Of Sheep and Wolves

I so often cringe at hearing folks tout the virtues of Democacy and now we have a good example of Democracy in action.  More like disfunctional comes to mind.  So here is a brief thought I had on the matter.

Democracy! Egypt tells us a lot there. Kings! King George taught us a lot there. The old saying about democracy of it being "three wolves and two sheep sitting down and voting on what to have for dinner" ought to be simple enough for even the dimmest of us to see.

No Sir, democracy will never protect the sheep. Democracy requires something more, something that will restrain the majority from eating the minority. In our country that is the Constitution and more specifically the Bill of Rights portion of it.

Egypt had a democratically elected leader, President Mohammed Morsi. All poured into the streets and cheered. The talking heads here were clamoring for face time to cheer this wonderful victory for Democracy. Well it seems the wolves won (in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood) and they immediately sat down to decide what to have for dinner.

Being sensible and brave enough to not have themselves be the main course for dinner, the sheep decided they wouldn't take it. They took to the streets. The Army backed them and ousted the Brotherhood.

Now Goofus McCain and Lindsey dash over to Egypt to try and undo a just revolt against a tyrannical regime. Majorities never mean Liberty and our Founders realized that Liberty must be grounded in a set of laws that would guarantee and preserve it. They understood their government would require folks to administer it (Executive), a body to enact laws (Congress) and a select body of folks that would assure that no laws or administrative actions would violate the Liberties prescribed in the Constitution (Judicial).

We do have Democratic elections but at the local and state level. These folks assure that the country is not over run by factions in the larger states. Our system has pretty much worked until lately. About 50 years ago we started and have maintained a steady decline into a Socialist State run by and dictated at the Federal level.

Take a look at what Michelle Bachmann has to say at http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/080913-667056-true-arab-spring-returns-to-egypt.htm

Don't Take the Bait

It may be worse than a worm on the hook. 

Don’t buy the lie. Inherited means something bestowed on someone by someone or by something. Congress passes budgets - spending bills, and taxation bills.

The economy is currently in worse than a mess

It is on the brink of an economic disaster. From whom did we inherit this bucket of worms and when? January 3rd, 2007 is the very day when the Democrat Party took over control of a veto proof House and Senate. What did they inherit and from whom? Prior to that, the country had seen a record 52 straight months of job growth. Not 52 weeks, that’s only a year, but 52 months, that’s 4 years and 4 months.

On January 3, 2007

The Dow closed at $12,622, GDP was at 3.5%, and unemployment was a tame 4.6% - not a bad situation by anyone’s book. What did this new Congress set about doing with it?  Immediately on that fateful date, Barny Frank was made Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee. They did their work and did it quickly to the tune of a Banking and Financial Services crises not seen since the great depression.

Another date to remember

Having orchestrated that fiasco, the Democrat Party in 2009 kept their majority and added to it a little known Democrat president. To the new young president’s discredit, unemployment has remained above 8% since his first month in office - 32 months reflecting a “Fundamentally changed America.”  How is it then that the Economic Engine of the world was so swiftly crippled?

Obama and his veto proof Democrat controlled Congress

They did so by throwing budgets to the wind. They hunkered down and full attention was devoted to passage of the so called Obama Health Care Bill. Spending soared through the roof, and regulations upon regulations were heaped on business, and even to this date no passable budget has been offered.

Policies of the Progressives

The Administration’s energy policy has strangled domestic production and threatened national security. Long held allies have been snubbed as we pander to nations that would harm us. America’s history of greatness has been dismissed as a sorry past with the hopes that the rest of the world would better like us. It seems to only have diminished their respect.

Who sunk the ship?

After taking the wrecking ball to the country’s well being, what do they do? They are unable to boast one single positive step taken. What are they to do?  Like two siblings found destroying their tidy room, the older brute points his finger and chimes, “Bush did it.” But hey, Bush is no longer there to kick around. So who is left to blame? No surprise here, it is the fellows that would be their replacements, the folks ready to clean up the mess.

