Below are some significant Constitutional concerns broached by Sen. Rand Paul during his 13-hour filibuster speech. Excerpts from a Cato Institute Commentary by Nat Hentoff, the article appeared on Cato.org on March 19, 2013:
“And despite the tremendous national impact of Sen. Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster speech, how much of its startling details even registered for long? Meanwhile, the Republican from Kentucky was teaching many of us what we never realized — on just how subservient we are becoming to the state.
As I wrote last week, Paul said he was concerned that Americans targeted for suspected terrorist ties would be destroyed in America itself. He revealed in an editorial in The Washington Times: “The president said, ‘I haven’t killed anyone yet, and I have no intention of killing Americans. But I might’ ” (“Rising in defense of the Constitution,” Rand Paul, Washington Times, March 8).
I have a complete transcript of Paul’s 13-hour speech, including his follow-up to this presidential contempt for the separation of powers: “What if the president were to say, ‘I haven’t broken the First Amendment yet; I intend to follow it, but I might break it.’
”Later, Paul said: “Presidents, Republican and Democrats, believing in some sort of inherent power that’s not listed anywhere … For a hundred years or so, power’s been gravitating to the president — and the executive branch.”
And dig this from Rand Paul: “One of the complaints that you hear a lot of times in the media is about there is no bipartisanship in Congress. (But) if you look at people who don’t really believe in much restraint of government as far as civil liberties, it really is on both sides.”
Regarding Obamacare, a huge thorn in our side:
“When we passed Obamacare, it was 2,000-some-odd pages. There have been 9,000 pages of regulations written since. Obamacare had 1,800 references that the Secretary of Health shall decide at a later date. We (the people) gave up that power. We gave up power that should have been ours, that should have been written into the legislation. We gave up that power to the executive branch … many of whom we call bureaucrats, unelected.”
Perhaps you remember this from a congressman to Paul during his 13-hour speech: “They say the United States is the battlefield (against terrorism) now … This battlefield being here at home means you don’t get due process at home … Is that what we’re moving toward?”
Paul got more penetratingly specific: “The question is, if the government is going to decide who are sympathizers (with terrorists), and people who are politicians with no checks and balances are to decide who is a sympathizer, is there a danger really that people who have political dissent could be included in this?” (emphasis mine)
With the help (?) of the IRS’ Lois Lerner we now know the answer to this question.
You can hear more of Rand’s Consititutional concerns, including Obama’s flippant attitude to the droning of Americans, for yourself:
What is the point of our democracy if one person ramrods arbitrary laws and rules with demagoguery down the throats of Americans? And, Obama has told us that he is doing so at the whim of “fundamentally transforming the nation.” Shouldn’t “we the people” be involved in deciding what “transformation” takes place?
Obama’s antinomianism is a characteristic of the moral relativists of the Left who pronounce “the ends justify the means.” The ends do NOT justify the means and especially when the means and the ends are tyrannically enforced on unknowing and unwilling Americans.
Tax the wealthy and there will be no money for investments and new jobs. Monies for charities will dry up. Tax the wealthy and you hurt charities and the middle class the most. Obama has no clue as to what he is doing. Sadly, people voted for just another politician.
America deserves better than this media mollycoddled divisive passive-aggressive politician. The hangover from election night 2008 still has America off her feet.
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This morning I bumped into our office’s cleaning lady. I’ll call her Dushanka.
Dushanka asked if I had watched the election coverage last night. I answered sadly that I did.
I never knew Dushanka’s political inclination before this morning. We previously had only talked before about our families and about work. We often talk when we arrive to work at 6:30 in the morning. We sometimes see each other during the long work day and then we also chat.
Dushanka came to America from Romania. She came to America because America was hope and change long before Obama came on the scene. Dushanka works long hard hours just as I do. We both pay our taxes and we obey the rules. But after watching the election results and the crowd at McCormick Place and on the street she told me, “America is now broken.” She could not fathom why those young people were standing there paying homage to Dear Leader, economic reality held in abeyance. Nor could I.
