This week we saw the glorification of a truly evil man born into a truly evil family. Ted Kennedy, Senator from the State of Massachusetts, was laid to rest amazingly enough in Arlington Cemetery. He is there alongside his brother Joseph, a true hero who's explosive laden plane blew up 10 minutes before he and his crew were supposed to parachute out of the it in World War II. His brother John Kennedy, assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, is also at Arlington. As far as I know, Joe Kennedy, named after the old man, did not have the sordid background that came to be associated with the Kennedy males. And did you know before this week that Ted, who was removed from Harvard for cheating, was in the US Army for two years.
Ted Kennedy was labeled the Liberal Lion. Actually it should be the Progressive Lion. As such he served in the US Senate for decades as one of the Left's useful idiots. His allies in the press have been praising him since his demise for his fantastic programs. I ask what programs and why were they so good. Keep in mind that it was this Senator who when told by economist Milton Friedman that in 6000 years socialism had never succeeded, responded to Friedman by saying it would work now that he, Senator Ted, was here to run it. Ah, Lenin and Stalin would be proud.
By now you probably guessed that I am not a Senator Ted fan and you would be right. While I was initially a supporter of John Kennedy, I was a sophomore in high school, I moved in the opposite direction as I grew older and the philandering of John Kennedy came to light. It also became quite obvious that he did not have all the smarts that others claimed. He blew his meeting with Khrushchev in Berlin and stated that Khrushchev had "... just beat the hell out of me.". He screwed up the Bay of Pigs, sent special forces troops to Vietnam and took us to the brink of nuclear war with the Cuban Missile crisis. Meanwhile the luscious Marylin Monroe created enough steam at his birthday party to close down Dulles Airport and the Baltimore and Washington Beltways.
Senator Ted lost favor with a lot of Americans over the Chappaquiddick incident and particularly the nine hour interval that surrounded the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. There have been a ton of rumors on this issue. Ted and Mary Jo were having an affair. Both were drunk and he drove his car off the bridge. His story states that he dove several times to rescue her but was injured and swam away. Some nine hours passed until Kennedy told the police about it. By that time the car and body had been found. Kennedy denied he had been drunk but many viewed the nine hour delay as the time used by Kennedy to get sober. Another story tells about another woman in the car. Purportedly Mary Jo, a bit inebriated herself, fell asleep in the back of Ted's car during the Chappaquiddick Party. Ted and another lady got in his car and headed for their own tryst not knowing Mary Jo was in the back seat. Ted went off the bridge and his biggest concern was getting rid of the other woman so that Joan, his pregnant wife, would not know about the other woman. That is the supposed reason for the nine hour delay. What shook most of us was the fact that Senator Ted was charged with leaving the scene of the accident and received a slap on the wrist with a 2 month suspended sentence and a year's probation. Some how I pictured something a lot harsher even at that time in history when people got away with drunken driving. The icing on the cake was that when Ted ran for re-election in 1970 he received 62% of the vote in Massachusetts.
Let's put Chappaquiddick in the past and look at some of Ted's latest efforts. You might recall his alliance with George W. Bush on the No Child Left Behind Act passed in the first Bush term. This act increase educational costs to the states by 40% and as usual it was an unfunded mandate. It ultimately drew the wrath of the Progressives because it held teachers accountable for the education of children and caused a huge amount of additional paper work. The teachers' union bellowed and Ted became an opponent of his own legislation. Probably forgot to read it. Meanwhile as things heated up for the non-combative Bush administration Kennedy's connection to NCLB was obliterated and Bush became the sole owner of the Bill.
Kennedy was also a supporter of the war in Iraq under Bush 43. In September of 2002 Kennedy proclaimed that the US knew that Hussein was seeking wmds. He went on to say that Hussein's regime is "a serious danger" and that "his pursuit of lethal weapons cannot be tolerated." But when the moment came Ted and his fellow Progressives did a 180 and turned on the Iraq war and the troops in a move they saw as a political opportunity.
While ranting against the war, Ted then teamed up with his Republican buddy, John McCain and gave us the Kennedy-McCain Amnesty Bill. This piece of legislation would have given amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in this nation. Keep in mind that Senator Ted was the man who had changed our immigration laws to allow the unfortunate to immigrate to our shores. Shifts in quotas were made so that now two immigrants a year could enter the USA from let's say England while 2 million could come from Yemen. Kennedy, at the time, promise us that we would not be picking up gazillions of these less then qualified folks as entrants into our nation. He lied. His goal all along was to enhance the Progressive voter base as was the case with Kennedy-McCain in 2008 when he wanted to add the illegal Hispanic voters to the rolls by granting amnesty to those already here and add additional illegals as they crossed the border. Ted, of course, was not affected by the failure of this bill to become law but McCain suffered mightily when it became a real bone of contention during his presidential campaign in 2008. Ted, once again, became the invisible man on a bill he had co-authored. What a guy.