Is there anything that you or I can do?

Yes, vote for the Americans in 2012, the Americans that know our history, have lived our culture, who know our greatness, the ones that are humble enough to know such a special greatness comes not from us as some kind of superior people but from "we the people", a people having a special kind of government, one that governs least, one that lets individual Liberty flourish, not at the expense of others but in mutual recognition of each other's Natural rights.

Is it Jobs or liberty?

The 2012 presidential and other government posts will likely be won over who can run the government in a manner that results in the greatest job creation.  That in itself is a worthy objective but I claim there is something  more fundamental that ought to be considered.  It is a principal, a principal that underlies the creation of jobs.  Politically one would call it Liberty, economically one would call it Free Enterprise.  In either case, one can not exist without the other.  

However, let's not leave jobs out of the equation because their scarcity is a prime, visible and festering sore that tells us something about the underlying infection, the loss of Liberty and the attendant erosion of Free Enterprise.  That sorry road has now been traveled for many years and done so in the not so bright light of day.  The infection's helpmates have been our educators and media and the actual implementers of the infection have been our politicians.

Whoa partner, we are supposed to be a Republic, a land of laws, laws that allow for a government "of and by the people".  Yes, that's right, "We The People".  It is we who elect these rascals, it is we who absorb and buy into the propaganda of the progressive left.  It is we who must look into the mirror and ask, "Just who is it we really are?"  Are we now simply dependent on the government for practical every aspect of our lives all the way from what sodas we can drink to what medical procedures are allowed us.

What is seen in that mirror by too many Americans is a not so pretty picture.  Our savings are owned by China, our children are bombarded with socialist drivel, and most of us fear for our economic future. The fear is justified but even worse is the thought that the solution lies with more government, a government devoid of Liberty, one resulting in an Economy that rots in the grave of Socialism.

Americans Love Fairness

Yes, Americans love fairness.  But is our government being fair?  Let us take a look.  Imagine a lavish party attended by 100 folks, you know, just an average sampling of folks, many just like you and me.  When I say lavish, this party has no bounds.  Why not, it's other peoples money!  The question is, who pays the piper?

The attendees have been told not to worry over the cost.  After the last slice of roast pig, the few remaining drops of sparkling wine and the still sweet taste of Crème Brûlée lingering on the tongue, the ten thousand dollar bill is presented to our well fed guests.  A lot of heated argument ensues.  Some are without funds, most have a little, some more and one fellow is filthy rich. 

The waiter, an ex-politician having experience in these matters, comes up with a plan.  He calls it a fair plan.   The top wealthiest 1% (that is the one rich guy) will simply pay 37% of the bill $3,700 since it is no big burden to him.  That still leaves a pretty hefty bill unpaid, and fearing a brawl might erupt, the waiter said, "lets just take the top 10 earners and have them pay 70% of the bill ($7,000 less $3,700 the rich fellow paid) … it’s not like they can’t afford it."  So, each of those 9 are stuck with a $367 bill.  The remaining 90 folks start to feel a little better and the ex-politician waiter is on a roll, so his next move is to suggest that the top 50% of the earners just go ahead and pay 98% of the total bill which would be $9,800. 

The numbers are starting to get a little tricky but the ex-government man gets out his calculator and figures ten guys are already paying $7,000 so that just leaves $2,800 for 40 of the diners of which each would pay $70.  Now these were hard working folks little used to paying that for a meal, but they put up little fuss since what was $70 as compared to the $7,000 the rich guy was paying? 

The waiter felt he was getting very close, but he still had $200 unpaid, so his next move was to suggest that out of the 50 remaining guest that had paid nothing 3 of them (3% of the whole) would divvy up the $200 which resulted in their paying about $66 each.  Now there were 47 VERY happy guest left that paid nothing (47% of the whole). 

Fair?  Let’s review: 1 person pays $70,000, 9 folks pay $357 each, 40 folks pay $70 each, three folks pay $66 each and 47 happy folks pay nothing. 

