Quote of the Day

The latest Gallup poll says that six in ten Americans don't expect the economy to improve. The other four all have government jobs.

--Rush Limbaugh

The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things

Why young Americans can't think morally

With the death of Judeo-Christian-God-based standards, people have simply substituted feelings for those standards. Millions of American young people have been raised by parents and schools with "How do you feel about it?" as the only guide to what they ought to do. The heart has replaced God and the Bible as a moral guide.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

Disgusting

U.S. Government Used Taxpayer Funds to Buy, Sell Weapons During 'Fast and Furious,' Documents Show.

Not only did U.S. officials approve, allow and assist in the sale of more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa cartel -- the federal government used taxpayer money to buy semi-automatic weapons, sold them to criminals and then watched as the guns disappeared.

Why aren't the American people up in arms about this? (No pun intended.) Why isn't this all over the news? Why is the media giving this administration a pass on this?

Just Another "Enlightened" Actor

Herman Cain Takes On Morgan Freeman For Calling Tea Party Racist

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman during an interview on CNN said members of the Tea Party are racists willing to do whatever they can to "get this black man" out of the White House.

That's very disappointing. I really though Morgan Freeman was smarter than that. Guess not.

As Cain observed, Freeman is likely one of the millions of liberals that hate the Tea Party but have never once been to an event sponsored by the organization they so passionately despise.

How ironic that these are the same people who claim to be on the more enlightened, open-minded side of the political aisle.

People of the lie.

" Carrying a weapon. It's not about dying. It's about living."

Brigid shares her thoughts: Carrying a Firearm- What It's Really About.

You look, and you steady yourself, prepared, yet not, anticipating the recoil of something you've never felt in your life; wanting it, expecting it, yet still sort of afraid of it. With the intake of breath and the gentle movement of your muscles finite contraction, the trigger draws towards you.

I Still Like Him Best, So Far

Herman Cain wins GOP Florida straw poll

Former Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain won the Presidency 5 straw poll here Saturday, delivering a blow to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s frontrunner status and a victory for a candidate who has struggled to transform his grassroots popularity into strong showings in national polls.

The Mystery of Goodness

It is a strange thing. Dozens of times I have been asked by patients or acquaintances: "Dr. Peck, why is there evil in the world?" Yet no one has ever asked me in all these years: "Why is there good in the world?" It is as if we automatically assume this is a naturally good world that has somehow been contaminated by evil. In terms of what we know of science, however, it is actually easier to explain evil. That things decay is quite explainable in accord with the natural law of physics. That life should evolve into more and more complex forms is not so easily understandable. That children generally lie and steal and cheat is routinely observable. The fact that sometimes they grow up to become truly honest adults is what seems the more remarkable. Laziness is more the rule than diligence. If we seriously think about it, it probably makes more sense to assume this is a naturally evil world that has somehow been mysteriously "contaminated" by goodness, rather than the other way around. The mystery of goodness is even greater than the mystery of evil.

--Dr. M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil

Creating Destruction

From your friendly neighborhood SEIU union:

"This is about building and creating power."

There are no winners in this game. Certainly not the poor or middle class. They want to use you to advance their agenda. You are the pawn and you are expendable. They don't care one wit about you. This is about them, the elites.

This is about how we are heroic. How we operate out of the highest moral place and do things we were never able to do before."

This is how evil works.

Illustrating Absurdity...

He's right, abortion is horrific. Any sane person would find doing that to another person repugnant. And to a child? Unthinkable.

But He That Keepeth the Law, Happy is He

The age of lawlessness

There is little question we are living in a time when there is more contempt for the law than ever before – be it God's statutes or America's creed.

While we despise and discount the most basic and fundamental commandments of God and the foundational law of America, we embrace thousands of manmade regulations and codes that do violence to both – as well as doing violence to our individual liberties.

That's true lawlessness.

Spreading Misunderstanding Instead of Enlightenment

Thomas Sowell: Unsound Bites

After all the media hype over Governor Rick Perry's having called Social Security "a Ponzi scheme," viewers are no more informed than before as to what specifically is a Ponzi scheme, what are the objections to such schemes, and whether those same objections apply to Social Security.

