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Mockerator |
The Democratic class warfare war against freedom, capitalism, and business continues in the form of the stigmatization of CEO pay and corporate jets. Cessna, to their credit, is fighting back against what can only be termed a fascist/Marxist orientation the Democrats have toward private business and freedom itself. Here's one of the ads they're now running. | |||
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Master Baiter |
Indeed. It's all friggin' talk. They are all full of shit. That talk masks a sincerely malicious and elitist bent, as well as what I've been saying for years: FEAR. Fear of those they perceive as inferior to them. The most annoying, nut-driving thing to me about the left is the way they out-and-out lie and talk out of their ass out of that ethnic/multicultural PC fear. It's the same damn tyranny of political correctness. It's the neo-reich, thought-police parent-the-world crap. It's sheep syndrome. Child-person syndrome. The desperate yearning for belonging. The desperate fear of being publicly outed as a fraud. The gaping black vortex of emotional neediness. You can hear it in the chanting. Mature adults don't play games like that. They don't live in fantasy worlds and sit around in pinky-up clubs tsking and shaking their heads and wagging their tongues. This late-boomer generation is totally arrested development. They're stuck in a kind of coca-cola hippie commercial trying to teach the world to sing, while the world is trying to blow them and their bullshit to kingdom come. The hard realities of life are completely ignored, deflected, or straw-manned onto anyone that causes them to face issues rather than talk them away. That's why, you watch, the "fairness" doctrine and all that, is going to be the next big political push. Because to protect the yards of bullshit, and because they don't have intellectual legs to stand on... their only hope is squelching. | |||
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| Mockerator |
Fear of those they perceive as inferior to them. That's interesting. I've never heard it put in those terms before. But there must be truth to that. Aside from the naked desire for power and just the fun of manipulating people, why else would you want to control those whom you see as inferior? Well, fear has to be a part of that. And I think much of that fear can be explained in the concept of "elitist." Those who think of themselves as elitist have truly built their egos on a mound of sand. You and I know that out of the mouths of babes and the common man can, and often does, come far more profound truths than out of the mouths of the Nancy Pelosi types. Elitism is, for the most part, a totally artificial construct, as thin and insubstantial as a layer of clothing, pretty though it may look from the outside. Although I know you're not necessarily a big fan of the concept of humble, if you see "humble" as the opposite of "bullshit," perhaps I can make you a convert. Humble needn't mean non-assertive or to be a doormat. But it does mean not being so deluded that you think your own shit doesn't stink. That's the kind of humble I'm talking about. Pious might be a bit different, and some of that I find to be okay. But humble sets oneself up so that one needn't bamboozle, fool, or control because the truth will not be one's enemy. I truly believe that even the leftist mind cannot quite swallow all their own shit, so they have to keep their doubts at bay (as many religious people sometimes do) by demonizing someone or something else. These are, basically, mental midgets running around. But they are often quite dangerous and powerful mental midgets. The desperate fear of being publicly outed as a fraud. The gaping black vortex of emotional neediness. You can hear it in the chanting. Yes, I think that has to be a large part of it. That town meeting yesterday was so absolutely embarrassing, even Oprah might not have taken part in something so kooky. Someone intentionally (I'm assuming) invited the most pathetic people to that meeting. Of course, everyone else who is NOT a black vortex of emotional neediness was out working in a job and couldn't attend the townhall meeting. It should give chills to anyone when they see dependency elevated so high that is crowds out the real solution to what ails these people, and that is to work hard and stop blaming others. The One is from a long line of frauds. This one simply promises to cure all earthly hardships. And that's attractive to a lot of people, especially the ones who have been thoroughly taught that the Good Life is something that should be ours by right and that it's not something you have to struggle for. Health care a right? That's what The One said. What next, freedom from death? And yet, if you look at what they're saying about the "stimulus" bill, Democrats now get to play the grim reaper and have a say in who gets cured and who is just too old to waste money on. Their "culture of death" is consistent with their other views. Mature adults don't play games like that. They don't live in fantasy worlds and sit around in pinky-up clubs tsking and shaking their heads and wagging their tongues. This late-boomer generation is totally arrested development I believe that to be quite true. I struggle with elements of it myself, so I'm not simply the pot calling the kettle black. But it's almost impossible to avoid. It's perhaps one reason people in the country are more conservative while people in the cities are more liberal. One is more directly in touch with the often harsh realities of nature while the other lives in a well-constructed and generally quite comfortable bubble. The more bubble-accustomed we are, the more we think that the Good Life is a right, not the culmination of a very hard and long chain of events -- events that are all totally dependent upon freedom and the free market. At heart, all leftism is Kool-aid drinking because they have, for various reasons, donned the delusion that hardships are a failure of the bubble rather than seeing the bubble as the enormous accomplishment that it is. People such as Obama are clueless as to what went into making the bubble. That is one reason (but not the only one) that they haven't the slightest idea of how to fix it, and why their "fixes" usually turn our to be worse than just doing nothing. | |||
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| Master Baiter |
