Donald Trump for President!

Donald Trump is the Howard Stern of politics.  He’s a shock jock in a field of politicians who sound like boring newsreaders in comparison.  He opens his mouth and out comes ego, shameless self-promotion, outrageousness, braggadocio, and downright meanness towards his detractors.  But there are other things too which endear him to his audience.   He’s fearless, confident, unapologetic, and says things no one else has the cojones to say.   And he's entertaining.  In other words, he’s exactly like Howard Stern.  His fans are the same too.  Listen to them talk and you'll find yourself expecting them to blurt out “Baba Booey!” any second. 

Donald Trump is a serious candidate for President the same way Howard Stern was a serious candidate when he ran for Governor of New York in 1994.  Stern didn’t win.  Neither will Trump.      

That said, I really want Donald Trump to be the next President.  Allow me to explain.  

President Trump could accomplish from within the government what could never be accomplished from without:  namely the destruction and de-legitimization of the federal leviathan. 

Donald Trump could be the virus that infects and ultimately kills the progressive idea that government can and should micro-manage every aspect of your life.  Sure it sounds appealing when a silver-tongued community organizer gives you a one sided utopian vision to cling to.   But how many want to sign up for that same program when the guy who says “you’re fired!” becomes boss? 

Donald Trump holds people accountable.  That alone would stop totalitarianism in its tracks.  The only way the progressive takeover can continue is if a majority stays convinced they are getting a free ride in exchange for others losing their freedoms.  Trump will give no one a free ride, and everyone will be his subject.  Make Donald Trump President and inside of four years the electorate will be clamoring for limited government once again in America. 

So yes, Donald Trump for President.  And while we’re at it, Robin Quivers for VP.    Oh, and Baba Booey, Baba Booey, Baba Boooeeey!       

Iran Wins!

If you are a law-abiding Christian who supports the second amendment, Barack Obama believes you are a terror threat, a "bitter clinger", and has you living under severe ongoing sanctions.  If you are a Shiite Mullah with long range ballistic missiles, thousands of spinning centrifuges, plans for a nuclear bomb, who chants death to Israel, death to America, and is in the process of gaining regional hegemony, you just had your sanctions lifted.  Take a moment to let that sink in.

Remember when Barack Obama referred to rural gun owners as "bitter clingers", bitter over their economic malaise and clinging to their guns and their religion?  These are the people being sanctioned by Barack Obama in numerous and diabolical ways.  They are being forced to pay for abortions, their groups are discriminated against by the IRS, the DHS targets them as a terror threat, their gun shops are sanctioned by Operation Choke Point, their legal right to purchase ammunition is thwarted by government bulk purchases and bans,  they are being forced to perform services against their beliefs, and they are mocked and ridiculed by Obama and his minions.

Meanwhile Iran, a totalitarian theocracy, the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism, the most egregious rogue nation on the planet, fomenter of regional chaos, persecutor of women, gays, and minorities, a nation which seeks to bring about global Armageddon, which regularly chants death to Israel and death to America, just got a green light to keep all their existing nuclear infrastructure, all their ballistic missiles, and got all their sanctions lifted in exchange for some vague promise to allow limited inspections by some guys in blue helmets sometime in the future.

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

(UPDATE:  Remember when Obama declared, "We are no longer a Christian nation..."?  Meanwhile, David Cameron just declared that Great Britain still is.  Below is a video compilation of the two statements by the two leaders.  Incidentally, the US is about 80% Christian, while Great Britain is about 60%.  [VIDEO - 21 seconds])



(Originally posted April, 2015)

Bush was Right

Remember the "Global War on Terror"?  (cue laugh track)  For those of you who watch comedy shows for your news, here's a refresher:  In the wake of 9/11, George W Bush (cue laugh track) realized that the attack was not an isolated event limited to some Saudi ex-pats under a single nut-job.  Instead, George W Bush saw the bigger picture and treated it like an ideological and global phenomenon. Part of that was a "Global War on Terror". (Bush was unfortunately too p.c. to call it what it was: "Global War on Jihad" or "Global War on Radical Islam").  He made clear it would be fought under the radar and that the battles and successes would not be made public.  He followed through for two terms. There were no new attacks, and the global Jihad lost ground.

