18 posts from 2008

People are going insane.  Most of them are socialist liberals without a doggon clue about the world.  The veritable arm-chair "thinkers" that don't have any idea what the real world is like.

[This Article has been re-written, and dedicated to "Inside_passage"]

You see, I had written this very long, yet far too truncated, history of modern day Israel and Palestine.  Yes, it was missing some history prior to the history I wrote about.  Thanks to a brilliant comment by one "Inside_Passage", I have found that history completely unnecessary.  My mistake was to use history to explain a completely insane and stupid situation in the middle east.  A situation that is so childish yet has caused problems with the world for centuries.

Various "experts" from both sides try to say it's the UK's fault for the situation.  Some say they caused their own problem and are reaping the consequences for their stupid pride.  Some say it's their religion that has prolonged the situation and aggravated it.

 

Regardless, of the cause, regardless of the situation, the facts today are that there is a nation called Israel, and a bunch of Palestinians that just love to lob bombs into Israel, and Israel retaliates and bombs them back.  A sad vengeful circle has been running for a long time.  Problem is, one side, Israel has tried to make peace, and has given land and resources asked for by the other to form their own nation.  What happens?  The other side doesn't want peace at all.  Their reason for lobbing bombs and sending in their innocent young as walking bombs is to eradicate Israel from existence along with the people in it.  Demonstrating a most evil side of pride the world has ever seen.  Palestine has shown time and time again their "cease fires" cannot be trusted, and have demonstrated they just use them to find more strategic locations to bomb Israel.

Regardless of the weirdness of the past, and previous generations, one must understand that such vengeful circular and destructive behavior only results in the destruction of the nation or people participating in it.  When the enemy (Israel) has done everything asked of them more than once to get peace of their enemy (Palestine), and then just get bombed again a month later by Palestine, you tend to realize that Palestine doesn't want peace, they want you dead, and a vivid reality begins to overcome you.

How do you define "innocent" when a child is indoctrinated to hate Jews and the find every opportunity to kill them from the time they speak, how do you say they are innocent?  Especially when the militant adults, in a cowardly way, surround themselves with the "innocent" to make retaliation by Israel look bad.

A nation, whether you "recognize" them or not, has a right to defend its borders and citizens from outside attacks.  If you stockpile rocket launchers in the basement of a school, then it's your fault your children died from a military strike to destroy it, not those that destroyed it.

While I don't doubt there are people in Palestine that would rather just live a peaceful life.  However, when the well funded Hamas gives you free medical care and schools your kids, it's hard to tell them to get lost.  The Israeli's, on the other hand, would just rather the bombing on both sides stop.  What the Palestinians don't admit, is the reason why they are living in a bombed out house with a child missing a leg, is the very people that gave them the wooden leg  and is schooling their children.  Unfortunately, as long as Hamas and other such organizations exist, true peace in the middle east just won't happen.  It's this whole sick idea that they are entitled to the land.

Hamas, PLO, etc has always been offensive toward Israel, and Israel has always responded defensively offensive (a valid war term).  They bomb Palestine because Palestine has been relentlessly bombing them.  Israel has stopped many times, and it has always been Palestinians that broke the truce.

The UN has never been kind to Israel.  Of course, the UN has always been a bloated and inept bureaucracy friendly only to themselves and their own power.

I still say Israel has every right to defend themselves.  One of the first rules of war is to absolutely and totally demoralize and obliterate the enemy until THEY sue for peace, not when some arbitrary arm-chair bureaucracy says stop.  Israel has the right, after all these years of this insane crap they put up with from people that openly cry time and time again, not for peace, but Israel's ultimate destruction by, and I quote, "bathing the sand in their blood".  Claiming to want the genocide of a people is no way to illicit sympathy or sue for peace.  Yet it's what liberals love to do, is sympathize with these blood thirsty murderers.