With his demise, Ted's fellow Progressives want to use him as an ad for Obamacare. Let's do this in memory of Ted. Behind this are such distinguished individuals as Banking Queen Barney Frank, Mortgage Master Christopher Dodd, and Tax Evader and Landlord Charles Rangle. I am sure that other luminaries like Kent Conrad, Hillary Clinton, and Charles Sumerwant the plan to immortalize Senator Ted, Chief Progressive and Major Fascist Leader.
In closing let me add that Ted Kennedy and his ilk pushed the Progressive mantra of identity politics that ended up pitting one American against the other. He used his power as a Senator to increase the spending of the government that allowed the poor to become comfortable in their poverty. He allowed for the expansion of the deficit and implemented and supported programs that added to the national debt while participating in the cutting of our military forces making us more venerable to attacks by our enemies. Indeed he sat idly by while Bill Clinton saw to it that our enemies were able to acquire the means to defeat us. Senator Ted was not a good man, indeed one has to question was he a good American with his nation's concerns or his own well being and political position his primary objective.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Progressive Destruction
"It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of it laws and constitution." Thomas Jefferson , Notes on Virginia Query 19, 1781
For over a century we have allowed the Progressives/Liberals from both parties to extend their noses under the tent that houses our constitution. It was Teddy Roosevelt who made the first pronouncement on national health care calling for its implementation. As president he signed the infamous Sherman Anti-Trust Act, a major intrusion on capitalism that would ultimately see a very cozy relationship develop between business and government. Teddy, darling of the conservative Republicans to this day, was not a conservative based on the standards of our Founders and Framers.
Teddy's cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, put us on the path to socialism with a wide variety of monstrous spending programs among them the world's greatest Ponzi Scheme, Social Security. In addition to this program, now on the verge of going bankrupt, FDR proposed a "Second Bill of Rights" that included a right to a job, a right to a house and a host of other rights that were not ever going to be rights. A Right is something the government can never take away from you such as the right to free speech and the right to defend yourself and your family. The government that is large enough to buy you a house can also take that house away.
Since 1960 we have steadily headed into fascism. It was John F. Kennedy who would take us into the Viet Nam war when he sent Special Forces there to assist the South Vietnamese. This action was taken to get even with Khrushchev for the tongue lashing he gave Kennedy at their meeting in Berlin. Let us not forget that it was JFK who ignored the warnings that the Soviets were putting missiles in Cuba. At the last moment the US sent a flight over Cuba to take pictures. Lo and behold we found missiles that were moments away from being capable of reaching the US. Kennedy's tardiness put us on the edge of nuclear war.
With Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon Johnson ascended to the office of the president of the United States. Known for his slick ways in Congress, Johnson would continue them as president. He gave us the "Great Society" with its "War on Poverty" (note the crisis mode with "war"). How did Johnson fight this contrived war on poverty? Well, one of the things he did was declare that mothers would get a government check for themselves and their children as long as there was no man in the home. This in and by itself was devastating on the inhabitants, many of them black Americans, who lived in the inner city. Johnson proudly proclaimed that his administration had passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, with the help of Republicans not his Democrats, single handily did more to destroy the black family since the days of slavery. He did not create a Great Society, he laid the ground work for minority dependence in a "Welfare State." To date trillions of dollars have been shoveled into the hands of the poor who have now, as Benjamin Franklin warned "become comfortable in their poverty."
In addition to the "War on Poverty", it was LBJ who would give us Medicare and Medicaid. These programs were actually a fulfillment of promises made in Social Security. Both of these programs are on the verge of bankruptcy and yet we are now discussing a massive health care program that will ruin us.
The two remaining stars of the Progressives in the waning days of the 2oth century were Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Carter took us into one of the worse recessions that we had ever seen. Unemployment rose and we found ourselves in an economic state called deflation. On top of that interest rates raced into the stratosphere. On top of that Iran went through a revolution and at the beginning of that revolution grabbed a host of Americans and held them hostage for over 400 days. These hostages were released as Ronald Reagen gave his inaugural speech. Jimmy Carter was so paralyzed by this event that he all but boarded himself in the White House.
Bill Clinton is another star Progressive. Telling the nation that he would not raise the taxes on the middle class he proceeded to do just that. Under his administration we had Islamic Terrorists attack the trade center and the USS Cole. Like Obama, Clinton and his wife attempted to give us a massive health care program that would have given the government control of one seventh of the economy. He put the cherry on the sundae of his administration with his affair, something he lied about, with Monica. George Will was kind when he noted that Clinton was a lousy man but a good president. Clinton fans told us how smart he was. This was a guy who couldn't keep a sleazy affair with a woman, but a few years older then his daughter, hidden. On top of that Mrs. Clinton was lauded and pitied by the media elite who told us she was the smartest woman in the world. The vote, at least here, is quite the opposite and I believe that to be the case with most Americans. We know when we have put a skunk into the White House.