Today we are stuck arguing who lost Iraq and created ISIS.  This is a diversion from reality.  ISIS headquarters is in Syria not Iraq.  They are currently spreading, well, globally.  Today they killed 50 near Gaza in Egypt.  The other day it was Kuwait, Tunisia, and Libya.  Before that, West Africa, East Africa, and Europe.  There have been ISIS inspired attacks and arrests in the US.

Gee, maybe all this focus on who lost the Iraq war should be redirected and we should ask instead, "Who lost the Global War on Terror?".

I can tell you it wasn't Bush.          

SCOTUS Schmotus

If you are scratching your head trying to figure out why The Supreme Court consistently defies the language of the Constitution, you are in good company.  If you are further scratching your head trying to figure out how the same court can defy the language of statutory law, you are also not alone. But don't despair, help is on the way.

In a case of perfect timing, Charles Murray's new book "By the People" is a great read for the head scratchers.  The book explains why the "Madisonian" structures that got us here are in ruins and how we can use new tools to counterbalance the metastatic government those structures were designed to thwart.  It's important to know that those structures are long gone and that looking to their remnants for salvation is a fools errand.  Railing against a President, a Legislature, or even the Court is a waste of energy.  Nothing within government can reverse the growth of government no matter who's in charge.  But that doesn't mean there's nothing that can be done.  Murray offers some hopeful solutions for a possible counter-insurgency strategy.

On the subject of gay marriage, I'm one of a rare breed who actually supports gay marriage while at the same time deplore that it was enacted by the SCOTUS.  On the ObamaCare decision, I oppose both the law and the decision.  Ditto on the disparate impact decision.  It was a rough week made a bit easier thanks to Murray's book.

   
Footnotes:

Here's what I wrote a couple of years ago (2013) about gay marriage:

I'm sorry, I find the marriage equality symbol particularly annoying.  Personally, I don't give a whit who marries who as long as it's consensual and between adults.  But I can't abide hypocrisy.   Gay and straight proponents of this new "right" are almost uniformly opposed to plural marriage.  These sanctimonious hypocrites are the same folks who just spent the last year dragging Mormonism through the mud behind their Priuses ridiculing the faith and its plural marriage history.  These are the tolerant ones who want equality?  I call bullshit.  Why not a right for all marriages?  With that in mind, I offer the plural marriage equality symbol above.  (or more accurately, the any marriage congruence symbol.)

Also this from 2013:

Gay marriage is usually thought of as a cultural issue or a human rights issue and of course it is on some level.  But there is not a single state in the union in which it is not possible for gay couples to legally and openly live together as a couple.  Moreover, turn on a TV today and gay characters are everywhere, attesting to their complete acceptance and ordinariness in pop culture. 

Yet there is still a huge issue separating gay and straight couples and in most cases it boils down to money.   Here is a partial list of the legal and financial entitlements which currently are not available to gay couples:

• Social Security Survivor Benefits

• Estate Tax Exemptions

• Inheritance Exemptions

• Tax Free Transfers To Spouses

• Joint Filing (which can lower taxes)

• Health Insurance Rates

• Government Employee Spousal Benefits

• Workman's Compensation

• Preferential Standing in Wrongful Death

• Miscellaneous Federal and State Benefits

• Approx. 1,138 Legal Rights (according to GLAD)

Most of the above list are areas which the Federal Government was not intended by the founders to be involved in in the first place.  But now it is in an ever expanding role, and the financial fate of gay and straight couples alike relies on it's laws and re-distributional largesse.   Despite losing consistently at the polls, big money is flowing the other way because even bigger money is at stake in the gay marriage debate.  It is for this reason that a federal law endorsing gay marriage is inevitable.   Just follow the money.   

