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Title: The Patriot Post Brief 1-24-2011 Post by: nChrist on January 24, 2011, 10:14:03 PM ________________________________________ The Patriot Post Brief 1-24-2011 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription (http://link.patriotpost.us/?136-160-160-217154-660) ________________________________________ The Foundation "If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions." --James Madison For the Record "For the first time, our national debt has surpassed $14 trillion -- a dubious and shameful record. Even more astonishing, the past two presidents, one from each major political party, are responsible for half of that monstrous sum. As an Associated Press story noted, 'about half of today's national debt was run up in the past six years. It soared from $7.6 trillion in January 2005 as President George W. Bush began his second term to $10.6 trillion the day President Obama was inaugurated and to $14.02 trillion now.' In this era of hyper-partisanship, it is comforting to know that there is one thing both parties have agreed upon -- spending the nation into insolvency. It is clear that $14 trillion is an amount is so astronomical as to be literally incomprehensible.... Unfortunately, that does not stop us from racking up such sums. Doubtless, the two phenomena are somehow related. So deduct another $45,300 from your salary. That is what the national debt amounts to for every man, woman, and child in America. ... For decades, the government has been spending our wealth -- first everything we made, then everything we ever going to make, and now everything our children and their children will ever make. How future generations will judge us for the theft of their prosperity is not hard to guess." --Matt Patterson1, senior editor at the Capital Research Center Government "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song, and in a recent speech that seemed like Larry Summers' swan song, the president's departed economic adviser warned that America is 'at risk of a profound demoralization with respect to government.' He fears a future in which 'an inadequately resourced government performs badly, leading to further demands that it be cut back, exacerbating performance problems, deepening the backlash, and creating a vicious cycle.' ... Until the 1930s, or perhaps the 1960s, there was a 'legitimacy barrier' to federal government activism: When new policies were proposed, the first debate was about whether the federal government could properly act at all on the subject. Today, there is no barrier to the promiscuous multiplication of programs, because no program is really new. Rather, it is an extension, modification or enlargement of something government is already doing. The vicious cycle that should worry Summers is the reverse of the one he imagines. It is not government being 'cut back' because of disappointments that reinforce themselves. Rather, it is government squandering its limited resources, including the resource of competence, in reckless expansions of its scope." --columnist George Will2 Opinion in Brief "Politics being what it is, we are sure to hear all sorts of doomsday rhetoric at the thought of cutbacks in government spending. The poor will be starving in the streets, to hear the politicians and the media tell it. But the amount of money it would take to keep the poor from starving in the streets is chump change compared to how much it would take to keep on feeding unions, subsidized businesses and other special interests who are robbing the taxpayers blind. Letting armies of government employees retire in their fifties, to live for decades on pensions larger than they were making when they were working, costs a lot more than keeping the poor from starving in the streets. ... Bankruptcy says: 'We just don't have the money.' ... Bailouts say: 'Give the taxpayers a little rhetoric, and a little smoke and mirrors with the book-keeping, and we can keep the party rolling.' One of the political games that is played during a budget crisis is to cut back on essential services like police departments and fire departments, in order to blackmail the public into accepting higher tax rates. Often, a lot more money could be saved by getting rid of runaway pension contracts with public sector unions. Bankruptcy can do that. Bailouts cannot." --economist Thomas Sowell3 The Gipper "I come before you to report on the state of our Union, and I'm pleased to report that after four years of united effort, the American people have brought forth a nation renewed, stronger, freer, and more secure than before. Four years ago we began to change, forever I hope, our assumptions about government and its place in our lives. Out of that change has come great and robust growth -- in our confidence, our economy, and our role in the world. Tonight America is stronger because of the values that we hold dear. We believe faith and freedom must be our guiding stars, for they show us truth, they make us brave, give us hope, and leave us wiser than we were. Our progress began not in Washington, DC, but in the hearts of our families, communities, workplaces, and voluntary groups which, together, are unleashing the