Even if such questions were answered, we would still not have weighed the alternatives to Social Security. Serious issues like that cannot be covered in sound bites or with "gotcha" questions from the media.

The above was a follow up to a previous column: The 'Ponzi' sound bite

Many in the media and in politics have gone ballistic over the fact that Texas Gov. Rick Perry called Social Security "a Ponzi scheme."

Although many act shocked, shocked, as if Rick Perry had said something unthinkable, Gov. Perry is not even among the first thousand people to call Social Security a Ponzi scheme. Not only conservatives, but even some liberals, have been calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme for decades.

Moreover, neither the media nor the politicians who are carrying on over the use of the words "Ponzi scheme" show the slightest interest in any hard facts that would tell us whether Social Security is or is not a Ponzi scheme. It is a "gotcha" moment, and that is apparently what some people live for.

What makes this nonsense become fraud is the insinuation that calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme means advocating that people who are depending on Social Security be abandoned and left with nothing to live on in their retirement years. That is the big scare – and the big lie.

People getting Social Security checks are going to keep on getting those checks. Nobody has advocated anything else, or would dare to cut off a financial lifeline for millions of people.

The Living Cartoon

Ex-Afghanistan president Burhanuddin Rabbani killed by 'turban bomb'

Cartoon: Death threats promises, protests, denunciations, etc.

Real life: Crickets.

Quote of the Day

Whenever we seek to avoid the responsibility for our own behavior, we do so by attempting to give that responsibility to some other individual or organization or entity. But this means we then give away our power to that entity.
--M. Scott Peck

Fundamentally Wrong

I couldn't live in a place where if someone breaks into my own home I can take no action to protect my family and myself. How can anyone think that is right? Why don't they just ban locks and make it legal for anyone to take anything they want?

Father arrested for murder over knifing burglar

The householder was home alone when the two men broke in, according to Greater Manchester Police.

His wife and 12-year-old son returned home during the incident, said Chief Superintendent Tim Forber, but they were able to escape unharmed.

England: Making it safer for a criminal to be a criminal.

How do your do, sir? Don't mind me, I'm just here to pick up a few things. I'll be wanting your TV, is that show almost over?

Don't worry, nothing good on anyway. I put fresh batteries in the remote. Here you are.

You're daughter is quite the looker, think I'll have a go.

Tokyo Slo-Mo

Get Your Filthy Hands Off the Economy

Back to the Future: Part II

Almost nobody seems to be hoping that the government will leave the economy alone to recover on its own. Indeed, almost nobody seems at all interested in looking at the hard facts about what happens when the government leaves the economy alone, compared to what happens when politicians intervene.

The grand myth that has been taught to whole generations is that the government is "forced" to intervene in the economy when there is a downturn that leaves millions of people suffering. The classic example is the Great Depression of the 1930s.

What most people are unaware of is that there was no Great Depression until AFTER politicians started intervening in the economy.

When people play God, catastrophe results, things get effected that you never thought of and can't control. Our present "leaders" seem to like things going badly as it plays into their plans for more government control over your life.

Part I is here.

Progressives are at War with Mass Prosperity

Number 5 of the Top 10 Best Quotes from After America: Get Ready for Armageddon according to John Hawkins.

But the bigger government gets, the less it actually does. You think a guy like Obama is going to put up a new Hoover Dam (built during the Depression and opened two years ahead of schedule)? No chance. Today’s big government crowd is more likely to put up a new regulatory agency to tell the Hoover Dam it's non-wheelchair accessible and has to close.

...So called "progressives" actively wage war on progress. They're opposed to dams, which spurred the growth of California. They're opposed to air conditioning, which led to the development of the Southwest. They're opposed to light bulbs, which expanded man's day, and they’re opposed to automobiles, which expanded man’s reach. They're still nominally in favor of mass transit, so maybe we can go back to wood-fired steam trains? No, sorry, no can do. The progressives are opposed to logging; they want a ban on foresty work in environmentally sensitive areas such as forests. Ultimately, progressives are at war with mass prosperity. — P.34

9/11 Revolver

Saw this just now, something I hadn't seen before. There is a short video to watch, very moving.

