And the moral of this story is?

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had failed very few students, but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be
rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "Okay, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade meaning, obviously, no one will receive an A."

They all agreed to this.

After the first test the grades were averaged, everyone got a C. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little.

The second test average was a D!

No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F and the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of
anyone else.

To their great dismay the professor failed them all.

Then he sent all of them this note:

"A socialistic government will also ultimately fail -- because when the reward is great, the effort to
succeed is great, but when government takes all reward away, no one will try to succeed."

Socialism can't be made any clearer than this! And remember, we have many congressmen and a president who hold to socialistic ideals. If they are allowed to succeed, the United States as it once existed,
conceived as a constitutional republic with limited government, will eventually cease to exist.

Michelle Malkin scoops everyone again.

Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real
By Michelle Malkin April 14, 2009 12:01 AM

Yesterday, #Worldnetdaily.com, Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers posted an unclassified DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis report titled:

“Rightwing Extremism:
Current Economic and Political Climate
Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”

The “report” was one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS. I couldn’t believe it was real.

I spent the day chasing down DHS spokespeople, who have been tied up preparing for a very important homeland security event later today: The First Lady is coming to visit their Washington office. Priorities, you know.
Well, the press office got back to me and verified that the document is indeed for real.

They were very defensive — preemptively so — in asserting that it was not a politicized document and that DHS had done reports on “leftwing extremism” in the past. I have covered DHS for many years and am quite familiar with past assessments they and the FBI have done on animal rights terrorists and environmental terrorists. But those past reports have always been very specific in identifying the exact groups, causes, and targets of domestic terrorism, i.e., the ALF, ELF, and Stop Huntingdon wackos who have engaged in physical harassment, arson, vandalism, and worse against pharmaceutical companies, farms, labs, and university researchers.

By contrast, the piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives. And the intent is clear. As the two spokespeople I talked with on the phone today made clear: They both pinpointed the recent “economic downturn” and the “general state of the economy” for stoking “rightwing extremism.” One of the spokespeople said he was told that the report has been in the works for a year. My b.s. detector went off the chart, and yours will, too, if you read through the entire report — which asserts with no evidence that an unquantified “resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalizations activity” is due to home foreclosures, job losses, and…the historical presidential election.

In Obama land, there are no coincidences. It is no coincidence that this report echoes Tea Party-bashing left-wing blogs and demonizes the very Americans who will be protesting in the thousands on Wednesday for the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party.

From the report, p.2:
Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

From the report. p. 3:

(U//LES) Rightwing extremists are harnessing this historical election as a recruitment tool. Many rightwing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use. Rightwing extremists are increasingly galvanized by these concerns and leverage them as drivers for recruitment. From the 2008 election timeframe to the present, rightwing extremists have capitalized on related racial and political prejudices in expanded propaganda campaigns, thereby reaching out to a wider audience of potential sympathizers.

(U) Exploiting Economic Downturn

(U//FOUO) Rightwing extremist chatter on the Internet continues to focus on the economy, the perceived loss of U.S. jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors, and home foreclosures. Anti-Semitic extremists attribute these losses to a deliberate conspiracy conducted by a cabal of Jewish “financial elites.” These “accusatory” tactics are employed to draw new recruits into rightwing extremist groups and further radicalize those already subscribing to extremist beliefs. DHS/I&A assesses this trend is likely to accelerate if the economy is perceived to worsen.

From the report, p. 5:

(U//FOUO) Over the past five years, various rightwing extremists, including militias and white supremacists, have adopted the immigration issue as a call to action, rallying point, and recruiting tool. Debates over appropriate immigration levels and enforcement policy generally fall within the realm of protected political speech under the First Amendment, but in some cases, anti-immigration or strident pro-enforcement fervor has been directed against specific groups and has the potential to turn violent.

And echoing the anti-military bigotry last seen in that disgusting Penn State University training video, there’s this on p. 7:

(U) Disgruntled Military Veterans

(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists—including lone wolves or small terrorist cells—to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.

There’s no hackneyed left-wing stereotype of conservatives left behind in this DHS intelligence and analysis assessment. I asked both DHS spokespeople to tell me who, specifically, the report was accusing of “rightwing extremist chatter” and which “antigovernment” groups are being monitored as “extremists.” They say they’ll get back to me.

In the meantime, be aware of this from the report, p. 8:

(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A will be working with its state and local partners over the next several months to ascertain with greater regional specificity the rise in rightwing extremist activity in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the political, economic, and social factors that drive rightwing extremist radicalization.

Better make a few last-minute signs for the Tea Party. Obama’s DHS is watching:

Honk if you’re a radicalized rightwing extremist!
Guilty of rightwing extremist chatter
Anti-government, pro-freedom: Sue me

From Kyle Smith of the New York Post

A reading from the Book of Barack
3:22:09

And the Word was heard from above.

America, my flock, my followers, my enthusiasts and aficionados.

This is thine president, thine one true president.

Hark and behold my words, for let it be said that I am very good at this job.

The times we live in are times of storm, and strife. Of hurt, and pain. It is a time when even I must humble and prostrate myself, to consult an authority of wisdom and insight.

I speak of the Book of Roget.
The Day of the Synonym has come to pass.

It is vital that I double my words, so that I might speak in double talk.

Thou shouldst heed my speech, but not too closely. Attend to the measured cadences and prose poetry, not the trifles of substance. For substance is the curse of lesser mortals.

The hour is upon us for the AIG bonuses to be denounced. When the knowledge was loosed upon the land that the false prophets of finance had enriched themselves with the false profits of bailout money, I was and I'd like to thank President Obama for welcoming me here from Dublin.

Excuse me, the Teleprompter just broke.

One minute, please.

Thank you for your patience.

Okay, it's back on.

(Getting back into character.)

Ahem.

(And the Voice did grow most wondrously sonorous and urgent.)

I was angered, and disturbed.

I was surprised, and shocked.

The masters and lords of AIG have become like unto pharaohs, and the people who toil in the valleys of the taxpayer are like unto the Israelites who are building for these pharaohs Jacuzzis and Gulfstreams.

Now it is who point the righteous finger of blame. It is I who call out, "J'accuzzi!"

I castigate AIG for this decision, which I signed off on.

Mine Apostle Geithner did approve the bonuses, but with great reluctance in his heart. Now there is great reluctance, across this fair land, to believe I know what I'm doing.

So I ask my faithful flock of Democrats in Congress to join hands with me in toiling to eradicate this scourge and pestilence from the land, as soon as they have cashed their campaign checks from AIG.

I wouldst ask thou to smite from thine memory the $100,000 in AIG checks I cashed long ago.

For today I am enraged and outraged at the bonus payments, which were for favors exchanged and prearranged.

