed citizens. Instead, it will redouble its efforts.

In this environment, the citizens can best fulfill their ambitions by joining favored constituencies if possible, and becoming adept at petitioning the government for greater benefits. This tends to be more successful than working hard, as there is little competition in a state-run economy for the most skilled and productive workers. There are always exceptions – people who give 100% effort out of compassion, personal drive, or a religious calling. There will be politicians who are truly selfless, and sincerely wish to act as wise stewards for the resources of society. Exceptional people cannot be relied upon to power a society of millions. In the long run, and projected over a vast population, the incentives of a government-dominated economy produce stagnation, and strife between warring groups of citizens, who can only gain more benefits at each others’ expense.

That is why Big Government never works. It can’t address conflicting priorities efficiently. The ambitions of its masters are best served by catering to the demands of small, energetic groups, or big corporations who wish to compromise its rightful duty to ensure free trade. Its citizens are not rewarded for exceptional effort, or taking great risks. Worst of all, every single action it takes destroys the very wealth needed to improve the lives of its citizens. Big Government pounds on every problem with a hammer that crumbles in its hands.

ThoughtRogue:  And Iran has just finally revealed the SECOND nuke plant they have secretly been building.  Can you hear that great rumbling in the distance growing ever louder??  It’s just about game time…

Is this not about Western Civilization beating back a burgeoning Death Cult?

Complete speech here…

Yet Another Washington Flop in the Making

Obamacare will be one of many federal failures.

By Deroy Murdock, National Review Online

Don't Tread on US!

As the health-care reform debate roars on, Uncle Sam resembles a restless college senior who is flunking economics, finance, and management. Despite a report card full of Fs, he suddenly announces: “I want to go to medical school!”

Similarly, Pres. Barack Obama stood before a joint session of Congress Wednesday night and re-embraced a government option for health insurance. As he explained, “Sometimes government has to step in to help deliver” on the promise that “hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play.”

Alas, too often when Washington steps in, failing grades follow.

• Medicare, the Great Society’s shining jewel, is a battered gem. Its hospitals program already bleeds ruby-red ink. “Medicare Part A again will spend more in benefits than it receives in revenues” this fiscal year, observes Heritage Foundation analyst Bob Moffitt. Its Trust Fund is an accounting fiction, but even that fantasy disappears in eight years, with depletion in 2017. Even worse, Heritage’s Brian Riedl calculates that between 2009 and 2083 Medicare’s budget will zoom from 3.1 percent to 14.8 percent of Gross Domestic Product. Its unfunded liabilities (promises backed by campaign balloons instead of cash) equal $36.3 trillion.
• Social Security, the New Deal’s cornerstone, is as cutting edge as a 78 RPM record. In 2016, barely six years away, it will begin paying more in pension checks than it collects in payroll taxes. Congress then will be unable to use Social Security’s surplus like a ShamWow to absorb red ink. Social Security’s unfunded obligations equal $17.5 trillion — again not financed by anything but congressional speeches.
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: These two government options in the home-mortgage arena are widely considered the twin jet engines that flew the economy into a hillside. These were supposed to be money-making, quasi-private companies, with no federal involvement beyond an implicit guarantee that government would cover their losses. Emboldened by this cozy federal safety net, these enterprises embarked upon financial acrobatics they otherwise might have avoided. Rather than generate profits between 2009 and 2019, the Congressional Budget Office estimates, Fannie and Freddie will cost taxpayers $389 billion.
• The Hope for Homeowners program began last October 1. Congress gave it a hefty $300 billion to help some 400,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure. According to an August 10 Newsday editorial, “It has produced exactly one refinanced loan.” One down, 399,999 to go.
• “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right?” Obama asked in August. “It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” Yes, indeed. Its two-year fiscal deficit approaches $8 billion. It has pried some 60,000 mailboxes off of America’s streets, the Lexington Institute reports. It also is weighing the cancellation of Saturday services. Even as e-mail, digitally attached documents, and online banking decrease demand for first-class snail mail, the Post Office keeps hiking the cost of stamps. What sort of business actually raises prices while customers walk away?
• The Internal Revenue Code is like John Donne’s poetry: It means something different to everyone. Perhaps flummoxed by its 67,000 pages, even IRS advisers offer conflicting answers to identical questions. But today’s U.S. Tax Code will be a triumph of window-like clarity compared with the U.S. Health Code that Obamacare would trigger. Just wait until every medical lobby — from the American Stethoscope Council to the National Tongue Depressor League — hikes up Capitol Hill to demand exemptions, loopholes, and subsidies.
• Although Washington already owns 54 percent of the square mileage west of the Rockies, it obsessively purchases new acreage. More than on private property, land-use restrictions on federal soil often prevent thinning of foliage. Flames frequently follow.

