Iconoclast? Xenophobe? Or just a traditional American?

DIVORCE AGREEMENT by John J. Wall... THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY WELL PUT AND I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT'S BY A YOUNG PERSON, A STUDENT!!! WHATEVER HE RUNS FOR, I'LL VOTE FOR HIM. American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al: We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way. Here is a model separation agreement: Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes. We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them). We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .. You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security. We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N...but we will no longer be paying the bill. We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find. You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare is an individual's responsibility and not a right. We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World. We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag. Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you Answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years. Sincerely, John J. Wall Law Student and an American P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda with you. P. S. S. And we won't have to press 1 for English.

Slavery, the ULTIMATE human right

If an individual wants to sell himself into slavery, or 'indentured servitude', who are we to prevent it? To devote oneself completely, totally selflessly, accruing the value of one's services and talents and giving that value gained in the sale of one's self to a loved one, what greater sacrifice? What greater love than this? So we paternalistically slap his hands as we see him reach for the flame on the stove... But he's not a child and knows the result yet proceeds because only by reaching through the flames can the flames be stopped and prevented from burning the whole house down. Right to Self, one’s ultimate property right, is the fundamental basis of ALL property rights. And what of the individual who would sell one of his kidneys? Or Corneas? Let's not be too presumptuous about other's motivations when they are literally in a survival mode. In a perfect world, these choices would not have to be made. But until that world happens...

WOOD NEWSRADIO 1300

Rush, Sean, and a few others... http://www.woodradio.com/cc-common/ondemand/player.html?world=st&site_id=1236&stream_id=1165

What exactly IS poverty?

The critical attributes of poverty, of absolute poverty, is the lack of the bare necessities to carry on life (biological functions, and rudimentary psycho-social activity). These are usually defined as food, clothing and shelter. I was struck with the challenge of finding agreed upon criteria, for the preceding and a somewhat objective measuring stick. Then I found that the World Bank utilizes a threshold of less than $1 per person per day. This means about 1.1 billion people live in ‘extreme poverty’, whereas in the US it is around $10 per person per day. Wow…and that number must have changed it's trend DOWNWARD and started to increase due to our Global Economic Downturn. Given that objective measure, then the question is how much food, clothing and shelter is available to the individual at a total cost per day of less than $1? A reasonable assumption would be ‘not much’ if any, no saved resources, no ‘luxuries’. Ask our fearless leader's half-brother found in a shanty outside of Niarobi, Kenya. A life outside, no potable water, sanitation, healthcare is a joke, no self-determination as no resources exist to allow one any real choice…at least Gilligan seemed to have an unlimited supply of red shirts and white hats. Enjoy whatever you have, for if you read this, you are rich.

Now THIS was the flu!

Wow...

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records-list.html

This is the message that the Maroochydore High School Queensland, staff voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering machine. This is the actual answering machine message for the school. This came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children's absences and missing homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children's failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete enough school work to pass their classes. The outgoing message: Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection:

1. To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1
2. To make excuses for why your child did not do his work - Press 2
3. To complain about what we do - Press 3
4. To swear at staff members - Press 4
5. To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5
6. If you want us to raise your child - Press 6
7. If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7
8. To request another teacher, for the third time this year - Press 8
9. To complain about bus transportation - Press 9
10. To complain about school lunches - Press 0
11. If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible for his/her own behaviour, class work, homework and that it's not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!
12. If you want this in another language, move to a country that speaks it.

Thank God for Hopkins! We must be in a time-bubble...our parents care (with few exceptions) and our students are a pretty decent lot!

The 545 People Responsible For All Of U.S. Woes

Ostensibly from Charley Reese, probably with some modifications since he retired in 2008... Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Demicans and the Republicrats are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code. Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy. Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank does.One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 235 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. (I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank. I excluded all but the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislation's responsibility to determine how he votes.) A CONFIDENCE CONSPIRACY Don't you see how the con game that is played on the people by the politicians? Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of Tip O'Neill, who stood up and criticized Ronald Reagan for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating appropriations and taxes. The Speaker of the House is the leader of the majority party. She and her fellow Democrats, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto. REPLACE SCOUNDRELS It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 235 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem, from an unfair tax code to defense overruns, that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in Iraq, it's because they want them in Iraq. There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take it. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exist disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation" or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.Those 545 people and they alone are responsible. They and they alone have the power. They and they alone should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided they have the gumption to manage their own employees.