I say onto my disciple Christopher Dodd that he has strayed and betrayed. For it was he who welcomed the moneychangers into the temple of government. Yea, he did rend and blaspheme the passage in the Book of Stimulus that did decree no big bucks for bailout Beelzebubs.

I shall pursue every possible legal angle to stamp the wrath of nullification on these contracts, which were legal and binding.

I vow to stop payment on these checks, which have already been cashed and deposited.

Sordid sinners shall not prosper.

I will change the AIG wine back into water.

I will change the golden calf back into lowly peasant beef, of the Arby's grade. I will summon the power of IRS transubstantiation, call forth the redemptive force of 100 percent taxation of the bonuses. Though mine own disciple Charlie Rangel questions how the thing canst legally be done.

The shadows grow long. I have time for only a few more words to deliver forth onto the land, because in these days of tribulation and despair I am a busy President who must journey to the land of ESPN to fill out my tournament bracket. Then shall I till the comedy fields in the land of Leno.

I speak unto American business, to the corporations that were laid low, who came wandering desperately across the desert of bankruptcy, like unto Joseph and Mary coming into Bethlehem asking only for a suite at the Four Seasons.

I say onto them and the bounties that bless them after a day's toil: Be fruitful, and multiply, but this is ridonkulous.

John Galt's Speech

For twelve years you've been asking "Who is John Galt?"

This is John Galt speaking.

I'm the man who's taken away your victims and thus destroyed your world.

You've heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis and that Man's sins are destroying the world. But your chief virtue has been sacrifice, and you've demanded more sacrifices at every disaster. You've sacrificed justice to mercy and happiness to duty.

So why should you be afraid of the world around you?

Your world is only the product of your sacrifices. While you were dragging the men who made your happiness possible to your sacrificial altars, I beat you to it. I reached them first and told them about the game you were playing and where it would take them. I explained the consequences of your 'brother-love' morality, which they had been too innocently generous to understand. You won't find them now, when you need them more than ever.

We are on strike against your creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties.

If you want to know how I made them quit, I told them exactly what I'm telling you tonight. I taught them the morality of Reason -- that it was right to pursue one's own happiness as one's principal goal in life.

I don't consider the pleasure of others my goal in life, nor do I consider my pleasure the goal of anyone else's life.

I am a trader.

I earn what I get in trade for what I produce.

I ask for nothing more or nothing less than what I earn.

That is justice.

I don't force anyone to trade with me; I only trade for mutual benefit.

Force is the great evil that has no place in a rational world. One may never force another human to act against his/her judgment. If you deny a man's right to Reason, you must also deny your right to your own judgment. Yet you have allowed your world to be run by means of force, by men who claim that fear and joy are equal incentives, but that fear and force are more practical.

You've allowed such men to occupy positions of power in your world by preaching that all men are evil from the moment they're born.

When men believe this, they see nothing wrong in acting in any way they please. The name of this absurdity is 'original sin'. That's impossible.

That which is outside the possibility of choice is also outside the province of morality. To call sin that which is outside man's choice is a mockery of justice.

To say that men are born with a free will but with a tendency toward evil is ridiculous. If the tendency is one of choice, it doesn't come at birth. If it is not a tendency of choice, then man's will is not free.

And then there's your 'brother-love' morality.

Why is it moral to serve others, but not yourself?

If enjoyment is a value, why is it moral when experienced by others, but not by you? Why is it immoral to produce something of value and keep it for yourself, when it is moral for others who haven't earned it to accept it? If it's virtuous to give, isn't it then selfish to take? Your acceptance of the code of selflessness has made you fear the man who has a dollar less than you because it makes you feel that that dollar is rightfully his. You hate the man with a dollar more than you because the dollar he's keeping is rightfully yours.

Your code has made it impossible to know when to give and when to grab.

You know that you can't give away everything and starve yourself. You've forced yourselves to live with undeserved, irrational guilt. Is it ever proper to help another man?

No, if he demands it as his right or as a duty that you owe him.

Yes, if it's your own free choice based on your judgment of the value of that person and his struggle.

This country wasn't built by men who sought handouts. In its brilliant youth, this country showed the rest of the world what greatness was possible to Man and what happiness is possible on Earth.

Then it began apologizing for its greatness and began giving away its wealth, feeling guilty for having produced more than it’s neighbors.

Twelve years ago, I saw what was wrong with the world and where the battle for Life had to be fought. I saw that the enemy was an inverted morality and that my acceptance of that morality was its only power. I was the first of the men who refused to give up the pursuit of his own happiness in order to serve others.

To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live your lives for yourselves, you have the chance to make the same choice. Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the other.

Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil.

If you've understood what I've said, stop supporting your destroyers.

Don't accept their philosophy.

Your destroyers hold you by means of your endurance, your generosity, your innocence, and your love. Don't exhaust yourself to help build the kind of world that you see around you now.

In the name of the best within you, don't sacrifice the world to those who will take away your happiness for it.

The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath:
I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.

Text courtesy of Daryl J. Sroufe

Sir Winston Churchill:

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

I may run for president of Texas by Chuck Norris

On Glenn Beck's radio show last week, I quipped in response to our wayward federal government, "I may run for president of Texas."

That need may be a reality sooner than we think. If not me, someone someday may again be running for president of the Lone Star state, if the state of the union continues to turn into the enemy of the state.

From the East Coast to the "Left Coast," America seems to be moving further and further from its founders' vision and government.

Washington advised, "The great rule of conduct in regard to foreign nations is in extending our #commercial relations [and] having with them as little political connection as possible." Yet the Obama #administration just pledged $900 million in U.S. taxpayer-funded aid to Hamas-controlled Gaza and Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority.

Thomas Jefferson counseled us, "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt." Yet the Feds have just skyrocketed our national deficit and debt by trillions of dollars, and it plans much more fiscal expansion with few expectations of resistance. Despite that George Washington admonished, "To contract new debts is not the way to pay for old ones," we keep borrowing and bailing, while we watch the stock market plunge further every time we do.
Patrick Henry taught that, "Our Constitution is … an instrument for its people to restrain the government." Yet our Congress and president stampede that founding document, overlook its explicitness and manipulate its words to abandon a balance of power and accommodate their own desires, partisan politics and runaway spending.

John Adams declared that, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people." Yet we've bastardized the First Amendment, reinterpreted America's religious history and secularized our society until we ooze skepticism and circumvent religion on every level of public and private life.

How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will #history need to record a second American Revolution? We the people have the authority according to America's Declaration of Independence, which states:
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future #security.