By the way says the waiter, “I’m running for office next year and that is how I will propose a Bill to divvy up the tax burden.  Except for one small thing, you 47 folks who paid nothing would get a $10 earned gift certificate just for coming here to eat. What do you folks think?” 

The one rich guy, being no fool, sharply responds, ”Propose?  What do you mean propose?  That's the way it is already done.”

And can you believe it, some folks are advocating soaking the rich even more so we can have an even bigger, finer dinner.

Here is the little known secret.  The rich guy owns a a fancy sports shoe factory and a national hamburger chain.  He goes home and immediately calls his accountants and tells them to raise prices by a large margin.  So, who gets soaked in the end?  Those folks buying those shoes and hamburgers.  The piper always gets paid.

A New Find

What do the following names have in common?

• 20) Jesse Lee Peterson: The founder of BOND, television personality, and radio host.
• 19) Deroy Murdock: He’s a syndicated columnist, political talking head, and contributing editor with National Review Online.
• 18) J.C. Watts: The former college football quarterback was a prominent Republican congressman, but lost considerable influence with conservatives when he publicly noted he was considering backing Obama in 2008.
• 17) Angela McGlowan: She’s an author, political commentator, and she ran and lost in a congressional primary in 2010.
• 16) Shelby Steele: The columnist and documentary film maker.
• 15) Ward Connerly: The founder of the American Civil Rights Institute and an activist dedicated to fighting racial quotas.
• 14) Mychal S. Massie: The National Chairman of the conservative black think tank, Project 21.
• 13) Robert George: He’s an editorial writer for the New York Post.
• 12) Ken Blackwell: He ran and lost for Governor of Ohio, was a candidate for the RNC National Committee Chairman; he’s a senior fellow for family empowerment at the Family Research Council and a columnist.
• 11) Star Parker: She’s an increasingly popular syndicated columnist who ran for Congress in California in 2010 and lost.
• 10) Colin Powell: He’s a former general and the first black Secretary of State. Although he still has considerable name recognition and influence with the general public, he has considerably less sway than he used to in the Republican Party since he endorsed Barack Obama in 2008.
• 9) Larry Elder: The sage from South Central is a popular columnist and syndicated talk radio host.
• 8) Michael Steele: He was the first black Republican National Committee Chairman. He’s now a columnist and TV commentator.
• 7) Condi Rice: She’s the head of the Global Center for Business and the Economy at Stanford, a former foreign policy advisor to George W. Bush, and the first black woman to ever be Secretary of State.
• 6) Walter Williams: The professor at George Mason University is a popular columnist and a fill-in radio host on the Rush Limbaugh program.
• 5) Tim Scott: Scott is the first black Republican congressman elected in South Carolina for 114 years.
• 4) Thomas Sowell: He’s a Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution who’s one of the most popular conservative columnists in America.
• 3) Allen West: The first black Republican congressman from Florida since 1876. Keynote speaker for CPAC in 2011.
• 2) Herman Cain: Former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, former talk radio host, and a candidate running for the presidency of the United States.
• 1) Clarence Thomas: Supreme Court Justice.

One correct answer would be they are all Republicans.  The second and most interesting is that they are all black Americans.  They are among a list of the twenty most influential black Republicans by John Hawkins, writing for the Right Wing News 

One name, along with a few others, was new to me; his name is Mychal S. Massie.  

He is singled out as a result of my having read a piece he published in the DAILY RANT titled "Why I Do Not Like The Obamas."  It is widely known that many have those same sentiments but what caught my eye is that these remarks were coming from another black American.  I thought it worth while to discover his beef with the Obamas.

Interestingly enough, his complaints are close to mine and he expresses them so much better.  Aside from the controversies over Obama policy, he strikes at the heart of the man and his wife's character and does so unabashedly.  To be so frank and honest has earned my respect for this man and I urge you to read his hard hitting and fair appraisal of the folks now occupying the house of the nation.

The following excerpted sentence is intended to bait your interest enough...