Isaiah 53:5 (NIV) 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

An absolute must-read to better understand the issues of scarcity, opportunity cost and competition. They're all here in this extra credit offering to the truly inspired student.

Be very, very carefull with what you say...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/07/BARP16TVVN.DTL&type=printable

Or "Power from the People"?

FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE

Often I find my views 'assaulted' by those-who-know-best. The assault typically consists of somewhat equal doses of bad statistics, a sneering visage and the best part, demagoguery. This (I believe) is intended to throw me off of a logical line of defense and a reasonable engagement in 'apologetics' (see C.S. Lewis). In other words, it is all about emotionalism trumping rationalism. Well, not that it gives me great pleasure to do so, I guess fighting fire with fire is necessary from time to time. So....... 'Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.' ~Thomas Jefferson 1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject. 2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone. 3. Colt: The original point and click interface. 4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control. 5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords? 6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words. 7. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms. 8. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any. 9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither. 10. The United States Constitution (c) 1789. All Rights Reserved. 11. What part of 'shall not be infringed' do you not understand? 12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others. 13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.. 14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians. 15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety. 16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive. 17. 911: Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer. 18. Assault is a behavior, not a device. 19. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer. 20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson. 21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them. 22. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for. 23. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more. 24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves. 25. The American Revolution started in part, over gun control. If you have read to this point, you likely are in agreement with most of the above, if not all. The typical gun control demagogue has likely only read a few lines before his 'steam gauge' went into the red. Well... I would ask the reader to apply the concepts of opportunity cost and scarcity to the above. And please, don't do it shallowly, but with deep analysis based on the sanctity of life made in the image of God Himself. P.S. GO SPARTANS!

Michigan State Basketball and Detroit, is it really the impact it's proclaimed to be?

So many (ESPN, Detroit News, THE HUGE SHOW, etc.) have proclaimed the amazingly great economic impact having the Spartans of Michigan State play in the Final Four at Detroit's Ford Field. I must disagree. First, the implication made is that so many fans in the state will flock down to Detroit to watch the game in the venue that will set a record for number of spectators for a NCAA tournament. Fact, the tickets were sold via lottery and such (except for some withheld for the schools, a paltry sum) over a year ago! Some fans may spring for the higher asking prices via Stub Hub and such, but one must realize that this payment made by Spartan fans in Michigan will be dollars leaving the state, not being spent in the state... Secondly, an implication that so many more fans will pack Detroit 'watering holes' to see the game (see fact above on fans getting into the game) will boost sales significantly. Fact, this denies that this occurance is independent with respect to the Spartan faithfull and the location of the game(s). The sports bars will be packed regardless of where the Spartans play, across the street or across the country. Fact, the hotel rooms that may have been reserved by fans of out-of-state teams will be reduced by a quarter or more. Most fans (given the doom-and-gloom prognostications) are denizens of this great state, and are assumed to be in poorer financial situations, hence they cannot afford to splurge on a room in a hotel in Detroit when these same people could just drive an hour or three to Detroit, catch the activity then head back home. So, don't believe everything you hear/read. Like this blog...

Scarcity, does anyone really understand it?!?

OK, we all know that there is only so much stuff (goods & services) to meet everyone's unlimited wants at a price of zero. Only with God (see Matthew 14:19 - 21) does scarcity not apply. Sometimes one wonders if scarcity is another result (besides country music) of the fall of man (Scott Huckaby, Freedom Baptist High School Bible Teacher).

Learning. Does it ever stop?

Just commented today to my wife..."I'm getting older" She agreed. Said it was better than the alternative. But is it...really?