Socialism's Fatal Flaw

Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) observed the following:

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

Oh, that our citizenry understood this great principle! Then demagogues and charlatans of the like that now play politics among our people would be silenced forever!

An Honest Man Goes to Washington

During the Prevaricator-in-Chief's speech to a joint session of Congress tonight, South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" Colleagues on both sides of the aisle condemned him. Even Senator John McCain, Obama's opponent last year, called Wilson's actions "totally disrespectful," saying "There is no place for it in that setting, or any other, and he should apologize for it immediately."

Wilson's stock immediately shot up in my book. He appears to be the only member of Congress incapabable of keeping silent while swallowing copious amounts of equine dung served fresh from the Chief Donkey himself.

Obama's speech was nothing but a pack of lies.

The biggest whoppers Obama has told?

• That his proposed scheme would not publically fund abortions or provide health services to illegal aliens. Yet his party (in power) has repeatedly shot down all amendments explicitly guaranteeing as much. And no provisions in any of his bills would provide any mechanism of enforcement to preclude illegals from accessing publically funded health care. So his claim is fatuous.
• That we can simultaneously save money while expanding coverage for 46 million uninsured -- without increasing taxes! This is just too stupid to refute. Imagine if we did the same thing in the restaurant industry: provide universal "meal" coverage -- without increasing costs to anyone or rationing food for everyone. Get real.
• "I will not let anyone -- government buraucrat or insurance company representative -- get between you and your doctor." Ya, right! Of course he won't! He'll simply bankrupt your insurance company. When they go out of business -- unable to compete with the heavily subsidized "public" program -- there simply won't be anyone there to help you, including your doctor.
• "If you like your current insurance provider, you can keep it." Another damnable ruse. The government plans to tax companies 8% if they fail to insure their employees. But health care costs those companies MORE than 8% now. So they'd be better off paying the penalty tax and dumping their employees into the government's insurance pool! Sure you can keep your insurance...until your boss dumps the plan. Then what are you going to do?
• A "public option" will increase competition, savings, etc. How well has that worked out for FedEx and UPS? Do they view the U.S. Postal Service as a competitor? Hardly. The USPS is a role model of inefficiency and dreadful service. We want to use this as our model for government-run health care? Look at Medicare and Medicaid now. They are a national disgrace of fraud, waste and abuse. Expanding it will give us only more of the same.

Obama and his ilk couldn't care less about health care. What they crave is power. Our government was effectively overthrown by "progressives" (code word for "communists") in the early 1900's when Woodrow Wilson changed our laws and FDR packed our courts with anti-Constitutionalists. At this same time Russia, Italy, Germany, and China, among others, where plunged into tyranny under the guise of fascist dictatorships and communist / socialist autocracies. America has simply taken longer to capitulate to the pressures of "democracy". But the powers that be -- those running our banks and global business interests, not to mention their paid-off stooges in Washington -- are leading us down those same avenues which have terminated in disaster for so many. Day by day, incrementally, we are becoming slaves.

The Joke(r)'s On U.S.

Has any U.S. president ever assembled such a cabal of n'er-do-wells, tax cheats, terrorist sympathizers, race-baiting/class-dividing hypocrites and anti-Christian "humanist" crusaders as has Obama? Has any president ever done more to dismantle our American, constitutional way of life?

Obama is the ultimate "community organizer" (aka "revolutionary"). He uses the strategies outlined in "Rules for Radicals", a tome written by Obama's mentor, Saul Alinsky, who dedicated the book to no less than Lucifer himself.

Got that?

I've seen ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in Obama's character or accomplishments that could even remotely be characterized as "Christian" -- or even moral. (As an Illinois state senator, the guy voted -- twice! -- to deny life-saving health care to babies born alive after botched abortions!) Yet this man, by most accounts, still walks on water in the eyes of the news media and his sycophantic supporters (pardon the redundancy).