9/11 Revolver: Recovered from the World Trade Center

High quality photos and closeups at the NRA Museum

Thugs of America Unite

Just can't work up any sympathy for the Pacific Northwest longshoreman's union. In fact, I can't figure how none of them are in jail.

You're Doing It Wrong

I Have My Doubts

An Economics Lesson Even a Liberal Can Grasp

The more President Obama calls for a second stimulus spending spree to create those jobs the first spending spree failed to create, the more he sounds like the grocer in that old joke about the lady who wants her money back because the dietetic ice cream the grocer talked her into buying hasn't helped her lose weight. The grocer thinks for a moment and says, "Eat more of it."

Since the president and his advisers haven't got a clue about how our economy works -- which isn't surprising, since these people have less practical business experience than any kid with a lemonade stand -- here's an economics lesson so short and simple even a liberal can grasp it:

It's not that they are incapable of understanding, it's that they won't. For all their talk of having an open mind, liberals are some of the most close-minded people I've ever met. You can't learn if you already know everything.

You Have No Right

Union Violence

Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, he said.

No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested. Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting brake lines and spilling grain from car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that's staffing a workforce of other union laborers.

Lesson for America

We used to know this.

If God has given you prosperity, no one has a right to make you feel guilty about it. At the same time prosperity does demand some obligations.

Going After Gibson

This video explains why the government is going after Gibson guitars, but why not other guitar manufacturers?

Creating Wealth vs. Redistributing Wealth

The perils of philanthropy

Wealth is ultimately the only thing that can reduce poverty. The most dramatic reductions in poverty, in countries around the world, have come from increasing the amount of wealth, rather than from a redistribution of existing wealth.

What kind of world do we want – one in which everyone works to increase wealth to whatever extent they can, or a world in which everyone will be supported by either government handouts or private philanthropy, whether they work or don't work?

It is not an abstract question. We can already see the consequences on both sides of the Atlantic. Those who have grown used to having others provide their food, shelter and other basics as "rights" are by no means grateful.

On the contrary, they are more angry, lawless and violent than in years past, whether they are lower-class whites rioting in Britain or black "flash mobs" in America. Their histories are very different, but what they have in common is being supplied with a steady drumbeat of resentments against those who are better off.

Politicians, intellectuals and whole armies of caretaker bureaucrats are among those who benefit, in one way or another, from picturing parasites as victims and their lagging behind the rest of society as reasons for anger rather than achievement.

Leading people into the blind alley of dependency and grievances may be counterproductive for them, but it can produce votes, money, power, fame and a sense of exaltation to others who portray themselves as friends of the downtrodden.

For all their so-called genius, liberals just don't understand the creation of wealth. They don't understand the spiritual aspect of money.

"Relationships build money, money doesn't build relationships."

--Rabbi Daniel Lapin

Redistributing the wealth will NEVER solve the problems they intend to solve, it will only make things worse.

The Problem is the Man

46 people shot in New York City this weekend and who does the mayor blame?

"There are just too many guns on the streets and we have to do something about it," he said, and urged for more federal control and stricter gun control laws across the country.

But it's already illegal to carry guns in New York City, the only people carrying guns in New York City are police and criminals. Perhaps they should try getting the criminals off the streets? It's not the guns. If guns didn't exist the problem would be swords or knives or clubs. Getting rid of guns does not solve your criminal problem, it actually makes it worse. Ask England about that. But Mayor Bloomberg has to blame the guns because to do otherwise would admit the failure of the nanny state - if not for those pesky guns life would be perfect.

Guns are good in the hands of a good man and evil in the hands of an evil man. The problem is the man.


From The Blaze

New York already has among the strictest gun control laws in the country. Currently, possession of an unlicensed handgun requires mandatory jail time (even for an NFL celebrity like Plaxico Burress).

As it is, law-abiding citizens have a near-impossble time acquiring a handgun permit in the city that never sleeps. Technically a "may issue" state for firearms, some legal analysts believe New York is really more of a “no issue” state- unless you have connections.