"I condemn them because, as people are suffering, losing their homes, their jobs, their retirements, he and his family are arrogantly showing off their life of entitlement – as he goes about creating and fomenting class warfare."

... that you will READ the article Why I Do Not Like The Obamas 

Half a Railroad Line

Let's see if if it is possible to "out-do" the insanity of building an oil pipeline close to the terminus but not anywhere near the supply.  That is exactly the idiotic proposal of the Obama administration, called the southern leg of the Keystone pipe line

Put on your time machine hat and go back a hundred years or so.  Folks in New York City had developed a taste for beef.  A rail line from Kansas City to NYC seemed to be a reasonable ticket to satisfy that desire.

However, some "greenies", likely a much less favorable term would have been used back then, came out of the woodwork and screamed you are proposing raping the land.  I know it is hard to imagine, but try.

Suppose the then sitting president, hoping to satisfy everyone in an election year, came up with a novel proposal that included a compromise based on an approval that had already been granted for a rail line from Buffalo, NY to NYC.  He may have even used a term along the lines of "lets get'er done."

This became known as the eastern leg of the so called beef line, or did it quickly become known as the bull line?.  Now to his way of thinking, misnomer though it be, this would have made all those folks in NYC happy, even though there was no intent to ever have the western leg from Kansas City to Buffalo approved.

I doubt some bloke in the Bowery, Bronx or Queens would have been easily fooled.  Most likely they would have been giving that old Bronx cheer, while yelling, "throw the bum out."

Come to think of it, shouldn't we all be doing the same?

The Skinny on Gas Prices

buys less

All we hear from one side is, if we drill more, it will bring down prices.  From the other side, all we hear is, drilling is not the answer, the solution lies somewhere in the future use of wind, sun, corn, or inflated tires.

Neither of those two views tells the whole story.  Then there are those that just blame it on speculators or greedy oil companies.  True enough, the oil companies make big bucks and that is because the world uses a huge amount of oil.

What one rarely hears is the effect inflation (cheap dollars) has on the price of gas.  We will get back to that in a moment, but for now lets consider how we got in this mess and who got us there.  Some claim the President and some also say he can't do much about it.

So, what are the things that affect the price of gas?  The main factors are supply and demand along with the value of the dollar or what ever a country's currency.  Let's keep speculators and greedy oil out of the equation for a moment.

We all pretty much know that supply and demand do affect the price of all goods.  We all know that supply, at least here in the states has been choked off by government policy.  True, we have produced more on private lands recently but no real advantage has been taken of huge potentials elsewhere.

Just to make the point that one major factor is being overlooked, how often do you hear the weakened dollar being blamed?  It never comes up.  Why is it such a big factor?  Let us pretend you the reader have a lot of oil to sell and you live in another oil rich country.  Then let me be an oil purchaser living in the USA.  To make this point easier to see, let us also assume supply and demand stay constant.  All that being the case, and you not being a price gouger, you would continue selling me oil at the same price.

Here comes the kicker, how do I pay you for that oil?  If it is in American dollars, there enters a problem.  You, the oil seller can't buy as much of the things you want with those same dollars because they have become de facto devalued by inflation.  So noticing the price of bread has gone up, you do as the bread maker, you raise your price for oil.  There is noting hard to understand there.  It is simple old Adam Smith economics.

Now let us go back to the question of what and who got us to a weaker dollar.  Paramount would be our national debt and our tendency to weasel out of it by paying back the debt in inflated dollars.  So here we have in a nutshell, two major components of gas prices, supply/demand and inflation and all we need do is look at what and whose policies have led to that.  With no near term alternative energy having been or likely to be realized, it is unrealistic to choke off demand for oil.  Yet we do nothing substantial on increasing supply.  Where does that blame lie?  We have in the last three years rolled up a mountain of national debt.  Where does that blame lie?

To be fair, the answer to those two questions should be evident.  But hold on, you may have been thinking it points to the President or the Democrat party.  Well yes, in one sense that is a justifiable position but doesn't, in a free country, the blame go all the way back to those that elected them?  In my book it does.