Keep in mind that I would never, ever discount or diminish our creative imaginations... the impulse to fantasize or play. That can be the healthiest thing. But there's a huge difference between arrested development, and guys like you and me who like Star Trek or Indiana Jones, video gaming, or playing superheroes with our nephews. Arrested development is a chronic and dysfunctional lack of maturity. All day every day. Something that prevents adult interaction, sacrifices relationships, turns everything into me-me-me, without letting up for a second. Taking forays into immaturity for laughs, or to relive a childhood moment? Healthy. To sit around ALL DAY playing video games because you haven't found a purpose to your life: unhealthy. To be childLIKE once in a while, adds spice to life. To act like a spoiled child with other adults, to avoid all responsibility and throw tantrums when you don't get what you want? Damaging. That's what I mean about arrested development. I have a relative who's textbook arrested development. Never got over the death of his mom. Lives a child-man "little boy lost" kinda life. His room looks like a 13-year old's. Baseball banners on the wall, posters of sports heroes or pin-up girls (not framed)... toys, action figures (not as collectibles in the wrapper, but posed and ready to play with), trophies from high school sports. This is not somebody who revisits the past, but lives IN it. Uses it to avoid living, and taking responsibility for his own life. Peter Pan syndrome. Not wanting to grow up, and so clings to these things. Throws emotional child-tantrums if anyone dares suggest he let some of this stuff go and grow the fuck up. Now, you know me, I honestly believe there are ways to un-repress and deal with all sorts of issues like this. And that's through creative output. This guy may one day write the definitive arrested-development male novel... he might one day paint a picture that gets all the child-man stuff out in the open. There's a big difference between wallowing, and dealing. Competitive guys who need to feel like sports heroes again? I have NO PROBLEM with pick-up games with your friends, joining a league, whatever. Play sports for a couple of hours a day, that's not going to hurt you. But sitting in your room amongst your trophies and decades old memories and not living your current life is harmful and dysfunctional. I enjoy the occasional nostalgic jaunt into my past. As you know, I recently re-read some pulp sci-fi books that I enjoyed as a teenager. I eye rolled, got wistful... but it didn't get in the way of my current real-world life. It wasn't a barrier I never got over, it was simply a fond memory I wanted to see if I could go back and get a taste of. Of course it turned out that the memory was sweeter than the reality, but I'm glad I did it. I was able to see the merits of the work, and why it had an influence on me. It became a valuable thing, to learn what makes me tick. | |||
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| Mockerator |
But sitting in your room amongst your trophies and decades old memories and not living your current life is harmful and dysfunctional. One of the funniest roles in recent memory, and the only reason I liked the movie, was the ex-quarterback in (I can't remember the movie...the one with nerdy guy with the curly blond hair) who spent all his time reliving past glories (real or imagined, I presume). I have a standing order for brothel to shoot me if the entire gist of my conversations with him ever become about my various aches and pains and/or if I have little else in my head other than "Remember when we used to...". And frankly, I don't want to return to my childhood. Parts of it were good, but so much of it was traumatic. Good riddance, childhood, although I hope the child inside stays around and never dies. The only thing more pathetic than arrested development is that man or woman (but especially the man) who has, as Paul (I think it was Paul) said in Corinthians 13:1 (the NKJ version): "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Umm, and in Corinthian 13:2 it should have said "Fuck that. I was just kidding." Nothing is sillier or more pathetic to me than the person (usually a guy) who has put away all childish things. When you do so it is almost always because you've drank someone else's Kool-aid. To put away the small and impish pleasures of your own life is to give into the "proper" way of doing and being as set by that grand depository of bad ideas, public opinion. To put aside the lightness and frivolity of life is to probably buy into someone else's purpose for your life, be it a church, a woman, a military group, a company, a crank organization, or just your nose-picker friends. The world is chock full of people who have thrown away their identity for the predictable safety of the mob. "Grow up" has the same ring to it as "Hello, can I tell you about Jesus?" No, do not put away childish things and, for god's sake, do not ever think like an adult because adults start wars, rape future generations in the name of "progress," and just basically are pretty stupid. That may have been a apologetic for arrested development. I'm not sure. Time for another Go-gurt. | |||
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| Mockerator |
It should not be forgotten that each and every Democrat who voted for the phony "stimulus" bill is a dirtbag and a sellout of America and its principles. Each and every one of these Democrats should be voted out of office...or, if that's not possible, I want to take my tax bill, the invoice for a new car and house that I plan to buy, and split it amongst about a thousand or so people who voted for these Democrats. Fair is fair. But especially egregious are the sell-out Republicans; Senators Specter, Collins, and Snowe. I think Dick Morris and Eileen McGann are actually far too respectful in their criticism of these unpatriotic dirtbag Republicans. | |||
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| Master Baiter |
Oh no, I don't think that was apologia for arrested development. I think it's just a question of how much childish things figure in your CONTINUING development as a person. If they become an obstacle to greater maturity, as opposed to an occasional or nostalgic indulgence. I mean, I still hug my mother, I just don't jump up into her arms and suck my thumb. Speaking of thumb suckers, you're absolutely right. Everyone who voted for the "stimulus" bull is a dirtbag and a sellout. Fuck them all. | |||
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| Mockerator |
Oh no, I don't think that was apologia for arrested development. I think it's just a question of how much childish things figure in your CONTINUING development as a person. That's not going to pass successfully through the bullshit detector, but I'll take it as an explanation. Yeah. The stupid stuff I do around the office (most of which I can't mention) is my path toward 4-star matured enlightenment, including my Obama impression. (It involves a lot of stuttering.) | |||
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THALO.net divinity |
