The Democrats’ Alice-in-Wonderland Tax Guide

The Democrats’ Alice-in-Wonderland Tax Guide.

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The Next Hoover – Article – National Review Online

The Next Hoover – Article – National Review Online.

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The Silence of the Lambs

Why are Christians failing to speak out against the evils perpetrated in the name of Islam?

via The Silence of the Lambs.

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Gore still hot on his doomsday rhetoric – The Boston Globe

Gore still hot on his doomsday rhetoric – The Boston Globe

Posted using ShareThis

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MAPQUEST-ARE WE THERE YET?

I have a lousy sense of direction.  When traveling, I arm myself with a map, two sets of written directions and a list of landmarks.  I still lose my way.  Exits beckon to me.  Road signs confuse me.  Assuring remarks like, “Trust me, you can’t miss it”, terrify me.  I can panic even when I am not lost.  So, maybe being “directionally challenged” has made it difficult for me to follow the maps produced by the Obama Administration.  Am I lost?  Or, as I see each landmark pass, am I simply panicked for no reason?

During the past year, Mr. Obama and his comrades have manufactured a lot of maps.  Maps for the economy, healthcare, energy, housing, jobs, education, climate change and National security.  Although attractive in presentation, they appear to lack crucial elements.  Large areas are marked, “Unknown Territory” and “There Be Dragons Here”.  Compass points are skewed—true North is always oriented leftward.  Roads meander aimlessly and often reach a dead-end at a deep gorge marked, “Bridge Out”.  Nevertheless, the urgent message is that these maps must be followed or we will be hopelessly lost.  (I think I hear, “Trust me, you can’t miss it”—excuse me while I shudder).  Where do these maps really lead?  Where are we going?

Here is the most exasperating aspect of these maps.  They include no avenue leading to factual, rational discussion of how they have been drawn.  If one points out that such-and-such a road does not correspond to reality, or that a particular feature does not exist, or that there is no bridge spanning that river the response is to criticize the critic.  The cartographers will not engage in a meaningful analysis of their efforts.  Nor do they have an attitude open to correcting their mistakes.  Instead, they defend their maps with twisted statistics, partial truths and downright lies.  In the end, they are reduced to reiterating that failure to follow their roads will lead to ruin.  Moreover, we are promised that pursuing these paths will lead to a utopia filled with human goodness.  The way will be “difficult”, it is said, but nothing really worthwhile is easy.  For my part, I fear that these map-makers are related somehow to the Pied Piper!

It seems to me that the inability to deal with facts and specific details in an honest manner should alarm us.  Not only does it signal bad charting, it indicates even worse leadership.  Those who will not clearly articulate what our destination is to be, nor explain in detail the roads that will take us there, are either ignorant, or worse, diabolical.  I mistrust these maps.  More and more I believe that they mark the way to totalitarianism and slavery.

I see an exit marked “2010”.  It is beckoning me.  It doesn’t appear on the map.  That’s why I’m taking it.

Filed under: personal, Uncategorized, 2010 elections, democrats, leftwork, obamaspeak, POTUS, statism

FEAR THE BOOM AND BUST-A ECONOMIC “RAP” VIDEO

Great video here.  Not only fun, but good content.  Watch it more than once to understand all the lyrics.  H/T to Kevin Williamson at NRO for steering people to it.

Filed under: Uncategorized, central planning, economy, education, free markets

FIRST, THEY CAME FOR THE BANKS, AND I SAID NOTHING.

Then, they came for Wall Street, and I said nothing.  Next, they came for the automotive companies, and I said nothing.  Now, they are coming for the Health Insurance Industry.  Are you detecting the pattern?

Obviously, the justification that the Obama Administration used for their control of the banks, financial industry and auto companies was that they were given tax-payer money for “bailouts”, and therefore put themselves in the position to expect strict Government intervention, oversight and regulation.  After all, “we the people”, (technically), owned them.  So, what is the justification for Government take-over of the health insurance industry?

Probably the most disturbing aspect, among many disturbing aspects, of the “Health Reform Bill” now wending its way through the Senate is the way it will systematically kill the Health Insurance Industry, (1/6 of our economy), and put it squarely into Government hands.  On September 10, 2009, I published a post called, Evil Insurance Empire.  In that post was a link to a chart that showed the profits of the Health Insurance Industry, (3.2%), and how those compared to profit margins of other industries in 2008.  (It was around 85th, if my memory serves.  You can re-check the link yourself.)  The point is that the Health Insurance Industry does not reap anything like “windfall” profits at our expense.  Despite this fact, the “Reid Bill” currently being passed through the Senate would dictate how this Industry operates with every bit as much strictness as those industries that were “bailed out” with public funds.