By way of full disclosure I want to note that I was not thrilled with Richard Nixon. I disagreed with his Price Controls because they solve nothing. I certainly did not support his cover up, however, had he decided to stay I do believe that if you look at the charges drawn up by the House of Representatives, that Nixon would not have been found guilty by the Senate. Nixon, however, followed Truman's advice and got out of the kitchen
Neither Bush did a whole lot for me. I was not thrilled with Bush 41 who told us in his inaugural speech that we had to be a "kinder, gentler nation". He missed an opportunity by ending Desert Storm and he certainly disappointed the Kurds when we did not come to their aid. At the same time it was rumored that Bush 41 was a globalist something I believe would cost us our sovereignty.
Bush 43 was also a concern with his "compassionate conservatism." Conservatives by their nature and with their wallets have shown for decades who is compassionate and who isn't. I felt a bit insulted by that phrase. On top of that, Bush 43 made a number of missteps the first being the failure to bomb Afghanistan, the home of bin Laden, on 9-11 or 9-12. In addition, he allowed the Progressives to beat him up on Iraq and didn't bother to fight back putting his house in order. His cherry on the sundae was the failure to notice or warn us about the economic mess we are in at this time.
This leaves us with one relatively good president in the past four plus decades and that is Reagan. Reagan realized that we needed to maintain a position of strength while praising democracy and trading with nations around the world. One of the basic beliefs of our Founders and Framers. He stated that we had to keep the money out of the hands of Congress because they were of a nature to come up with programs to help us and these programs would cost money. Here we are looking at a national debt in excess of 11 trillion dollars and that does not include the price of Social Security and Medicare. Ronald Reagan recognized the Democratic Revolution that was going on and he knew that the USSR was in trouble economically. He moved to end the Cold War. He was the only president to believe that we could win the Cold War and it was a central point of his administration. Those who followed dropped the ball. Now we are in the hands of a fascist. Coming at us with guns ablazing. Barack Obama is intent on making this a fascist nation. Pray it does not happen.
For over a century we have allowed the Progressives/Liberals from both parties to extend their noses under the tent that houses our constitution. It was Teddy Roosevelt who made the first pronouncement on national health care calling for its implementation. As president he signed the infamous Sherman Anti-Trust Act, a major intrusion on capitalism that would ultimately see a very cozy relationship develop between business and government. Teddy, darling of the conservative Republicans to this day, was not a conservative based on the standards of our Founders and Framers.
Teddy's cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, put us on the path to socialism with a wide variety of monstrous spending programs among them the world's greatest Ponzi Scheme, Social Security. In addition to this program, now on the verge of going bankrupt, FDR proposed a "Second Bill of Rights" that included a right to a job, a right to a house and a host of other rights that were not ever going to be rights. A Right is something the government can never take away from you such as the right to free speech and the right to defend yourself and your family. The government that is large enough to buy you a house can also take that house away.
Since 1960 we have steadily headed into fascism. It was John F. Kennedy who would take us into the Viet Nam war when he sent Special Forces there to assist the South Vietnamese. This action was taken to get even with Khrushchev for the tongue lashing he gave Kennedy at their meeting in Berlin. Let us not forget that it was JFK who ignored the warnings that the Soviets were putting missiles in Cuba. At the last moment the US sent a flight over Cuba to take pictures. Lo and behold we found missiles that were moments away from being capable of reaching the US. Kennedy's tardiness put us on the edge of nuclear war.
With Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon Johnson ascended to the office of the president of the United States. Known for his slick ways in Congress, Johnson would continue them as president. He gave us the "Great Society" with its "War on Poverty" (note the crisis mode with "war"). How did Johnson fight this contrived war on poverty? Well, one of the things he did was declare that mothers would get a government check for themselves and their children as long as there was no man in the home. This in and by itself was devastating on the inhabitants, many of them black Americans, who lived in the inner city. Johnson proudly proclaimed that his administration had passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, with the help of Republicans not his Democrats, single handily did more to destroy the black family since the days of slavery. He did not create a Great Society, he laid the ground work for minority dependence in a "Welfare State." To date trillions of dollars have been shoveled into the hands of the poor who have now, as Benjamin Franklin warned "become comfortable in their poverty."
In addition to the "War on Poverty", it was LBJ who would give us Medicare and Medicaid. These programs were actually a fulfillment of promises made in Social Security. Both of these programs are on the verge of bankruptcy and yet we are now discussing a massive health care program that will ruin us.
The two remaining stars of the Progressives in the waning days of the 2oth century were Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Carter took us into one of the worse recessions that we had ever seen. Unemployment rose and we found ourselves in an economic state called deflation. On top of that interest rates raced into the stratosphere. On top of that Iran went through a revolution and at the beginning of that revolution grabbed a host of Americans and held them hostage for over 400 days. These hostages were released as Ronald Reagen gave his inaugural speech. Jimmy Carter was so paralyzed by this event that he all but boarded himself in the White House.
