By Christopher Adamo
Since leaving office, former Vice-President Al Gore has gained enormous stature within certain circles on the world scene, acquiring it per the standard liberal formula. Taking up his “Earth in the Balance” cause, he produced the feature length movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” which is replete with fantastic prophesies of doom for the planet unless America immediately regresses to third-world squalor.
An insipid and unsubstantiated piece of propaganda, Gore’s movie would never have resonated beyond the boundaries of a few egg headed film fests, were it not for the concerted efforts of virtually every liberal and socialist special interest known to mankind. Coming to his aid, they collectively proclaimed “An Inconvenient Truth” to be at once the scientific equivalent of Einstein’s theory of relativity, packaged in cinematic genius that eclipses Ben Hur.
In the typical modus operandi of liberalism, an avalanche of recognition and awards were conferred upon Gore and his movie, from the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to an Oscar for “Best Documentary” to effusive accolades from every aspiring tinsel town movie critic. The film, along with all of his efforts to foment a global warming panic, have since been predictably declared as universal truth, a judgment based not on the availability of evidence, but on the profusion of like-minded liberal ideologues who are willing to accept and advance his hysterical claims.
Not surprising was the immediate branding of any who are dubious of Gore’s outlandish assertions as “heretics.” The liberal agenda, whether in relation to planetary catastrophe or the latest effort to confiscate and redistribute the private property of citizens, cannot tolerate honest examination. Thus, any effort to demand scientific evidence to support Gore’s frenzied allegations will result in immediate charges of being a “global warming denier,” an obvious attempt to link the honest skeptic to those anti-Semites who claim the Nazi holocaust never happened.
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Posted by Walt in Environment Issues, Global Warming categories at 11:06 PM EDT
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By Thomas E. Brewton
As prolongation of the 1930s Depression and stagflation in the 1970s demonstrated, Senator Obama’s announced policies are a prescription for economic disaster.
Keynesian economic doctrine, not under that name, but in substance, is back in the news in a truly menacing way. Senator Obama proposes to repeat the policies of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal that turned an ordinary two-year recession into an eight-year disaster, with unemployment rates continuously in the high teens.
The key elements of Senator Obama’s proposed economic policies, as in the New Deal and the stagflation of the 1970s, are much higher taxes, along with a pervasive increase of business regulations and price controls in healthcare and energy (which sharply depress business activity and employment rates), full-frontal embrace of labor unions (which will push up wages and benefits to levels deterring profitable expansion of industrial production), and massive new government deficit spending (which will accelerate the already dangerously high rate of inflation and devaluation of the dollar). Carried out as he proposes, Senator Obama’s polices will lead us again into the swamp of stagflation.
The basic thrust of Keynesianism is the belief that control of the economy must be collectivized at the Federal level, because private business is incapable of providing full employment, and because the proper goal of economic policy must be thwarting greedy businessmen to attain so-called social justice: equal distribution of income and wealth, without regard to merit, capability, or hard work.
Not surprisingly the New York Times editorial board and the Times’s propagandist Paul Krugman are prominent Keynesian enthusiasts.
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Posted by Walt in Economics, Presidential Race categories at 10:58 PM EDT
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By Thomas E. Brewton
Why does much of New Orleans still look as if the 2005 devastation of Hurricane Katrina had occurred just a few weeks ago?
Huge areas of New Orleans still are wastelands. New Orleans's liberal-progressive-socialist Senator Mary Landrieu has grabbed far more than her share of Congressional pork. Hundreds of millions of Federal dollars spent for rehabilitation have produced far too little beneficial result. People were without electric power for months; the police department contained more thieves than honest law enforcers; drug-dealing and prostitution remain major enterprises; and the city still retains its crown as the nation's murder capital.
One of the city's few "legitimate" businesses is casino gambling.
City and state administrations have yet to coordinate rebuilding plans, as politicians fight over who gets what share of the spoils.
The best that the city's Mayor Nagin can do is to demand that the Democratic-socialist Party presidential candidates pledge to send even more pork to New Orleans.
What accounts for this dismal record?
The answer is simple. New Orleans abandoned God and personal moral responsibility, turning instead to worshipping the atheistic, secular political state. That secular god has failed miserably, notoriously so in the aftermath of Katrina.
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Posted by Walt in Economics, Liberalism, Politics, Social Issues categories at 11:49 PM EDT
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By Warner Todd Huston
We are certainly used to seeing the MSM causing trouble for conservatives and this one is no different at least on that level. But the interesting thing here is that the trouble a social conservative discovered was as a result of what she wrote in the MSM as opposed to what was written about her by the MSM. It seems that the opinion editorial written by Crystal Dixon for the Toledo Blade got her fired by the University of Toledo because… well, you know how universities are all about free expression and speech, right? Unfortunately for Dixon, though, hers wasn’t the proper, politically correct sort of speech that is officially approved of by the thugs at the University of Toledo.