Dushanka told me something that I am no longer shocked about in Obama America: another cleaning women working with D cheats the “system” – you and me.
This woman, a foreigner, is using some else’s social security number. This woman has a child from a boyfriend. This woman registered the child at a Chicago Public school and received $200.00 (for what Dushanka didn’t know). This woman who works with Dushanka also receives food stamps. This same woman wrote on her job application that she had graduated from high school though she never graduated. All of these things and more this woman related to Dushanka in a rather smug way: “Look, I am getting away with this. You can too.” In other words she is “cleaning up” at our expense. That is Barack Obama’s America. And that is status quo for Chicago. It is quickly becoming so for the nation. This is Social Justice Obama style but is this going forward in a morally right direction?
Dushanka told me that she does not cheat the system: “That would be cheating God.”
Where is the Social Justice for people like Dushanka, for people like me? Where is the social justice when people steal from other Americans? And where is the social justice when people forcibly take your property and give it to someone else though taxation? Where is social justice in class warfare? In dividing the country racially? There can be no social justice when men are not given their due, when materialism trumps the justice due human dignity and worth.
Did you notice that our American ambassador and his aides were slaughtered in Benghazi? The Obama White House is covering up their decided lack of involvement. American citizens were killed but Obama played golf, campaigned and had another cigarette. Could it be that there is now in place “a U.S. government policy of “engaging, legitimating, enriching and emboldening Islamists who have taken over or are ascendant in much of the Middle East,”? This is the biggest scandal in American History. The Obama regime wants to stonewall the whole business so that time will pass and people will forget. But we won’t forget.
Did you notice Fast and Furious – AG Eric Holder sends lethal weapons to narco-terrorists in a scheme to teach America a lesson about owning guns? The scheme backfired and a US border agent, an American citizen, is killed with the same guns along with hundreds of Mexicans. This is Social Justice Obama style.
Religious liberties are now being deleted for the new religion of political correctness. Moral relativism is replacing absolute truth.
Asstounding! People voted for more uncertainty, more unpredictability, more taxes, more regulation, more tight money, more policies that undermine business confidence and block economic recovery. They voted for more incompetence from Barack Obama!
Today’s children want socialism. And it is the very people who want socialism who bring nothing to the table. That is why they want redistribution of other people’s money – they have nothing to offer themselves.
People now want the government to be their insurance company and their vending machine for everything from birth control to abortions to health care. People now want government to cover all their bets and to give them other people’s money to play. The majority of people voted for the indentured slavery of big government and the Boot placed on their neck!
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Obama’s Hope and Change cocktail has put our country on its back. The only cure for the “Goddamn America” hangover from the 2008 and 2014 election nights is “God Bless America.” The cure didn’t happen the last four years and it is not going to happen these next four years. The narcotic effects of atheism, nihilism, materialism and antinomianism (lawlessness) – an elixir of evil gulped down on those election nights will now spread rapidly through your system. Liberty won’t know what hit it.
Just ask D.
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Read The Forgotten Man – those who supply jobs and resources – requirements for human flourishing – are not the academics.
“You didn’t build that.” We’ve all heard those dismissive words in the news recently.
Luckily, for all I involved, when I heard those words I didn’t jump up run out and burn an effigy of BHO or stampede my local DMV. I guess that’s because I didn’t inherit the Islamist strain of thin-skinned believer DNA that makes one go berserk at the mere thought of someone trivializing what they hold to be true. I did yell at the TV, though: “You’re full of yourself BHO.”
I am an ardent believer in the constrained view (see below), the view that incentives, individual hard work and prudent trade-offs builds houses on stone foundations. The unconstrained view of good intentions, big government and “divined” solutions builds houses on sand. And we all know what happens to each house when torrential rain comes. And, we all know what Liz Warren’s government built road to hell is paved with.
There is a reason why BHO diminishes the individual effort. BHO, of the central planning view, wants joy-stick control of the “invisible hand.” And I am not talking about “Thing” from the Addams Family comic or the other-worldly operator of the Ouija board.