Bill Clinton is another star Progressive. Telling the nation that he would not raise the taxes on the middle class he proceeded to do just that. Under his administration we had Islamic Terrorists attack the trade center and the USS Cole. Like Obama, Clinton and his wife attempted to give us a massive health care program that would have given the government control of one seventh of the economy. He put the cherry on the sundae of his administration with his affair, something he lied about, with Monica. George Will was kind when he noted that Clinton was a lousy man but a good president. Clinton fans told us how smart he was. This was a guy who couldn't keep a sleazy affair with a woman, but a few years older then his daughter, hidden. On top of that Mrs. Clinton was lauded and pitied by the media elite who told us she was the smartest woman in the world. The vote, at least here, is quite the opposite and I believe that to be the case with most Americans. We know when we have put a skunk into the White House.
By way of full disclosure I want to note that I was not thrilled with Richard Nixon. I disagreed with his Price Controls because they solve nothing. I certainly did not support his cover up, however, had he decided to stay I do believe that if you look at the charges drawn up by the House of Representatives, that Nixon would not have been found guilty by the Senate. Nixon, however, followed Truman's advice and got out of the kitchen
Neither Bush did a whole lot for me. I was not thrilled with Bush 41 who told us in his inaugural speech that we had to be a "kinder, gentler nation". He missed an opportunity by ending Desert Storm and he certainly disappointed the Kurds when we did not come to their aid. At the same time it was rumored that Bush 41 was a globalist something I believe would cost us our sovereignty.
Bush 43 was also a concern with his "compassionate conservatism." Conservatives by their nature and with their wallets have shown for decades who is compassionate and who isn't. I felt a bit insulted by that phrase. On top of that, Bush 43 made a number of missteps the first being the failure to bomb Afghanistan, the home of bin Laden, on 9-11 or 9-12. In addition, he allowed the Progressives to beat him up on Iraq and didn't bother to fight back putting his house in order. His cherry on the sundae was the failure to notice or warn us about the economic mess we are in at this time.
This leaves us with one relatively good president in the past four plus decades and that is Reagan. Reagan realized that we needed to maintain a position of strength while praising democracy and trading with nations around the world. One of the basic beliefs of our Founders and Framers. He stated that we had to keep the money out of the hands of Congress because they were of a nature to come up with programs to help us and these programs would cost money. Here we are looking at a national debt in excess of 11 trillion dollars and that does not include the price of Social Security and Medicare. Ronald Reagan recognized the Democratic Revolution that was going on and he knew that the USSR was in trouble economically. He moved to end the Cold War. He was the only president to believe that we could win the Cold War and it was a central point of his administration. Those who followed dropped the ball. Now we are in the hands of a fascist. Coming at us with guns ablazing. Barack Obama is intent on making this a fascist nation. Pray it does not happen.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Here Come Da Judge!!!
On May 27, 2009, President Obama nominated Judge Sotomayor to the position of Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The criteria for this appointment runs the gamut. She is empathetic. She is a woman. She is Puerto Rican. She is a believer in judicial activism, a point that has been filmed.
Judge Sotomayor is a product of identity politics. She is not an originalist buyt rather an adherent to the belief that somehow the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are living documents subject to interpretation with the onset of each generation. That is not the case. The Founders and the Framers explained over and over in their writings that they had presented us with documents that were designed to stand the test of time.
The constant playing with the Constitution has brought us some wonderful things hasn't it. We can no longer say prayers in public schools are read Bible verses because people will die if we do that. We can, however, kill babies by the millions making Adolph Hitler look like a piker. We have made pornography legal because it is protected under the First Amendment. In the process peoples' lives have been destroyed by this business.
We the people have become thoughtless, crass and barbaric. We are wrapped up in ourselves and have taken narcissism to a new height and as we do so the nation is being grabbed by the socialists who are nationalizing our banks, our auto companies and soon or newspapers. We are just a few steps from communism and most don't even know it. Justice Sotomayor and her ilk will be among those who will assist in the transition. You are going to be surprised at what you will no longer be able to do.
Judge Sotomayor is a product of identity politics. She is not an originalist buyt rather an adherent to the belief that somehow the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are living documents subject to interpretation with the onset of each generation. That is not the case. The Founders and the Framers explained over and over in their writings that they had presented us with documents that were designed to stand the test of time.
The constant playing with the Constitution has brought us some wonderful things hasn't it. We can no longer say prayers in public schools are read Bible verses because people will die if we do that. We can, however, kill babies by the millions making Adolph Hitler look like a piker. We have made pornography legal because it is protected under the First Amendment. In the process peoples' lives have been destroyed by this business.