When I appeared on Glenn Beck's radio show, he told me that someone had asked him, "Do you really believe that there is going to be trouble in the future?" And he answered, "If this country starts to spiral out of control and #Mexico melts down or whatever, if it really starts to spiral out of control, before America allows a country to become a totalitarian country (which it would have under I think the Republicans as well in this situation; they were taking us to the same place, just slower), Americans won't stand for it. There will be parts of the country that will rise up." Then Glenn asked me and his listening audience, "And where's that going to come from?" He answered his own question, "Texas, it's going to come from Texas. Do you agree with that Chuck?" I replied, "Oh yeah!" Definitely.
It was these types of thoughts that led me to utter the tongue-n-cheek frustration on Glenn Beck's radio show, "I may run for president of Texas!"

I'm not saying that other states won't muster the gumption to stand and secede, but Texas has the history to prove it. As most know, Texas was its own country before it joined the Union as its 28th state. From 1836 to 1846, Texas was its own Republic. Washington-on-the-Brazos (river) served as our Philadelphia, Pa. It was there, on March 2, 1836, where a band of patriots forged the Texas Declaration of Independence. (We just celebrated these dates last week.)

On March 1, 1845, then-President John Tyler signed a congressional bill annexing the Republic of Texas. Though the annexation resolution never explicitly granted Texas the right to secede from the Union (as is often reported), many (including me) hold that it is implied by its unique autonomy and history, as well as the unusual provision in the resolution that gave Texas the right to divide into as many as five states. Both the original (1836) and the current (1876) Texas Constitutions also declare that "All political power is inherent in the people. … they have at all times the inalienable right to alter their government in such manner as they might think proper."

Anyone who has been around Texas for any length of time knows exactly what we'd do if the going got rough in America. Let there be no doubt about that. As Sam #Houston once said, "Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may."

Just last Friday, the Alamo celebrated its 173rd commemoration, when on March 6, 1836, Texans under Col. William B. Travis were overcome by the Mexican army after a two-week siege at the Alamo in San Antonio. But they didn't go down without a hell-of-a-fight, as those roughly 145 Texans fought to their dying breaths against more than 2,000 Mexican forces under Gen. Santa Anna. (Casualties in the battle were 189 Texans vs. about 1,600 Mexicans.) They lost that battle, but would provide the inspiration to win the war. Their fighting spirit rallied the new-found republic, and still does to this day. So when you think all is lost in America, remember the Alamo!

For those losing hope, and others wanting to rekindle the patriotic fires of early America, I encourage you to join Fox News' Glenn Beck, me and millions of people across the country in the live telecast, "We Surround Them," on Friday afternoon (March 13 at 5 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. CT and 2 p.m. PST). Thousands of cell groups will be united around the country in solidarity over the concerns for our nation. You can host or attend a viewing party by going to Glenn's website. My wife Gena and I will be hosting one from our Texas ranch, in which we've invited many family members, friends and #law enforcement to join us. It's our way of saying "We're #united, we're tired of the corruption, and we're not going to take it anymore!"

Again, Sam Houston put it well when he gave the marching orders, "We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid: None is at hand. We must now act or abandon all hope! Rally to the standard, and be no longer the scoff of mercenary tongues! Be men, be free men, that your children may bless their father's name."

(Note: Speaking of showdowns, Chuck is also inviting anyone near the Houston area this weekend to see a good example of the raw Texas fighting spirit by joining him and others for the national martial arts event, "Showdown in H-Town.")

‘Manchurian Candidate’ Starts War on Business: Kevin Hassett

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Back in the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson gave us the War on Poverty. In the 1970s, Richard Nixon launched the War on Drugs. Now that we have seen President Barack Obama’s first-year legislative agenda, we know what kind of a war he intends to wage.

It is no wonder that markets are imploding around us. Obama is giving us the War on Business.

Imagine that some hypothetical enemy state spent years preparing a “Manchurian Candidate” to destroy the U.S. economy once elected. What policies might that leader pursue?

He might discourage private capital from entering the financial sector by instructing his Treasury secretary to repeatedly promise a brilliant rescue plan, but never actually have one. Private firms, spooked by the thought of what government might do, would shy away from transactions altogether. If the secretary were smooth and played rope-a-dope long enough, the whole financial sector would be gone before voters could demand action.

Another diabolical idea would be to significantly increase taxes on whatever firms are still standing. That would require subterfuge, since increasing tax rates would be too obvious. Our Manchurian Candidate would have plenty of sophisticated ideas on changing the rules to get more revenue without increasing rates, such as auctioning off “permits.”

These steps would create near-term distress. If our Manchurian Candidate leader really wanted to knock the country down for good, he would have to provide insurance against any long-run recovery.

There are two steps to accomplish that.

Discourage Innovation

First, one way the economy might finally take off is for some entrepreneur to invent an amazing new product that launches something on the scale of the dot-com boom. If you want to destroy an economy, you have to persuade those innovators not even to try.

Second, you need to initiate entitlement programs that are difficult to change once enacted. These programs should transfer assets away from productive areas of the economy as efficiently as possible. Ideally, the government will have no choice but to increase taxes sharply in the future to pay for new entitlements.

A leader who pulled off all that might be able to finish off the country.

Let’s see how Obama’s plan compares with our nightmare scenario.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has been so slow to act that even liberal economist and commentator Paul Krugman is criticizing the administration for “dithering.” It has gotten so bad that the Intrade prediction market now has a future on whether Geithner is gone by year’s end. It currently puts the chance of that at about 20 percent.

No More Deferral

On the tax hike, Obama’s proposed 2010 budget quite ominously signaled that he intends to end or significantly amend the U.S. practice of allowing U.S. multinationals to defer U.S. taxes on income that they earn abroad.

Currently, the U.S. has the second-highest corporate tax on Earth. U.S. firms can compete in Europe by opening a subsidiary in a low-tax country and locating the profits there. Since the high U.S. tax applies only when the money is mailed home, and firms can let the money sit abroad for as long as they want, the big disadvantage of the high rate is muted significantly.

End that deferral opportunity and U.S. firms will no longer be able to compete, given their huge tax disadvantage. With foreign tax rates so low now, it is even possible that the end of deferral could lead to the extinction of the U.S. corporation.

If any firms are to remain, they will be festooned with massive carbon-permit expenses because of Obama’s new cap-and- trade program.

Importing Drugs

Obama’s attack on intellectual property is evident in his aggressive stance against U.S. pharmaceutical companies in the budget. He would force drug companies to pay higher “rebate” fees to Medicaid, and he included wording that suggests Americans will soon be able to import drugs from foreign countries. The stock prices of drug companies, predictably, tanked when his budget plan was released.
Obama will allow cheap and potentially counterfeit substitutes into the country and will set the U.S. price for drugs equal to the lowest price that any foreign government is able to coerce from our drug makers.

Given this, why would anyone invest money in a risky new cancer trial, or bother inventing some other new thing that the government could expropriate as soon as it decides to?

Finally, Obama has set aside $634 billion to establish a health-reform reserve fund, a major first step in creating a universal health-care system. If you want to have health care for everyone, you have to give it to many people for free. Once we start doing that, we will never stop, at least until the government runs out of money.