Look at the story behind Henrietta Hughes. The sob story at the Florida Sell Out Package Town Hall meeting. She was being offered all kinds of stuff for free prior to going to the Town Hall meeting. Free job training. Free food. Free Housing. It just wasn't free enough. She eventually was going to have to pay and or get a job. She is already on disability payments. I want my free house. How come Henrietta gets a free house. I demand every politician step forward and start handing the keys to their homes to citizens. This is an outrage. The big secret still remains how the banking collapse happened. There is one day that was the trigger. Where hundreds of billions of dollars were being siphoned out of the system. It was no accident. Where are the hearings? It goes hand in hand with the hundreds of millions of dollars in Hussien/Biden campaign contributions we still have no idea were it all came from. What foreign entity now owns the White House. The number one priority of the White House and Congressional Leadership is to keep Americans unemployed. They want you out of work. They need you dependent on them. It is their goal to implement their vision of a new Socialist America. One without power or leverage to defend the ideals of the Constitution or to uphold freedom and Liberty. We have a President in his own words that does not believe in the United States Constitution. His aim is to change it by manipulating the system. The cry for the return of the Fairness Doctrine has already grown louder and louder. Dissent no longer is required. Dissent will be silenced by Congress doing an end run around the First Amendment. | |||
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| Mockerator |
The number one priority of the White House and Congressional Leadership is to keep Americans unemployed. They want you out of work. They need you dependent on them. It is their goal to implement their vision of a new Socialist America. One without power or leverage to defend the ideals of the Constitution or to uphold freedom and Liberty. We have a President in his own words that does not believe in the United States Constitution. His aim is to change it by manipulating the system. The cry for the return of the Fairness Doctrine has already grown louder and louder. Dissent no longer is required. Dissent will be silenced by Congress doing an end run around the First Amendment. Given the record of FDR, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon, it's no secret what government should not do regarding the economy. Therefore Obama and the Democrats are either stupid or so full of ideological Marxist-zeal that they are, again, just stupid. But one shouldn't underrate their lack of integrity in regards to their willingness to lie and tear down this country in the pursuit of power. They would flood the borders with illegal aliens and destroy people, our education system, and the family unit in their drive to keep people dependent upon them. The only way to break this cycle is for Americans to understand basic economics and how these basic economics depend on freedom and a limited, non-intrusive government. But a LOT of people have become severely retarded. I joke about my own arrested development, but it's nothing compared to people (and hordes of them) who really do think that life owes them a silver spoon in their mouth. I was just talking to a personnel director and she was very depressed. She needed a little pep talk, which I gave her. The people she meets who are out of work all tend to look and act like Henrietta or that really dumb ass guy from the townhall meeting who said he used to work at McDonald's. I've seen this coming for a long time now. Our education system has been severely dumbed-down where achievers tend to be demonized and slackers glorified. You can't do that and not expect to get what we have now which is a nation full of big babies. And sycophantic politicians such as Obama are in no shortage to take advantage of that (and, lest we forget, they had everything to do with creating this depressed, envious, twisted dependency class). Still, I shock myself how right I've been. But the outright viciousness of leftists still puzzles me a bit, even considering what people will typically do for any kind of power. It's just foreign to me how people can be so premeditatedly malicious and destructive. This "stimulus" bill is a direct prescription for inflation and a lengthened recession (not to mention the suffering of many people being needlessly thrown out of a job). The answer is simple: lower taxes and cut government spending. The ratio would ideally be about 2 dollars of less spending for every dollar of taxes cut. The stock market would immediately rebound. People and business would have more money to operate with and spend. But the "stimulus" bill does nothing to stimulate jobs but it does everything to entrench Big Government, dependency, and socialism. And every dollar the government borrows makes it tougher for people and private businesses to borrow. You would have to be (like three Republican Senators are) a demented fool to ignore the reams of evidence for policies that not only don't work but that make things worse. | |||
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| Master Baiter |
Brad man, mature doesn't mean losing your sense of humor. And it's often the most immature and adolescent who take things too seriously. If you've ever seen an emotional outburst by a 16 year old, and then you see that in a 46 year old, you'll know instantly what I'm talking about with arrested development. Oh my god, the Henrietta Hughes crap makes me mental. I want my free house too. Actually, what I really want right now is free health care. And hot nurses WITH the free health care. I want all my debts taken care of by the government, too. We can't stand for this shit. I draw the line at the fairness doctrine. Squelching is unamerican. That's an infection that can't be allowed to spread. Let these socialists try to spread their fucking idiocy out in the open where it can be shot down on a level, free-speech playing field. The SECOND they squelch to cover their bullshit, they are the enemy as far as I'm concerned. An enemy of the US Constitution they all swore to preserve, protect, and defend. The jobs being created by the "stimulus" bull? Ditch diggers. Chain-gang level road workers. Hard, backbreaking manual labor nobody wants to do. Nobody but illegal immigrants. But hey, if I have to, I'll pick up a shovel. I'll lay blacktop. Fuck them. Let the press take pictures of a 48 year old artist who had to go work on a road crew because his American Dream of running his own business was quashed by stupid socialists. | |||
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| Mockerator |