And here's what I wrote about a possible counter insurgency strategy also in 2013:

Impeach Obama?  Ain't gonna happen.  I don't care how bad these scandals are, and they are really bad, we are stuck with Obama for the duration.  Practically everyone in media, entertainment, and academia voted for Obama.  If you voted for Obama you most likely: a) don't know about the scandals, b) would never admit you screwed-up,  c) say, "what difference does it make?", d) think it's all Bush's fault, or e) all the above.  This makes impeachment and removal impossible. 

There is another way to act decisively; just avoid paying taxes!  If you are among the informed and intelligent minority who believe Obama should be removed, if you believe he used the IRS like a Gestapo to kill dissent, if you believe he abused his power, if you believe he used the DOJ like a KGB to spy on his detractors, if you believe he lied when he knowingly blamed the Benghazi attack on an innocent videographer who still sits in jail to this day, then you should defund him.  Go Galt, invest in tax free municipal bonds, barter, live off your assets, go off the grid, start a non-profit (you may want to think about that last one), tell your Congressman to defund him.  Do everything you can to legally avoid federal taxes and defund Obama.  That's the only way. 

BTW, break no laws!  We can defund Obama legally if we work together.  You will never eliminate all your taxes, but you can certainly avoid a bunch if you make changes.    Remember, GE pays no taxes and breaks no laws.  Of course, you will never have the advantages of government access and legal advice that Obama's friend GE has, but you can probably cut your tax liability with some effort.  Make the effort.  Defund Obama.  It's all you can do, unless you're content with just fuming.             

Another Day, Another Entitlement

The Supreme Court rulings on Obamacare and gay marriage are interesting and controversial on many levels.  But what many are missing is the fact that these rulings are essentially about the same thing: entitlements.  And once that is understood, it helps predict future court rulings and the direction of our country.

Entitlements are like the universe - always expanding.  There's physics behind this.  The beneficiaries of entitlements have an acute interest in them, while the benefactors (those paying) have a diffuse interest.  The math is simple.  For a beneficiary to get $1, each benefactor (every inhabitant) must provide only $.00000000033.    

The Obamacare case was obviously about entitlements.  The issue was should the federal government provide entitlement subsidies to people who purchased insurance on a federal exchange, despite the law explicitly stating the opposite.  The court ruled in favor of those getting $1.  

The gay marriage case was not as obvious. Gay marriage is usually thought of as a cultural or human rights issue.  But there is not a single state or city in the US in which it is not possible for gay couples to legally and openly live together. Moreover, turn on a TV or watch a movie and gay characters are everywhere attesting to their complete acceptance in our culture.  

Yet there is still a huge issue separating gay and straight couples, and it boils down to entitlements.  Here is a partial list of the financial and legal entitlements which currently are not available to gay couples:

• Social Security survivor benefits
• Estate tax exemptions
• Inheritance exemptions
• Tax free transfers to spouses
• Joint filing (which can lower taxes)
• Health insurance rates for spouses
• Government employee spousal benefits
• Workman's compensation
• Preferential standing in wrongful death
• Miscellaneous federal and state benefits
• Approx. 1,138 legal rights (according to GLAD) which mostly boil down to money

We didn't start out as an entitlement state. But we are one now, and the financial fate of gay and straight couples alike relies on government redistribution largess.   Despite losing consistently at the polls, big money was at stake in the gay marriage debate.  It is for this reason that a federal law endorsing gay marriage was inevitable.  It was not about love.  It was about money.  

And so it will go in the future with SCOTUS rulings and presidential elections.  Mitt Romney got into trouble when he said 47% were automatic votes for the Democrat party because they are dependent on entitlements.  I'd say we are now closer to 57%.       

Shorter SCUTUS

Apparently,the federal government is not a state, but it identifies as one.

In this Caitlyn Jenner / Rachael Dolezal world, why not?

If laws can mean anything, regardless of what they say in writing, why have written laws at all?
Beats me.  

Scientology and The Clintons?

The Daily Caller ran a piece on 6/21 on the Clinton's connections with Scientology.  More of the same we've come to expect:  big money for the Clintons in exchange for big favors from the US Government.  Yawn.  What difference does it make?