invincible spirit of one great nation under God. Four years ago we said we would invigorate our economy by giving people greater freedom and incentives to take risks and letting them keep more of what they earned. We did what we promised, and a great industrial giant is reborn." --Ronald Reagan4 Political Futures "Many Democrats who voted for the Illinois tax increases were lame ducks who will pay no political price for their cowardly vote. Besides, it wasn't their money. That's why it's so easy to spend. If politicians in other financially troubled states won't follow Indiana's example, people can move to states with lower taxes. But no one can escape the federal government. ... Suppose there was a groundswell of taxpayers who announced they will no longer pay for government and, in fact, will start reducing payments to government if politicians won't significantly cut spending? That would get their attention. There aren't enough prisons to house thousands, perhaps millions, of taxpayers who cry 'enough' and demand that Washington live within its means. It's time to starve the beast. If Dracula doesn't get blood, he dies. If Washington can't suck more money out of us and must stop borrowing, it will be forced to cut back, like so many have done in this recession." --columnist Cal Thomas5 Re: The Left "Through its dominance of the news media, entertainment media and educational institutions, the left has been able to successfully demonize the right for at least half a century. The left rarely convinces Americans to adopt its views. What it does is create a fear of the right that influences many Americans to align themselves with the left. ... As it becomes ever more obvious that [Jared] Loughner's crimes had nothing ... to do with conservatives, the left will do three things: change the subject by criticizing Palin's use of the term 'blood libel,' ...; deny it ever really blamed the right for the Loughner's crimes (hoping, with good reason, that Americans have a short memory); and continue to blame the right for creating the 'climate of hate' that the left itself has created. That is why it is important for conservatives and honorable liberals not to allow Americans to forget what the left did last week. It is the key to giving conservatives the good name they deserve. And it is the key to giving the left the name it deserves." --columnist Dennis Prager6 Title: The Patriot Post Brief 1-24-2011 Post by: nChrist on January 24, 2011, 10:14:55 PM ________________________________________ The Patriot Post Brief 1-24-2011 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription (http://link.patriotpost.us/?136-160-160-217154-660) ________________________________________ Liberty "Civility in public discourse is important, but it should not be used as an excuse to stifle legitimate debate or denude our language of color, passion, or good metaphor. ... The desire not to give offense has even infected the literary world, as the recent controversy surrounding a new edition of Mark Twain's classic 'Huckleberry Finn' illustrates. A well-meaning but foolish effort to replace the disgusting term 'nigger' with 'slave' in order to get the book past school censors deprives students from learning important lessons about both racism and the social mores of earlier eras. Diction in great literature tells us something about character, in both senses of the word, and tampering with it distorts the author's intent and interferes with the reader's understanding. Does that mean we should ignore efforts by political figures or others to inflame passions by using hateful words? Of course not -- and that's what the efforts to bring civility to public discourse should be about. ... It would be a good thing if all of us, not just politicians and pundits, learned to think before we speak -- but being thoughtful doesn't mean we have to be bland." --columnist Linda Chavez7 Faith & Family "How can we raise strong sons? As parents, we must set clear direction -- and be positive examples. But we also need to find strong partners ... and to offer friendship and encouragement to our children. There's no better organizational partner for parents than the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). ... Why does Scouting work so well? For starters, the Scouts have a hundred year track record of building character and fitness. Though times change, human nature does not. The Scouts incorporate the latest technologies and current interests into the time-honored merit badge system; boys learn to try new things, set goals, and persevere until they accomplish them. But the capacity for achievement, by itself, doesn't create better human beings. And here's where the Boy Scouts shine most brightly: its activities explicitly seek to instill character and virtues within the hearts of young men. I'm so grateful to the Boy Scouts for the years of support they gave my own two sons throughout their childhood and teen years. ... For parents looking for an assist in raising strong young men in a world that's gone soft, check out your local scouting troop. Your boys will 'be prepared ... for life.'" --columnist Rebecca Hagelin8 Culture "Just last March, this president, overturning precedent (the Dickey-Wicker