Miscellaneous Thoughts Part 28

• The Left believes that big government helps those who won’t help themselves. Then again big gov’t doesn’t want people helping themselves.
• Don’t be surprised if property crimes rise when you have people in power talk about “economic justice” or “spreading the wealth” or “you didn’t build that.”
• Raising the tax rate in America would be a tough sell for the Left if it were a flat tax because every tax payer would be paying a higher tax if that happened.
• Do you think Isamo-fascist Leftists (if there is such a thing) shout “Big gov’t is great!” then raise your taxes? Just wondering.
• The Left plays the law of averages when it comes to gov’t pgms and spending money. Even if those actions work the tax payer would have to be immortal to see any payoff.
• If a person with a mean expression comes toward me with a switchblade, brass knuckles, and a baseball bat I am not going to think to myself he isn’t going to hurt or kill me because he isn’t carrying a gun. I believe the result would be the same.
• The term “collective bargaining” makes me nervous. Just how does a group of people bargain? That means everyone in that group would have to want to same thing. You stop being individual instead you are like a cell in a biological organism. That’s very close to group think. 
• I think political consultants should work on a contingency basis. If trial lawyers can do that why not political consultants? Either that don’t hire a consultant unless the person has 90% or better winning track record.
• Instead every Leftist is a conservative that is bound, gagged, and ridiculed that wants to come out.
• Jesus once said: “Those who praise themselves will be humbled.” I am still waiting for Obama to be humbled. Too many “mind guards” maybe?

Life Under Hitler’s Rule: Don’t Let Freedom Slip Away

This article is written by Kitty Werthmann a woman who lived under Hitler’s rule:

I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide – 98% of the vote. I’ve never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.

In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates.

Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs. My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily.

The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other. Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna, Linz and Graz were destroyed. The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted.

We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933. We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group — Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back. Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.

We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.  [read more]

Sounds like Hitler promised the Austrians everything they wanted. Most unscrupulous leaders do that—pretend they are Santa Clause. And the people were happy for awhile. 

“For awhile” is the key phrase here. She goes on:

• Hitler Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children.  The education was nationalized. Crucifix’s were replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Hitler wasn’t a Christian. He only used God’s name to make the German people like him. If anything the Nazi’s were pagans—they worshiped the god’s of ancient Germany. Hitler, I read, thought Christianity was a weak religion and Germany would have been better served by a stronger religion like Islam. I kid you not. By having his picture replace the Crucifix Hitler is saying he is now God. Kitty goes on to say that Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. If parents did not send their children to school they got a written warning. The second time they did not send their children a $300 fine, the third time the parents would go to jail. All the kids received political indoctrination at the school.
• The Full-employment Law.  All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death.
• The Labor Camps. It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps. During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys.
• Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare. When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government. She says the people who took care of the children were child psychologists.
• Health Care Suffer Under Government Controls. Kitty says before Hitler arrived Austria had very good health care then he socialized it. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries. She goes on to say tax rates went up 80% under Hitlercare (that’s my term not hers). What she is describing (except for doctors leaving part—they will just quit) will happen to America under Obamacare.
• Economic  Regulations.  We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables. Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands. Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control. We had consumer protection. We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

The oppression and evil continues. Mentally retarded people were murdered by the state. People had to register their guns at police stations (does that sound familiar?). Hitler said that was the real way to catch criminals. Not too soon after the state said it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. Since the guns were registered it was futile for people not to comply voluntarily.

Finally, freedom of speech was suppressed. Anyone, not only the Jews, who spoke against the state were taken away.

She writes:

Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism.

That’s exactly how socialism or any other oppressive system get installed in a country. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowstorms or Snowflakes?

An article by Lawrence W. Reed on FEE.org (Feb 25.):

There are two basic prisms through which we can see, study, and prescribe for human society: individualism and collectivism. These worldviews are as different as night and day, and they create a great divide in the social sciences. That’s because the perspective from which you see the world will set your thinking down one intellectual path or another.