Hamas deserves no negotiations.  Want the retaliations to stop?  Get rid of Hamas and stop sending rockets into Israel.  When a group of people have become so bloodthirsty that all they want is the death and utter destruction of another group of people, then what's really going to happen is their own utter destruction, because the world, as a whole, does not accept such behavior out of any nation or people.  It's a simple solution for such a "complicated" problem.  As long as you are genocidal, you will be destroyed.

Here's how I see it:

• Israel wants to exist in peace.  Would rather do business and commerce with their neighbors without fear of attack.  However, will retaliate against aggression to their soverignty and people.
• "Palestine" (as a group) wants Israel off the map, and then have peace.  Will do anything, sick and bloody to do it, even send their own children with bombs strapped to them to do it.  Will only make treaties if it's militarily convenient at the time to better position themselves without fear of discovery.  As Islam teaches that morality and social rules of behavior only apply to other Muslims.  It's OK to lie to infidels, even in contracts and treaties, as long as it benefits you or "Allah".  I can see why they always think they have never done anything wrong, as according to their own religion, murdering, raping, and stealing from infidels is allowed especially if you are in Jihad.  Even more so if those infidels are Jews.
  

I have learned early on in my life, that those of the past, and many of those that have lived longer than me can teach important lessons in life.  Experience and history is the worlds best teacher of what works and what does not.  Unfortunately, most of society, in its self-centered arrogance, tends to ignore history thinking they know better.  The fact that history has shown this to be a mistake over and over has no effect, because the arrogance of the current society makes them think they are special.  Call it culture, call it technology, call it so-called "enlightenment" it almost always ends up backfiring with their society just another part of history that hopefully the next will finally learn from.

I have assembled together a series of good and poignant quotations of those of the present and the past to best illustrate what everyone could use to better warn them, better live their life, better govern, and even enjoy a good laugh.

You may have noticed it has been a long time since I wrote an article here.  It's simply because I have been working long and hard on this one.  This one may not be Pulitzer material (thank God!), but it's something I feel good about writing, and I hope at least someone reading it can find help, advice, assistance, solace, comfort, or just simple knowledgeable enlightenment about the world around them.

All of those I quote here have some form of wisdom we can learn from.  Not all of them are benevolent, not all of them are someone I'd trust to be alone with my children (if I had any), and some may make my blood boil, however, they are experts in their field, some terrifyingly so.  Most, however, are people I would invite to dinner and would be quite comfortable to have around children.  These quotes fall into three categories, the wise, the ridiculous, and the ironic.  You'll soon see what I mean.

Also remember, wisdom can come from quotes of those far from being wise, and hence the quote becomes ironic or even ridiculous to give us wisdom.

I will go topic by topic, in what I think are important issues of current times, and what we can learn from these wise, and not so wise, people about them.

Let's get started.

Government Bailouts and New American Socialism

• "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." -- Thomas Jefferson (one of the founders of the Democrat Party and our Nation)
• "But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." -- John Adams (One of the founders of our Nation and second President)
• "In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress." -- John Adams
• "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower (First Supreme Allied Commander Europe WWII and 34th President, Republican)
• "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." -- John F. Kennedy (35th President, Democrat)
• "That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise." -- Abraham Lincoln (16th President, Republican)
  
• "The great masses of the people... will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one." -- Adolf Hitler (Charismatic and articulate political orator, German Chancellor, called by those that heard him speak "the Saviour of Germany", and responsible for the murder of millions in WWII)
• "Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." -- George Orwell (Author)
• "How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin." -- Ronald Reagan (Actor and 40th President)
• "The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away." -- Ronald Reagan
• "The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -- Ronald Reagan
  
• "Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." -- Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemins, Author)
• "Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself." -- Thomas Jefferson
  
• "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 (Author)
• "Never spend your money before you have it." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "My Uncle was an American; but he was one of the lucky ones.  He managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter Presidency." -- Hillary Flammond ("Top Secret" movie)
• "Already there are insidious influences working termite-like to destroy this basic principle of true democracy." -- David O. McKay
  