During the last century, a cast of evil "messianic" characters installed themselves and their cronies in power by utilizing the strategies now employed by Obama and his ilk. Promising "utopia", they delivered tyranny by suppressing dissension, confiscating wealth, limiting rights and subverting laws to further their ends. They rammed their agenda through before the people had time to organize or react. They almost invariably became murderous regimes: Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, Pol-Pot.

Now our Democrat "leaders" decry those who protest against Obama's whirl-wind "revolution" by calling these protestors "un-American", "Nazis", "members of the clan", "racists", "evil-mongers", etc. Obama runs totally scripted "townhall" meetings wherein he plants questions and spouts his propaganda unopposed. However, if he truly desired a dialogue, wouldn't he invite the likes of Newt Gingrich to join him on stage to take questions, allowing Gingrich the opportunity to respond with alternative points of view (if any, just like a debate) so that the American people would have the chance to decide which ideas were best?

Of course he wouldn't. Obama doesn't want debate. He wants his opposition to shut up! He knows his arguments for socializing America would be destroyed by facts, history and logic -- if the American people were ever exposed to them.

So everything he does must be done through the "back door": secretly, unilaterally, quickly. No one must be given time to read, or even consider, 1000+ paged bills before they are voted on by Congress. We have seen this time and time again with his administration.

I'm not going to do your homework for you. The evidence is overwhelming. Those who still support Obama's work of nationalizing our auto industry, banking, energy and health care -- in less than seven months! -- are surely blind to the unconstitutional means by which these feats are being accomplished.

I challenge ANYONE to name even one thing Obama has done (or is doing) that is in full compliance with the Constitution. The American people can't even point to a single piece of evidence that incontestably proves Obama to be a natural-born American citizen, let alone cite any constitutional authorization for the multitudinous revolutionary efforts he is making!

America will rue the day it disregarded the U.S. Constitution and placed this man in the Oval Office. He will leave a permanent stain upon the presidency. If not found to be the first "unconstitutionally elected" president, he will certainly be the most "un-American".

Why Faith Without Works Is Dead (Wrong)

As if we didn't need more "proof" of the errant belief that salvation does not depend on works, an evil man walked into a gym yesterday and opened fire on a crowd of women in an arobics class. In justifying his murder spree, he wrote (beforehand): "Maybe soon, I will see God and Jesus. At least that is what I was told. Eternal life does NOT depend on works. If it did, we will all be in hell."

All The Conveniences of Home

One wonders what modern housewives would have done back in the day when apostles like Heber C. Kimball, Brigham Young and the rest of the Quorum left their families for years on end to attend to the ministry.

Today's homemakers are encompassed by a cosmos of conveniences: clothes washers and driers, dish washers, water heaters and microwave ovens, refrigerators and freezers, mixers and blenders, toasters and can openers, steam cleaners and vacuum cleaners -- not to forget pre-packeaged meals, running water and in-home natural gas fuel. For entertainment and communication they have cable TV and telephone, Internet and cellphone, Facebook, MySpace, email and Twitter, Ebay and Craigslist, plus the "antiquated" technology of radio, CDs and DVDs. For groceries they've got Costco and Sam's Club, Albertson's and Stater Bro.'s, Fresh & Easy, WinCo, Walmart and Walgreens. And if they mow the lawn, fix the plumbing, or paint (like Lisa Macavinta and Stephanie Scoville) they've got The Home Depot and Lowes to go to.

The days of harnassing the horse and hitching the wagon are over. We don't even do diapers anymore. Today's "Polly Pioneer" sits in a cushy, air conditioned seat, sticks the little metal thingee into the little hole thingee, turns it slightly and away she goes! No more packing meals or getting filthy along the way. Clowns and royalty do all the cooking now. With a little supervision, most children can be taught to clean and tidy an entire house, more or less, before they're eight years old. And there's this thing called "automatic bill pay".

So what's a modern "Martha Stewart" to do?