No Two Alike

I think of it as the difference between snowstorms and snowflakes. A collectivist sees humanity as a snowstorm, and that’s as up-close as he gets if he’s consistent. An individualist sees the storm, too, but is immediately drawn to the uniqueness of each snowflake that composes it. The distinction is fraught with profound implications.
No two snowstorms are alike, but a far more amazing fact is that no two snowflakes are identical either—at least so far as painstaking research has indicated. Wilson Alwyn Bentley of Jericho, Vermont, one of the first known snowflake photographers, developed a process in 1885 for capturing them on black velvet before they melted. He snapped pictures of about 5,000 of them and never found two that were the same—nor has anyone else ever since. Scientists believe that changes in humidity, temperature, and other conditions extant as flakes form and fall make it highly unlikely that any one flake has ever been precisely duplicated. (Ironically, Bentley died of pneumonia in 1931 after walking six miles in a blizzard. Lesson: One flake may be harmless, but a lot of them can be deadly).

Contemplate this long enough and you may never see a snowstorm (or humanity) the same way again.

Dr. Anne Bradley is vice president of economic initiatives at the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics. At a recent FEE seminar in Naples, Florida, she explained matters this way:

When we look at a snowstorm from a distance, it looks like indistinguishable white dots peppering the sky, one blending into the next. When we get an up-close glimpse, we see how intricate, beautiful, and dissimilar each and every snowflake is. This is helpful when thinking about humans. From a distance, a large crowd of people might look the same, and it’s true that we possess many similar characteristics. But we know that a more focused inspection brings us nearer to the true nature of what we’re looking at. It reveals that each of us bears a unique set of skills, talents, ambitions, traits, and propensities unmatched anywhere on the planet.

This uniqueness is critical when we make policy decisions and offer prescriptions for society as a whole; for even though we each look the same in certain respects, we are actually so different, one to the next, that our sameness can only be a secondary consideration.  [read more]

 

A great analogy. In psychology the snowflake perspective is called differential psychology. The snowflake perspective is how conservatives look at their fellow human beings. Or at least they should try to look at people. Classifying things and treating things alike is fine. Things don’t care. But doing this to people is dehumanizing at worst and disrespectful at best. But classifying or grouping things is what the mind naturally does to make sense of the world. Putting people into groups is hard not to do.

Yes, groups of people have similarities. For example, women like to go shopping and like to express their feelings (okay, this an attempt at stereotypical humor).

There even some people who think that teenagers are going to have sex no matter what so let’s give them condoms. Or that all women are for abortion rights. Or African-Americans will always vote Democrat. Or even that all homosexuals are for same-sex marriage (they’re not. Dennis Miller says he has gay friends who are not for same-sex marriage.) I could go on.

But having similarities is not the same as being the same. You can only generalize so much from the similarities then you start to diverge. Take a lesson from chaos theory. Small differences can lead to big changes later on. The butterfly effect if you will.

When an artist does a painting he leaves his own personality in the painting. The same with novelists and even software engineers. That’s what makes the world interesting. Trying to make everyone act the same or believe the same is a cult at worst at best group think.

The Founding Fathers saw American’s as snowflakes. Remember in the Declaration of Independence it says the inalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"?” That line wasn’t talking about groups. Only individuals have rights. The Bill of Rights are about individual rights too.

We are treated same under the law (or should be) but we are not completely the same mentally or physically. Even identical twins aren’t completely identical. God made us as individuals not as clones.  We attain individual salvation. “Collective salvation” is not a concept in God’s mind. The Ten Commandments are about individual morality.

This Crazy Cyprus Deal Could Screw Up A Lot More Than Cyprus...

From Business Insider.com (Mar. 16):

Cyprus's banks, like many banks in Europe, are bankrupt.

Cyprus went to the Eurozone to get a bailout, the same way Ireland, Greece, and other European countries have.

The Eurozone powers-that-be gave Cyprus a bailout — but with a startling condition that has never before been imposed on any major banking system since the start of the global financial crisis in 2008.

The Eurozone powers-that-be (mainly, Germany) insisted that the depositors in Cyprus's banks pay part of the tab.

Not the bondholders.

The depositors. The folks who had their money in the banks for safe-keeping.

When Cyprus's banks reopen on Tuesday morning, every depositor will have some of his or her money seized. Accounts under 100,000 euros will have 6.75% of the funds seized. Accounts over 100,000 euros will have 9.9% seized. And then the Eurozone's emergency lending facility and the International Monetary Fund will inject 10 billion euros into the banks to allow them to keep operating. [read more]

Cyprus’ gov’t hasn’t approved the deal yet, but they closed the banks temporarily to stop a possible dry run on the banks. So, a citizen of Cyprus can’t use an ATM or transfer money out of the country

The Obama administration response? Ask the treasury. Huh? What? You got to be kidding me.