Congress and the Washington Establishment

• "Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
• "All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." -- Sir Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister during WWII)
• "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -- Martin Luther King Jr. (Civil Rights Leader)
• "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." -- Ronald Reagan
  
• "I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." -- James Madison (American Founding Father and 4th President, Democrat)
  
• "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." -- Vladimir Lenin (First Soviet Premiere, and communist revolutionary)
• "To be turned from one's course by men's opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold an office." -- Quintas Fabius Maximus (Roman General)
• "What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler
• "But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." -- John Adams
• "I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." -- John F. Kennedy
• "I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves." -- Ronald Reagan
• "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress." -- Mark Twain
  

Media and the So-called "Fairness Doctrine"

• "Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." -- Harry S. Truman (33rd President, Democrat)
• "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." -- Thomas Jefferson
  

Religion, Atheism, and Government

• "A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." -- C.S. Lewis (Author)
• "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other." -- John Adams
• "Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality." -- Carl Sagan
  
• "Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book..." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
• "In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born." -- Ronald Reagan
• "A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril." -- Sir Winston Churchill
• "Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
• "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." -- Carl Sagan
• "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.  He hath loosed the fatefull lightnight of his terrible, swift sword; His ruth is marching on.  He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgement seat.  Oh be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant my feet!  Our God is marching on.  In the beauty of the lillies, Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in his bosom that transfigured you and me.  As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free, while God is marching on.  Glory, glory, hallelujah!  Glory, glory hallelujah!  Glory, glory, hallelujah!  His truth is marching on." -- Julia Ward Howe

Education and Intellectuals

• "An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
• "Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom." -- John Adams
• "Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement." -- C.S. Lewis
• "The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all." -- John F. Kennedy
• "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." -- Mark Twain
• "Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience." -- George Washington (Revolutionary War General, First President)
• "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." -- Sir Winston Churchill
• "The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane." -- Nikola Tesla
• "Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain." -- John F. Kennedy
• "Congratulations, there is now a level zero." -- Master Shifu (Kung Fu Panda)
• On European Socialism... "I'm not European.  I don't plan on being European.  So who gives a crap if they're socialists?  They could be fascist anarchists, and it still doesn't change the fact that I don't own a car." -- Ferris Beuller
  

Family

• "The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes." -- Harold B. Lee
• "Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
• "I always wanted a happy ending... Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity." -- Gilda Radner
• "The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children." -- King Edward VIII
• "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." -- Bill Cosby
• "If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'you know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty.'" -- Jeff Foxworthy
• "I asked for a car, I got a computer.  How's that for being born under a bad sign?" -- Ferris Beuller
  

Patriotism, Liberty, Military and The War Against Terrorism

• "Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway." -- John Wayne
• "I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
• "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death." -- Patrick Henry
• "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." -- Alexander Hamilton
• "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." -- Sir Winston Churchill
• "Americans never quit" -- Douglas MacArthur
• "The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it." -- George Orwell
  
• "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." -- Ronald Reagan
• "Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you." -- Harry S. Truman
• "In war there is no substitute for victory. " -- Douglas MacArthur
• "Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state." -- Thomas Jefferson
• "God gave us the gift of life. It is the most precious gift ever. To be unarmed is to be helpless to protect that gift; that is outright irresponsible." -- Ted Nugent
• "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
• "Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!  America!  America!  God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.  Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern, impassioned stress a throughfare of freedom beat across the wilderness!  America!  America!  God mend thine every flaw, confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.  Oh, beautiful for heros proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!  America!  America!  May God thy gold refine, till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine.  Oh, beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears!  America!  America!  God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotrherhood from sea to shining sea." -- Katherine Lee Bates
• "Everyone has this most precious of all life's endowments-the gift of free agency -- man's inherited and inalienable right." -- David O. McKay
• "We have peace in our time" -- Neville Chamberlain (shortly before World War II broke out).  Ask him how well appeasement foreign policy went.
  