It’s clear that President Obama wants the best for our country. That makes it all the more puzzling that he would legislate like a Manchurian Candidate.

(Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, is a Bloomberg News columnist. He was an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona in the 2008 presidential election. The opinions expressed are his own.)

WHY WOMEN SHOULDN'T TAKE MEN SHOPPING - a gift from Joolz

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target. Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women - she loves to browse.

Yesterday, my dear wife received the following letter from the local Target.

Dear Mrs. Samsel,

Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against your husband, Mr. Samsel, are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras.

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people's carts when they weren't looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in house wares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: He made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women's restroom.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, “Code 3 in house wares.” Get on it right away! This caused the employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance, causing management to lose time and costing the company money.

5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.

6. August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the children shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department, to which twenty children obliged.

8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and screamed, “Why can't you people just leave me alone?“ EMT’s were called.

9. September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose.

10. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he asked the clerk where the antidepressants were

11. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the “Mission Impossible” theme.

12. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his “Madonna look” by using different sizes of funnels.

13. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack, and when people browsed through, yelled, “PICK ME! PICK ME!”

14. October 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed a fetal position and screamed “OH NO! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!”

And last, but not least:

15. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited a while, then yelled very loudly, “Hey!! There’s no toilet paper in here!” One of the clerks passed out.

LETTER FROM A LAW STUDENT

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters,

We've stuck together since the late 1950s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know that 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 just will not ever agree on what's right. So let's just end it right now while we can do it on friendly terms. We can smile, shake hands, chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and each go our own way.

So here's a model separation agreement.

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by land mass, each taking a portion. That's going to be the difficult part, but I'm 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 taste. We don't like redistributive taxes so you can have those. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. And since you hate guns and you hate war, we'll take the firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. But you are going to be responsible for finding a biodiesel vehicle big enough to haul them around.

We'll keep the capitalism, the greedy corporations, the pharmaceutical companies; we will keep Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have the homeless, the homeboys, the hippies and illegal aliens. We will keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, the greedy CEOS and all of the rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and we'll let you have NBC and Hollywood.

You can be nice to Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer anybody that threatens us. You can have the peaceniks and the war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we will provide them with security. You won't have to worry about it. We will keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley Maclaine. You can also have the UN, but we will no longer pay the bill.

We will keep the SUVs, the pickup trucks and the oversize luxury cars. You can have the compacts, the subcompacts and every Subaru station wagon you can find. You can give everybody healthcare, if you can find any practicing doctors. We will continue to believe that healthcare is a privilege and not a right. We will keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the national anthem, and I am sure you will be happy to substitute in their place "Imagine" or “I'd like to teach the world to sing” or "Kumbaya" or "We are the world." We will practice trickle-down economics and you can give trickle-up poverty your best shot. And since it so offends you, we will keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots. And if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the friendly spirit of parting, I'll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in about 15 years.

Sincerely,

John J Wall
Law student and an American
P.S. You can also have Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda

The Narcissistic Vampire Checklist

THE SMARTEST, MOST TALENTED, ALL-AROUND BEST PERSON IN THE WORLD TEST

By Albert J. Bernstein, Ph.D.

True or false?
Score one point for each true answer.

1. This person has achieved more than most people his age. - Obama

2. This person is firmly convinced that he is better, smarter or more talented than other people. - Obama

3. This person loves competition, but is a poor loser. - Obama

4. This person has fantasies of doing something great or of being famous and often expects to be treated as if these fantasies had already come true. - Obama

5. This person has very little interest in what other people are thinking or feeling unless he wants something from them. - Obama

6. This person is a name dropper. - Obama

7. To this person it is very important to live in the right place and associate with the right people. - Obama

8. This person takes advantage of other people to achieve his own goals. - Obama

9. This person usually manages to be in a category by himself. - Obama

10. This person often feels put upon when asked to take care of his responsibilities to family, friends or work-group. - Obama

11. This person regularly disregards rules or expects them to be changed because he is special. - Obama

12. This person becomes irritated when other people don’t automatically do what he wants them to do, even when they have a good reason for not complying. - Obama

13. This person reviews sports, art and literature by telling you what he would have done instead. - Obama

14. This person thinks most criticisms of him are motivated by jealousy. - Obama

15. This person regards anything short of worship to be rejection. - Obama

16. This person suffers from a congenital inability to recognize his own mistakes. On the rare occasions that he does recognize a mistake, even the slightest error can precipitate a major depression. - Obama

17. This person often explains why people who are better known than he are not really all that great. - Obama

18. This person often complains of being mistreated or misunderstood. - Obama

19. People either love or hate him. - Obama

20. Despite his overly high opinion of himself, he is really quite intelligent and talented. - Obama

Scoring:

Five or more true answers qualify the person as a Narcissistic Emotional Vampire, though not necessarily for a diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality. If the person scores higher than ten, and is not a member of the royal family, be careful that you aren't mistaken for one of the servants.

A Profile of the President - by G. Kowalski

Dr. Sam Vaknin is an Israeli psychologist who has written extensively about narcissism and has an interesting view of our new president. Vaknin states, "I must confess I was impressed by Sen. Barack Obama from the first time I saw him. At first I was excited to see a black candidate. He looked youthful, spoke well, appeared to be confident - a wholesome presidential package. I was put off soon, not just because of his shallowness but also because there was an air of haughtiness in his demeanor that was unsettling. His posture and his body language were louder than his empty words. Obama's speeches are unlike any political speech we have heard in American history. Never a politician in this land had such quasi "religious" impact on so many people. The fact that Obama is a total incognito with zero accomplishment, makes this inexplicable infatuation alarming. Obama is not an ordinary man. He is not a genius. In fact he is quite ignorant on most important subjects."

Vaknin, a world authority on narcissism and the author of “Malignant Self Love” believes Barack Obama to be a narcissist. He understands narcissism and describes the inner mind of a narcissist like no other person; when he talks about narcissism everyone listens. And he says that Obama's language, posture and demeanor and the testimonies of his closest, dearest and nearest suggest that the Senator is either a narcissist or he may have Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).

Narcissists project a grandiose but false image of themselves. Jim Jones, the charismatic leader of People's Temple, the man who led over 900 of his followers to cheerfully commit mass suicide and even murder their own children was also a narcissist. David Koresh, Charles Manson, Joseph Koni, Shoko Asahara, Josef Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Mao Tse-tung, Kim Jong Ill and Adolph Hitler are all examples of narcissists of our time. All these men had tremendous influence over their fanciers. They created a personality cult around themselves and with blazing speeches elevated their admirers and filled their hearts with enthusiasm and instilled in their minds a new zest for life. They gave them hope! They promised them the moon but, invariably, they brought them to their doom. When you are a victim of a cult of personality you don't know it until it is too late.