Funny thing is, I had no idea any of this was going on when I made this video about Scientology and Hillary!  Watch, laugh, and enjoy:



Here's the Daily Caller piece in its entirety:    

The Church of Scientology started a big-money lobbying relationship with the U.S. State Department during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
What do you think?
Greg Mitchell, proprietor of The Mitchell Firm, is Scientology’s official Washington lobbyist. A church member, Mitchell works to help the church gain mainstream credibility and to lobby on behalf of issues the church cares about, like criminal justice reform and religious freedom in foreign countries.
1
Mitchell features a photograph on his firm’s website that shows him posing with Bill and Hillary Clinton.
What do you think?


The Mitchell Firm
What do you think?
Church of Scientology International spent $80,000 over three quarters to have Mitchell lobby the State Department in 2011, during Clinton’s tenure as the head of the agency. The church had never lobbied the State Department before the second quarter of that year.
What do you think?
The church’s lobbying continued in 2012, as it spent a total of $80,000 ($20,000 per quarter) to lobby Clinton’s State Department.
What do you think?
Scientology lobbied for religious freedom issues, opposing efforts by foreign governments to stifle minority religions like Scientology.
What do you think?

Mitchell fought against a new religion law in Hungary that legally de-registers minority religions in the country, and “urged the Secretary to raise this issue with the Hungarian Prime Minister and with leaders of the Hungarian Parliament,” according to lobbying disclosure forms.
What do you think?
Mitchell also circulated a letter to the secretary of state and others “to express our deep concern about rising government restrictions on religion in France” and to fight a religious extremism law in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, among other similar issues.
What do you think?
Scientology continued to lobby John Kerry’s State Department in each quarter of 2013 and 2014 after Clinton left office.
What do you think?
Scientology’s links to the Clintons predate Hillary’s term at the State Department.
What do you think?
The Clinton administration’s Internal Revenue Service granted Scientology its status as a tax-exempt church within Clinton’s first year in office in 1993.
What do you think?
Actor and Scientologist Tom Cruise personally called Bill Clinton to get him to influence his friend, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to help Scientology’s charity status in Great Britain, according to former Scientology executive Marty Rathbun.
What do you think?
Actor and Scientologist John Travolta once received “an unsolicited offer of presidential help” from Clinton as Scientology fought the German government on issues of religious persecution, according to The Los Angeles Times. Clinton administration national security advisor Sandy Berger personally talked to Travolta about the issue and the administration’s efforts to resolve it.
What do you think?
As TheDC reported, Mitchell also lobbied President Obama’s White House four times during Obama’s first term, in 2009 and 2012.
What do you think?
The State Department and the Church of Scientology did not return requests for comment by press time.
What do you think?
Follow Howley on Twitter
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/21/church-of-scientology-lobbied-hillarys-state-department/#ixzz3dnqbVuLp

Charleston, Guns, and Obama

The Charleston massacre was bad enough.  Barack Obama made it even worse.  Within 24 hours of the event, he got in front of the cameras and politicized the tragedy, making it all about the tool used by the killer.  That would be like blaming the holocaust on gas chambers, 9/11 on box cutters, and ISIS on daggers and matches.

There is a "first law of Obama", much like there is a first law of physics:  "for every negative event, there is a politically convenient scapegoat to attack, which is designed to rally the liberal base but solve nothing. " For Charleston it's guns.

Not only did Obama attack guns as the culprit, he also attacked the country he leads as being the only developed country that experiences mass murders.  He must not consider England, France, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Finland, Germany, or Canada developed.

He may really believe our legal right to own guns makes us more violent.  He seems blissfully unaware that we've always had guns, but we didn't always have this kind of violence.  He's also blissfully unaware that some of the highest homicide rates, 1000% higher than ours, are in Central American countries that have no 2nd amendment and very few guns.  Countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, and Mexico are some of the most violent in the world.   Good thing Obama is not importing illegals from these countries.  Oh wait, that's exactly what he's doing!