Environmentalism and So-called "Global Warming"

• "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." -- Mark Twain
• "Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense." -- Carl Sagan
• "Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality." -- Nikola Tesla
• "The evidence in support of these predictions [of global cooling] has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it." -- Newsweek 1975
• "The debate is over" -- Albert Gore Jr. (There never was a debate, just a consensus of 2500 scientists in need of government funding, when 37500 other scientists with contrary opinions and findings offered to debate, the 2500 refused.)
• "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it." -- Master Oogway (Kung Fu Panda)
• "The greatest loser in any argument is the one who's argument is so weak, that their only response is to attempt silence the opposition." -- SuperSparky

Believe it or not, I had to really shorten this list.  With wisdom, comes volumes of understanding and in just a few words.  Wisdom cuts to the bone.  It says it like it is and is not politically correct.  I found the wisdom of some, who'd you never expect, be the most profound.

We cannot forget the past if we hope to survive the future.  Remember, "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." -- John Wayne

I am a major fan of the "Tomb Raider" series of video games.  Believe me, there have been many of them.  Most are true to the originals and some were down right crap almost ruining this ground breaking franchise.

I believe the movies almost ruined the franchise, and coincidentally, the games based on the movies were the ones that sucked.  Frankly, Lara was better on her own without some geek sidekick as "support".  Lara always worked alone and was better that way.  She used her own smarts (yours in some cases) to figure things out.  Sure, Lara carried guns, but the biggest draw to her and the games was the story line and the puzzles you had to complete to continue with the story.  There, of course, was the necessary need of overcoming wild animals and the bad guys, but most of this made sense given the story.

The games had Lara as the good "guy" always.  She was sort of a female Indiana Jones but didn't care about the "fortune and glory".  The fact she already had more money than dirt emphasized this.  She did what she did for the knowledge and excitement of it.  The game "Angel of Darkness" tried very hard to ruin this image of Lara.  The game "Angel of Darkness" was to Lara Croft as Star Trek V was to the Star Trek franchise, or the Alien 3 of the Alien franchise.  It nearly ruined the character by almost succumbing to the trendy "dark story" that Hollywood had fallen in love with at the time, and actually almost ruined other franchises as well.  It coincided with the Hollywood version of Lara Croft in the movies, and frankly that version sucked.  The game previous to that they had actually tried to make you think Lara was dead, yet when she "came back" they never explained what happened!  What the...?

Lara Croft is a real lady, a lady with guts, strength, brains, and still very feminine with poise and dignity, yet still sexy and beautiful.  However, Hollywood chose to use Hollywood's biggest skank to play her.  So, they "skanked up" the character too.  They added a side-kick geek and now we had this bizarre Mission Impossible meets Kill Bill sort of character nobody was interested in.  They tried to force this change in the game "Angel of Darkness" and nearly ruined the franchise forever.

I distinctly remember thinking to myself when I got the "Angel of Darkness" that they ruined this great character.  What happened is that Eidos, the game's publisher, got greedy and drunk with the potential of Hollywood money and instead almost lost everything.  They rescued the franchise and Lara, by bringing back the original creator into the mix.  The game "Tomb Raider:  Legend" did just that, it rescued the franchise.  Lara was saved.  It was weird though.  They decided to stick with the high-tech side-kick geeks but gave her old personality and dignity back.  I suppose it was the best trade off to not look too schizophrenic.

"Tomb Raider:  Legend" decided to delve into Lara's distant past rather than try to explain her jumbled recent past.  It focused on her parents and what turned her into the woman she was now.  Frankly, it was a good story.  It was a good come-back.  The latest in the series is "Tomb Raider:  Underworld" which is second half of the "Legend" story.