We the people have become thoughtless, crass and barbaric. We are wrapped up in ourselves and have taken narcissism to a new height and as we do so the nation is being grabbed by the socialists who are nationalizing our banks, our auto companies and soon or newspapers. We are just a few steps from communism and most don't even know it. Justice Sotomayor and her ilk will be among those who will assist in the transition. You are going to be surprised at what you will no longer be able to do.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Republican Moderates
Recently there have been rumors pertaining to the demise of the Republican Party. I don't think they are rumors in that the Republican party has taken its conservative base for granted and is moving more and more to the left and in so doing they are becoming Democrat lite.
Despite the two recent catastrophic elections, 2006 and 2008, the Republicans believe that the way to win is to become more moderate this despite the fact that the selection of John McCain caused somewhere between 4-5 million conservatives to stay home on election day in 2008. Now we have a new team of light weights, Colon Powell and Tom Ridge, going on the road together with the primary purpose of destroying conservatism. Put these two moderate Republicans at the top of the ticket and you will see the end of the Republican party in 2012 and I would expect the creation of a new Conservative Party grounded in the classical liberalism of our Founders and Framers who gave us the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Those of you who believe that the thing Republicans must do is become more moderate, I would remind you that it is ideas that win the hearts and minds of the people. It was Ronald Reagan with his plan to destroy the evil empire of the USSR that got our attention in 1980. No one prior to Reagan had given a thought to destroying communism at its very heart. Reagan was a man with a simple plan, a plan that worked.
In 1994, Newt Gingrich comes along and does the unheard of, he makes House politics national and not local as so often had been attested to by supposed "smart politicians". The national news guys on NBC, ABC, and CBS, had their chins on the ground on election eve 1994,as the results came in with the Republican slaughter of the Democrats. Indeed, many felt the Democrats were finished.
What do the Republicans have to do today? They must return to the principles and values of this nation and devise a program around them. Why do you think so many of us are anti-abortion? Don't know? Well, let me remind you of this phrase, "... among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Life, you see, is an inalienable right. It is at the very core of the well being of this nation and as one gentleman told me recently, we will not be right until we settle the abortion issue and stop the slaughter of unborn babies.
Our Founding Fathers belived that the founding of America was not an accident. They believe that our nation came about because of the hand of God--divine intervention if you will. Yet since 1962, we have done our best to remove Him from our lives. There are those within our own nation who pray for our destruction and think a better world will evolve. Allow me to be so bold as to say that with the destruction of America, occurring because divine intervention has been withdrawn, will result in a vacuum that will not be filled and the rest of the world will be collapse.
Despite the two recent catastrophic elections, 2006 and 2008, the Republicans believe that the way to win is to become more moderate this despite the fact that the selection of John McCain caused somewhere between 4-5 million conservatives to stay home on election day in 2008. Now we have a new team of light weights, Colon Powell and Tom Ridge, going on the road together with the primary purpose of destroying conservatism. Put these two moderate Republicans at the top of the ticket and you will see the end of the Republican party in 2012 and I would expect the creation of a new Conservative Party grounded in the classical liberalism of our Founders and Framers who gave us the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Those of you who believe that the thing Republicans must do is become more moderate, I would remind you that it is ideas that win the hearts and minds of the people. It was Ronald Reagan with his plan to destroy the evil empire of the USSR that got our attention in 1980. No one prior to Reagan had given a thought to destroying communism at its very heart. Reagan was a man with a simple plan, a plan that worked.
In 1994, Newt Gingrich comes along and does the unheard of, he makes House politics national and not local as so often had been attested to by supposed "smart politicians". The national news guys on NBC, ABC, and CBS, had their chins on the ground on election eve 1994,as the results came in with the Republican slaughter of the Democrats. Indeed, many felt the Democrats were finished.
What do the Republicans have to do today? They must return to the principles and values of this nation and devise a program around them. Why do you think so many of us are anti-abortion? Don't know? Well, let me remind you of this phrase, "... among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Life, you see, is an inalienable right. It is at the very core of the well being of this nation and as one gentleman told me recently, we will not be right until we settle the abortion issue and stop the slaughter of unborn babies.
Our Founding Fathers belived that the founding of America was not an accident. They believe that our nation came about because of the hand of God--divine intervention if you will. Yet since 1962, we have done our best to remove Him from our lives. There are those within our own nation who pray for our destruction and think a better world will evolve. Allow me to be so bold as to say that with the destruction of America, occurring because divine intervention has been withdrawn, will result in a vacuum that will not be filled and the rest of the world will be collapse.
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Problem With Debt
By now many of us and our fellow countrymen realize that they have spent to much. They realize that they should have purchased a smaller home and cheaper car. They now realize the overwhelming burden of debt. Our Founders realized that debt was a heavy burden. Indeed, they stated that it was just as destructive to freedom and liberty as a lack of military strength.
The men responsible for the Founding of this nation were well aware of the fact that from time to time the government would have to borrow money. That did not make them any happier about going into debt. Debt was to be temporary and done away with as quickly as possible.