A hundred years ago, when Sister Long-Suffering wanted a chicken dinner for her kids and kin, she first fetched the ax. Then she chased the hen around the pen, caught it, killed it...and perhaps chased it again. Once she got her "dinner" under control, she blanched and boiled it, plucked it, then baked, roasted or fried it in a wood-fired stove (with wood she first had to chop) that heated the house to the likes of Hades. If there were beans to eat, she picked then processed them. If potatoes were available, she skinned, boiled and mashed them. From the cow (if she had one) she squeezzed milk to churn butter. From the hive (a luxury) she fetched honey. For gravy she skimmed the drippings, but only after she harvested and ground the wheat to make the flour for the bisquets.

It took all day to make one dinner. Needless to say, Sister Long-Suffering didn't bother with the Atkins diet or going to the gym. Today she sends Brother Never-Does-Enough to fetch KFC and remarks, when he returns home, food in hand, in 15 minutes, "Well, that didn't take long!"

No, indeed, it didn't.

One wonders what Sister Long-Suffering would do if she were cast down to present-day Guatemala or back into the America frontier of yesteryear.

I imagine she'd die of exhaustion or starvation (rather than boredom and self-pity).

I Almost Killed Ani

Today (Thursday, July 9) my friend's car was broken into. The Midvale (Utah) police fingered me for the crime and threatened to arrest me. I received a stern, well-deserved reprimand from several officers and a citation to appear in court within the next two weeks.

Still, I couldn't have felt more grateful! Or been more relieved! Because my daughter was alive.

We're visiting from California, on vacation. I asked a friend to drive me to the bookstore while my wife and children rested. As we departed, my two-year-old, Anibel, tearfully indicated that she wanted to go with her “daddy”. Thus tugged by my heartstrings, I transferred the car-seat from my wife's minivan to my friend's sedan, strapped my baby in, and took off. Happily she settled into the back seat, my friend and I started talking and....

...about a half an hour later we exited the store, bags in hand. As I searched for our vehicle, I noticed several police cruisers parked behind one car in particular. The officers were trying to get inside. “Some guy's locked himself out”, I thought, “or locked his child in.” I shuddered at the thought.

Then my friend asked, “Where's Ani?”

To my horror, I realized I had forgotten my child in our car! Locked doors, closed windows and a confining car seat can mean death in a matter of minutes, even on a "cool" summer day! Now I frantically ran, looking for our car! Fortunately, it had already been found.

By angels.

Thank you, Midvale police and first-responders, for breaking that window! Thank you, paramedics, for evaluating my daughter's health and determining that she was “hot,” but “okay”. Thank you, heaven-sent lady, who parked her car beside ours, heard a muffled cry, and called for help.

20 minutes later – and I would have been pulling a dead child from that car seat. Instead, I found my baby girl, with tear-stained cheeks and sweat-covered hair, terrified and alone, “safely” strapped in, hiding under her “blankey”.

I've spent the day weeping, holding my younger children close, appreciating anew how careful I must be whenever they are in my care! Especially in the car!

I had the agonizing experience of confronting my wife and telling her that I nearly killed our daughter!

Fathers, if you're like me – and not in the habit of “chauffeuring” your children around – remember: LOOK in the back seat WHENEVER you leave your car! It's stupid – and against the law! – to leave a child unattended, even for a moment. Too many things can go SERIOUSLY wrong. So ALWAYS check.

I didn't mean to leave anyone in the car today. But would that make any difference? To my daughter?

Child-restraining seats save lives, but under the wrong conditions, they can just as easily kill. I've read stories of parents who have “spaced out”, became distracted, or simply "forgot" (like I did) their young children strapped in the back seat. Fathers have gone off to work, following their “routine”, forgetting to deliver their silent, sleeping child, only to return, hours later, to find them dead. Mothers have come home to unload their groceries, forgetting their child outside. Their pain must be endless.

Mine will subside. But I'm still quivering with anguish at what might have happened.

I don't know how two adults forgot Ani today. But we did. I did. And I'm her father. It's my job to protect my children. My lapse of awareness almost cost her her life...and created – for those who know and love her – a lifetime of misery and regret.