One determining factor in the development of NPD is childhood abuse. "Obama's early life was decidedly chaotic and replete with traumatic and mentally bruising dislocations," says Vaknin. "Mixed-race marriages were even less common then. His parents went through a divorce when he was an infant (two years old). Obama saw his father only once again before he died in a car accident. Then his mother re-married and Obama had to relocate to Indonesia, a foreign land with a radically foreign culture, to be raised by a step-father. At the age of ten, he was whisked off to live with his maternal (white) grandparents. He saw his mother only intermittently in the following few years and then she vanished from his life in 1979. She died of cancer in 1995".

One must never underestimate the manipulative genius of pathological narcissists. They project such an imposing personality that it overwhelms those around them. Charmed by the charisma of the narcissist, people become like clay in his hands. They cheerfully do his bidding and delight to be at his service. The narcissist shapes the world around himself and reduces others in his own inverted image. He creates a cult of personality and his admirers become his co-dependents. Narcissists have no interest in things that do not help them to reach their personal objective: they are focused on one thing alone and that is power. All other issues are meaningless to them and they do not want to waste their precious time on trivialities. Anything that does not help them is beneath them and does not deserve their attention.

If an issue raised in the Senate does not help Obama in one way or another, he has no interest in it. The "present" vote is a safe vote; no one can criticize him if things go wrong. Those issues are unworthy by their very nature because they are not about him. Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review led to a contract and an advance to write a book about race relations. The University of Chicago Law School provided him a lot larger than expected forum and guess what the book evolved into? His own autobiography! Instead of writing a scholarly paper focusing on race relations, for which he had been paid, Obama could not resist writing about his most sublime self. He entitled the book “Dreams from My Father. “Not surprisingly, Adolph Hitler also wrote his own autobiography when he was still nobody. So did Stalin. For a narcissist no subject is as important as his own self. Why would he waste his precious time and genius writing about insignificant things when he can write about an august being such as himself?

Narcissists are often callous and even ruthless. And, as a norm, they lack conscience. This is evident in Obama's lack of interest in his own brother who lives on only one dollar per month. A man who lives in luxury, who takes a private jet to vacation in Hawaii, and who has raised nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars for his campaign, a thing unprecedented in history, has no interest in the plight of his own brother. Why? Because his brother cannot be used for his ascent to power. A narcissist cares for no one but himself.

This election is like no other in the history of America. The issues are insignificant compared to what is at stake. What can be more dangerous than having a man bereft of conscience, a serial liar, and one who cannot distinguish his fantasies from reality as the leader of the free world? I hate to sound alarmist, but one is a fool if one is not alarmed.

Many politicians are narcissists. They pose no threat to others. They are simply self-serving and selfish. However, Obama evidences symptoms of pathological narcissism, which is different from the run-of-the-mill narcissism of Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, for example. To Obama reality and fantasy are intertwined. This is a mental health issue, not just a character flaw. Pathological narcissists are dangerous because they look normal and even intelligent. It is this disguise that makes them treacherous.

Today the Democrats have placed all their hopes in Obama. But this man could put an end to their party. The great majority of blacks have also decided to vote for Obama. Only a fool does not know that their support for him is racially driven. This is racism, pure and simple. The downside of this is that if Obama turns out to be the disaster I predict, he will cause widespread resentment among white people.

Black Americans are unlikely to give up their support of their man. Cultic mentality is pernicious and unrelenting. They will dig their heads deeper in the sand and accuse Obama's detractors of racism. This will cause a backlash among the whites and the white supremacists will take advantage of the discontent and they will receive widespread support. I predict that in less than four years, racial tensions will increase to levels never seen since the turbulent 1960's. Obama will set the clock back decades.

America is the bastion of freedom. The peace of the world depends on the strength of America, and a weakened America translates into the triumph of terrorism and the victory of rogue nations. It is no wonder that Ahmadinejad, Chavez, the brothers Castro, the Hezbollah, Hamas, the lawyers for the Guantanamo terrorists and virtually all sworn enemies of America are so thrilled by the prospect of their man in the White House.

America is on the verge of destruction and there is no insanity greater than electing a pathological narcissist as president.

The conversation continues...

Dina:

"private sector beginning to spend again on big-ticket items like cars and washing machines." Is what I meant- not the government. That is spending our way out of a recession. And please don't paint me with the same brush as the bankers and politicians. I am democratic in that I believe in free choice and good schools. I think that dubya was blinded by an agenda that cost the American public billions of dollars which also contributed to the mess we are in. He and his friends have come away from this war many many times richer than the ceos of the mortgage companies. realistically, I am as "agnostic" about politics as I am about religion.

love you anyway. It will get better.

______________________________________________

I replied:

My dear friend,

I would never try to paint you with the same brush as anyone. You have always been an individualist and a power-house intellect. (And hot, but that’s not germane.) What I am trying to do is goad my democrat friends into justifying for me their faith in the extreme leftist agenda PrezBO and Pelosi are moving our country towards. I’m desperately seeking comfort in what my world-view tells me is a terrifying shift away from the foundational concepts of our society. I want a democrat to explain to me in detail why the choices being made in D.C. are correct for the current situation. So far, none have been able to do much more than express a generalized hope and faith in Obama. It feels like having a great-aunt pat my hand and tell me, “Don’t worry, little one. I t will all be fine.” It feels dismissive at best.

Any one of my conservative friends will tell you, truthfully, that they too believe in free choice and good schools. They will also tell you that the democrat party obviously does not, and they can throw a lot of numbers at you to prove their opinion. That is one of the underlying problems in our society now: each party sees the other as being full of sanctimonious hypocrites. The truth has become clouded by slogans and polemics; no one is having a rationalist discussion anymore. It’s as if we are living in a new post-enlightenment era.

How can we arrive at eternal verities if we don’t discuss the issues honestly?

Assign the blame to the people who actually deserve it.
Figure out where they went wrong.
Discover the lesson inherent in their failure and then learn from that lesson.

Don’t spend time (read that as someone’s life) and wealth (read that as the time someone spent actually working) in repeating the same mistakes.

But you have to know what the mistakes were first.

The underlying truth is what I seek, and I ain’t gettin’ much help from my friends at either end of the political spectrum.

There are several things I know for certain that the Republicans are wrong about and they mostly concern trying to legislate morality, which is an abominable attitude for someone who purports to stand for freedom.

Personally, I don’t give a damn who’s ‘what’ you choose to kiss as long as they don’t mind. I believe you should control ‘you.’ You should be the final arbiter of your fate. Your life is the only thing you truly own and every second of it should be spent exactly as you choose, so long as you do not interfere with someone else right to do the same. That’s why I identify myself as a libertarian, and I’m willing to bet quite a lot that you actually are as well, albeit a liberal one.