The "Underworld" game had a magnificent panorama of beautiful landscapes and vast ruins.  However, the story seemed disjointed and half told.  In the earlier games there was an underlying great story to be told.  Part of the story was told by the game play itself.  You had to figure out why things were and how to get to the next step to figure out the next part of the story.  However, in the latest game, you went through these absolutely magnificently designed levels but for no other purpose than to get to the end.  There was no explanation as to why you were doing what you were doing and its purpose in the story.  You traveled from Thailand, to Mexico, to the Artic and yet not much was explained about why.

It was a terribly sad and depressing story, despite the fact that Lara saved the world again.  All you were left with was a great hole in your emotions and a strong feeling of sadness and disappointment with a heavy dose of confusion.  Don't get me wrong.  It's not a bad game.  It just had so much potential which it did fall short on.  It was a good game that could have easily been a great game.

I suppose someone would make the excuse of saying you could read Lara's "Journal" in the game for some story filler, but I say that didn't help either.  All the games had some sort of Journal to give a deeper history of where you were.  Seriously, there was no rhyme or reason as to why you had to travel all over the world to achieve the eventual goal.  On the other hand, it did have something new I have never seen in a video game franchise before.  It had a video showing what happened previously in the story to give you perspective on where you are now in the time line.  More video games should have this simple catch-up method of telling the back-story.

We had this great foundation for a great game.  You had a great character, story with a lot of potential, absolutely beautiful level design, and even great voice acting, and of course a great looking Lara.  Unfortunately, it was just pieced together all willy-nilly.  There were no real puzzles, as the solution to most was quite obvous when entering the level.  It was just a matter of getting the steps done to do it.  Where as had it been a REAL puzzle with subtle clues like the older games had, it could have been a lot funner and more satisfying.

Don't get me wrong.  It's not disasterous.  The game has enough redeeming qualities to make it fun and a worthwhile buy.  However, it could have easily been much better.  Nevertheless, it is a much better game than some of the recently released Tomb Raider games during the "movie" push.  For that simple reason, I give it a 75%.

Want to read up on the series?  Go to Tomb Raider Chronicles where everything Tomb Raider is discussed.

Once upon a time, Bill Clinton, while being deposed for his own perjury case, argued about the definition of the word "is".  Something that is hard to do, especially since you need the word itself as part of your language to do it.  Doing what Clinton's are best at, he sat there with a straight face and actually made the attempt.

Now today we see Obama.  The former candidate that ran on a platform of the word "change" and essentially nothing else.  So now that he is soon to be President and is no longer running for the office, it seems the word "change" must have a different definition than every English speaker in the world is familiar with.

Cambell Brown at CNN has an excellent article about Obama and his so-called promises of change in regards to lobbyists.  It's a real eye openner.

As competent and eloquent the article is, I must confess that the phrase "Our rules are more strict" is better explained in the movie "Clear and Present Danger", where they called such politics the "Patomic Two-Step".

Let's go back to Clinton.  He ran his campaign on a platform of "I'm not going to raise taxes", and then almost immediately gave the "I tried real hard but..." excuse and then raised taxes before the inauguration ink was dry.  I believe George HW Bush said "read my lips" and later ate those words too.

Obama, who hasn't even been inaugurated yet, which is a first for this dance, is doing the Patomic Two Step.

The only change people are seeing is the Constitution being swept aside.  Here's a document that guarantees our liberties and defines what the government must do and what it must not do.  Nevertheless, the dancers in Washington ignore that document all in the name of "rescuing the economy".  Keep in mind, however, is was these same clowns that caused the problem in the first place.  How convenient this must be to the Marxists in the Democrat party to have succeeded, finally, in ruining the USA's economy and at the same time show up saying they are going to "rescue" it.

The problem is, government has never "fixed" a problem.  In fact, every time the government has interfered with the economy it has just made things worse.  FDR prolonged the depression by not allowing the market to stabelize itself, as well as entrusting our stability to a bank instead of the gold standard (a topic for another day).  Jimmy Carter created Fannie Mae and then later Freddie Mac.  A bloated monster without any accountability to market changes full of people patting each other on the back and giving each other bonuses for actions the economy could never sustain.  We finally have Bill Clinton, although throttled with a Republican Congress.  He increased the damage these two banks could do on the economy by using them to strong-arm banks into giving loans to people that could never pay them, all in the name of "everyone deserves a house".  You know, some people cannot afford a house no matter how much a socialist thinks they "deserve" one.  Apartments and rentals make good homes as well.