I've been crying all day, thunderstruck by how close I came to killing my little girl. She wouldn't sleep tonight until I held her in my arms. She doesn't know how terribly close I came to betraying the absolute trust she places in me.

I earnestly thank the men and the woman who stepped in to act when I stumbled, who helped save my daughter's life this afternoon. I vow never to make this mistake again. And I pray none of you ever will.

I Had Some More To Say To Mary

Congresswoman Mary,

You may wish to consider changing your vote on HR2454...unless losing your seat in Congress is your game plan.

I will be walking the precincts here in Indio campaigning for someone -- anyone! -- else come 2010. Why? Because ANYONE else would be better than a RINO.

It is the worst kind of leadership to pander to special interests and phony arguments. A hundred years ago Americans were free. We paid virtually NO taxes! What are you doing?! Are you trying to turn America into the Soviet Socialist States of America (SSSA)?

What was your payoff? An expensive, inefficient and ineffective solar farm like the one outside Las Vegas? The PRIVATE sector will find the best solutions to our energy/transportation/medical/consumer needs, not government! (If you don't know THAT, Mary, you don't know squat about being a Republican.)

Was it government that invented the internal combustion engine? Or fueling stations from sea to shining sea? Or Penicillin? Does government stock the shelves at Wal-Mart? No! Government, by and large, hinders progress and development.

You say "What about the space program?" What about it? A boondoggle! Private enterprise is achieving far more (for the dollar) than NASA ever could! If we ever have commercial space travel, it will be because of PRIVATE ENTERPRISE, not government.

Your vote FOR HR2454 (for reasons I've explained in other emails) was a silly, uninformed homage to discredited computer models and absurd predictions regarding CO2's role in NATURAL climate change. You lent sick support to a fraudulent scheme to steal more and more of America's wealth and transfer it to global entities and shameless profiteers. You slopped the pig trough, Mary, with our tax dollars. And you're a fool (beg your pardon) if you think we're going to let you get away with this nonsense.

We'll do our best to throw you out on your ear and change the laws so that you can kiss your cushy life-long Congressional retirement "good-bye".

In fact, if you were a true Republican, that's exactly what you'd be doing right now: changing the law.

Shooting a R.I.N.O.

I wrote Congresswoman Mary Whittaker Bono Baxley Mack a second time after she foolishly voted for HR2454: the "cap-and-tax" bill that will transform all our lives.

Congresswoman, that was the last straw.

You voted for the most massive tax-increase and wealth-transfer bill in earth's history -- and didn't even read it!

Shame on you!

Worst of all, the entire bill is based on bad science. Carbon dioxide emissions are not the cause of "global warming". Global warming is the cause of increased CO2 emissions (principally from the oceans, due to the decreasing solubility of gases in warmer waters). What was your grade in high school chemistry, Congresswoman?

THE SUN warms the earth (if you haven't noticed). CO2 is of utter insignificance. Water vapor -- another "greenhouse" gas -- is eight times more effective at trapping heat than CO2 -- and hundreds of times more prevalent in our atmosphere. Are you planning on banning water, as well? Or sunshine? How asinine.

You were foolish to go along with it.

I don't fault you for voting to raise taxes in the worse recession in my lifetime (although that was bad enough). I fault you for being a dumb leader who betrayed the Constitution in the name of "saving the planet" or some other such nonsense.

Where does the Constitution give Congress the right to regulate what "energy" I use? The People (by the Constitution) give the federal government ENUMERATED powers, not the reverse. And under no circumstances does the Constitution enumerate that the federal government shall have TOTAL power over the states or the people. The Commerce Clause was NOT intended for that purpose. Otherwise, why have a Constitution at all? Just say "The Federal Government has total power to do whatever the hell it pleases."

As I said, Congresswoman, you've made a political opponent of me. I must now do what I can to throw you out of office, not to save our planet, but to save our country. You're dangerous! You saddle us with onerous taxes and increase our burdens with greater regulations, all while limiting our freedoms to use our own resources as we see fit by foisting junk science and foolish energy schemes upon us.