Actually, what I really want right now is free health care. And hot nurses WITH the free health care. That's an excellent idea. We can't stand for this shit. I draw the line at the fairness doctrine. Squelching is unamerican. I draw the line at Marxism myself. But that line's now very old. The SECOND they squelch to cover their bullshit, they are the enemy as far as I'm concerned. Old Brad might sound paranoid to the uninitiated (and especially the Kool-aid drinkers), but if you read about the history of any Communist/Marxist country, the methods are all the same. It becomes Orwellian. Language is screwed with. People start talking about stuff like "sustainable energy" while turning our food into fuel. "Re-education" becomes a prime means of coercion. The forerunner of this is "sensitivity" and "diversity" training as well as the environmentalism being propagandized to children. Free speech is squelched (Europe and Canada are way ahead of us in this regard). "Enemies of the people" becomes a big thing and we see the start of that in the show trials of the CEOs who are having their corporate jets rubbed in their faces and the idea of the free market is stigmatized. (The bone-chilling stories of how the Chinese Communists demonized any area of society they deemed "unfit" or "degenerate" are, well, bone-chilling. Pelosi is a natural commissar.) Rather than things such as the Fairness Doctrine being the line in the sand for me, although it's certainly an important threshold, we've reached this point (if we do reach this point) only because of the many obvious things before it that have gone ignored. Of course, I can hear you know wanting to ask me, "Brad, if this or perhaps this was included in socialized medicine, would you be for it?" And the answer is a resounding, "Well, maybe." You see, we all have our threshold where we'll sell out. Some break a fingernail and then want the president to give them a house. Others struggle for their entire lives, just getting by, but grateful to live in such a great country, until someone offers me this in my socialized medicine. I mean, come on. Everyone has their threshold. Some want houses. Some want eternal life. Me, I would be constantly running into all kinds of colds, germs, coughs, ailments, aches, pains, and anything it would take to get me into the doctor's office if I had a plan like that. Hell, I might even get elected president if I made such promises. But, nahhhh....everyone would surely see that it was an unworkable plan that would bankrupt the country. Or is that now an attribute? I'm still learning this socialist dependency thing. It's going to take a while. | |||
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| Mockerator |
Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein If I get time I’ll critique some of his nonsense. But it just goes to show how people smart in one field can be so very dumb in another. | |||
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| Master Baiter |
I just wish I had thought of the domain name "DoctorTushy.com"  I don't have a problem with Marxism being part of the debate. In that it's easily trounced by common sense and the very SLIGHTEST understanding of human nature. It's the Orwellian vocabulary modification, and squelching of free speech that really makes me hulk out. That crap is pure concentrated evil. Needs to be fought tooth and nail by patriots. Oh, with all due respect to Albert, that essay is complete horse-poo. I see how even such a great mind was seduced by Marxist ideas. Remember, we have a PUBLIC EDUCATION system. That's pretty socialist right there. It has some strengths, and it has many, many more weaknesses. But nobody can say that we force American kids to go through this life without an opportunity to learn. And yet for whatever reason, some do not SEIZE this opportunity. Then I don't care who you are or where you come from, or how much money you throw at the problem, the "planned economy"... the socialist attempt at providing education to those particular kids, failed. Is it a failure of the IDEA that all kids should get an education? No. It's a failure of the individual to fully participate in the crafting of their own destiny. And that failure is a result of a sense that getting an education is either too daunting a prospect, or that by being GIVEN rather than EARNED, it's not worth doing. Some kids, however, for whom education is THEIR ONLY HOPE for escaping crushing barefooted poverty and ignorance, throw themselves into that little rural one-room shack school and give it every friggin' thing they've got... suck up knowledge like a sponge. You tell me, what's the difference between that kid, and an inner-city slacker dropout kid who fails everything and doesn't take his studies seriously? Not enough government? Please. | |||
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| Mockerator |
In short, ol' Albert sees socialism as the domestication of the individual. We can debate the meaning and merits of "domestication," but he forgets about who or what it is that is going to domesticate government. His assumption, like that of too many foolish people, is that government actions are, by nature, better, more trustworthy, wiser, and more effective than non-governmental entities. There is no evidence for this, and reams of evidence to the contrary. Government needs as much constraint – and surely a lot more – than private citizens. There is empirical evidence for this. This isn't anything anyone has to take on faith. And Albert is guilty, too, of changing the language. What is normally known as freedom he calls "the predatory phase" of mankind. All socialists are afraid of the power of the individual and believe the state must constrain the individual. And no conservative would suppose any nation could do without laws, courts, and cops. But any classical liberal, libertarian, conservative, anyone with half a brain, or anyone with even a passing familiarity with the benefits of freedom knows that you unleash the best of mankind with freedom. And the fruits of this freedom can ultimately be shared with others in a free marketplace. But socialism has a pessimistic and shackled view of mankind which tries to always protect against excess and in doing so squeezes the very life, spirit, productivity, vitality, and imagination out of mankind. Always. Without exception. And only the control-freak types and the bottom-feeder greedy and manipulative Henriettas of the world cheer when Big Government smothers everyone and everything in the name of equality and fairness. Granted, Europeans have never quite had their finger on the pulse of freedom the way we Americans have. Albert is a product of his culture (and perhaps of the ivory tower Princeton culture). I'll give the Dutch some credit for being the last refuge of real men in Europe, but the rest of them can't seem to give up their freedoms fast enough. It's sickening. But in America, probably because we've always been such a mix of people, and surely because of our founding ideals, the business of America has been business, not nationalistic or racial ideology. Freedom is what we all share. That's also what binds us