Wish I'd said that!

In recent decades, the ACLU has used its so-called "wall" to fight tooth and nail to prevent government sponsorship of the Pledge of Allegiance, memorial crosses, Ten Commandments displays, nativity scenes, Bible displays, and virtually every other acknowdgement of America's religious heritage.

At the same time, it is worthwhile to note that there have been some instances in which the ACLU has endorsed public displays of religion. For example, When New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani threatened to cut taxpayer funding from the Brooklyn Museum of Art for displaying a painting of the Virgin Mary with cow dung and pictures of female sexual organs pasted all over her body, the ACLU was first in line to defend the display. U.S. District Court Judge Nina Gershon ruled that New York City's elected officials were not allowed to place conditions on the museum's funding.

In another instance, the ACLU offered its support to the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts, after the agency sponsored an art show featuring "Piss Christ" - an exhibit consisting of a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine.

In the ACLU's myopic world, it appears that the only permissible publicly-funded displays of religion are those which blatantly mock or disparage the Christian faith.

-- Indefensible: 10 Ways the ACLU is Destroying America, Sam Kastensmidt, 2006

Friday, March 4, 2011

And it won't slow down

Is it just me, or does the world looks more and more like it is on the fast-track to Hell? Just me? Uh...never mind. Anyway...

In politics recently we've seen a dramatic rise in the level of threats, intimidation and insults. On the floor of the Wisconsin Assembly, an illegal encampment inside the capitol resulted from a deluge of noise, vandalism and filth by hundreds of hippie-type useful idiots. Oh, the reason the cops didn't just throw them all in jail for trespassing is because a large number of cops, firefighters and other personnel had joined them. Public servants, indeed! In fact, if you know a police officer, please encourage him or her to watch this video all the way through and then perhaps understand who they are standing with, and what, in fact, they are standing for.

In the mean streets, Congressman Michael Capuano (D-MA;...you're surprised?) encouraged union demonstrators to "get a little bloody."  Let's not forget that these very same people and their ilk have blasted conservatives for their supposed (but unevidenced) "violent rhetoric." Only a total moron - like so many of those on their picket lines - would think that what conservatives were dishing out was anything other than a reasonable attempt to inject some actual clarity into the discussion. And lest we forget, the Wisconsin debacle resulted from Governor Walker's attempt to save the state from bankruptcy. It seems that the Left - forever consumed with their dark fantasy nanny-state, cannot grasp that the bill eventually comes due, and the debtors will not sit back forever while their money is squandered and their investment unrepaid.

It should be obvious by now, but an increasing number of union members are becoming aggressively disruptive, more or less exposing the lie of "collective bargaining," which implies a discussion and debate of the issues by principled parties. There is no "give and take." For the Left, it's all about taking, and the only thing they give is grief and false promises. In particular, the union red shirts are today's version of  Hitler's Brown Shirts, and they have the tacit support of the Obama malAdministration.  Regardless of what they call themselves, the unions (at least the big ones) are communist thugs actively attempting to destroy this nation as a free republic. 

But it isn't just unions. There is a full-force press on for the future direction of this country, and the fate of all our citizens (and indirectly, the rest of the world) hangs in the balance. There is no real principle on the Left other than to win at all costs. The debate over ideas doesn't matter, truth doesn't matter; nor does mutual respect or decorum. This is the Age of the Big Lie.  Every prominent Leftist - whatever they may call themselves - is out in force, taking every opportunity to get their shot in, regardless of how little sense they make.

And far from being shy or even keeping a low profile, their arrogance, especially since 2008, is staggering. A Demoncrat tells a talking head that certain politicians will still get earmarks because they know how to bypass them. Al Sharpton and Ed Schultze claims school vouchers are racist, Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader encourage revolution and the destruction of American institutions, and on and on. Their sanctimonious call to chaos and destruction, the instigations and prevarications runs unabated and unrestrained. Revolution is their religion, the aftermath is insignificant to them

But all is not riots and demonstrations. We often overlook the smaller, less noticeable events that happen all around us every day.

Take the schools for example. In public schools across the country young children are learning about the US Constitution. However, now they're learning it from the perspective of a communist State, by equating it with socialist slogans. Instead of learning how liberty coupled with personal responsibility was the driving engine for the prosperity of America, kids are being taught that the Constitution just used 'code words' for entitlements, disguised as rights.