Look, I could talk about how Obama's disregard for life (ie: late term abortions) has contributed to a cheapening of the value of life and led to more violence, but that would be theoretical.   What's not theoretical is that in Obama's first term, he and the Democrats had filibuster proof control of the entire government. They could have passed a total ban on guns if they wanted to.  They did not, because even most Democrats know legal guns are not the problem.

The fact is we have some violent and insane people in our country, and their violence will not magically disappear if guns magically do.  They will find another tool.  They always have. Ironically, the best way to minimize gun violence is to deregulate them.  It is not a coincidence that killers like the Charleston guy, the Batman guy, the military base guy, and the school guy, all sought out gun-free zones to accomplish their evil.      

Obama knows this but sees a political opportunity.  The damage that this cynical, petulant, arrogant, and divisive man is inflicting on our nation proceeds apace.

(At the time of this writing, the gun that the Charleston shooter used appears to have been illegal.)

Hillary is Awesome!

Friends discuss Scientology and Hillary Clinton.  
(Had to post this on the occasion of Hillary's big rollout show on Roosevelt Island, NY yesterday.  Please share it if you enjoy it!)

The TSA is Perfect!*

This week it was revealed that 95% of the really bad stuff (bombs, guns, knives) that inspectors tried to sneak past TSA security made it through and onto airplanes! (Cue boilerplate outrage from politicians, etc.)  We've seen this movie before folks, and frankly it's boring.  And tragic.

TSA is doing exactly what it was designed to do!  Sure, some of the votes for nationalizing airport security were naively made with good intentions.   And George W Bush, bless his progressive naive heart, may have actually believed the federal government could do a better job than the airlines. (Never-mind that on 9/11, the only people who actually did their jobs perfectly were the private airport security folks!  They were instructed by federal regulations to allow box cutters onto planes, and that's what they did.)  But that's all water under the totalitarian bridge.  Today, the TSA has almost nothing to do with providing security; it is just another cog in the Democrat Party union jobs program and kickback machine.  

Add it to the list.  TSA is just like The VA, IRS, Postal Service, Amtrak, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc.  Every one of these agencies is an abject failure at their ostensible mission, but they are performing exactly as designed for their true purposes; political power and money for Democrats.    

You would think the VA is a healthcare system for veterans.  You would be wrong.  The VA is first and foremost a jobs program and a union money machine for Democrats.  Sure, it was originally set-up to treat veterans, but now does so only as an afterthought.  You might think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were mortgage companies for the poor.  You would be wrong.  Fannie and Freddie are first and foremost political operations that were originally set-up to provide mortgages for the poor, but now do so only as an afterthought.  This goes for the IRS, Amtrak, USPS, and every other agency and corner of the federal government - except for the uniformed military who are not yet unionized.  (see my related piece on the recent Amtrak accident here.)  

The sad thing is that naive Republican "progressives" have too often bought into this scheme.  The essence of progressivism is to view the constitution as an impediment to "progress".  Progressives seek to move past those pesky constitutional limits and exert total power wherever they can.  Limited power just doesn't cut it.  Progressives want it all.        

The framers of our constitution knew this could happen.  They knew totalitarianism and all-powerful government would politicize everything and turn it into a horror show.  That’s precisely why they gave us a “charter of negative liberties”, (to borrow Barack Obama’s derisive words) which says “what the federal government can’t do to you…”.  The constitution specifically limits federal power for a reason.  It was a check on totalitarianism and a wall against nationalizing and politicizing everything.  Well, it used to do that anyway.  Not so much anymore. 

Next time a story comes out about some federal agency miserably failing at it's core mission, remember:  its true mission is votes, power, and money for the Democrat Party, and for that it is perfect. 

Ramadi, Baltimore, and the Obama Power Vacuum

Sometimes events are just events.  Sometimes they are related and show a trend.  But sometimes events are so linked, they paint a vivid picture worth well more than a thousand words.  So it is with Ramadi and Baltimore.