This quiz takes less than a minute to complete and score. Let me know where you are. I land at the exact top of the diamond.

[Click title above for link]

As concerns Dubya, he was wrong on many things, mostly because he bent over backwards to accommodate the democrat’s. I am not a huge fan of his domestic policies. As far as his war agenda goes I believe you to be misinformed. These wars didn’t start in 2002, they are a continuation of those that began in 643 when the Arab’s started spreading Islam into the remains of the Christian Roman Empire at sword-point. This is just the latest phase, and we didn’t start them.

I encourage you to read the Koran. It is enlightening as to the world view of these people. They are your enemy, Dina. They are ordered by their God to either convert you to their faith or enslave you in dhimitude or to kill you. That’s a helluva difference from Christ’s admonition to spread the ‘Word’. Your agnostism would not be an option, and by Sharia law you, as a woman, would have to belong to a man. I can’t see you ever acquiescing to being the property of anyone; the very thought would be abhorrent to you, and to me as well.

Afghanistan has been a nest of vipers since Alexander rode through on his way to India. It was, in fact, a state sponsor of terrorist acts against the United States. Even your own party leaders think that this is a just war, so let’s pass that and go to Iraq.

Iraq had weapons of mass destruction! We have proof in that Saddam used them against his own people. We have proof via receipts for the terror weapons we gave him during his time as an ally against the Soviets in Afghanistan. We have proof in the 1500 nerve-gas shells we found during the course of the war. We have proof of his intent to create nuclear weapons in the 500 tons of yellow-cake uranium the Iraqi government sold to the Canadian government last year. But the argument that ‘Bush lied’ is demonstrably specious. You can look-up the clip on YouTube and see that, standing before Congress, he quoted British MI-5 intelligence on Saddam’s attempts to purchase yellow-cake. He didn’t make up evidence and befuddle the Democrat-controlled Congress into declaring war. He presented the evidence as it was known at that time and asked the Congress to vote. Even the members of your own party, including the former First Lady, agreed that these fact justified regime change in Iraq. They voted for the war in Iraq and they were correct in doing so. Read Joseph Wilson’s book, “The Politics Of Truth.” (Valerie Plame’s husband) I have it here somewhere and in it he admits that Saddam’s nuclear scientist were in fact, in Niger buying uranium, a direct contradiction to his public statements in the media!

I must sadly disagree with you. I think that the Iraq war was, for the most part, brilliantly fought. Twenty-five million people were freed of a tyrant and can now build a better life. Parts of Baghdad, the world’s oldest city, now have electricity and running water for the first time. Business and employment are going thru the roof, and the rest of Iraq is much the same. They are going to be a great trading partner in the future and as far as the ‘War for oil’ rant goes, please note that the Iraqis have signed deals with the Chinese government to purchase the bulk of their crude, not us. The Iraq War was fought for the right reasons and it succeeded brilliantly. Sadly, it cost us 4,253 soldiers, but that is an amazingly low number given the outcome.

And now we have a classic pincer relative to the main bad guy in the Middle East: Iran. We have standing armies to the west and north and we are allied with both India and Pakistan to the east. They can only move south into the sea, and the Seventh Fleet is sitting there watching them.

Even the Arab’s can’t stand the damned Persians! They have been the main destabilizing factor in the Middle East since Napoleon. They believe it is their destiny to rule all their neighbors and control the oil that has become the west’s life-blood. They honestly believe that they must destroy us to bring about the coming of the messiah. According to their tradition he will born into a conflagration that destroys the ‘Great Satan’ and how many times have you heard the Persian leaders call us that?

There is crazy and then there is scary-crazy.

Right now we have them in check, but the checkmate will come when the current crop of Mullah’s drop dead and are torn to shreds by mourners looking for souvenirs at the funeral, just like Ayatollah Khomeini. The demographics show that the youth of Iran are rejecting the ways of the Mullahs and want western-style freedoms and we know that Muslims can blend their faith and the more liberal western standards successfully. The U.A.E. has done it brilliantly!

My, I do go on…

One thing more, about your last sentence, “It will get better.”

I stay well informed. I listen to talk-radio and NPR and I research areas where the two voices contradict each other. I want to know the truth and neither voice does a very good job of delivering it. I do see patterns and trends in my research and if the trend continues and no radical adjustments are made to the policies of Comrade President Obama, I can not see how can get better. He is obligating us to debt that can not be repaid. There will not be enough people in this country to produce that amount of wealth for hundreds of years and these treasury bonds that our investors are buying have a due-date that falls decidedly short of ‘hundreds of years.’

The numbers just do not work.

This will lead to the bankruptcy of the United States (the company) which in turn will bankrupt the entire world (the investors). Our currency will collapse and it is the basis for world trade. If the basis of trade is destroyed we are returned to a barter economy and how do we feed six billion people in a barter economy?

Please, if you don’t want to argue the democrat position, let me know to whom I can address my questions. I can feel my innate optimism being drained from me and I dislike that in the extreme. I need answers and no one is providing them. Surely in your years in academia you have come across someone who shares your views and likes to provide a defense for them. I really need to find them.

Hugs and kisses!

Demosthenes

Can liberals actually defend their position when challenged?

Here is a little exchange fostered by my post of Friday, 27 February 2009.

Dina:

never forget your best girl is a democrat.....
where's our house drawing?


I countered:

For which I have repeatedly forgiven her since Reagan was president.

This does, however, beg the question. How can anyone believe this ‘Indian rope trick’ PrezBO is trying with the economy and social order will work? The sheer intellectual dishonesty coming from the White House is mind numbing. The man sat on O’Reilly’s set and verified that he knew how you make the economy expand: you cut taxes on the people that have the money to invest. It was the first thing Kennedy did, for Christ’s sake! (And it worked!) All of Obama’s policies are a repeat of the disastrous Roosevelt administration. And FDR’s own treasury secretary said, “We tried spending our way out of the depression and it did not work.”

Would you care to comment my dear Dina? You are the only bleeding heart I know that will stand her ground and defend it. Bring it on girl!

D

Ps. For the last 16 months I’ve been scrambling to keep my house. I’m afraid gratis work will have to wait for a real conservative administration to fix the screw-ups of the last 16 years. I’ll be glad to do it, I just haven’t the time now. - See ya!


Her response:

Oh honey I am sorry about the house. If you are facing foreclosure and you mortgage has been sold since you signed the papers, tell the foreclosing body to “produce the note”. It will buy you time.
Obama has been in office a month. The fubar of the economy was not his fault. Give it a chance. And we do spend our way out of a recession. Save out of a depression.


Well, I couldn't resist:

Dearest Dina,

Not to worry! We are not in foreclosure, but we had to restructure just about everything when my income fell to half of what it was. I thought the GASP at Six Flags could take my breath! It was, and remains, scary!

