Brainwashing In Action

Dear Lord, this may be the scariest thing I’ve seen yet.

-Popgun

Message to Obama and Other Liberals

Regarding yesterday’s elections:

You ignored the Tea Parties. You ignored our voices, emails and letters. Have we got your attention yet?

We don’t want what you are pushing!

-Popgun

Jobs Saved by the Stimulus

The Democrats are counting it as a ’saved job’ if you receive an increase in salary. At your existing job. That was at no risk of layoff.

That’s Liberal Accounting 101.

-Popgun

Michelle Has it Right

Today’s blog by Michelle Malkin is right on the money.

Doug Hoffman lost in NY-23. He ran as a conservative – not Democrat, not Republican. The Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava, is a RINO – Republican In Name Only. When she saw she could not win, she dropped out of the race and endorsed the Democrat Owens. This probably cost Hoffman the election.

As Michelle points out, the significance is that Hoffman almost won. As an independent, he beat out the Republican RINO. He was the only true conservative in the bunch. The illustrious GOP spent almost $1 million of conservative donations trying to get Scozzafava elected – somebody who says she is a Republican, but who has socialist alliances and beliefs, supported card-check (unions), was pro abortion, and other liberal beliefs.

Just because the label on the box says Republican does not mean the box contains a conservative.

The fact that Hoffman, a true conservative, beat out the GOP, shows that the people want true conservatism to return. Enough of this liberal crap. The GOP will NOT succeed by emulating the Democrats.

This illustrates a very valid point. From here on out, I will never vote straight ticket again. I’m going to find out what each person believes, and vote according to my beliefs. That is to say, conservatively. I’m not necessarily a Republican – I am a conservative.

The GOP had better get its act together on this, or there will be a divided election in 2010 and another in 2012 – and conservatives may lose again because of the divisiveness. This is what the Democrats are counting on.

-Popgun

The Obscene Cap and Trade Bill

You know, I’ve opposed the Cap and Trade Bill ever since I heard about it. It stands to increase indirect taxes by an incredible amount. It will literally double your electric bill, and gasoline will go up around $2 a gallon.

This morning, I found out this bit that is in that bill. From Powerline:

“The cap-and-trade bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, for example,” Mark writes, “is a bold assault on property rights: in order to sell your home–whether built in 2006 or 1772–you would have to bring it into compliance with whimsical, eternally evolving national ‘energy efficiency’ standards, starting with a 50 per cent reduction in energy use by 2018. Fail to do so and it would be illegal for you to enter into a private contract with a willing buyer.“

Now, that, I didn’t know about. Wow.

I live in a pier-and-beam frame house built by Jim Walters about 30 years ago, which has had additions several times over the years. It’s clean, but all the windows are single pane, and the insulation is not the best. It’s true that we’re not planning on going anywhere – I expect I will die in this house. But here’s the thing.

When I do pass on, my sons will have to spend a lot of money to make this house compliant with these regulations, if they elect to sell it. I have not actually read this bill, but now I wonder if this provision extends to inheriting a home. If so, they would have to deal with it at the time they inherit.

It will probably be more cost-effective to destroy our home than to bring it up to their standards.

That is what the Democrats do for you when they are in power. These damned liberals take value created by hard work and a lot of payments, and destroy it with the stroke of a pen, all to support their social agenda. They can’t get voluntary support for this kind of thing, so they ram it down our throats, just like they are trying to do with health care.

This bill has passed the House already. If it passes the Senate, it will become law. We need to stop it.

-Popgun

Misinformation

The Obama administration’s talking heads (including Obama) frequently claim their opposition is spreading ‘misinformation’. Methinks that is like the pot calling the kettle black.

These days, finding the truth requires research. You sure as heck won’t find it by listening to Whitehouse spokes-heads. Or any other politician.

Sometimes, you can glean the truth by watching shows that pit persons of opposite viewpoints against each other in debate, such as Bill O’Reilly, or Huckabee, for instance. This requires critical thinking, however. Often you have to be careful to winnow out your own preconceived notions which distort your own view.

Quoting Robert A. Heinlein’s “The Notebooks of Lazarus Long”:

What are the facts? Again and again and again — what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” — what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!

Without the facts, it is impossible to accurately make good decisions about anything.