The entire world's economy has been affected by government sticking their socialist fingers into a capitalistic market and screwed it up for everyone else.

Now these clowns want YOU to pay for it, and like a bunch of mindless lemmings in awe of Obama, you're willing to let them do it,

Want to know how to strengthen the economy?  Want to know how to "fix" it?  It's very very simple.  Have the government get their grimey dirty hands off it.  Let the companies fail.  Let the banks that made bad decisions fail.  Get rid of Freddie and Fannie.  They will be replaced by companies run properly.  I'm not saying eliminate regulation.  Every game needs a referree.  Just keep the refs out of the way.

Frankly, who destroyed the big three auto makers were the unions.  There must be consequences for greedy actions.  Yes, I said GREEDY actions.  People aren't "entitled" to giant pensions, pay without work, and on and on.  Those are things you earn.  Companies are formed to profit the stockholders.  Yes, they should fairly pay the workers, but the workers are not the stockholders.  When the workers demand more money out of a system that cannot support it the system fails.

The rest of the world considers American cars laughable pieces of junk, and compared to many foreign cars, they are.  The big three has to use the lowest bidder for all the materials (plastics etc) and have people that only do the minimum amount of work and that's it, and still pay them more than most people in white collar jobs get.  No wonder the product is crap.

Let companies fail, no matter how large they are.  In fact if they are "too large to fail", then they are too large period, and should have been broken up into two or three competing companies years ago by the SEC.  There needs to be consequences for bad decisions for both the management of companies and bloated and greedy unions.

Want to know what the federal government can legally do?  Read the Constitution.  Bailing out banks and auto companies is not "provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty".

The "Patomic Two-Step" is heating up to feverish and orgasmic socialist pitch and turning into a veritable political mosh-pit.  Money is being passed out left and right like its candy at Holloween.  Everyone, naturally, sees the party and wants a piece of it.  Unfortunately, that money is coming out of the US tax payer's pocket, and what isn't, is being printed up out of thin air.

Yet, you see people that came out of Obama speaches in tears saying "now I won't have to worry about taking care of my children anymore, or buying gas for my car, etc." not realizing how stupid that sounds.  There is this drunk euphoria of a bunch of idiots partying with our money, trashing the house, vomiting filth in the capital building, throwing dung and fecese at the Constitution and Declaration of Independance claiming they are "outdated" or "don't work".  It's amazing.

I never thought George Lucas to be a great writer.  His Star Wars stories had ground breaking special effects to make them into blockbusters.  The stories themselves are pretty lackluster and "B" level.  Nevertheless, one of his characters, Queen Amadala, spoke a line so poignant, so deeply true, and yet oddly prophetic at real life.  Like in my "Star Wars Epiphane" article I explain it better.  Nevertheless it must be said again to illustrate my point here.  She said, "So this is how liberty dies.  To the sound of thunderous applause."

Our country is in a "perfect storm" right now.  Thanks to the greediness, and mostly cowardess of Republicans in Congress, or formerly in Congress, we have turned over power to the very people that caused our problems.  They had a more charismatic speaker that knew how to pull on people's emotions instead of their common sense.  They knew making promises of "we'll take care of you" and such would win out over "I was a prisoner of war".  They played the Soviet Union's Socialist Playbook to get the country where it is.  What?  You don't know about that works?  I will explain, and their plan to do this, is working to this very day.