Incidentally, were you as ignorant as I was until recently, that New York State students are being programmed in part by lessons formulated by Van Jones, the full-time revolutionary, self-confessed communist and former 'green czar' for the Obama malAdministration? You know; the guy who promotes wealth distribution and racial reparations, and uses radical environmentalism to push toward marxism? I realize that I'm no spring chicken, but "back in my day," they didn't teach us to hate our own country (although the colleges were), and communism was still understood to be the avowed enemy of our nation.

And while we are distracted with Wisconsin and Charlie Sheen's meltdown, Islam continues making inroads into our culture and our institutions and incursions across our borders. Example: Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish billionaire and Muslim radical expatriate, living in a "heavily guarded compound" in Pennsylvania, has helped open at least 140 charter schools across the US - with Americans' tax dollars - for the purpose of indoctrinating American children. Naturally, these schools are most often set up in deep urban centers where minority populations are typically undereducated and preprogrammed to be resentful of all things America. There is, in essence, an army of young people growing up in our midst, being psychologically conditioned to be Islamic warriors.

Moore of the same old crap.  Michael Moore is at it again. In a recent interview where he weighed in on the Wisconsin union debate, he once again blasted the rich - apparently forgetting he is also rich. Among his enlightened statements, he claimed that "They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own - they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money." 

Let's examine his claims, shall we? First, aside for from his own seeming absentmindedness ("Where did I put those millions of dollars I made by selling lies and distortions?") They - rich folks like him - are daring to try and protect their wealth, and actually use it as they wish. The nerve of some people, huh!

So, does Moore just leave his millions in a jar outside his front door so anyone can stop by and help themselves? Does he write multi-million-dollar checks to the federal government to pay for all the wasteful programs he wants to foist on the rest of us? Yeah; didn't think so. But then this blowhard says, "We've allowed them to take that [their own money]. In that vein, Michael, the rest of "us" have just decided we're not going to let you keep your money; so, hand it over!  Hmmm; is that resistance I'm seeing?  How unsocialistic of you.

Then he goes on to say, "I think we need to go back to taxing these people at the proper rates."  Does he mean the 94% top rate during 1944-45?  That was during a World War (For young public school students, that would be the Second one). Americans who tried to flee with their weath to an allied country would have been stopped or returned; those who tried to flee to an enemy country would have been branded as war criminals and traitors (a term never used by our governnment during modern Democrat administrations unless applied against Republicans or Dem party-switchers).

But wait, there's Moore!  He then claims the wealth of others is something "that we collectively own as Americans..."  Really? Moore seems to have a serious disconnect from reality, or sanity, or both. Or perhaps he never really grasped the difference between the words "we" and "they."  America was not founded as a collectivist nation; that is a concept which people who hold no allegiance to this nation are trying desperately to force upon the rest of us. And Moore doesn't seem to recognize that he is one of those he would persecute. Really, Mikey; as an American, you are free (so far) to send much, much more of your own money to the government you love so much.

He finishes that statement by adding, "you can't just steal our jobs and take them someplace else." Obviously, he has never had to shell out more than just enough to support a small film crew (How much do you equally distribute your wealth to them, Michael?), and perhaps to grease Cuban palms for the privilege of telling "their side" of the story.

OK; let's look at that point. A large portion of the wealthy - and how much constitutes wealth is in flux these days - own and operate businesses that actually produce something; a product or service. That means they have lots of attendant costs to production: energy costs, UNION costs, healthcare costs, various tax burdens, the cost of shipping product, employee payroll, unemployment and social security/medicare 'contributions', etc. Actually, in today's business environment, it's amazing any company profits at all, especially the smaller ones. Keep in mind that - unlike government - competition forces businesses to keep prices relatively low; the more competition, the lower the cost line (but with higher quality products and services) must be to compete. I should add that corporations must also continue to make profits for shareholders; otherwise a primary source of expansion capital dries up, and so, eventually, does the company. Also, without profitability, the company closes its doors because, unlike government, it cannot just print bogus new money to pay its bills, creditors, suppliers, utilities, and employees. It must make more money than it has to pay out.

Now, imagine that government taxation (federal, state, local, employee, etc.) and intractable union demands have reduced your profit margin to a point below the level to sustain company operations. What are the owners of the company to do? Let's try a little logic for a change. If it can't make money here...

That isn't "stealing 'our' jobs and taking them someplace else; it's survival of the company and all those who depend on it (which, up to that point, would include the tax collectors, the union thugs, and the families of those now-unemployed workers). Undoubtedly, the new employees in wherever the company reopens will greatly appreciate their gracious employer, until the union worms its way in and starts the whole cycle over again.

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