 

Ramadi and Baltimore are just the latest manifestations of the Obama power vacuum.  (No, the Obama power vacuum is not like a Hoover or Dyson.  It won’t help you clean your house.  The Obama power vacuum is actually quite deadly and claims lives on an hourly basis..)   All the ISIS chaos, Putin’s imperialism, Iran’s aggression, as well as the chaos befalling cities across America essentially share the same pathology as Ramadi and Baltimore.  And Obama’s hand in all of it is undeniable.  (For a black Democrat president with a Muslim name who identifies as a Christian, he sure is presiding over the death and suffering of a lot of blacks, Democrats, Muslims, and Christians!) 

       

In Ramadi, and Iraq in general, Obama’s precipitous withdrawal of all US forces left a power vacuum which ISIS has filled with tragic effect.  When George W Bush turned things over, US soldiers were no longer fighting in Iraq.  Our role was as a stabilizing force.  Serving in Iraq in 2009 was actually safer than walking the streets of Baltimore is today!  Now, just a few years into the Obama power vacuum, and the whole place is a tragic mess.  We fought, died, and prevailed in a bi-partisan effort, only to have it squandered by an irresponsible, arrogant, and petulant pol.

  

In Baltimore, and cities across America, the Obama power vacuum resulted from the same kind of behavior. Again there was a long effort which had largely prevailed against rising inner-city crime and murder.  Enter Obama.  Instead of using his bully pulpit to encourage the rule of law and allow the criminal justice system to play-out, he jumped in and inserted himself into every high profile case implying the police and criminal justice system were racist and criminal.  He deployed his de-facto race czar, Al Sharpton, to stir animosity.  He deployed his Department of Justice to charge police departments with civil rights violations and impose onerous restrictions.  In every high profile case so far he’s been proven wrong.   Nevertheless, Obama’s assault on local police and criminal justice systems persists.  Cops have realized that being pro-active is not worth the effort.  They have stopped doing what works and left a power vacuum into which chaos and murder have flooded.

A vacuum is not a thing.  It’s the absence of things.  Obama’s principles are also not things.  They are the absence of things.  Obama’s approach to foreign affairs can best be described as “not Bush’.  In domestic affairs it can be best described as “not the Constitution”.

“Not Bush” is how we get a troop surge and a tripling of casualties in Afghanistan, a complete withdrawal from Iraq, appeasement with Putin, Nukes for Iran, intervention in Libya, an overrun embassy, and chaos in Ramadi.  “Not the Constitution” is how we get a virtual takeover of local police departments, criminalization of routine police work, federalization of everything, executive takeover of the legislative function, and chaos in Baltimore.

Ramadi and Baltimore are just the latest examples of the Obama power vacuum from “not Bush” and “not the Constitution”.  Into those vacuums have rushed ISIS and inner-city mayhem across America.     

Why Democrats deserve blame for the tragic Amtrak accident

(UPDATED)
"Why Democrats deserve blame..."  Provocative title, no?  But I can prove it.

Democrats are screaming that the tragic Amtrak train wreck in Philadelphia is due to funding.  If only those stingy Republicans would give Amtrak enough money, we could have saved those lives.  This is a lie.  The problem is not money.

The problem is unions.  Railroad Workers United (RWU) is kind of an umbrella union for all railroad union workers.  RWU does not exist to ensure safety to riders, nor to provide excellent service, nor to run efficient railroads.  RWU's mission is to preserve jobs and money for its members.  How do I know this?  I read their  "Statement of Principles" .

Here's the smoking gun:

"The carriers are degrading and deskilling our crafts, implementing new technologies that threaten our jobs..."

This is from paragraph number one of their principles.  They exist to fight against "technologies that threaten our jobs" -  technologies like the ones that could have made that curve on the tracks safe and automatic.

Google has a self driving car.  Tesla is about to have one as well.  Next year, your new car will likely have an option that will automatically slow down in response to speed limit signs.  Even airplanes fly by themselves most of the time today.  Yet Amtrak trains, which run on a track and are easy to automate, still require human operators.

The reason Amtrak trains are unnecessarily dangerous today is the same reason Johnny can't read and GI Joe can't get quality healthcare at a VA hospital.  Unions run the VA, the public schools, and the trains. They also run the IRS, the Post Office, and every other government agency except the military.  Quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction are not union priorities.  I'm sure you're shocked to hear this.      