You were one of eight Republicans to do so. That's eight Republicans too many.

You and the Governor talk like Republicans, but you lead like Democrats.

And that's our problem. Not global warming.

Good day.

Why Johnny's teacher can't read

YOU NEED TO KNOW the "education" industry is a socialist racket. A fraud. A waste. A charade. And every time teachers' union leaders open their mouths, they are lying.

THE CURRENT FABLE being promoted is that California schools are underfunded and overcrowded. Asinine news articles like these portray California's Prop 13 as responsible for our current fiscal dilemma. Yet historical data show that tax revenues under Prop 13 have FAR OUTPACED INFLATION. Clearly, it is SPENDING that is out of control.

California schools are awash in money. Over 50 BILLION dollars are spent "educating" Californians (and untold millions of non-Americans) each year. FIFTY-SIX PERCENT OF CALIFORNIA STATE EXPENDITURES now go to unionized teachers, cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, groundskeepers, and secretaries, as well as administrators and hired "consultants" (who frequently get paid thousands of dollars per day!). Are all these "essential" services? No. Virtually anybody could do these jobs with little (or no) training.

MOST of the money spent on California's "education" doesn't even make it into the classroom. (Only about a third goes to teachers or textbooks.)

In the midst of our economic "crisis", my district purportedly managed to pay a retired administrator $400,000 last year to show veteran teachers (who are already "certificated" and supposedly "well trained") how to write their own lesson plans!

Imagine that!

Now imagine that kind of "fraud" replicated in thousands of school districts across this country.

Our state is going bankrupt paying union (above-market) salaries to cafeteria workers serving mostly taxpayer-subsidized breakfasts, lunches and (sometimes) dinners to millions of California children dropped off by parents often driving Navigators and Escalades. What's up with that?! Why can't they bring their own lunches to school? Or eat at home?

Because you're willing to pay for it.

Our state is going bankrupt paying above-market salaries to grass cutters, floor sweepers, bus drivers and secretaries.

These salaries are almost always non-competitive and virtually non-negotiable. (And they usually go up every year, NEVER down.) The unions hold school districts and taxpayers hostage, threatening to shut down the whole process so that some (often non-English-speaking, hardly legal) union-dues-paying worker can keep a job that could be filled at significantly lower cost by hiring Americans at entry-level positions (perhaps recent high school graduates, for starters?).

Why do these low-skilled jobs have to be "career" jobs anyway? I swept floors and cleaned toilets...when I was 16! Should people still be doing that when they are 25? Or 50? Must we pay maximum-skill wages for minimum-skill labor?

TENS OF BILLIONS MORE go to housing, feeding, clothing, supervising, medicating, and entertaining millions of California youths and their families in the name of "education".

What do we get for our "education" dollars?

It appears, mostly mis-education. In many urban school districts, half the students don't even graduate. Many who do, sadly, remain functionally illiterate. Grade inflation, social promotion and academic fraud are not just common. Too often, they're the rule.

Our tax dollars are being thrown down a rat hole. So why are we still paying?

I won't be making friends by telling you that teachers are among the dumbest people I know -- my circle of teaching friends excluded (of course!). The data prove it. College-bound students majoring in education consistently rank in the bottom third (compared to other majors) on their SATs. Every prospective California teacher has to pass a basic academic proficiency test called CBEST. The CBEST is an 8th-grade math and 10th-grade reading/writing test. According to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, the pass rates among college graduates who take this test are 80% for whites, 59% for Asian Americans, 49% for Latinos, and 35% for Blacks. To put it another way, one in three COLLEGE GRADUATES who try to become teachers in California CAN'T FUNCTION AT THE HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE LEVEL.

Is it any wonder we're in trouble?

In a world where every (other) aspect of society is made cheaper and smarter and faster by technology, public education just gets dumber, more dangerous, moribund and costly. It remains almost immune to innovation or improvement.

Why? Because public school isn't about teaching students. It's about employing teachers. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you'll understand EVERYTHING about "public" education.