Many of the Founders believed that borrowing would have a numbing effect on a person. Indeed, Jefferson stated, "The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pockets to pay for it would make our country one of the happiest on earth....I think every man will remember that (the war), under all the privations it obliged him to submit to during that period, he slept sounder and awoke happier then he can do now." Jefferson stated that inherited debt was immoral and that everyone "should consider themselves morally bound to pay them (the debts) themselves".
These statements coming from Jefferson are a bit ironical when one looks at his financial affairs. Jefferson was a Virginia planter. He owned slaves. He purchased more slaves. He had to tend to the needs of his slaves. He owned plantations with vast tracts of land. He had to purchase more land because the land wore out and could only be rejuvenated by allowing it to lie fallow usually for many years until it again became suitable for farming.
Jefferson was not the only Founder to warn of the evil of being in debt. Benjamin Franklin was noted for his frugal ways through "Poor Richard's Almanac". He was particularly concerned about those who borrowed in order to splurge. "But what madness must it be to run in debt for these superfluities....But, ah, think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another man power over your liberty". How many of us have every stopped to considered that? We simply went along with our credit cards, home equity loans and second mortgages wearing a stupid grin only to wake up and find ourselves in a financial mess.
Our first president was most concerned about debt, particularly the national debt and its effect on future generations. " No pecuniary consideration is more urgent then the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt; on none can a delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable". Washington pleaded with the nation to get rid of the national debt as soon as possible so that it would not be a burden on future generations.
For the most part, the wish of the Founders was followed by those who came after them. We did not have the amount of money we have in circulation today until well into the 1960's. The greatest generation that grew up during the Great Depression and fought World War II was not a generation that went into great debt. Neither did our government. All of this changed as the children and grandchildren of this frugal group grew up with a hedonistic attitude and a willingness to satisfy the self. Thus new terms crept into our vocabulary. Credit cards and the debt associated with them. Lower or no down payments to purchase a home. Subprime mortgages could get you into a home. Adjustable Rates were really okay. On and on we went and then we woke up and had a terrible headache. Some are going to lose a home or a car. Others will lose their job. Some will lose all three.
Where are we going? There are those who say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we will get out of this quickly. Others are calling this market a bear market rally--not good. Some say the end is further then we think. We do know that we have but a small majority that still supports capitalism, the economic system the insures our freedom. We know that more are willing to live under socialism, a system that has never worked.
What is sad is that those great men we call the Founding Fathers laid out the entire path for us and appears that we that we might have blown it.
The men responsible for the Founding of this nation were well aware of the fact that from time to time the government would have to borrow money. That did not make them any happier about going into debt. Debt was to be temporary and done away with as quickly as possible.
Many of the Founders believed that borrowing would have a numbing effect on a person. Indeed, Jefferson stated, "The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pockets to pay for it would make our country one of the happiest on earth....I think every man will remember that (the war), under all the privations it obliged him to submit to during that period, he slept sounder and awoke happier then he can do now." Jefferson stated that inherited debt was immoral and that everyone "should consider themselves morally bound to pay them (the debts) themselves".
These statements coming from Jefferson are a bit ironical when one looks at his financial affairs. Jefferson was a Virginia planter. He owned slaves. He purchased more slaves. He had to tend to the needs of his slaves. He owned plantations with vast tracts of land. He had to purchase more land because the land wore out and could only be rejuvenated by allowing it to lie fallow usually for many years until it again became suitable for farming.
Jefferson was not the only Founder to warn of the evil of being in debt. Benjamin Franklin was noted for his frugal ways through "Poor Richard's Almanac". He was particularly concerned about those who borrowed in order to splurge. "But what madness must it be to run in debt for these superfluities....But, ah, think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another man power over your liberty". How many of us have every stopped to considered that? We simply went along with our credit cards, home equity loans and second mortgages wearing a stupid grin only to wake up and find ourselves in a financial mess.
Our first president was most concerned about debt, particularly the national debt and its effect on future generations. " No pecuniary consideration is more urgent then the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt; on none can a delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable". Washington pleaded with the nation to get rid of the national debt as soon as possible so that it would not be a burden on future generations.
For the most part, the wish of the Founders was followed by those who came after them. We did not have the amount of money we have in circulation today until well into the 1960's. The greatest generation that grew up during the Great Depression and fought World War II was not a generation that went into great debt. Neither did our government. All of this changed as the children and grandchildren of this frugal group grew up with a hedonistic attitude and a willingness to satisfy the self. Thus new terms crept into our vocabulary. Credit cards and the debt associated with them. Lower or no down payments to purchase a home. Subprime mortgages could get you into a home. Adjustable Rates were really okay. On and on we went and then we woke up and had a terrible headache. Some are going to lose a home or a car. Others will lose their job. Some will lose all three.