The “invisible hand” of the market is a metaphor used by the father of modern economics and capitalism Adam Smith. Simply put, the metaphor describes the self-regulating behavior of the market place. Individuals seek to maximize their own gain in a free market society where goods and services are traded in a free exchange between both parties. For Smith the” invisible hand” guides individuals into mutually beneficial exchanges. Moral and socially beneficial behavior is evoked through the process. Fairness is part and parcel of market practices. Obeying the rules (i.e., standard weights and measures) is the order of the day in the market place. Contract laws were developed to help enforce agreements. If an agreement was broken a resolution in a court of law would be required. This is just and fair to everyone involved, because everyone is involved in protecting their own interests. Free market capitalism offers “The possibility of cooperation without coercion” as Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize winner in economics once said. Regarding one-on-one resolution Jesus did say, “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.
Adam Smith theorized that the self-interest of individuals acting independently will lead to a socially optimal outcome. From Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 2:
“As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other eases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. [emphasis added].”
Free market exchange encourages a man to, let’s say, go fishing. The man may eat the fish he caught or he may trade for something that will benefit himself. The fisherman is not coerced into doing either. He is free to do as he pleases with his fish. And another is free to trade with the fisherman – say, bread for fresh fish and both parties therefore benefit from the trade-off. The second party is also free to simply say “No, I don’t want your fish. I want to make tacos al pastor today.”
Again Adam Smith,
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.”
On the other very visible hand, the well-intentioned-solutions hand, the government confiscatory and coercive hand taxpayer money is simply thrown at problems. Data abounds showing that well-intentioned-solutions (i.e., food stamp programs, Obamacare, minimum wages laws, etc.) never ever ever fix problems they were intended to solve. The “solution” is never a mutually beneficial exchange. Rather the solution is a one-way, one-time meal ticket that will always end up requiring more taxation, more regulation and less of your liberty. The only fishing taking place is in the mail box for the food stamps. BTW: The hand that provides the food stamps is an iron fist – “Do as I say or you will end up hungry,” “Buy health insurance or pay a tax penalty.”
Now, Adam Smith, and later Noam Chomsky invoking Adam Smith, warned of an unrestrained free market society where the “vile maxim of the masters can be pursued without undue interference.” In other words they thought government regulation (Smith much less, Chomsky much more) would hold the free market in check. One example: the fisher folk would not be allowed to restrict the wee folk from fishing, thereby preventing a monopoly on the fish market.
From what I can tell, both BHO and Chomsky see big corporations and Capitalism in general as behemoth American Devils who suck the air out of the world leaving societal corpses in their path. In each their own measure they see the free market, left on its own, turning into unconstrained selfishness. Yet, they see themselves as altruistic. And as a result of such myopic views of the free market and of themselves they are eager to throttle the life out of the free market with very visible “hands”, the hands of government regulation, taxation and confiscation – the hands of coercion. They truly believe that an unrestrained socialist statist (central planning) government under the guise of a (small “d”) democracy would be superior to an unrestrained free market within a big “D” democracy. But government, if you haven’t already noticed, is a monopoly. It is an all-powerful, ready-to-inflict pain monopoly. Who is holding the tyranny of government back? Not good intentions. Not nebulous open-ended “social justice” solutions. Not the voters. Take a look at congress – there are a lot of visible hands in the pie, grabbing at taxpayer money. They’ve want their clutches on your property because controlling redistribution is a means of staying in power.
The so-called “unrestrained super-national corporations” are in reality restricted to what the markets will accept. Countries all around this world invite corporations into their realms because they see the benefits. These corporations are not coercive like government is. And don’t think for a moment that your vote will restrain government. Those in power like to stay in power and to wield that power. They pass laws to keep themselves in power as State CEOs. Good intentions and redistribution solutions are simply “goodies” thrown out during the campaign parade. The public is left with the big mess after the parade.