You may also know that unions are the biggest funding source for the Democrat party.  Unions give billions every election cycle, practically all of it to Democrats.  Your safety, health, education, and constitutional rights take a backseat to the union agenda because that is how Democrats get money, votes, and power.

It doesn't matter how much we spend on government union agencies like Amtrak, they can never provide quality, cutting-edge service.  That's not what they are designed to do.  They are designed to be de-facto jobs programs and kick-back slush funds for the Democrat party.  Period.

(UPDATE:  Recent reports suggest that this train may have been hit by an object before it crashed. That may explain why the operator has no memory of what happened.  He could also be lying. The fact remains though that if this train had been automated, an incapacitated operator would not result in dead passengers, or even a derailment.)  

Je Suis Pamela

Let's review, shall we?  In America today, if you mock Muhammad you go to prison like Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the hapless guy who made a YouTube video, which Barack Hussein Obama, peace be upon him, decided to use as a scapegoat for the deaths in Benghazi, Libya.  Or, you will be blamed like Pamela Geller when radical Islamists come gunning for you while you are pointing out that radical Islam is a threat to our safety and our constitutional rights.  

If however you mock Mormonism, you will get Tony Awards and rave reviews in the New York Times.  That would be OK, if the New York Times didn't have different standards for Nakoula and Pamela.  

Baltimore & The Peanut Butter Joke

When I was a kid, my uncle told me a joke that I've loved to this day.  I think it applies to the Baltimore riots.  It goes something like this:

Three construction workers open their lunch boxes.  The first one says; "Chicken parmigiana!  I love chicken parmigiana!"  The second one says, "Beef stroganoff!  I love beef stroganoff!  The third opens his lunch box and says, "Oh no, peanut butter sandwich.  I hate peanut butter sandwich!  (Of course, there were accents when I was told the joke, but hey this is 2015; can't do that anymore...)

This goes on for two more days, with the first two loving their lunches and the third complaining about his peanut butter sandwich.

Finally, the first guy says to him, "Why don't you tell your wife to make you something different?"  To that, the third guy says,"Who's got a wife? I make it myself!"

Baltimore has been electing Democrat mayors for at least three generations.  The people have been choosing the government.  The people have been choosing their police chief.  The people are essentially rioting against themselves!  They have finally come face to face with their own tragic choices and failures.  This is why they are looting and burning their own town.  They know who has been making the sandwiches, and it is them.

This same irony applies to Ferguson, Detroit, NYC during the Crown Heights riots, Asbury Park and Newark, NJ, LA, and on and on.  Only it's no joke.

Capitalism Sucks!

When was the last time you saw a movie where a businessman was the good guy?  (If you are one of the dozen or so people who saw the Atlas Shrugged movies, you can sit down now.)  Maybe I’m hanging out with the wrong people, but it seems to me most of my contemporaries lean anti-capitalist.  It gets even worse when I listen to younger generations.  Like our current president, it seems more fashionable in America today to be a Marxist, socialist, or communist.

This is no accident. 

    

Ask anyone who the father of communism or modern socialism is, and they will be able to name Karl Marx and explain Marxism in detail.  Next, ask them who the father of capitalism is.  I doubt you’ll get the right answer.

 

I contend the correct answer is again... Karl Marx.  Yes, I’m saying that Karl Marx is both the father of communism AND the father of capitalism.  In fact, Karl Marx was the guy who defined capitalism for the masses in a scathing critique of capitalism called Das Kapital.  In other words, the word most people use today when describing economic liberty, “capitalism”, is actually a Marxist epithet!

Many would credit Adam Smith as the guy who had the most influence in shaping America's economy. On that I agree.  Adam Smith’s book “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” was conspicuously published in 1776.  That date rings a bell, no?  But the word capitalism didn't exist in Adam Smith’s day.  He never used it!    