OK, this is easy.  Back in the Eisenhower administration, many years ago, when we knew how dangerous communism and socialism was to our country, Eisenhower had a Secretary of Agriculture he told to meet with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Premiere and leader.  The Secretary of Agriculture was a man named "Ezra Taft Benson".  Mr. Benson didn't like the idea, but obeyed his President.  Listen to what Mr. Benson said about the encounter, but before you do, keep in mind this was during the 1960's and Mr. Benson's grandchildren would be about 40 or so right now:

 

After listening to the audio, consider this:

You can't throw a frog into a boiling pot of water, because he is smart enough to just hop out.  However, it is possible to throw him into a pot of cold water and very slowly turn up the heat until he dies.

Folks, the USA is the frog, and Communism is the boiling water.  When seeing communism for what it really is, one rejects it outright as was the case in the 50's and 60's, but we have been fed little bits of socialism, which is what communism is based on, and now the water is beginning to approach the boiling point.  Are you going to stay and accept your condition?   Are you going to allow these clowns in Washington ruin everything that was fought long and hard for, or do you really think socialism is going to really take care of you?  Ask a Cuban, ask someone who lived when the USSR existed, ask a Chinaman not living in Hong Kong about communist and socialist life and how much they are "taken care of".

Are you going to join in the dance of the Patomic Two-Step or are you going to whistle and say "Alright!  Everyone out of the pool!"  YOU are responsible for your life, your liberty, and your future.  Don't let a bunch of idiots in Washington take that away from you.

I was somehow in the twilight zone and some how Star Wars then the Presidential election swirled together.  Then I snapped back to reality when I saw something in my mind that turned me cold.

Everything in Star Wars, and about the old republic and such can be likened to what is happening today.  First let's create some definitions:

Star Wars, then their Real Life Equivalent

• Old Republic -> United States of America (A Republic too).
• Young Anakin Skywalker -> The gullable, indoctrinated, "hope of the future" liberal youth.
  
• Obi Wan & Qui Gon Gin -> Sarah Palin and John McCain, respectively.  Also represent parents.
  
• Queen Amadala -> The ignorant and trusting populace in awe or in love with what they should be in fear of.
  
• Senator Palpatine -> Barack Hussein Obama.
• The Trade Organization's Seige of Naboo -> The current Fannie Mai and Freddie Mac so-called "bail out" fiasco.  All caused by Democratic socialist requirements for unreasonable loans to those that could not afford them.  You can only burn a candle at both ends for so long.
• Jar Jar Binks -> Joe Biden and Barney Frank (take your pick, they are both idiots, and no matter what they do general maheim is the result).

The story pretty much goes the same way.  Like Palpatine, Obama uses and exploits things happening in the republic that he secretly endorses and supports that makes him look like a messiah or hero.  When in fact, he's a Marxist wolf in sheep's (or messiah) clothing.  He makes sure everything is a nearly perfect storm to have the people WILLING and almost begging to give up the liberties and control they enjoyed for many years and previously faught hard and long for.  Like anyone hunting for absolute power, he uses those to reach his goals and then tosses them aside when the usefullness is over.  Obama, tosses aside his pastor, his Acorn group, his friends, his own family (brother, aunt, etc.) and sweet talks many people to join his side with promises of power.

He has the minorities and the poor swooning at his feet treating him like he is the messiah, yet it is the very socialist programs that keep them poor and in their condition.  Programs Obama fully endorses even to legalized theft of those not participating in social welfare programs.  In Star Wars Sanator Palpatine looked like their savior, he was going to make the republic safe.  He was going to bring "peace" to the galaxy.  What he did do was eliminate liberties, and brought "order" to the galaxy, but certainly not peace.  He even was granted emperorship.  This was the beginning of the end for Rome, once a republic as well.

I don't need to get more specific than that.  It's oddly similar in how fiction predicts current events.

It's easy to follow along.  Just was what and how the Old Republic in Star Wars was replaced and turned into a dictatorship or empire?  Look at what Obama and your Democrat party wants to do to our Republic all in the name of Marxism.  Nothing good can come of this.  Marxism and socialism always and will always fail.

"So, this is how liberty dies; to the sound of thunderous applause." - Queen Amidala