My answer: Laissez-faire – a “hands-off” economic environment made possible by a majority vote for smaller government (big D, small g), less regulation and fewer hands in the pie. Vote for the person and party that will let you keep your money and control your life. You know what I am saying– restore LIBERTY. The end result will help generate the dynamic green energy needed for human flourishing. Human flourishing will then enable people to not have to think so hard about scrapping together an existence or worry about whether the hands of government will snatch away your property. Human flourishing will also allow more time for the sublime.
So, put your hand in the hand, the “invisible hand,” and let conscience be your guide, not the government.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” (A free will-free market exchange moved by the Invisible Hand of love.)
“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.” Proverbs 10:4 (A statement of fact from the wisest man who ever lived – Solomon.)
Sally Paradise: “I built it with my own two hands.” Invisible hand: “And I helped.”
Definitions:
Laissez-faire (i/ˌlɛseɪˈfɛər–/, French: [lɛsefɛʁ] (listen)) is an economic environment in which transactions between private parties are free from tariffs, government subsidies, and enforced monopolies, with only enough government regulations sufficient to protect property rights against theft and aggression. The phrase laissez-faire is French and literally means “let [them] do”, but it broadly implies “let it be,” “let them do as they will,” or “leave it alone.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire
Constrained view: The constrained vision sees man as he really is: self-motivated. This realistic vision sees man as selfish and greedy but also willing to respect tradition and rules and certainly able to make prudent trade-offs based on knowledge gained from centuries of accumulated knowledge and wisdom, knowledge and wisdom not confined to an omnipotent Decider. One with a constrained vision doesn’t have all the answers. He or she must operate with humility, tolerance and cooperation in order to support the freedom and liberty within which they seek to live.
Unconstrained view: The unconstrained vision relies heavily on surrogate decision makers, men or women of “superior” intelligence and virtue, to make our decisions for us. The implication of this vision is that the common man does not know what is good for himself and for those around him. But those with super-rational intelligence and sincerity do. And because of our lack of “fair and just” decision making, we the people need an over-arching Decider – someone to rein in society. (Recall Obama’s statement: “You didn’t build that.” He’s trying to rein in economic activity and attribute a man’s own blood, sweat and tears to government largesse!)
See my post What’s Left? To Be Decided for more information on the Constrained and Unconstrained Views, terms derived from Thomas Sowell’s book Conflict of Visions.
Here is an interesting statement from Chairman Mao, April 30, 1971:
“China should learn from the way America developed, by decentralizing and spreading responsibility and wealth among 50 states. A central government could not do everything. China must depend upon regional and local initiative. It would not do [spreading his hands] to leave everything up to him [Mao].
Imagine a candidate that seeks to make you utterly dependent on the largesse of government. Such a candidate goes way beyond promising to maintain our Constitution’s mandates, mandates which provide national security, national sovereignty and transportation networks. The rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have all been guaranteed in writing but, as we have increasingly seen, Obama the Candidate wants the pursuit part to be paid for out of money confiscated from those who have earned the money. In other words, Obama is telling people you don’t have to do anything to receive what he is offering. You just show up with a ticket (your vote) to play and then its lotto time.
If you’ve seen the “Julia” video (see my previous post) then you already know that Obama’s campaign promise is for government to be involved in every aspect of your life: from what you do in the bedroom (contraception and abortion) to your diet to your fuel to your health care to education to retirement. Cradle-to-grave you will be at the mercy of what government deems good for you. Imagine the intrusive TSA on steroids. Imagine waiting in line at a DMV for your privileges to be dispensed by a government worker. This is what Obama and the main stream media are campaigning for. Do you hear me?
Now imagine a campaign that seeks to divide a nation along racial and income lines, and along a state’s sovereignty right and immigration lines, a campaign that uses the main stream media to daily infect the nation with discord and discontent?
Obama is the direct opposite of Abraham Lincoln – keenly divisve Obama is intent on reshackling you to the likes of slave-owning fiefdoms circa pre-Civil War South. He will do this by using government programs with czars but the effect will be the same.