Could this happen to America? It could or something similar to it if Congress  and the POTUS don’t act fiscally responsibly. And if we have to borrow money from another country that country could do the same thing that Germany did.

If you notice the “tax” on the bank holder’s deposits are progressive ie the more you have saved the more you will be taxed.

Sen. Graham claims Benghazi survivors 'told to be quiet' by administration

From Fox News.com (Mar. 15):

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, in an extensive interview with Fox News, alleged that the injured survivors of the Benghazi terror attack have been "told to be quiet" and feel they can't come forward to tell their stories -- as he urged the House to subpoena the administration for details if necessary.

The South Carolina senator said he’s “had contact” with some of the survivors, calling their story “chilling.” He told Fox News that "the bottom line is they feel that they can't come forth, they've been told to be quiet."
The White House is denying any attempt to exert pressure on the surviving victims.

"I'm sure that the White House is not preventing anyone from speaking," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, when asked about the survivors.

But Graham said he thinks the administration is “trying to cover it up,” citing the valuable information the survivors hold. [read more]

Not sure Obama is not preventing anyone from speaking? Really? You mean you don’t know? Hmm. The administration denies trying to hush the survivors’ stories. So, who is telling the truth? The Obama admin. or the survivors? I am going with the survivors. Why would they lie? I agree with Sen. Graham Obama is trying to cover up the Benghazi terror attack. Not only is Obama covering it up but so is the lame stream press. Could possibly be a violation of the First Amendment to me.

So, what’s the POTUS going to do if they do talk openly about their experiences? Have drones go after them?

Miscellaneous Thoughts Part 27

• I am not pro-gun, I am pro self-defense. If you live in a dangerous area either learn self-defense or get a gun. The police may not get there in time to save you. Self-defense is what the 2nd Amendment is all about.
• According to the Left, if you think the federal gov’t is fallible or imperfect then you are anti-gov’t.  After all to them Big Gov’t = God. And God is perfect.
• Guns don’t kill people. Crazy or evil people do. Jack the Ripper didn’t use a gun and England’s very strict gun laws didn’t protect his victims. Even the Soviet Union had a serial killer. And that was supposed to be a utopia.
• The Left wants everybody to sacrifice except for Big Gov’t, Big Labor, lawyers, Hollywood, and universities (ever hear a Leftist want a university to lower its tuition?)
• Humor: I am waiting for Killing Garfield and Killing McKinley by Bill O’Reilly. Those are two presidential assassinations that he hasn’t written about.
• If you take a drink every time you hear a Leftist mention President George W. Bush’s name you could get drunk in no time.
• Humor: If a polka musician gets hit on the head does he see accordions revolving around it?
• If the POTUS can’t take blame for the state of the economy then he can’t take credit for anything that good happens to it either. Responsibility goes both ways. Otherwise you are delusional.
• A country’s constitution is its conscience. A week or non-existence one could lead to a sociopath dictator (like Hitler or Saddam Hussein) to rise to power.
• If so-called experts say society as a whole is responsible for a person’s bad choices then are these experts partly responsible for that same person’s bad choices? After all aren’t these experts part of society too?

The Left’s Version of The Book of Genesis Part 2

2:7 And the LORD Gov formed man’s mind of a progressive.

2:8 And the LORD Gov planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whose mind he had formed.

2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD Gov to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of truth.

2:10 And the LORD Gov commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

2:11 But of the tree of  truth, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely be ostracized.

2:12 And the LORD Gov said, It is not good that the man be indoctrinated by himself; I will indoctrinate him a help mate. So, Gov found a woman to indoctrinate.

2:13 And they were both indoctrinated and were none the wiser.

2:14 Now the conservative was more subtil than any person. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath Gov said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2:15 And the woman said unto the conservative, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

2:16 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, Gov hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye be ostracized.

2:17 3:4 And the conservative said unto the woman, Ye maybe ostracized:

2:18 For Gov doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall know the truth of Gov and progressives.

2:19 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

2:20 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were being conned; and they knew Gov was fallible and did not need him so much. That Gov would also treat them as children. That there no such thing as collective salvation. And liberty and self-control is healthy.

2:21 And they heard the voice of the LORD Gov walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD Gov amongst the trees of the garden.