This end-run around the 2nd Amendment in New York City began over a century ago as a result of corrupt, liberal politicians pandering to anti-immigrant sentiment.

The hundred-year-old Sullivan Law (also called the Sullivan Act) was initially a Tammany Hall patronage measure that allowed favored constituents of corrupt politicians to carry concealed handguns. Under the Sullivan Law, the police- not the Constitution- would determine who could and could not concealed carry a firearm in New York. Simple possession of more common weapons- razors, brass knuckles, or dagger, for example- was a felony, whereas possession of a firearm without license was a misdemeanor.

A series of similar gun legislation followed suit in urban areas across the country.

Fast forward a century: the current state of New York City’s handgun laws are so Byzantine, it appears almost impossible for law-abiding gun owners to comply with, or even understand them.

Perhaps that's the point.

The corrupt political elites want the advantage over the peons so they can do with them what they will.

The Root of Liberty

The Christian nation

There is no room for honest debate on the subject. The United States of America is a Christian nation with a secular government. From its inception, it has been a Christian nation with a secular government. And, as de Tocqueville correctly noted, its liberty is directly linked to its Christianity. The main reason American liberties have been systematically reduced since 1851 is because the influence of Christianity throughout the nation has declined. How can freedom possibly be said to come from the U.S. secular government when most of the constitutional protections devised by the Founding Fathers were erected to guard against that very government?

The truth of the Bible has also been eroded out of Christianity as it has from the nation - "having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it;"

Sad, but True

From Victor Davis Hanson in Zero Jobs 101

We are almost an entire generation of parasites that cannot create anything new and so feed on the capital and labor of the past.

The irony is we believe we are better and smarter.

A Lot of This Going Around Lately

Especially on the left.

Well, sometimes a man can hate too much, Chester. It can twist him till he doesn't know the truth anymore.

--Marshall Dillon, Gunsmoke, season 4, episode 127

Stealing Credibility

Bill Whittle has his truth. Pacifica Radio's Amy Goodman has her truth. Everyone has their own truth. This is the mantra of the left today, and if you think about it, it has to be the mantra of the left. Find out why.

Shedding still more light on the insanity of "enlightened" thinking.

This Explains a Lot

Sources of Madness—The Insane Thinkers of the Modern Age

What is more characteristic of our modern day than crazy and wholly indefensible “policies”? It seems one of the undeniable characteristics of our times that many of the West’s most common practices and theories appear the result of insane conclusions. Perhaps this did not occur by accident. Instead, many of the founders of this modern age were troubled individuals who struggled with profound emotional and mental issues.

While one might assume that such an unstable background would preclude a person from being chosen as a leader, nothing could be further from the truth. Yet, there may be an explanation as to why such crippled minds were chosen as role models to the modern era.

One of the most obvious aspects of a crazy idea is that it is transparently unacceptable to the average person. And yet, if one wants to set about radically changing society they must have a model or philosophy to draw from. It would therefore help to find a mentally unwell person as a source for morally or intellectually unacceptable theories. Because these types of people would be most likely to suggest theories that were quite different and undermine traditional society. Correct? The topic of this essay is the clearly insane bent of much of our modern thinking, resultant from mentally infirm intellectuals like Nietzsche and Comte, and how this creates madness in our everyday lives.

Read through this article, which really isn't very long, and reflect on how many times you've said to yourself, "This is crazy," when hearing about this or that policy, idea, or incident, especially of late. Listen to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid or any number of elected officials speak, especially leftists. Sometimes it seems like you're on another planet - bizarro Earth. The inmates are running the asylum. The ideas sound crazy because they are.

The notion of removing God and liberty so that man may be free is more properly found in Lucifer's playbook than the Founders.

And so a little more light is shed on the problem.

Hat Tip: Isn't It Rich

That's About Right

Solyndra to Declare Bankruptcy

Solyndra was touted by the Obama administration as a prime example of how green technology could deliver jobs.

That is about how green technology is delivering jobs, so I'd say he was right about this being a prime example.