According to Obama’s political ideology, his characterization of you is that you are too stupid to carry on with your day-to-day life without government intervention. He wants you to want government. How odd, shortsighted and how hopeless this vision is for the American people. He wants you to go “Forward” down the aisle placing your hope and trust in him and government. He wants to hear your supplicant “Amen” loud and clear.
Obama and progressives envy Europe. They want America to emulate a socialist-democracy like Sweden. Yet, the economies of scale are vastly different between America and Sweden. It would be better if a person of such persuasion would move to Sweden in order to make their utopian dreams come true. That is until the country’s money runs out. Greece. Spain. Portugal. The European financial dominos are falling and falling fast and hard. If re-elected Obama would bring that type of ruin to America. He is in denial about the financial implications of endless open-ended government as are the heads of these European countries
Obama plays both ends against the middle: he lambastes Wall St. money makers will taking contributions from them. He baits Hollywood and homosexuals to gain votes and campaign monies while courting the black vote even though most blacks do not endorse homosexuality. Middle class values don’t matter to Obama. He has a higher vision for them – “Trust me.”
Obama discounts free enterprise most notably because it is not government. And his version of government is an organized community centered on him. Having had no experience with the free enterprise system whatsoever, Obama will still use capitalism as another weapon in his radical bag of tricks. It is common knowledge that people generally dislike, fear and perhaps hate what they do not know. Obama love-hates capitalism. Capitalism pays for his campaign but capitalism is too free-wheeling for Obama. Capitalism doesn’t need Obama so Obama ebraces government. Government loves it some Obama.
Obama’s book Dreams of My Father discloses his hatred of colonialism. Even though colonialism is non-issue in the world today Obama conflates free market enterprise expansion with colonialism. The fact that free market enterprises create jobs, choices and wealth in poor nations is lost on Obama. His anti-colonialism bent, formed in childhood, has stunted his growth, obscuring any other view of the free market. Obama doesn’t want business competing with government. Obama wants government to be a monopoly.
Imagine a President who is decidedly punitive towards those who make money, to those who create jobs, wealth and, of course, generate tax revenue along with all the good they do. Business is under attack by a two-bit President. People who do not have two nickels to rub together need businesses and jobs. But Obama is determined to undermine any free market option through imposing regulations and by doing nothing otherwise.
Imagine a President who would rather send our troops into harm’s way by sending them to the Strait of Hormuz to protect oil supplies instead of tapping into the wealth of carbon fuels readily available right here at home. Obama is against the north-south oil pipeline and off-shore drilling. Renewable energy programs such as solar and wind power generate a minute supply of energy to this nation. I know. I work in the industry. This president doesn’t have a clue about energy. He just knows that “green” is popular at the moment so he panders to the little “green” people most of whom are alien to common sense solutions.
Now imagine a candidate that has no record of positive accomplishment whatsoever. He has, though, created the biggest tax increase in history, Obamacare! Any pot smoking dead-head could have done that. Considering the relative financial backing of each candidate Mitt Romney has done more in a year to create jobs (and tax revenue along with the jobs) as a private citizen than Obama has in almost four years as POTUS.
Imagine a campaign that has no sense of history, a campaign ready and eager to repeat socialism’s blatant disasters, disasters both historic and current, simply because there is no risk to Obama or the Democrats. It is not their money on the line.
If you are clueless don’t vote for Obama. If you are in denial don’t vote for Obama. If you are desperate don’t vote Obama. If you are undecided don’t vote Obama. If you do, then hold out your wrists. Your master has shackles with your name on them.
OBTW: In between golf games and campaigning you will find Obama working hard at what he does best: selling the American people into slavery so he can buy another round of office.
Have you seen the movie Independence Day? If you have then you would know that aliens have invaded our world. There are aliens in the air and, you might agree, there are aliens on the ground in the form of the cast.
A blurb about the movie from the IMDb website: “The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy. Fighting superior technology, Man’s best weapon is the will to survive.”
Man’s best weapon here may be to laugh off this farce. I like sci-fi. I think Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey and the original The Day the Earth Stood Still directed by Robert Wise are some of the best in that genre. But this movie is epic as pathetic slap-stick sci-fi. Of course you can’t take it seriously.