2:22 And the LORD Gov called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

2:23 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was duped by thou; and I hid myself.

2:24 And he said, Who told thee that thou was duped by thee? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

2:25 And the man said, The woman whom thou indoctrinated with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

2:26 And the LORD Gov said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The conservative talked to me, and I did eat.

2:27 And the LORD Gov said unto the conservative, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all people, and thou will be ridiculed, insulted, and blamed for all the days of thy life:

2:28 And the conservative said, What else is new.

2:29 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

2:30 And so both Adam and Eve were kicked out the garden because they had their eyes opened and became conservatives or at least not progressives anymore. They had children and their children had children who also became conservatives which really ticked off Gov.

Is Obama a Narcissist?

According to the DSM-IV-TR these are symptoms of the disorder:

1. Reacting to criticism with anger, shame, or humiliation
2. Taking advantage of others to reach own goals
3. Exaggerating own importance, achievements, and talents
4. Imagining unrealistic fantasies of success, beauty, power, intelligence, or romance
5. Requiring constant attention and positive reinforcement from others
6. Becoming jealous easily
7. Lacking empathy and disregarding the feelings of others
8. Being obsessed with self
9. Pursuing mainly selfish goals
10. Trouble keeping healthy relationships
11. Becoming easily hurt and rejected
12. Setting goals that are unrealistic
13. Wanting "the best" of everything
14. Appearing unemotional

In my opinion, he has every symptom but 10. I am not sure on symptoms six and twelve. Since he doesn’t want to be seen governing I don’t know what his goals for the country are other than destroying the republican party and wanting the country to be another France.

He didn’t like criticism of his ears. That fits symptom 11 and possibly one.

Since he uses people around him as props for photos and deliberately canceled any white house tours so he could use the sequestration as an excuse that is symptom two.

When he gave his first inauguration speech he was by himself without any family standing in front of columns. He also said his speaking ability was a gift when asked. These behaviors are symptom three.

The main stream press and his accolades never criticism him. We are told he is the smartest and coolest president ever. Also, the press never investigated him during the first election. That’s symptom five.

As for lacking empathy and disregarding the feelings of others, he calls republicans or anyone who disagrees with his progressive\socialistic perspective  “evil” or even racist. Even if he doesn’t do it he doesn’t apologize or condemn those on the Left who do.

When he sang one time at a press conference when someone asked about his singing ability that’s symptom eight.

I could go on but you get the point.

Obama could very well be a Phallic narcissist. According to a wikipedia article this kind of  “individual is elitist, a ‘social climber’, admiration seeking, self-promoting, bragging and empowered by social success.” Yea, he fits most of those traits.

The Left’s Version of The Book of Genesis

c 1:1 In the beginning Gov* created money and power.

1:2 And the power was without form, and void; and liberty was upon the face of the country.  And the Spirit of Gov moved upon the faces of the people of the country.

1:3 And Gov said, Let there be regulations: and there were regulations.

1:4 And Gov saw the regulations, that it was good: and Gov increased regulations which diminished liberty.

1:5 And Gov called the regulations Gov’t Agencies, and liberty he called Dangerous.

1:6 And Gov said, Let the country increase taxes, regulations and more gov’t agencies across the land. Taxes then were created to feed Gov.

1:7 And Gov bailed out banks, car companies, and other businesses deemed too-big-too-fail. The Gov also gave money to solar power companies that failed in the end.

1:8 And Gov blessed the gov’t agencies, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and let regulations multiply in the country.

1:9 And Gov said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over things Gov doesn’t care about.

1:10 So Gov created man in his own image, in the image of Gov created he him; Secular and Progressive created he them.

1:11 And Gov blessed them, and God said unto them, Be resentful, and power-hungry, and propagandize the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the Commoners.

1:12 And Gov said, Behold, I have created public education where you can learn that Gov knows what is best for you and you don’t need your parents, friends or charities to help you. That individuality is not good and group’s have rights but individuals don’t. That guns and businesses are evil.

1:13 And to every Commoner I give to you welfare, social security, and socialized medicine because you are incapable of taking care of yourself.

1:14 And Gov saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And even more gov’t agencies were created.

1:15 Thus the money and power were finished, and all the host of them.

1:16 And on some unknown day Gov ended his work which he had made; and he rested temporarily on a gov’t holiday from all his work which he had made.

 

*Government as in Big Government