together. It's what used to bind us to Europe until they became infected with the "hate America" form of leftism. But I hear that's starting to change. Even as we turn left, I hear that many governments in Europe are starting to distance themselves a little bit from the flakey left. It's about time. I wish them luck. I wish us luck too. But as Albert shows, it's very easy for people to become confused or just terrified by freedom itself. People often want to substitute the illusion of a safe, secure, and wise government for that freedom. And to do so they must trump up charges against freedom (including especially the free market), something which the dastardly Democrats and other Marxists have been doing for decades now. Albert may refer to freedom as "our predatory phase," and Obama may refer to it as "everyone having to fend for themselves" but freedom is the magic that has lifted up humanity from the barbarism and injustice of the past. What freedom has shown us is that all of the people for all time who said that people could not be trusted and had to be severely restrained for the good of "the people" were wrong. There has been an enormous burst of wealth, human rights, and budding civilization these last several hundred years because of freedom which is in stark contrast to the tens of thousands of years before then. Unfortunately, there are now people such as Obama and the Democrats (and nearly all the politicians in Europe) who forget this most important lesson of freedom and want to (and have done so in many places) grow government into an uber-restraining force instead of a freedom-unleashing force which describes the very purpose of our Constitution and the founding principles of this country. It's now sink or swim time. We either come to terms with the fact the freedom does indeed have a price, but that it is a price more than worth paying. We know the ghastly price of the totalitarian state in all its forms (including friendly fascism). We have the evidence of the centuries that unless government is restrained, it will enslave us. Always. The freedom of your neighbor is to be feared far less than an ever-growing government that is ever extending itself more and more into your life until one day, on nothing more than a whim and a chance to mine a crisis of their own making, they pass a phony "stimulus" bill whose only intent is to cement government's status, not yours. | |||
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| Mockerator |
You are quite correct, Mr. Reagan. Perhaps central to socialism (as understood by the masses, not by the leaders who are usually just cynical power-grabbers) is the idea that compassion is measured by trying to reduce the stigma or consequences of being disadvantaged rather than taking a constructive and useful "the sky's the limit" approach to anyone and everyone. It is not just a pithy saying to say that socialism, Marxism, and Communism make everyone equal, as in equally miserable. History has shown this to be the case. The focus is not on positive steps to improve oneself but on ways to make sure others aren't getting ahead. You saw that in the recent townhall meeting with Obama where the orientation of the event and, indeed, the role of government, is toward victimhood. The refrain is always along the lines of "Hey, all these other people have more than I do. That's not fair," although you won't likely hear people be this honest. It's usually couched in other language – blame-shifting language. But Martin Luther King Jr. did not ask us, like Pastor Wright was promoting, to ALL be equal racists. King was not asking those who didn't have a racist bone in their body to suddenly gain that sort of mindset as a reaction to others who were racist so that we could all be equal in that regard. But that, in essence, was the message of the Marxist-based black theology church of Pastor Wright. He was promoting racism toward whites and hatred toward America. It was the typical leftist shtick of drumming up enemies and scapegoats. Instead of providing positive solutions to problems, the leftist/Marxist/liberal approach is to drum up envy, hatred, and a sense of victimhood. But King had a positive dream of lifting everyone out of judging people by the color of their skin. That was a positive step which is the opposite of the Democratic leftist approach which is to demonize achievement and drum up differences so that they can gain political points. Socialism, Marxism, and Communism are the most un-progressive forces on earth, but it's quite apt that Progressives pervert this word "progress" in an Orwellian way and make it their standard-bearer (Progressives are also known today as "liberal"). The lens through which these people view life is distorted, pessimistic, and downright evil. They view inequalities of outcome as an inherent sign of an injustice somewhere down the line. But true freedom can produce nothing less than differences and the sort of "diversity" that leftists so cynically say they are for which, of course, they are not. It is just another one of their lies. Again, leftist leaders tend to be cynical. You can't believe what they say. Everything is a manipulate-the-emotion-of-the-masses game. They are frauds. They ask everyone to do with less while they almost to a man live high on the hog. That has always been the case when you have an entrenched class of elites deigning and condescending to shepherd the masses. They talk the talk but don't ever walk the walk. Ted Kennedy is for alternative energy but the minute windmills are proposed in his backyard, he opposes them. This is typical. These people are all hypocrites, down to the last man and woman. Yes, it's true that many (perhaps most) have deluded themselves into thinking that they are doing good. Nutjobs such as Pelosi may justify in their own minds that they are saving the planet. But they are not doing good. This stimulus bill should be the moment where America has its own Boston Tea Party and we dump their bill-of-goods overboard. This "stimulus" bill is an orgy of irresponsible and cynical spending by cynical people who care only about their own power. Yes, we need to be compassionate and have concern for people, but the best way to do that is to provide them with opportunity. It is corrosive, destructive, and evil to simply fill their minds with the idea that they are victims, especially if we do so only for purposes of political power. That defines the Democrats and more than a few Republicans. It is not compassionate or caring to mire people in entitlement-mindedness. And yet that's what the Democrats and Obama (and far too many Republicans) are doing. We've also been taught to make excuses for people, especially "people of color." We've been taught to treat them like victims of their skin instead of people who are the same as you and me and capable of anything they put their mind