You see, Crystal Dixon made the mistake of believing that this whole silly idea of “freedom of religion” also applied to our institutions of higher learning. She foolishly asserted in her Toledo Blade op ed that as far as her religious beliefs are concerned, homosexuality is a choice made by the individual instead of some genetic predisposition, that someone chooses to engage in homosexual activities instead of assuming that being gay is forced upon one by “nature.”
Of course, Dixon based her entire op ed on her Christian religious beliefs. It was no hate filled rant and was quite civil, even tempered, and to the point. But the gay mafia inside the University of Toledo must be awfully powerful. Or, at the very least, fear of them was enough to stifle — no, execute — Mrs. Dixon over what the president of UoT must imagine is her wretched religious extremism.
President Dr. Lloyd Jacobs dashed off a letter summarily firing Mrs. Dixon from her $134,383 a year job as associate vice president for employee resources.
A letter to Ms. Dixon informing her of her termination, stated “The public position you have taken in the Toledo Free Press is in direct contradiction to university policies and procedures as well as the core values of the strategic plan which is mission critical.”
It went on to say her position calls into question her ability to continue in her role as an administrator in charge of personnel actions and decisions and that “the result is a loss of confidence in you as an administrator.”
Don’t you DARE have any religious beliefs in an American university. Well… unless it is the church of Satan, or Islam, global warming, anti-Jewish or feminism you want to belong to. Those are perfectly fine religious opinions in the halls of our fetid universities it should be noted.
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Posted by Walt in Alternate Lifestyles, Christianity, Freedom of Speech categories at 7:50 PM EDT
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The Congressional Medal of Honor is one of the most revered awards given to valiant soldiers and pilots in war. This medal is provided to the US Navy SEALs for their brave acts during war with an enemy. The medal is conferred by the President of the US and is given in the name of the Congress thereby getting its name – Congressional Medal of Honor.
The symbolism
The Congressional Medal of Honor has a certain symbolism and meaning attached to the shape and the motifs inside it. For example the inverted 5 pointed star has a cluster of leaves of laurel along with oak on each point. These leaves signify victory, while the oak symbolizes strength. Both these attributes are absolutely essential in any officer going for a Navy SEALs mission. Outside the circular insignia are 34 stars which stand for the number of stars in the US flag. Within the circle are two engravings. On the right is Minerva the Roman Goddess of War. Perched on her helmet is an owl which again symbolizes wisdom. Moving away from Minerva is a man who is carrying a bunch of snakes in his hands. He is known as Discord.
An impressive past
It might be surprising but the Congressional Medal of Honor has a rich past spanning over 140 years. It was during 21st December in 1861 that the first 200 medals of honor were produced. Then a few months later in February 17th 1862, there was a bill passed to authorize the President of the US to distribute the medals. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Walt in US Military categories at 9:50 PM EDT
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The Vietnam war – also known as the American War in Vietnam, Indochina War and the Vietnam Conflict – took place from the year 1959 all the way through to 1975. The war ended with a North Vietnamese victory some decade and a half later. The human cost of the war in Vietnam will never fade. Over one million military personnel and over one million civilians died. The war was between North Vietnam and South Vietnam – with the US backing the South. In the end the US withdrew, the Republic of Vietnam lost and both North and South ended up under the control of the communist government.
The United States government, and allied forces, opted to deploy a number of troops to South Vietnam following the First Indochina war, in 1954, all the way through to 1973. US military advisers had played a role in Vietnam since 1950, firstly helping French colonial forces. By 1956, these US advisers were responsible for training the South Vietnam armed forces. The number of US troops in Vietnam grew from the days of John F Kennedy, who was responsible for sending 16,000, to a more significant deployment under the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. While almost all of the armed forces departed following the Paris Peace Accords, the last troops left in April 1975.
During the Vietnam conflict, clashes took place in many different forms. Vietnam industry and infrastructure became a prime target during the conflict, which military tacticians generally target as a means of weakening their opponent and dampening morale – this was largely completed by US aircraft performing aerial bombings. Chemical Defoliants were also deployed as a means of reducing the ability for troops to seek cover in the mountains and jungles which were leveraged by North Vietnamese troops to initiate guerilla attacks. When the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, fell the war came to an end culminating in a North Vietnamese victory.
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Posted by Walt in History, US Military categories at 7:50 PM EDT
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"The Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People." - General Prologue to the Wycliffe Bible in 1384.
Our country and its laws were established on the fundamental belief that our morality emanates from God. While the Constitution begins with the line, "We the people," it does not contain any religious words. Some people cite this as evidence that America is a secular country. Not so. America has always combined secular government with a society based on religious values.
Many settlers in the 1600s came to what they considered this new promised land seeking religious freedom. They identified with the biblical Jewish Exodus from Egypt because they had left Europe and its values as well. Ours is the only country to identify with many Jewish beliefs, and is why our culture calls itself "Judeo-Christian." These values include the importance of laws, fighting for justice, and a belief in judgment by loving and forgiving God.