Amendment) and his predecessor's long-considered and carefully nuanced policy, proudly announced that the federal government would now subsidize experiments that would destroy human embryos in order to further stem-cell research. The first federal grants for embryonic stem-cell research were announced just last month with little fanfare. Death goes on. If ever so quietly. What once might have shocked becomes routine. Hannah Arendt's phrase about the banality of evil remains relevant -- if anyone still remembers it. Far from rebutting moral objections to such a change of policy, Barack Obama seemed oblivious to them. If he spoke of them at all, it was as an inconvenience. ... Morality. Ethics. Reverence for life. They were all dismissed as 'inconvenient' obstacles to scientific progress. But why should we ordinary citizens concern ourselves with the ethics of life and death? Leave it to the experts. Science uber alles! The president's pronouncement could have been translated from the original German. For when it comes to embryonic stem-cell research, Barack Obama has achieved what some of us might once have thought impossible. He's made George W. Bush sound like a Socratic philosopher." --columnist Paul Greenberg9 Reader Comments "Mark, your succinct review of U.S.-China history10 and description of today's status was informative. Your magnificent and unexpected conclusion was what sets you apart from the typical pundit. Exporting liberty -- a beautiful concept." --Gary "In U.S. v Red China10 you again display a your unique ability to make the complex understandable. My congratulations and sincere thanks." --Jim "With regard to Friday's Digest item on Obama's regulatory review11, many seem to forget the reason we have rising health care costs, housing crisis, high unemployment, high state and national debit is because of wonderful, compassionate, charitable government interference. Government has created this huge mess and now they want us all to believe they can fix it. Any argument in favor of more government regulation and less individual freedom comes from the mouths of brain washed socialistic useful idiots." --Anton "I looked through the Republicans' list of proposed spending cuts11 but, lo and behold, saw nothing about ending the ethanol subsidies. Zero, zip, nada. So much for the Republicans ever getting serious about cutting wasteful spending. I'm starting to wonder why it is that I even bother to vote ... the more things change, the more they stay the same." --Mike "How funny -- your last comment in 'And Last'12 is almost an exact 'echo' of my own words when I heard about the 'Mafia' arrests. I would think that Chicago would be a great target as well -- after Washington, DC of course. Gotta love The Patriot Post!" --Morning Glory The Last Word "When I used the Yiddish word 'schlemiel' in a recent article, a reader asked me to define it. I suggested it referred to a dummy, a dunderhead, a mental dwarf. I added that to help you identify them, they generally come with a (D) after their name. So it is that in King County, Washington, the schlemiels have now banned those non-tobacco cigarettes that emit vapor because, public officials have decided, kids might see grown-ups puffing air and conclude it is cool to smoke. ... Although leftists like to insist that Hitler was a right-winger, he, himself, called his group the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi for short). One of his more perceptive observations in 'Mein Kampf' was that 'All propaganda must be confined to a few slogans, repeated over and over again until the last man understands what they mean.' Madison Avenue got the message long ago and came up with 'Where's the beef?' to sell Wendy's burgers, 'Fast, fast, fast relief!' to push Anacin and 'Sometimes you feel like a nut' to peddle Almond Joy candy bars. More recently, we've seen 'Hope and Change' used to sell us a left-wing pig in a poke." --columnist Burt Prelutsky13 (Please pray for our Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.) Links 1. http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/america-the-broke/?singlepage=true 2. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/george-will/2011/01/20/the-blinders-of-hubris/ 3. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/thomas-sowell/2011/01/18/budget-crisis-rhetoric/ 4. http://reagan2020.us/ 5. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/cal-thomas/2011/01/18/contrasts-in-black-and-red/ 6. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/dennis-prager/2011/01/18/libeling-the-right-the-key-to-the-lefts-success/ 7. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/linda-chavez/2011/01/21/civility-not-censorship/ 8. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/rebecca-hagelin/2011/01/18/culture-challenge-of-the-week-raising-strong-boys-in-a-soft-culture/ 9. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/paul-greenberg/2011/01/21/who-needs-democracy/ 10. http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2011/01/20/us-v-red-china-version-30/ 11. http://patriotpost.us/edition/2011/01/21/digest/ 12. http://patriotpost.us/edition/2011/01/21/digest/#4 13. http://patriotpost.us/opinion/burt-prelutsky/2011/01/20/defining-schlemiel/ |