-Popgun

2.24 Million $ per Word

Wow.

The House health care bill unveiled Thursday clocks in at 1,990 pages and about 400,000 words. With an estimated 10-year cost of $894 billion, that comes out to about $2.24 million per word.

From Politico.

That’s more than half as long as the King James Bible.

-Popgun

Predictions I Made a Year Ago

About a year ago, 10/23/2008, I made a number of predictions about how it would go if Obama was elected. I thought this would be a good time to revisit them, and see how I did.

The predictions I made are below – my current comments are in bold italics.

1. There will be an increased government bureaucracy ; and increased government spending to go with it. Boy, I nailed this one!
2. Since that has to be paid for, there will be increased taxation. Yes, on everybody with an income, one way or the other. ALL taxes eventually filter down to the wage-earning citizen. Starting with SCHIP, and more – much more – on the way.
3. Obama will attempt to implement his medical care program. If he is successful, medical care may become less expensive – but the quality and availability of care will decline over time. (As is the case in Great Britain and Canada). He is certainly trying to implement this – the outcome is too soon to tell.
4. It will increasingly be a bad environment for business; more taxation = less profit. Look for more business to relocate overseas. There will be more unemployment. Prices of consumer goods will increase as the additional taxation is passed on to customers. All of this is happening right now.
5. There will be inroads made against free trade agreements with other countries. Imports will cost more. Exports will decline, further damaging our economy. Not sure about this one – the dollar is worth less, so this should be true, but I haven’t followed this closely.
6. The economy will decline to deep recession levels, at best. (This may happen no matter who wins). Here we are!
7. Our military will, over time, be defunded and emasculated, in order to shift funding to other (welfare type) programs. Pulling out of Iraq, canceling missile defense systems in various places, cutting funding for fighter planes, shutting down Gitmo, can’t decide whether it’s a good political move to support Afghanistan…
8. There will likely be new attacks by terrorists both inside and outside the U.S. who think Obama won’t retaliate. There have been several attempts inside the US, and notice the recent major bombings in Iraq and Pakistan.
9. There will be a general withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. In the works now.
10. Iran will be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Iranian influence in the Middle East will increase. In the works. It remains to be seen if Israel will take action independent of the U.S., but it is doubtful we will act to stop Iran.
11. Drilling for oil in the U.S. will be curtailed, while Obama’s alternate energy “Manhattan Project” will be implemented. As a result, until alternate-energy-powered cars are economically available, you will pay more for gasoline. Lots more. Both ground and air travel will decline over time as it becomes too expensive. Drilling for oil has certainly been curtailed. I still think much higher fuel prices are on the way, but it’s not here yet. I missed on the alternate energy project.
12. Obama will select liberal judges for the Supreme Court, who are not strict interpreters of the Constitution. The Democratic congress will rubber-stamp them. Fact. See Sotomayor.
13. Pro-abortion groups will be in their ascendency – laws allowing unlimited abortion will be passed within the limits imposed by the (liberal) Supreme Court. The conservatives are doing their best to keep abortion funding out of the health care reform bill now being debated. It remains to be seen whether they will be successful.
14. Institution of the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ which will shut down conservative talk radio, and make it harder for any right-wing message to be heard. Hasn’t happened yet. Instead, they are actually trying to do the same thing through administrative rules, bypassing the need to vote on it. To soon to tell if they will succeed.
15. Every possible obstruction to our Second Amendment gun rights will be implemented. The Second Amendment guarantees that we can own guns. However, there is no such guarantee about cost, quantity, or type. Obama will not protect manufacturers from frivolous lawsuits, and he is in favor of restricting ‘certain types of guns’. Laws will be passed requiring hardware modifications that will make most guns either useless or out of the financial reach of most Americans. So far, I missed this one totally. I’m fairly sure they will get around to it, but it’s not as high on their priority list as I thought.