Where are we going? There are those who say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we will get out of this quickly. Others are calling this market a bear market rally--not good. Some say the end is further then we think. We do know that we have but a small majority that still supports capitalism, the economic system the insures our freedom. We know that more are willing to live under socialism, a system that has never worked.
What is sad is that those great men we call the Founding Fathers laid out the entire path for us and appears that we that we might have blown it.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
The Founders and Religion
When I reached 4th grade my teacher handed me and the rest of the students in 4th grade a book on American History. While I do not remember the title or the author of said book I do remember there was an American flag on the cover. I also remember ten Bible versus being read, the Lord's prayer being said, and the Pledge of Allegiance spoken by all students present that day and every day of the school year.
When it came time for history I was a happy student. I loved history. We learned about the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War and how we defeated the British. After the War we covered the Constitution and then went on to the early years of our country. I remember reading about and discussing the Founding Fathers as I went through school and how these were principled men. Their principles were based on their religion and their faith in God.
Somewhere along the way we began to take a different path not the one recommended by those who gave us those two divinely inspired documents that formed our nation. Can I name that time? Yes, I can. It was February 27-28, 1963, when the United States Supreme Court by an 8-1 margin voted to end the policy of reading 10 Bible verses in school. That put America on the slippery slope to becoming a secular nation and took us off the path discovered by the Founders. The case, by the way, was Abington Township School District v. Schempp. To this case was added Murray v. Curlett. The Murray case was brought by Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the founder of an atheist organization. Ms. O"Hair, her son, and her granddaughter were brutally murdered in 1995.
The dumbing down of the nation, however, had begun even earlier. In fact you can go back to the early years of the 20th century when we got rid of the McGuffey readers, they taught lessons of morality, and they went to John Dewey's plan for public educaation, the miserable system we have today.
We also began the degrading of the Founders. They were not religious. Men like Jefferson and Washington were really Deists. On top of that, these men were slave holders and even fornicated with their slaves impregnating them. This theme became a primary one during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s so that we could remove the pictures and names of the Founders from the public square and rename the schools after criminals like Eldridge Clever.
Our Founders gained a great deal of inspiration from Cicero and his writings on the principles of natural law. Cicero believed that Natural Law is true law. "True law is right reason in agreement with nature...." Cicero proclaimed that Natural Law comes from God our creator. It "is the distinction between things just and unjust, made in agreement with that primal and most ancient of all things Nature; and in conformity to Nature's standard are framed those human laws which inflict punishment upon the wicked and protect the good."
It was the studying of Cicero that convinced the Founders that being virtous and morally strong was important when it came to the writing of our founding documents. Benjamin Franklin stated,"Ony a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt or vicious, they have more need of masters." Jefferson pointed out that virtue was something that had to be earned and learned. Virtue was also something that could be lost. Washington said "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."
It is evident that contrary to what has become the popular view of our Founders, they weren't really a religious group and they really believed that there was a "wall of separation" between church and state, that these men believed in people being virtous, moral and principled individuals. Indeed, all of that was necessary to maintain our liberty and economic freedom.
Now we have a president who tells the world that America is not a Christian nation. He tells the rest of the world that like them we are a secular nation. If that, my readers, is indeed true, we will, as the Founders pointed out over and over again, fail and fall and the rest of the world will follow. The reason for the fall and failure is simple. If we fail to believe in something, in this case our greatness, morality and principles, we will fall for anything.
When it came time for history I was a happy student. I loved history. We learned about the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War and how we defeated the British. After the War we covered the Constitution and then went on to the early years of our country. I remember reading about and discussing the Founding Fathers as I went through school and how these were principled men. Their principles were based on their religion and their faith in God.
Somewhere along the way we began to take a different path not the one recommended by those who gave us those two divinely inspired documents that formed our nation. Can I name that time? Yes, I can. It was February 27-28, 1963, when the United States Supreme Court by an 8-1 margin voted to end the policy of reading 10 Bible verses in school. That put America on the slippery slope to becoming a secular nation and took us off the path discovered by the Founders. The case, by the way, was Abington Township School District v. Schempp. To this case was added Murray v. Curlett. The Murray case was brought by Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the founder of an atheist organization. Ms. O"Hair, her son, and her granddaughter were brutally murdered in 1995.
The dumbing down of the nation, however, had begun even earlier. In fact you can go back to the early years of the 20th century when we got rid of the McGuffey readers, they taught lessons of morality, and they went to John Dewey's plan for public educaation, the miserable system we have today.
We also began the degrading of the Founders. They were not religious. Men like Jefferson and Washington were really Deists. On top of that, these men were slave holders and even fornicated with their slaves impregnating them. This theme became a primary one during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s so that we could remove the pictures and names of the Founders from the public square and rename the schools after criminals like Eldridge Clever.