Just a few thoughts on what has happened the industry I’ve been in for 25 years. And yes, I am venting, why do you ask?

I know PrezBO’s share in this fucked-up economy is small, but he had a hand in creating this fiasco.

Barack Obama, and many other community organizers, noticed that the banks were refusing to lend to people who lived in certain areas (read poor and black) and dubbed the practice ‘Red-lining.’ (You may remember the headlines from the very early 1990’s) They assumed, incorrectly, that they were seeing evidence of racial prejudice and went to Capitol Hill to wail and moan at the injustice of it all. Barney Frank (D) and Chris Dodd (D), the heads of the banking committees in the House and Senate respectively, bullied the banks into making loans that they all knew were to people that had no record of ever successfully paying money back. The banks told them it was stupid to lend money when you had no expectation of repayment, but the legislature literally gave Acorn and other community organizations the power to veto bank expansions and branch-building projects.

In order to continue to grow and stay in business the banks had to agree to make bad loans.

In short order the loans began to fail and the banks went back to Capitol Hill and told the politicians that they were being driven out of business from the levels of bad debt they were being forced to take on. So, the legislature repealed the Glass-Seagal Act and allowed the banks, for the first time since the Depression, to create securities based on mortgages. And to top that off, they ordered Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to buy these securities, thus creating a market. They would bundle three types together: excellent, good and bad. This way they created a package that had some risk, but on the whole seamed a good investment. Many millions were made until the housing market became saturated.

A bank’s sole job is to make money for its investors, and here was a market for worthless paper that they were being forced to write. And write they did. And for twelve years all was well within the construction industry with two exceptions:

1. Too many houses were built too quickly to serve the newly created customer base among the lower classes. Waitresses were buying $750k McMansions using stated income mortgages. In short, they lied. They committed fraud. And the mortgage brokers helped them to do it. And the banking committees had changed the rules to allow them to do it with impunity.

2. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were literally drowning in bad debt while they were telling Congress what Congress wanted to hear. Trillions of dollars in bad debt was covered up by a simpering bunch of lickspittles that you have the honor to call members of your party. Barney and Chris were the leaders, but Maxine Waters had a hand in it too. Barney was covering the ass (literally) of his boyfriend, who was the guy that came up with the whole idea for sub-prime mortgages in the first place and was a noted high-roller at Fannie Mae. Obama’s principal financial advisor during his campaign was Franklin Raines who headed Fannie Mae for six years and walked away with $90 megabucks in compensation! And they have the gall to talk about compensation caps. And to me personally, the most disgusting thing about the entire affair is that they have successfully foisted all of this blame onto the backs of the republicans and business.

Like it or not, here is what has happened:
The democrats made the demands.
The democrats then created a false-market to make their demands work.
The democrats refuse to acknowledge their fuck-ups even when McCain (2005) and Bush (2002) were both pointing at the obvious mess they had created.
The democrats got away with it until the market became saturated and home sales collapsed.
The democrats jumped on their high-horses, pointed to the republicans, and shouted, “Look at what you did!”

And finally, the democrat’s followers, even smart ones like you, have fallen for their bullshit.

*the ball has now been lobbed back into your court.
____________________________________

I try to be open minded and I like proof of everything. Please cite for me one example of any American government spending its way out of recession. I can’t find a recession or a depression or a panic that wasn’t cured by the private sector beginning to spend again on big-ticket items like cars and washing machines.

Hope you and the mister and the puppy are well!

Luv ya anyway!

Demosthenes

Ps. The ‘Produce the note’ thing only works if the judge allows it. The constructionists on the bench tend to laugh at the dodge. Their logic being, “Well, the bank may or may not own this house, but you certainly don’t! Now, get out!” - d

A comment on the current Presidency

The United Nations Geological Survey maintains an exhaustively detailed database of arable land throughout the world.

According to its latest data, it is not possible to grow enough marijuana for this to make even the slightest bit of sense.

There simply isn’t room.

A metaphor for change...

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House.

One is from Chicago, another from Tennessee, and the third is from Minnesota.

All three go with a White House official to examine the fence.

The Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."

The Chicago contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700."

The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"

The Chicago contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence."

"Done," replies the government official!
___

And that my friends is how the new stimulus plan will work.

Fact-Checking The Speech: Some Claims Aren't Completely True

The Associated Press
Published: February 24, 2009
Updated: 12:24 am

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's assurance Tuesday that his mortgage-relief plan will only benefit deserving homeowners appears to be a stretch.
Even officials in his administration, many supporters of the plan in Congress and the Federal Reserve chairman expect some of that money will go to people who should have known better than to buy that huge house.
The president glossed over a number of complex realities in delivering his speech to Congress and a nation hungry for economic salvation.

A look at some of his assertions:

OBAMA: "We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values."
THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure money does not go to home buyers who used bad judgment, it hasn't announced it.
Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it's important to save some of those people for the greater good. He likened it to calling the fire department to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.
"I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put out the fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action but then, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules about smoking in bed."
Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggested this month it's not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn't afford.
"I think it's just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans," Sheila Bair told National Public Radio.

OBAMA: "We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade."
THE FACTS: Although 10-year projections are common in government, they don't mean much. And at times, they are a way for a president to pass on the most painful steps to his successor, by putting off big tax increases or spending cuts until someone else is in the White House.
Obama only has a real say on spending during the four years of his term. He may not be president after that and he certainly won't be 10 years from now.

OBAMA: "Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day."
THE FACTS: This may be so, but it isn't only Republicans who pushed for deregulation of the financial industries. The Clinton administration championed an easing of banking regulations, including legislation that ended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That led to a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federal regulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidate Obama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation.

OBAMA: "In this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them. We'll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn't make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas."
THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That's all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama's proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress.
Second, waste, fraud and abuse are routinely targeted by presidents who later find that the savings realized seldom amount to significant sums. Programs that a president might consider wasteful have staunch defenders in Congress who have fought off similar efforts in the past.

OBAMA: "In the last eight years, (health insurance) premiums have grown four times faster than wages. And in each of these years, 1 million more Americans have lost their health insurance"
THE FACTS: The number of uninsured grew by 7 million from 2000 to 2007, the latest year for which Census figures are available, meaning Obama's claim would be true if had been talking about averages. But it's not true that the number of uninsured rose each year by 1 million. In 2007, the ranks of the uninsured dropped by 1.3 million from the year before, to 45.7 million.

OBAMA: "Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years."
THE FACTS: While the president's stimulus package includes billions in aids for renewable energy and conservation, his goal is unlikely to be achieved through the recovery plan alone.
In 2007, the U.S. produced 8.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources including hydroelectric dams, solar panels and windmills. Under the status quo, the Energy Department says, it will take more than two decades to boost that figure to 12.5 percent.
If Obama is to achieve his much more ambitious goal, Congress would need to mandate it. That is the thrust of an energy bill that is expected to be introduced in coming weeks.