Will Smith’s pre~Men~In~Black typecasting of silly No Fear bravado and Randy Quaid’s dad~is~crazy~but~somehow~his~zaniness~endears~us~to~him role adds fuel to this trash can fire. The role of President Thomas Whitemore is played by a stiff whose part would have better played better by a teleprompter. Jeff Goldblum as David Levinson portrays an MIT educated-computer expert~chess playing~environmentalist~satellite tech~you~name~it~he’s~got~the~answer~for~you~kind~of~guy who ‘triangulates’ the four corners of this going-nowhere movie.
The movie’s special effects won an Academy Award and I’ll never know why. The effects are third-rate at best. (I thought Twister should have won that year). The movie does, though, offer something for the political observer ~ a perfect realization of the Obama presidency.
The dark, foreboding and humongous space ship hovering over Washington D.C. is a perfect archetype of the Obama Administration. Out of the bottom of the ominous alien craft come lethal rays: Obamacare taxes and immigration fiats. Cities and people’s lives are instantly destroyed. America is under attack.
There is no reason given for why this is happening other than America is America and the aliens say that America must die. So it is that Eric Holder, an onerous chief alien, sits in the mother ship’s ivory tower directing America’s destruction with reserved glee.
“It’s the end of the world as we know it.” At least for America as we have known it.
…The space ship is hovering….
Constance (the President’s Press Secretary):“Now what do we do?
President Thomas Whitmore:“Address the nation. There’s gonna be a lot of frightened people out there.”
Constance:“Yeah, I’m one of ’em.”
Wow! Someone save us from the dialog! Thankfully the brave and ‘wacky’ heros played by Will Smith and Randy Quaid) come to America’s aid and help bring an end to this distraction of a movie.
Using viral computer ‘implants’ and sexy aircraft maneuvering the alien ‘death’ ship is decimated but only after hundreds of minor skirmishes with the pesky alien ‘gnats’ (the larva born in Obama’s ideological intransigence or perhaps in Jeff Goldblum’s The Fly movie).
The next time you watch this movie listen to the dialog. It deserves a Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot of Mystery Science Theatre over dubbing!
We can turn a movie off when the Hollywood kitsch gets to be too much or when the credits (and debits) finally roll. But we can’t turn off government when it makes no sense. Except if you and I begin voting it out of our lives.
Do you want freedom from annihilation by Obamacare taxation? How about “Fighting for our right to live ~ to exist” without own government’s tyranny, oppression and persecution? How about freedom from government’s intrusion of our privacy and its coercive mandates? Will the middle class now go quietly into the night now that it is being taxed into oblivion?
America’s Independence began when it resisted taxation without representation. Now we have representation that doesn’t represent our best interests and that mimics King George’s taxation edicts. Let’s throw off the shackles of tyranny and vaporize the black cloud of government that overshadows us wherever we go. Vote Obama and the Dems out.
It is confirmed. There is alien life out there. They are living among us: Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Holder, Napolitano, Durbin, Charles Rangel, Barbara Boxer, Elizabeth Warren…
My pursuit of happiness is being restrained by the Health Care Mandate Law. I now see myself as an indentured slave under the oppressive masters of the Health Care Mandate and the massive debt burden created by our so-called representatives. My children and I are now being shackled to the enormous costs of mandatory health insurance and a gigantic Federal and State tax burden. Government grows at the expense of its people – rich or poor.
Every time activist congressmen and judges stretch the meaning of our very concise U.S. Constitution to fit their unconstrained social agendas it costs the taxpayer money and liberty. Soon neither will be left. It is no wonder the Obama-ites want the rich to pay more – most of the American people and small businesses are tapped out.
For me, happiness is not an expensive health insurance policy written with thousands of pages of small print as a federally mandated law, a law written out of Stage One thinking – without a thought of the damaging repercussions, a law enacted by representatives who hadn’t even read the bill before passing it (Nancy Pelosi: “We have to pass the bill to find out what is in it.“). If you think this is happiness then I also have some insurance that you should buy.