to. But instead, political correctness and the noxious ideology derived from Marxism have got everyone to automatically defer and apologize for "people of color" no matter what they are doing, no matter how destructive their behavior. This, as Bush says, is the soft bigotry of low expectations. That phrase should be on everyone's refrigerator, especially if you are a "person of color." Instead of a parade of victims at a presidential press conference, we should have our leaders inspiring us. We should have them talk about the truth of the free market and the benefits of education. Instead of politicians such as Obama preying on the inherent fact that life is a challenge, they ought to be showing us example after example of people who have met that challenge and thus show us how we can do it too. It is not, I repeat, it is not compassionate to coddle people and nurse their fantasies of class envy just for political gain. That is evil. We need, where it is appropriate to do so (such as with providing a quality education in our schools instead of leftist indoctrination) give people the appropriate tools to pursue their own part of the American Dream. But what we have Democrats doing instead is giving people the opposite of a pep-talk. They're telling everyone (explicitly or implicitly….and this is at least where Pastor Wright is honest) that if you are not white, you don't have an equal chance in this country. This is pretty much what one of the speakers as the inauguration said ("white must do what is right," or some such nonsense). These Democrats will also maliciously and wrongfully tell you that the free market is broken. But the free market is our greatest benefactor because it is the result of the greatest gift we can have – freedom. They're saying that government is central to your life and that you can't get by without their help. This is the dogma of victimhood and dependency. These Democrats survive, not on lifting anyone up, but on lifting themselves up at the expense of others. What they do is talk a good game. They have learned to exploit people's feelings of tension, fear, and envy. But that is not how America was built. When Ann Coulter says these people are traitors, she is so very right. They are traitors to the American Dream. They would (and often have) sell out their own country for political power. And this is right where we are now. It is true, of course, that any politician of any political party is going to tend to borrow a little of the tactics from the predatory Democrats. It's the nature of politics and politicians. That is exactly why the founders proposed a limited government with checks and balances. But they did not plan on two of our most cherished institutions falling to leftists, and I don't mean the presidency and Congress, as bad as that is. I mean the free press and our educational system. Both are now, for all intents and purposes, propaganda arms of the Democratic Party. THAT is what this orgy of spending is really all about. It's further entrenching the tentacled arms of the Democrat's reality-distortion machinery into as many areas of life as they can. These people are literally trying to take over and steal the country, and they're doing a good job of it unless we wake up and vote them out of office. That will take maturity and being more informed than simply reading and believing the hysteria-based emails in your inbox about what Sarah Palin supposedly believes. Too many of you out there simply pretend to be the enlightened man or woman when you are little more than an uninformed rabble trying to blame-shift and excuse-make. You have inhaled (wittingly or unwittingly) the fumes of the leftists and have been thoroughly gamed. Yes, it's embarrassing to admit because we all figure it couldn't happen to us. But it has happened. And it's time to stop and, as hard as this may be, understand that we have been manipulated and deceived. This is a great country with a great system and we need to learn about our country from facts and not imbibe the perverted falsehoods that these leftists spread. We must stand up to the plate and be citizens again instead of whining victims. We owe it not only to ourselves but to future generations as well. | |||
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| Mockerator |
It will be interesting to see if we Americans have what it takes to be good socialists, if we have the cow-like subservience usually needed. Yes, we have the willingness like any too-greedy, uninformed people to trade our liberties for the security of Big Government. But will Americans have it in them to wait endlessly in line for even the most basic services? We Americans have generally been an impatient lot concerning inefficiency and incompetence. The Department of Motor Vehicles and the Post Office are running jokes, and rightfully so. On that level, we understand the joke that government typically is. But that is certainly changing as we are herded by the socialists and Marxists via the indoctrination process of our media and our education system. We're losing the ability to see clearly. And it's arguable that liberty can't survive the one-two punch of greedy old people trying to milk the system for every entitlement they can (including far too many people who otherwise think of themselves as being conservative) and stupid young people whose conception of the important things in life is how fashionable something is at the moment. But the reality of socialism is higher costs, rationing, shortages, and waiting in line. Can Americans be turned into a vast, dumb herd? That is the task of Democrats, and so far so good. You already have many people (including especially the media and educators) vociferously apologizing for the left's friendly sort of fascism. They readily accept and embrace the never-ending lineup of scapegoats, villains, and demons that the left parades forth. People are gleefully embracing the destruction of their own freedoms as they are gamed and managed by those who know how to play humans like fiddles. The only defense is educating ourselves and understanding not only the merits of our own form of government (a limited constitutional republic) but the inherent problems of every form of socialism, fascism, communism, or Marxism that has ever been tried. They do not work. But they do work at getting otherwise smart people to defend what is otherwise indefensible. For that the Marxists and socialists are to be commended for their cleverness. | |||
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| Master Baiter |