The Founders understood there is a divine order that rises above the human order. By the 1770s, they sought our freedom from the British Crown with reliance upon, what the Declaration of Independence calls, "Nature's God," the "Creator," and "the Supreme Judge of the World."
The First Amendment was never intended to exclude all references to God from government institutions and public debate. It simply says, "Congress shall not establish a religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof." The word "establish" meant the creation of a state church, as in the Church of England. It is nonsense to say the founders intended the First Amendment to exclude all religious expression in public places.
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Posted by Walt in Christianity, Church and State categories at 10:02 PM EDT
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By Thomas E. Brewton
Today's clamor for more regulation of financial institutions to prevent another subprime mortgage meltdown is an exercise in self- deception.
Congress, led by Representative Barney Frank, is planning to overhaul regulation of the financial community, and Treasury Secretary Paulson has already proposed a broad program for that purpose.
No doubt, much of what is proposed is needed. But it should be obvious from repeated experience over the decades that regulations alone will not prevent periodic economic booms and busts.
Only by dealing with the root cause will we moderate economic cycles. And that root cause is the ineluctable human tendency to over-expand bank credit when the money supply is artificially enlarged.
Today's proposed subprime mortgage regulations may prevent tomorrow's repetition of that phenomenon, but they will have no restraining impact upon whatever the next speculative bubble may be. Sarbanes- Oxley regulation was instituted after the dot.com bubble-burst and the corporate collapse of Enron, but it had no restraining effect upon the speculative housing bubble, of which subprime lending is merely a symptom, not a cause. Before that, we had the speculative explosion of commercial real estate over-building that ended with the collapse of the savings and loan institutions in the 1980s.
Beginning with our nation's first financial panic in 1819, similar boom-and-bust patterns appear every five to ten years, except in extraordinary circumstances such as wartime.
In one respect, Karl Marx's economic analysis was on the mark.
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Posted by Walt in Communism, Economics categories at 10:16 PM EDT
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Even those in a position of power and influence, who could have prevented the seriousness of the discrimination, chose not to. Teachers especially, could have helped prevent the younger generation from developing this type of discrimination in schools, out of schools and in later life. However, both German schools and the Hitler youth discriminated against Jews by teaching lessons that were designed to do this and to teach that Aryans were the superior race. One of the main areas of teaching where discrimination took place was in racial science where students were taught how Jews had a different skull shape/size to Aryans and other races and taught how they could identify a Jew by their physical features; this created a lot of discrimination towards Jews among the young people of Germany.
One of the events to describe and demonstrate how Jews were discriminated against in Germany is the April Boycott; for one day Germans all over the country were told not to buy from shops and business' owned by Jews. SA men stood by the doors of these shops to discourage anyone from going inside. The SA men would have discouraged business, leading business away from the Jews and back into Aryan owned businesses and shops. This is discriminating against the Jews and while it was probably very beneficial to the Aryans working at the time, the Jews would have lost business, and would be looked at differently by Germans.
In many places in Germany, there were signs that read 'Jews not welcome here'. These could be put on park benches, outside places of public interest, or even where it means that Jews are not welcome in the village, city or town. This separates Jews from the rest of the population, by discriminating against them, making Germans feel like they are different people to them, so they should be treated differently!
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Posted by Walt in History, Religon, Terrorism categories at 1:04 PM EDT
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By Alan Caruba
“Trusting in the Rock of Israel we now place our signatures in witness to this proclamation, sitting as the Provisional State Council, on the soil of the homeland, in the city of Tel-Aviv, this day, Friday afternoon, the 5th of Iyar, 5708, the 14th of May, 1948.”
This was the moment of the re-birth of Israel announced by Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel. I would call your attention to the year of the Jewish calendar he cited, 5708. It reaches back over the millennia, deep into the Torah, the Old Testament, with its long history of a people chosen to be “a nation of priests and a holy people.”
This fact alone eviscerates all arguments and lies put forth that the Jews do not have a right and a claim to their own homeland. Historians put the birth of Judaism at approximately two thousand years before the advent of Christianity. When the Roman Empire fell, it was restructured as the Holy Roman Empire with Christianity at its core. Jewish resistance to the Roman Empire shaped much of its early history.
At the heart of the Islamic protestations of modern Israel is their contempt for the two faiths that preceded their own that began in 622 A.D. By then Judaism was already a very ancient faith. To be anything other than a Muslim, then and now, was declared to belong to an inferior faith. Islam is distinguished by its inflexible fixation on Allah, a former moon god worshipped in Mecca, and the cult of Mohammed.
More than a billion of the world’s population is Muslim. More than a billion is Christian. Billions believe in Hinduism and Buddhism. Judaism, which was never an evangelizing faith, existed in small numbers, but for reasons of faith, both Christianity and Islam persecuted the Jews in their midst because their very existence raised questions of spiritual legitimacy.
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Posted by Walt in Middle East, Politics categories at 11:44 PM EDT
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