Private schools, on the other hand -- and even "unlicensed" home schools -- routinely outperform public schools in virtually every category...except drug use, delinquency, teenage pregnancy, suicide, failures and drop-out rates.

Will the current economic melt-down break the strangle-hold socialist unions have upon California's public education system? I don't know.

But one can always hope!

HOW MUCH For That Band-Aid?

The local ER is "public health care". Anyone and everyone can walk in and get treated "for free" if they can't pay.

But what about those of us who can pay?

My wife recently broke her big toe (on a Sunday evening). She dropped a cast iron bread pan on it! Ouch!

She was in A LOT of pain. And she happened to be pregnant. So we didn't dare give her mega-doses of whatever pain-killers we had at home.

We took her to the ER.

After waiting an hour or two, we saw the doctor. He looked at her toe and said, "Yep, it's probably broken. Since you're pregnant, we won't do an x-ray. That wouldn't do any good anyway. We can't put a cast on it. It will heal on it's own."

"But what about the pain, doc? Can't you inject something to kill the pain?"

"Nope. The needle would hurt as bad as the break," he said. "It would wear off too quick, anyway, and then we'd be back to where we started. The best to do is wash it, wrap it up, and send you home with a prescription for Vicodin and an antibiotic."

And that's what they did. One person washed her toe with hydrogen peroxide and sterile water. Another wrapped it in gauze. A third wrote the prescriptions, and sent us home -- all in about four hours.

Mind you, no painkiller was administered, no drugs, no IV, no x-ray. Just WASH, GAUZE, and a PRESCRIPTION (which we still had to pay for elsewhere).

I got my bill yesterday.

What do you think the total was?

$1,082!

Can you believe it??!

Outrageous bills for minimal service are what we get with public health care and a "single-payer" ("government-pays") insurance system. If I were paying the bill on my own, there's NO WAY the doctor could justify charging me that much. The hospital knows I have insurance, however, so they bill my insurance company through the roof to pay for everyone else who isn't paying. Over $1000? For what? Essentially, a band aid? Are they CRAZY?!

No, they're not crazy. They're just trying to stay financially afloat in a system that is bankrupting them.

Imagine if you owned a restaurant where EVERYONE could come and eat at any time -- as much as they wanted! -- WITHOUT PAYING.That is our current health care system. Under a "universal" health care system, the demand for services would only increase -- and costs would soar! (And they are!)

My co-pay was $100. In a time of distress, with my wife in great pain, with a baby on the way, I'm willing to pay $100 so see that her toe is taken care of.

But $1,082 for a band-aid?

Forget it!

That Didn't Take Long

Only a few days after Pennsylvania senator "Benedict" Arlen Specter defected to the Democrats (giving them a filibuster-proof majority), David Souter (liberal justice extraordinaire) retires.

I've never liked Specter. He is an immoral, self-serving politician who has savaged and betrayed conservatives and their principles whenever they have stood in the way of his career. A RINO, for sure. Good riddance!

Now Obama can appoint whomever he wants. Expect to see the hardest-left liberal of all time seated on the bench.

UPDATE: Obama selected Judge Sotomayor, a hard-core liberal activitist judge who believes her Hispanic ethnicity enables her to make better decisions than "a white male". She belongs to LA RAZA and several other racist and sexist organizations. She effectively shot down a "reverse discrimination" case brought by white firefighters who were denied promotions when no blacks similarly passed the "race-neutral" examination process. In the interest of "social justice", liberals believe equality of incomes and outcomes must be assured, regardless of merit. She fits the mold.

How about a little tea party?

This man makes perfect sense.

Wednesday, April 15th, at 5:30 pm, my family and I, together with as many of you as will STAND UP and SPEAK OUT to defend this country, will assemble at the Palm Desert Civic Center. We're going to have a little "tea party" with a few hundred -- or maybe even thousand -- of our closest friends. (Personally, I don't drink tea, but, in this case, I don't mind supporting the cause!)