“Most western wildfires burn federal land,” William Welch wrote in September 9’s USA Today. To date this year, 123,554 private acres burned in California, versus 271,000 federal acres.

Rather than inaugurate a frivolous, bottomless government option for health care, Washington should launch a “private option” for nearly every federal activity outside the Pentagon.

ThoughtRogue:  This Marine is perfectly on target when he points out that the U.S. Constitution is a political COMPACT, a voluntary agreement among the States (and their Peoples) – which is utterly being VIOLATED daily in Washington.  As we know from natural law, when one party regularly abuses another party, breaking the contract (or compact, which is even less binding) it is the abused party’s absolute RIGHT, or obligation to negate that contract, declare it null and void and to walk away in peace (and/or to seek redress as they see fit).

It is beyond me why certain States, Texas in particular, have not exercised their natural Right to secede from their voluntary adherence to the now-shredded remains of the U.S. Constitution, and exercise their innate, inalienable State sovereignty to form a new government, perhaps a confederation among other States who share her great values – a government to which their Peoples give their new Consent.  Just as our Founding Fathers declared and conferred to us our sacred rights after their bloody procurement of our freedoms and liberty from a despotic tyranny – before we surrender ourselves fully to the out-of-control masters of tyranny now exploding in Washington, D.C. – WE MUST NOW DO THE SAME for OUR Posterity.

Fellow Citizens, Patriots, RECLAIM your liberties before they are lost forever.  Texans, demand that your State government recall your delegation from the ultra-corrupt federal center of tyranny.  Assert your God-given sovereignty to govern yourselves as the People wish.  We, the People, are the ONLY ones who will throw OFF this massive tyranny!

ThoughtRogue:   Welcome to the era of  HypenChains!!   Get it?   Well, you’re sure gonna…

Folks, wake up your friends and relatives before it’s too late.

The Following is Pre-Election:

The following is Post-Election!

More Info at Trends Research

Elliott Wave has been predicting a Depression and Trends Research is confirming that!  You can listen to an interview I had with a rep from the Elliott Wave.  Click on the Microphone in the sidebar!

ThoughtRogue:  Who IS Barack Hussein Obama II?

Big Brotha', This One's For You!

Once again, the genius of the Founding Fathers shines brightly as they required our President to be a Natural Born Citizen – something, to this day, the occupant of our White House refuses to comply with.  Is it any wonder at all that our country is falling apart all around us?

Here’s what we do know by Barack Hussein Obama II’s own recent behavior:

• He’s canceled our nation’s most modern jet fighter the F-22 and several other cutting-edge defense programs
• As the deranged ‘Dear Leader’ of N. Korea commemorated our 4th of July by launching several missiles, BHO II simultaneously announced the discontinuation of our missile defense development programs.
• He’s hobnobbed with every leftist dictator around the world, while he denounces our allies such as Israel
  
• He’s bowed before the Saudi King, and mouthed very ignorant and anti-American speeches in Berlin and Cairo.
• He actually declared recently that the U.S. is NOT a Christian-rooted country, and that we happily host one the largest Muslim populations on Earth (more lies, or a catastrophic ignorance?)
• In a recent speech at Georgetown Univ., his apparatchiks actually covered over several Christian symbols so that they would not be seen while broadcast on television
  
• And the list goes on, and on, and on…

Would all of this (and more to come) have happened had we followed the supreme law of the land, obeyed our U.S. Constitution, and made certain that this Marxist impostor had actually been a Natural Born Citizen?  Will the beacon of Lady Liberty actually survive this virulent, vicious Usurper?

TR:  Sir Hannon makes me tear-up a bit when he’s so optimistic about the great ”freedoms” we have here in America.  Alas, he doesn’t seem to realize the huge amount of our liberty which has been squelched, and which continues to disappear at an accelerated pace under Hopenchange – compared to Britain’s long-entrenched “English Socialism” dystopia.