BTW: It’s all OK, isn’t it? Just keep using your democracy to vote away your life, liberty and your pursuit of happiness in exchange for stacks of noble-sounding demogogically derived bureaucratically tyrannical securities. In so doing you are choosing dependence over liberty and therefore, loss of choice.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep…his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” C.S. Lewis
“We have entered, as I see it, a spiritual limbo. Our educational institutions are no longer the bearers of high culture, and public life has been deliberately moronised. But here and there, sheltered from the noise and glare of the media, the old spiritual forces are at work” Roger Scruton
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“When a common culture declines, the ethical life can be sustained and renewed only by a work of the imagination.”-Roger Scruton
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“Jesus prayed, “This is eternal life, that they may know You . . .” (John 17:3). The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we will take this view, life will become one great romance— a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful things all the time. God is disciplining us to get us into this central place of power.” Oswald Chambers
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“No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God in a human spirit, it is an inner unconquerableness.” Oswald Chambers
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To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.” The Shadow of an Agony,Oswald Chambers
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“If we wish to erect new structures, we must have a definite knowledge of the old foundations.” John Calvin Coolidge
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Atheism is a post-Christian phenomenon.
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If social justice looks like your hand in someone else’s pocket then you are stealing.
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“In Sweden, giving to charity, absurdly, came to be considered a lack of solidarity, since it undermined the need for the welfare state.” – Roland Martinsson
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“…to love democracy well, it is necessary to love it moderately.” Alexis de Tocqueville
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Capitalism seeks to help others through a servce or product it provides. Free Market Capitalism is the most moral and fair economic system available to man. Capitalism augments personal growth, responsibility and ownership. Charity flourishes under capitalism. Charity dies under subjective “fair share” government confiscatory policies. Socialism redistributes ambivalence and greed.
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“We are to regard existence as a raid or great adventure; it is to be judged, therefore, not by what calamities it encounters, but by what flag it follows and what high town it assaults. The most dangerous thing in the world is to be alive; one is always in danger of one’s life. But anyone who shrinks from that is a traitor to the great scheme and experiment of being.” G.K. Chesterton
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Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction. Albert Einstein
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“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” Flannery O’Connor
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“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.” C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
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“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).
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God’s grace is not about the allowance for sin. God’s grace is about the conversation God allows regarding sin.
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From the book of Proverbs: We are not to favor the rich or the poor. We are to pursue justice.
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“Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally.” Oswald Chambers
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One goldfish says to another, “If there is no God who keeps changing the water?”
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“The truth is always there in the morning.”
From Cat On A Hot Tin Roof script – playwright Tennessee Williams
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God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.
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“America’s greatness has been the greatness of a free people who shared certain moral commitments. Freedom without moral commitment is aimless and promptly self-destructive.” John W. Gardner
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“Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community.” John W. Gardner
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“In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.” Dorothy L. Sayers
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“Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.”
G. K. Chesterton
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“The battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn
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This is what the LORD says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
-The prophet Jeremiah, 6:16
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“…our common task is not so much discovering a truth hiding among contrary viewpoints as it is coming to possess a selfhood that no longer evades and eludes the truth with which it is importunately confronted.” James McClendon, Ethics: Systematic Theology, Vol. 1
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Cindy Wity 
Thanksgiving Food for Thought
November 22, 2012 1 Comment
Thomas Sowell: Liberals and Conservatives
Thomas Sowell: Occupying Mindlessness
Milton Friedman: Cause and effect
Tax the wealthy and there will be no money for investments and new jobs. Monies for charities will dry up. Tax the wealthy and you hurt charities and the middle class the most. Obama has no clue as to what he is doing. Sadly, people voted for just another politician.
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Filed under Political Commentary Tagged with conservatives, Economics, liberals, liberals and conservatives, Liberty, Marxism, Milton Friedman, Obama, Occupy Wall Street, taxation, the wealthy, Thomas Sowell