Please come join us!

As GM Goes, So Goes the Nation

Decades ago, the corporate heads of Detroit's auto makers signed lucrative union contracts they knew they could not honor, promising to pay health care and pension benefits for workers from future proceeds. Those unfunded obligations have now come due -- and have sunk the once-great auto giants General Motors and Chrysler.

Decades ago, America's political leaders made equally grandiose (and vain) promises to provide health care and retirement benefits to hundreds of millions of the rising generation -- in return for political votes and modest tax increases. Since 1913, the federal income tax rates -- beginning at 1% for those making at least $250,000 per year and topping out at 7% for multi-millionaires (with the promise that those rates would never increase) have steadily grown to swallow 40% of America's income. Not even those who pay no direct income tax pass unscathed. Inasmuch as corporations don't really pay taxes, but pass them on to those who benefit from their services, we all labor under a mountain of vexatious personal and/or corporate taxation.

In the 1930's, Social Security -- America's greatest ponzi scheme -- was created. And in the 1960's, Medicare and Medicaid joined the mix, further transfering the wealth of productive America to idle consumers.

Now we are enslaved. Our wealth, rather than be garnered in vaults or employed in industry, has been squandered in pointless consumption of vacuous entertainments and cheaply made products or else has been used to prop up corrupt, even tyranical bureacracies. Our fortunes past, present and future have been handed over to previous politicians and their adoring sycophants as well as to a menacing current Congress bent on enslaving us further by selling our children into the indentured servitude of mounting trillions through deficit borrowing and spending, sums we ourselves cannot hope to repay.

GM is bankrupt. 

What of the United States?

GM will be partioned and sold to her creditors -- and to the highest bidder.

Who will be America's new "masters"?

EDIT: I failed to mention GM's latest offer: Buy a new GM car...and if you lose your job, GM will pay your car payment (up to $500/month) for the next 9 months!

That's not GM's money they're throwing around. That's OUR money! GM has received BILLIONS of dollars in subsidies. We're ALL paying for those cars and the ridiculously high union wages and benefits that built them!

Who gave GM free access to my wallet?

NO ONE! 

Neither Congress nor the Executive branch has the constitutional authority to take from the rich to give to the poor. They do not have the authority to tell GM president Rick Wagoner to step down. They do not have the authority to do ANY NUMBER of things they're doing! Virtually EVERYTHING they do now is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

They are ROBBING U.S. blind! Just because we elected them doesn't give them the RIGHT break the law! The Constitution is the SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND! Violate it and you become a  criminal.

They are BANKRUPTING America. They are TRAITORS to our republic and our way of life. We must hold them accountable and put a stop to it.

What Wrong with Education...and How to Fix It

Robert Weissberg wrote about education reform:

Like a patient undergoing brain surgery, today's student lies passively while experts labor to insert knowledge, and to continue this metaphor, surgeons only disagree on how to put it in. For some, knowledge is best inserted by hiring superior teachers; or the route might be holding school administrators accountable; or curriculum experts should concocting exciting new ways to stimulate appetites; or social service professions must be commanded to assist youngsters overcome their personal and home-life crises impeding learning, to mention only a few possibilities to fix the patient's brain.

Regardless of ideology, every contemporary putative solution has this "somebody else will do it" element.

He looks back to when things worked and why they don't now:

Why do we refuse to hold students responsible if they fail tests? Why has no one stood up and said, "Test scores will improve when students become diligent, pay attention to teachers, and put as much effort into learning as they put into sports and socializing?"....

Contemporary American pedagogues are clueless about being a hard ass, and those gray beards who do remember yesterday's sure-fire recipe of humiliation, ridicule, dunce caps and other self-esteem undermining tactics, recognize that they are totally impermissible in today's help-students feel-good-about-themselves environment. Cracking the whip on Mr. Lazybones (in the classroom though not in sports) invites trouble from parents, even litigation. Today's expert-certified motivation approach can best be depicted as "Spare the Rod, Help the Child."