If everyone knows what Marxism is, why doesn't everyone know what Smithism is?  Because it’s not taught.  Marxism is taught everywhere all the time.  If you want to learn about Adam Smith, you have to go looking.  If you go to Wikipedia and look up Marxism, you’ll find plenty.  If you go to Wikipedia and look up Smithism, you’ll get crickets. 

Similarly, if you go to Wikipedia and look up communism, Marxism, or socialism you’ll find exhaustive explanations.  If you look really, really, hard you might find a brief criticism near the bottom of these entries.  If you look up capitalism, you’ll find a long section titled “Criticisms of Capitalism”.  Moreover, most of the entry is laced with subtle and not so subtle digs at capitalism.  This is not surprising because the word capitalism itself is a straw-man.

How about some of the more modern terms, like Supply Side Economics?  You are probably familiar with many criticisms of supply side economics.  But can you accurately define it?  Can you define its opposite, Demand Side Economics?

 

·         Supply side economics is the theory that people will enthusiastically SUPPLY their efforts and capital if they are free to realize the rewards.   

·         Demand side economics is the theory that people will enthusiastically DEMAND the efforts and capital of others if they are subsidized to do so.

 

These are opposite approaches for achieving economic goals:  Supply Side seeks to optimize overall economic vitality (Smithian).  Demand Side at times seeks to stimulate economic consumption (Keynesian stimulus), and at times to achieve egalitarianism (Marxist redistribution).

If you look up supply side economics on Wikipedia, you’ll find a thorough entry.  You’ll also find plenty of criticisms.  Look up demand side economics, and you’ll find nothing.  No definition, and certainly no criticism.  Again, the language is controlled by anti-capitalists.  (I made an attempt to define Demand Side Economics in a tongue-in-cheek cartoon a while ago:  See it here.  (language warning!))

I understand why Marxists, communists, socialists, and Keynesians use Marx’s term, capitalism, for our economic system.  What I can’t understand is why others use the term also.  

I’d love to see supporters of economic liberty use terms like Smithist, Smithism, Smithian or just plain "liberty" to describe their ideas.  Let the critics argue against economic liberty for a change!

Scientology vs. Clintonology

Friends discuss Scientology and Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.  Oh, and there's even a labradoodle in it!

(If you like the technology that makes this possible, support NAWMAL / XTRANORMAL as they try to get back on their feet.  www.nawmal.com  www.xtranormal.com)

Ready for Hillary [VIDEO]

Forget the destroyed servers, the email, foreign donations, Benghazi, the jailed video maker, the Rose Law Firm, Cattle futures, WH travel office, Whitewater, etc., etc., etc.  This woman, who wants to be the next president has been covering-up her husbands sexual assaults and infidelity for decades.  But even more than that, she was in charge of the systematic smearing and intimidation of his victims! Hillary Clinton is unfit for any job.  Period. With the possible exception of license plate maker.    

Obama vs. Christians

[VIDEO 22 seconds  - Obama and David Cameron on whether their countries are Christian.  Cameron's comment was from this Easter.]

Yesterday, Barack Hussein Obama, peace be upon him, chose an Easter prayer breakfast as an opportunity to berate Christians for their "less than loving" expressions, presumably in response to the reluctance of some Christians to perform services which contradict their faith.  Adhering to religious beliefs is somehow "less than loving" in Obama's world, at least when it comes to Christians.

When it comes to Muslims rampaging across the globe mass-murdering Christians (among other infidels), Barack Hussein Obama, peace be upon him, cannot even name the "less than loving" religion they are acting in the name of.  Moreover, he chooses to ignore the fact that the murdered victims were targeted because they were Christians (or Jews, or infidels) preferring to refer to them by the generic "folks", or "citizens", or simply ignoring the massacres altogether.

Have you ever heard Barack Hussein Obama, peace be upon him, berate jihadist Muslims in a manner commensurate with their evil?  Or with even close to the disdain he shows for Christians? No, instead he berates Christians for the Crusades!

None of this matters to the majority of nominal Christians who voted for Barack Hussein Obama, peace be upon him.  In this they are much like their Judeo-Christian coreligionists the Jews, who have a habit of ignoring danger until it's far too late.