Our Founders gained a great deal of inspiration from Cicero and his writings on the principles of natural law. Cicero believed that Natural Law is true law. "True law is right reason in agreement with nature...." Cicero proclaimed that Natural Law comes from God our creator. It "is the distinction between things just and unjust, made in agreement with that primal and most ancient of all things Nature; and in conformity to Nature's standard are framed those human laws which inflict punishment upon the wicked and protect the good."
It was the studying of Cicero that convinced the Founders that being virtous and morally strong was important when it came to the writing of our founding documents. Benjamin Franklin stated,"Ony a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt or vicious, they have more need of masters." Jefferson pointed out that virtue was something that had to be earned and learned. Virtue was also something that could be lost. Washington said "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."
It is evident that contrary to what has become the popular view of our Founders, they weren't really a religious group and they really believed that there was a "wall of separation" between church and state, that these men believed in people being virtous, moral and principled individuals. Indeed, all of that was necessary to maintain our liberty and economic freedom.
Now we have a president who tells the world that America is not a Christian nation. He tells the rest of the world that like them we are a secular nation. If that, my readers, is indeed true, we will, as the Founders pointed out over and over again, fail and fall and the rest of the world will follow. The reason for the fall and failure is simple. If we fail to believe in something, in this case our greatness, morality and principles, we will fall for anything.
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Founding Fathers and Their Contribution
First and foremost a description is needed for those we look upon as the Founding Fathers of the United States. Some would say that the Founders made up two groups, those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence designated as the Founders and those who signed the Constitution and are designated as the Framers. Personally I put the two groups together, a total of 95 individuals who participated and signed the keystone documents of our representative republic.
Many of these men fought in the Revolutionary War. Some were soldiers and some were officers. Some fought on the battlefield while others raised funds or contributed from their own fortunes to the American cause for freedom. These men were responsible for defeating the British and obtaining our freedom for England.
The story of America began with the Revolutionary War but it was not completed until the writing and ratification of the Constitution. It would be this Founding document that would lay out the type of government that would be used in the governing of the people. Fortunately for us and future generations the men responsible for the creation of our government were both thoughtful and knowlegeable
Our Founders recognized that governments fell into one of three categories. On the left there is what the Founders referred to as "Ruler's Law." Under this category we would find various types of governments. There was monarchy, oligarchy, socialism, fascism and communism. The power was in the hands of the monarch or a small group of men who would use government to enrich their own well being. While a monarch is generally thought of as a single ruler keep in mind that the King always had a council of some sort around him.
At the other end of the pole the Founders saw "No Law" or what we would refer to as anarchy. Here one would expect the rule of the mob or anarchists. It is not a good situation.
In the middle the Founders recognized Democracy or rule by the majority. The problem with a Democracy is that there is no protection of the minority voice in the community. It has, as was the case with anarchy, the appearance and potential of mob rule.
Yet within the middle is another form of government. That is a Republic or Rule of Law. Under a Republic, there is a document that outlines the form of the government and the powers of same. The leaders are elected by the people who are the true authority and government. The formation of our government was not an easy task. The vast majority of those at the Constitutional Convention never thought that it would take four months to put it together and many believed that it would not last. Indeed, Benjamin Franklin probably expressed a lot of the members feelings when he responded to the woman who asked him what type of government had he given the people. Franklin's response, "A Republic if you can keep it."
Many of these men fought in the Revolutionary War. Some were soldiers and some were officers. Some fought on the battlefield while others raised funds or contributed from their own fortunes to the American cause for freedom. These men were responsible for defeating the British and obtaining our freedom for England.
The story of America began with the Revolutionary War but it was not completed until the writing and ratification of the Constitution. It would be this Founding document that would lay out the type of government that would be used in the governing of the people. Fortunately for us and future generations the men responsible for the creation of our government were both thoughtful and knowlegeable
Our Founders recognized that governments fell into one of three categories. On the left there is what the Founders referred to as "Ruler's Law." Under this category we would find various types of governments. There was monarchy, oligarchy, socialism, fascism and communism. The power was in the hands of the monarch or a small group of men who would use government to enrich their own well being. While a monarch is generally thought of as a single ruler keep in mind that the King always had a council of some sort around him.
At the other end of the pole the Founders saw "No Law" or what we would refer to as anarchy. Here one would expect the rule of the mob or anarchists. It is not a good situation.
In the middle the Founders recognized Democracy or rule by the majority. The problem with a Democracy is that there is no protection of the minority voice in the community. It has, as was the case with anarchy, the appearance and potential of mob rule.
Yet within the middle is another form of government. That is a Republic or Rule of Law. Under a Republic, there is a document that outlines the form of the government and the powers of same. The leaders are elected by the people who are the true authority and government. The formation of our government was not an easy task. The vast majority of those at the Constitutional Convention never thought that it would take four months to put it together and many believed that it would not last. Indeed, Benjamin Franklin probably expressed a lot of the members feelings when he responded to the woman who asked him what type of government had he given the people. Franklin's response, "A Republic if you can keep it."
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