The “Reid Bill” would regulate Industry salaries and bonuses.  It would cap the amount of profit that the Industry could make and the amount of dividends that it could pay to shareholders.  In addition, the “Reid Bill”, mandates coverage for pre-existing conditions and removes yearly and life-time caps for pay-outs.  Anyone that can apply common sense can quickly grasp that a business, especially an insurance business, will not be able to remain viable under this type of Government burden.  Might this be the point of this Leftist plan?  Ultimately, if the Health Insurance companies fail, the Government would have “justification” to move in and take them over, running them in fact instead of indirectly through legislative regulation.  Voila, a single payer system emerges–that which Obama has wanted all along.

Constitutionally, there is no provision whatsoever that allows the Federal Government to meddle in private industry in such a way as to actually operate it, while technically allowing its ownership to remain in private hands.  The reason that there are Constitutional prohibitions against such Governmental behavior are apparent.  If the private sector is not protected against such Governmental power, soon the Government, by default, would in reality own and operate every private company according to their own designs, (even if private owners were allowed to remain as “figureheads”).  This kind of Government control has a name–fascism.  Students of history will recognize that this same kind of creeping Government take-over happened in Germany in the years before WWII.  And there was always a “justification” for these actions; always a “greater good” for the “people” was promised.  After all, that was a time of extraordinary economic hardship.

Watch closely, Sparrows.  Educate yourselves.  Be ready to act in 2010.  It has ever been thought that what happened to Germany can “never happen here”.  I beg to differ.  It can.

Filed under: congress, constitution, LEGISLATION, liberal activism, U.S. GOVERNMENT, Uncategorized, fascism, healthcare, leftwork, regulation, statism

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

IBD cartoon by Michael Ramirez

Mr. Obama is doing his best to make us believe that he is focusing on creating jobs.  He would do better by actually creating an environment conducive to increasing employment.  Alas, our talented POTUS seems to lack that particular ability.  Instead, he convenes a “Job Summit” to which he invites sycophants and cronies, followed yesterday by a private confab with “fat cat” bankers with the very public goal of “pressuring” them to loan more money to small business.

We have seen how well such “pressuring”, coupled with regulations and sanctions, have worked in the past.  In fact, Thomas Sowell wrote a wonderful five part series about how such practices led to the present economic disaster.  His series is well worth revisiting at this point in time, because Mr. Obama seems doomed to repeat the very history that could cause the very economic conditions that he has often said should “never happen again”.  A similar opinion has been voiced by the editorial staff at Investor’s Business Daily.

Here is my question: if so many of us can grasp that the POTUS sets courses, on a myriad of issues, that lead in the exact opposite direction that he says he is pursuing, what does that say about him?  And, what does it mean for the country?

Filed under: Uncategorized, banking, economy, obamanomics, POTUS, regulation

HAIL BRITANNIA!

Tomorrow, my husband and I will be jetting “across the pond” to Liverpool, England for a few days.  There, on 8 December 2009, our son will receive his PhD in Late Roman History and Archeology.  His graduation from the University of Liverpool represents the culmination of a dream he has had since he was a youngster.  It also is an opportunity for us, as parents, to be unabashedly proud of their offspring, which we intend to be in an embarrassing quantity.

Look for new posts at The Sapient Sparrow after I return on 10 December 2009.  In the meanwhile, I hope that the dreams you, and your children, dream will all come true.  It really is the best!

Filed under: Uncategorized, personal note

THANKING GOD FOR SMALL FAVORS

These days it can be somewhat difficult to identify our blessings beyond the obvious: food, shelter, family, jobs, faith community, health and a country that, for the present, remains free in important respects.  Upon closer inspection, however, I believe that we can find small favors that God is granting us at this time.  Here is my list; perhaps you can think of others.  If so, please share them.

1- I thank God that Congress is in recess, giving us a brief respite from their evil mischief.
2- I thank God for the hacker that published the CRU e-mails.
3- I thank God for the PI who “rescued” the dumped ACORN documents.
4- I thank God that the POTUS has finally announced that he will announce his decision on troops for Afghanistan.
5- I thank God for our brave troops overseas, and especially in Afghanistan who fight on during this Thanksgiving despite falling morale due to the delay of resources.  May the Almighty extend special protections over them now and always.
6- I thank God that all polls now show the presidential approval rating at less than 50%.
7- I thank God for the news outlets that attempt to convey fact and truth, despite being attacked for doing so.  Among these are: Fox News, WABC-New York radio, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Washington Times, The Telegraph (UK) and The Herald-Sun (Australia), and I thank God for the “alternative” Internet media.
8- I thank God for the religious leaders who stepped forward to publicly express a commitment to the heritage and truths that Christianity values.
9- I thank God for the people in their millions who are awakening to fight against a wholesale Government take-over of our liberties.
10- I thank God that a majority of Americans identify with center-right values and Judeo-Christian beliefs.

As I re-examine my list of “small favors”, it occurs to me that these are really not so small after all.  I thank God for that too.

Wishing you and yours a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving filled with peace and plenty.

Filed under: Uncategorized, ACORN, Afghanistan War, Climategate, congress, personal note, POTUS, Thanksgiving