Potential results – not as likely as above, but possible:

1. Nationalization of the oil companies (already called for by some Democrats). Not yet. Just major banks and automobile manufacturers.
2. Suppression of free speech will become more prevalent. Try Googling “Obama’s Truth Squads“. 487,000 hits! Notice the attempts by this administration to muzzle Fox News.
3. The public school system will become a tool of indoctrination for the political left. (See Obama’s involvement with the Annenberg Challenge – purposed to indoctrinate school children with Bill Ayer’s beliefs!). Lots of little kids being taught songs praising Obama these days…
4. Total collapse of the economy to depression era levels – or below. Thank God, no. Yet.
5. Iran will attempt to destroy Israel with it’s new nuclear weapons, due to their belief that we will not retaliate. Not yet.
6. The end of the United States as a world power. Not yet – although Obama has done so much bowing and apologizing that he is most certainly seen as a weak president, internationally.

All things considered, I did pretty good, I think. Certainly not bad for an aging farm boy.

-Popgun

Pelosi’s Approval Rating

Ha! Obama said:

“Nancy Pelosi is not simply the first woman Speaker of the House — I think she’s going to go down as one of the greatest Speakers of all time.”

Snort. Her job approval in her home demographic is only 34%!

Proof that Obama is delusional.

-Popgun

Different Viewpoints

Everyone has their own way of looking at things. Currently, there seem to be two opposing viewpoints of how to manage our country.

Liberals want more government, more government control of individuals, less individual rights, and has the view that the government will take care of all your needs. This is called the ‘nanny state’.

They also tend to believe that you are a victim of your upbringing and are not responsible for bad choices you may make. This is why liberal judges tend to let child molesters off the hook.

Liberals tend to be pro-abortion. They call this ‘pro-choice’, although the baby involved doesn’t get a choice.

Liberals believe in involuntary redistribution of wealth, possibly for humanitarian reasons.

Liberals believe the Constitution of the United States should be ‘interpreted’ according to their viewpoint.

Liberals tend to be anti-second amendment because they do not believe any individual can be trusted with a gun, and the idea that people are walking around in Walmart carrying a concealed hand gun scares the crap out of them. Even if those people are not felons.

Conservatives (real ones, that is) believe in maximum personal freedom, the smallest government that can do the proper roll of government. This is very cost-effective.

Conservatives believe in personal responsibility for individual choices. This is why conservative judges think child molesters should be shot.

Conservatives tend to be anti-abortion. Most of them see this as the murder of babies, purely for the convenience of immature and selfish parents who don’t take responsibility for their actions.

Conservatives are generally against involuntary redistribution of wealth, which they correctly view as robbery at gunpoint. (Think that’s an exaggeration? Try not paying your taxes. Eventually, somebody with a gun will show up to collect or to put you in jail. They will have guns.)

Conservatives believe the Constitution of the United States should be strictly interpreted according to the intent of the authors.

Conservatives generally are pro-second amendment because they believe honest citizens can be trusted with guns – both to use them when needed, and not to use them inappropriately. Law abiding citizens walking around in Walmart with guns don’t bother me. I know that they are not a risk to me or mine; only a felon (or wannabe felon) is a risk with a gun. And the best defense against the felon with a gun is to myself be armed, since the felon will not obey the law that says he can’t have a gun.

How do you know which philosophy is the right one?

That’s a deep question. There are many frameworks of belief that may help you decide, such as the Holy Bible. There is also how you were brought up, what you learned from your parents (or whoever raised you, these days).

As for me, I know that, as a child, I was taught a sense of honor. I was also taught a work ethic that to this day makes me get up every day and go to my job to earn my own way and provide for my family. I believe that I am worth my wages, and I believe that they are mine, not yours. I believe in personal responsibility. I believe that I can be trusted with a gun, because I know my own mind, and furthermore I believe I have the responsibility to protect my family if necessary. I have seen more than one couple grieve as they buried a miscarried child, and I know that abortion is murder. I believe in my personal freedom – and yours, too.

And I resent every dime I pay in taxes that is given to somebody who doesn’t deserve it, or is otherwise wasted. I do believe in charity – but it should be voluntary. And I don’t believe that people who are unwilling to work should receive a single dime of charity. Charity should be reserved for those who want to provide for themselves, but cannot because of circumstances such as health or age.

I have self respect because I have worked hard to do the best I could with my life. Others have done better, and some have done worse. But the key is to do your best. I paid my rent on my chunk of the planet today, and I feel pretty good about that.

I can’t say why you should choose one philosophy or the other – but I know which one I’ve chosen.

-Popgun