OBAMA: "Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs."
THE FACTS: This is a recurrent Obama formulation. But job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.
The president's own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, "It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error."
Beyond that, it's unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it's clear when jobs are abolished, there's no economic gauge that tracks job preservation. The estimates are based on economic assumptions of how many jobs would be lost without the stimulus.

OBAMA: "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."
THE FACTS: According to the Library of Congress, the inventor of the first true automobile was probably Germany's Karl Benz, who created the first auto powered by an internal combustion gasoline, in 1885 or 1886. Nobody disputes that Henry Ford created the first assembly line that made cars affordable.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, giving the Republican response to Obama's speech, ran off the tracks with one claim about the stimulus plan.
JINDAL: The plan is "larded with wasteful spending," including "$8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a magnetic levitation line from Las Vegas to Disneyland."
THE FACTS: Jindal was echoing an often-used Republican complaint that is an oversimplification. GOP budget hawks have dubbed the train "the Sin Express," and say it will soak up much of the rail money.
But that's not a done deal. Competition for the mass transit money is just starting, and backers of other projects across the nation — including one through Obama's home state of Illinois — think they have at least an equally good chance.

A letter from the Boss

From: The Boss
To: My Valued Employees
Date: Today
Re: The Future

Good morning everyone!

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company and, more specifically, about your jobs. As you know the economy has changed for the worse and it presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: the economy doesn't pose a threat to your job! What does threaten your job, however, is the changing political landscape in this country. Let me share with you some little tidbits which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

While it is easy to spew rhetoric that pits employers against employees, that is a waste of time. The truth is you and I have to work together to get our product out the door and new orders in. You already know your side of this arrangement but you have to understand that for every business owner there is a ‘Back Story.’ This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you’ve seen my Mercedes parked outside and you've been to my house for Christmas parties and barbecue’s. It’s a big house and the decorator my wife hired was very good. I'm sure that all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life, but what you don't see is the ‘Back Story.’

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for three years. My entire apartment living room was converted into an office so I could put 100% of my effort into building a company which would, by the way, eventually provide you with a job.

My diet consisted of Ramen noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission that two of you will remember. I didn't have time to date. Often times I stayed home on weekends while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact I was married to my business. Hard work, discipline, and sacrifice describe my early years exactly.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made $50K a year and spent every dime they earned and borrowed as much as they could. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom's for the latest hot fashion item I was trolling through the discount and thrift stores extracting any clothing that didn't look like it was birthed in the 70's. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury.

I did not.

I put my time and my money and my life into a business with an understanding that some day I would be able to actually afford those luxuries my friends were running up credit card debt for.

Still today, while some of you arrive at the office at exactly 9:00am and manage to mentally check in at about noon and then rush out the door at 5:00pm sharp, I don't. I’m here to unlock the door in the morning and I’m the guy that turns out the lights after the cleaning crew finishes at 8:00pm. There is no "off" button for me. When you leave the office on Friday you are done and you can have a weekend all to yourself.

I do not have that freedom.

I eat and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest - there is no weekend - there is no happy hour. Every day this business is attached to my hip like a one-year-old special-needs child. You only see the fruits of the garden: the nice house, the Mercedes and the vacations, but you never realize the Back Story and the sacrifices I've made. Yes - business ownership has is benefits but the price I've paid is steep and not without wounds.

Now the economy is falling apart and the guy who made all the right decisions and saved his money (that would be me), is being forced to bail-out all the people who didn't. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I’ve earned and sacrificed three decades of my life for.

Unfortunately for all of you the cost of running this business (and subsequently, of employing you), is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit to me, and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government still thinks I don't pay enough!

I have State taxes. Federal taxes. Property taxes. Sales and use taxes. Payroll taxes. Workers compensation taxes. Unemployment taxes. Taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it now occupies more of my time that the business itself. On Oct 15th of this year I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes.

You know what my "Stimulus" check was?

Zero. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. Zip.

The question I have is who do you think is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people a year with a flourishing business, or the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, the government feels the latter is the economic engine of this country.

The fact is that if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you'd quit! You wouldn't work here and why should you? That would be nuts. Who wants to get rewarded for only 50% of their hard work?

Well, I agree! But that's why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is a fact some of you don't understand - to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what drives the economy. What drives the economy? Its very simple: middle-class Americans buying goods and services from companies that employ other middle-class Americans. That is where the vast majority of wealth is generated and held. All the money owned by the very rich wouldn’t come close to the amount owned by the middle class.

Had our government suddenly told me that I didn't need to pay taxes, guess what I would have done? Instead of forking over that $288,000 to the black-hole that is Washington, I would have spent it! I would have hired more employees who could have served even more customers and that would have generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have shared in that tax cut in the form of promotions and higher salaries! But you can forget that now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death you don't defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? You defibrillate his heart! Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it not kill it. Apparently the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you do not want.

So where am I going with all this?

It's quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me or my company then my reaction will be swift and simple: I will fire all of you. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV and your child's future. Frankly, it won’t be my problem any more. I will close this company down, move to another country and retire. You see I'm done. I'm done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed and with it will go my citizenship. Why in the world should I stay? Is it patriotic to wait for the politicians and their myrmidons to take all the money I‘ve worked 28 years for? That would be insane!

So if you lose your job it won't be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that has swept through this country, steamrolled the Constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach somewhere south of here. I will be retired and having fun and I will have no employees to worry about.

Good luck with that!

Signed,

The Boss

Something from Jim

The purpose of fighting is to win.

There is no possible victory in defense.

The sword is more important than the shield,

and skill is more important than either.

The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

As Robert Heinlein once said:

1. Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.
2. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.
3. I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.
4. When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.
5. A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers. The reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him 'Why do you carry a 45?' The Ranger responded, 'Because they don't make a 46.
6. An armed man will kill an unarmed man with monotonous regularity.
7. The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented on his wearing his sidearm. 'Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are you expecting trouble?' 'No Ma'am. If I were expecting trouble, I would have brought my rifle.
8. Beware the man who only has one gun. HE PROBABLY KNOWS HOW TO USE IT!!!

But wait, there's more!

I was once asked by a lady visiting if I had a gun in the house. I said I did. She said 'Well I certainly hope it isn't loaded!' To which I said, 'Of course it is loaded, can't work without bullets!' She then asked, 'Are you that afraid of someone evil coming into your house?' My reply was, 'No, not at all. I am not afraid of the house catching fire either, but I have fire extinguishers around, and they are all loaded too.' To which I'll add, having a gun in the house that isn't loaded is like having a car in the garage without gas in the tank.

__________________________________________________

I'm a firm believer of the 2nd Amendment!

If you are too, please forward.