Bravo! Hear, hear! At the same time, it's a two way street, people can't LET themselves be made victims. We can't be gullible, and LISTEN to the voices that tell us what we are or are not. I know it's tough. If a parent hammers on a kid all day about what an idiot they are, it's really tough for that kid to disregard that, and say no wait, I'm better than you say... It's the same with politicians who try to parent. They're playing on the insecure little kid in us. They're finding our weaknesses and exploiting them. A better strategy, in life and everywhere is to play to STRENGTHS. Maximize talents and gifts. That's where power is. Every single person who amounted to more than a hill of beans in this world had detractors. People who said to them oh no you can't. The successful all said fuck you, yes I can. To me, right now, the government is an annoyance. This is coming from a patriot. A man who LOVES his country, and fairly worships the ideas upon which it was founded. Our forefathers said fuck you to Great Britain, we don't need you, we'll go it alone. We've said fuck you to the enemies of freedom at every turn, and I see no reason to stop now. If this current administration becomes an enemy of freedom, by chipping away at our constitutional rights... it'll be time to say fuck you to them too. Liberal-Democratic-Progressive-Socialist BS is a cancer to freedom. It's well-meaningness that gets polluted by the unshakable belief that some people are better than others, and can decide for them how they should best lead their lives. That's the antithesis of freedom. They couch their Bullshit in the vocabulary of equality and liberty... and yet their actions speak way louder than those empty words. The most effective weapon against those empty words is free speech. The ability to dissent. They know this. Which is why they're going after that right, trying to curtail it. Now, are there other cancers that infect Conservatism? Sure. Fundamentalist Christianity for one. But the difference there is, freedom of religious belief is one of our most cherished rights. We can't remove that right for anyone at any time, whether they seek public office or not. Just as we can't silence a debate because socialist ideas are on the table... we can't silence a person because they choose to believe in a certain religion. That's the kind of crap our enemies pull. So when you see it in our nation, it's should have every freedom-loving patriot up in arms. I personally can't stand all that PTL Fundamentalist Christian nonsense. Just as I can't stand fundamentalist Islamic nonsense. But I would die fighting to preserve the right of every man, woman, and child in this country to choose those belief systems. Even though I personally think they are largely oogah boogah and wrong. I know there's some good, some truth IN most of the major religions; mixed in with all the fucked up shit. Even scientology... which makes me eye roll until my molars hurt, there's ideas in there which I UNDERSTAND as good, solid, self-determination and self help. That it's in a framework of what I perceive as utter lies and fantasies is beside the point. | |||
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| Mockerator |
At the same time, it's a two way street, people can't LET themselves be made victims. We can't be gullible, and LISTEN to the voices that tell us what we are or are not. I know it's tough. Yeah, it is tough. And given the choice between "buck it up/follow your bliss" or "it's someone else's fault," people often go for the latter, the easy and cheap (cheap in the short term) route. Complicating matters is that sometimes things are someone else's fault, at least a little bit. And through this loophole is driven entire semi trucks full of demagoguery that is carefully crafted to appeal to the entitlement- and victim-minded. And it gets worse. Even if you don't have a propensity to be a girly-man whiner, once you see the floodgates open on entitlements and giveaways, then for many people it just turns into a simple game of self-preservation. If you can't shut off the spigot to the trough, then one needs to at least shove one's nose in there and get one's share – or chance getting nothing at all. And after decades of this, we become used to it, and only a lunatic or revolutionary would suggest that we shut off (or turn down) the spigot of hand-outs. But I, for one, think we immediately need a constitutional balanced budget amendment, term limits, line-item veto, and a few other things. This really is a low-water mark for our republic, and we are driven here by a government that has too much power. We need to put a few more restraints on it. I'm not talking ideological restraints. I'm not talking about a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol, but just general constraints to limit government which, I think most non-Kool-aid drinkers might agree, is getting dangerously large and intrusive. But government itself gets to keep on waving inducements in the faces of people and and slowly roping more and more of them in. And government is actually borrowing on the welfare and freedom of future generations to do so. This is immoral. This is intolerable. And this is where we are right now, brother thalo. And we have been so conditioned now (since at least FDR) to the idea of hand-outs and open-spigots that it is just a relatively small step then toward outright socialism. I still have to douse my head with ice water ever once in a while to try to wake myself up and grasp the bare and real fact that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid were not rejected for their obvious and outright leftist/socialist policies but were actually embraced. Obama should have been the straw that broke the socialist camel's back and caused America to once and for all finally reject this foolishness that has been creeping in for decades now. And we may still, but we did not in this last election even though the choices couldn't have been any clearer, McCain's many milquetoast stances notwithstanding. Again, the only reason for the current orgy of borrowing and spending is because the Democrats want to use the momentum of this present "crisis" to further cement the crisis mentality itself. An review of a book I plan on reading, The Forgotten man, says:
We're seeing a repeat of this, although it may not (thankfully) lead to another depression. But in FDR's time it was another case where government ineptitude took a relatively small problem and, using the mandate of "crisis" that government tends to wield like a sledgehammer over our heads, fashioned it into a full-scale depression and an excuse to expand government in ways only rivaled by this current "crisis" foisted upon us by this current crop of Progressives. The American economy is so much larger now that it probably is a little more robust and resistant to even incompetents such as Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. But so many parallels with FDR seem exact. A better strategy, in life and everywhere is to play to STRENGTHS. Maximize talents and gifts. That's where power is. You are, of course, correct. But notice your insertion of the word "power" in that sentence. It is not incorrect, but it does show you that personal power and personal independence will always be at odds with, and be contrary to, those who wish to gather more than their own share of power. Always and forever, the only way to wield "collective" power is to stomp on the individual. It's really that simple. The rest is just details. You can demonize guns as a stand-in for individuality. You can demonize private business. You can demonize corporations (who are owned, lest we forget, by a number of individual shareholders). You can demonize individual polluters as a recipe for collective action. You can even demonize choice (freedom) itself and, as Obama did, call it "everyone fending for themselves." But not all collective action is Progressive, socialistic, Marxist, or communist. This difference always is whether someone's freedom is enhanced or whether it is curtailed in the name of "social justice" or any other Orwellian code words for "little guy gets screwed." When we collectively get together and decide to tax ourselves to build roads, we are not building an infrastructure for our own subjugation, but for our own freedom. But when we put the government in charge of private business, including health care, we are being subjugated, not freed. Any product or service (but perhaps that of the military) is something that government cannot do better than the private sector. Therefore, every time government intrudes into and steals a function that used to be done by the private sector, we get not only a worse product or service and thus the entrenchment of mediocrity, but we get the further entrenched of entrenchment itself. The ability of others (whether talking healthcare or making automobiles) to use better, more efficient, or innovative techniques is squelched. Government becomes the sole provider and there is nowhere else to go. And the onslaught of socialism is always a creeping march of demagogues such as Pelosi and Obama who scare up anything and everything into a crisis. And just like religious zealotry, the promise is made that any existing problem need not be so and can be reduced or eliminated by that all-purpose savior, government. People in this country have, in their own ignorance and greed, forgotten the basics of government, that government always wants to grow and consume and that government is usually out for its own interests, not yours. That is why a limited government is necessary. Any entity tends to want to increase its own power. And that's fine when it comes to business since there are always various competing businesses. But government has a monopoly on governmental power and we dare not give it one drop more power than absolutely necessary, because once you give government power, it's very hard to take it back. Government officials and bureaucrats at all levels work tirelessly to try to justify their jobs and their intrusion into people's lives. (If you trust me on nothing else, trust me on this point. I've seen too many of them close up. Their arrogance is often stunning.) And given their official status, government officials, functionaries, and bureaucrats wield a very powerful stick. They can command the media's ear. They can demand the public's attention. They can set policies (just like this current "stimulus" bill) that further entrench the habits of government and the expectations people themselves have about government. Obama and Pelosi (and the socialist governments in Europe) are the culmination of this vicious cycle. We've said fuck you to the enemies of freedom at every turn, and I see no reason to stop now. Agreed. This is not a time to bend over and say, "Thank you, sir, can I have another?" We must not do that. We must peacefully, but unflinchingly, vote every one of these scoundrels out of office and be willing to face down their commonly intrusive, manipulative, Scientologist-like tactics in the public square, around the office cooler, or wherever we find them. If the lies of the left are not countered, they will, as they have now, continue to gain a hold on a country that is the world's beacon of hope and liberty. We dare not give that up so that Henrietta can have a free house merely because she's learned the art of squeaky wheeling and victimhood. And the power of the left is that when you actually do begin to rebut their BS, they'll call you a racist, or something else. Rebutting the left is the ultimate "no good deed goes unpunished." But we simply can't just keep playing the game of hoping we're the last one eaten by the alligator. The most effective weapon against those empty words is free speech. The ability to dissent. The ability to dissent is one of the canaries in the coalmine. Keep an eye on this, as I know you will. Dissent is already too often squelched in places like a university setting. It has spread to things such as "hate speech." It may spread to things like the Fairness Doctrine. But, culturally, we're already turning into what Natan Sharansky calls the "fear state" as opposed to a "free state." In a fear state, you can't speak your mind without the threat of severe retribution. This happened to Larry Sommers (now resuscitated, oddly, by the Obama administration) when he pointed out the bleedin' obvious that men are better at math than women. This new "reign of liberal terror" has happened all over the country where the left goes ape-shit and (as in the case of Sarah Palin) tarnishes reputations with absolutely no sense of restraint, truth, or integrity. Well, I guess the left does have at least some restraint on them now because when they have complete power, they often do much worse. I keep reading of example after example of people in Europe who have been fined, dragged into court, and even jailed just for saying less than what you or I are saying here at thalo.net. And examples of leftist squelching even extend to concentration camps and political prisoners, as with North Korea, China, Cuba, and the old Soviet Union. I mention this aspect of collectivism, not because I expect it to happen here, but because unless something stands in its way, the zealotry of leftists tends toward these kinds of extremes. | |||
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| Mockerator |
All of that could have been said about Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy, Murtha, and Dean. It was Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech. I find that every once in a while it helps to go back to the source. The only way to be able to detect Orwellianism is to immerse yourself sometimes in things that are not. This is why it is so bloody important for Democrats to take full advantage of propaganda and brainwashing. Ordinarily, people are too smart to buy their crap. But one's thinking can become disoriented, disconnected, and disheveled. A little Reagan once in a while is just the ticket. | |||
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