Lest We Forget
Freedom Isn’t Free (Photo credit: swanksalot)
(Parts of this are reposted from an earlier post entitled “No Guts No Glory”.)
This Monday we will see billboards, bumper stickers, and car magnets all proclaiming “Support our Troops“, and “Freedom Isn’t Free”. Are these truly heart-felt words, displayed by proud patriots or are they meaningless platitudes, mindlessly quoted by pandering politicians? On this day there will be countless memorial services and tributes. But will we stop a moment and reflect on what this day really means or is it simply the beginning of summer? Just a day to have a picnic or barbecue.
I remember as a child hearing the stories of my mother, who, as a toddler underwent surgery on her foot. For years afterward she required special orthotic shoes that had to be replaced every time her foot grew. This was during WWII and rationing was in full force. Everyone was allowed only one pair of shoes a year. Including my mother. The government didn’t make a special exception because she was a child with a medical condition. Her parents didn’t demand that she was entitled to more ration coupons because of a unique hardship. Instead they gave up their ration coupons to get her the shoes she needed and when those ran out other family members, friends and neighbors donated theirs. Why was this necessary? Because the materials that were used to make shoes over here were needed to make shoes for the troops over there. Could you imagine giving up coffee, sugar, shoes and tires and sending them to the troops in Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq? Could we ever again unite as a whole country behind an effort to rid our world of an unspeakable evil? Do we even know what evil is anymore?
The invention of photography as allowed us to see the horrors of war up close and personal. The flag draped coffins of our loved ones, the bloody, mangled bodies of our enemies, the atrocities. Faced with the horrifying reality that the price of freedom is blood, many of us have decided that the price is too high. We believe that the act of war, rather than the megalomaniacal ideals of ruthless men is the true evil and that nothing save our own personal survival is worth fighting and dying for.
The men who marched at Lexington and Concord, whose bodies covered the ground at Gettysburg, who raised the flag at Mount Suribachi, all understood the power of the words of our Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution. That such a radical ideal as individual freedom, that men should control their own destinies, requires a collective sacrifice.
By looking to the government for our prosperity rather that demanding that our elected officials recognize the freedom to build that prosperity ourselves, by allowing the government the rights to our personal property, and by allowing the government to usurp and mismanaged our wages though an unnecessarily complicated tax code, we dishonor those who have fought and died to maintain those freedoms.
By allowing our schools to indoctrinate our children with the mantra that it is the government’s job to take care of us, to protect us from our own ignorance and folly, and that “from each according to his ability and to each according to his need” is the highest morality, we dishonor those who fought and died for our right to think for ourselves.
Our Forefathers wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, not to give us certain rights, but to preserve them. The government does not grant us our freedoms, rather we “the people” grant the government its right to exist. It’s time for us to “take back” our government and hold our elected officials accountable, for what they do with the money, property, time and power we “the people” give them.
In every election we have the opportunity to show that we truly understand the cost of our freedom and that it is precious. By taking the time and making the effort to research and vote for people truly worthy to serve us, and by reminding them regularly that they do, is how we prove that those who made the “ultimate sacrifice” did not do so in vain.
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America, Amerika
sodahead.com
There are those who would say that President Obama may be charismatic, but he’s not too bright. When it comes to solving the countries problems,he just doesn’t get it.
I disagree.
I say that Barak Obama is a brilliant man. A man who has a clear vision of what he wants for this country, and knows how to manipulate the system and the public to make it happen. He has a genuine belief that he can save the country and bring prosperity to everyone.
In the President’s American Utopia, every one contributes as much as he is able into the governmental bucket and everyone only takes out as much as he needs. No one will ever have to worry about housing, food, or healthcare, the government will take care of it. No one in this country will ever again be homeless, hungry, or die for lack of lifesaving medications. Since we will no longer have to find a way to supply our most basic needs, we will be free from boring, soul sucking, dead-end jobs and will find fulfillment in all sorts of charitable pursuits instead. We can spend our days building houses for others, cleaning the shorelines, repairing roads, and growing crops, all for free since we will have no need for an income. Yes indeed, Americans will live in a paradise. Free from worry and want. Where nobody has to work, and yet everyone gets fed. We will be the envy of the rest of the world.
Does he have a plan to avoid the substandard housing, the bread lines and rationed medical care? Can he soothe the discontented masses? Those who are not happy to merely survive, but long for a purpose and a way to prosper? Does he have the vision to correct the ideological faults that doomed his heroes to failure? No. He doesn’t need to. Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Castro were not worthy of the task. Obama is.
This is the dream that keeps us up at night. A place where the government slowly and insidiously creeps into our personal lives and dictates every aspect of it. From what we eat, what lightbulbs we can buy and even what kind of toilet we can flush nothing is made, bought or sold without government’s approval and cut of the profits. Gone are our rights to our own homes and personal property. The opportunity to use our hands and minds to create wealth will no longer exist. This is the America that many of us never think will happen. Maybe we are the ones who don’t get it.
The problem is that many people share Obama’s new American Dream. How do you convince people who are working hard, pay their taxes and yet struggle to put food on the table, and pay their mortgages that it is not the government’s responsiblity to provide relief? How do you assure someone who cannot afford the treatment they need that there are better alternatives to government health care? How do you persuade an entire generation raised on the liberal bias of the public school system and network media, to fight for the right to work and think for themselves?
This is the challenge Mitt Romney must face if he is to be the next president. To reignite the passion for personal responsibility in a people who no longer value personal freedom.
| PBKBWTG8U2U2 |
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Obama Faces Questions on Federal Fight for Same Sex Marriage
Just days after affirming his support for same-sex marriage, President Obama today declined to say whether he would go a step further and publicly take up the fight to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. While the administration has already stopped defending legal challenges to…
via Obama Faces Questions on Federal Fight for Same Sex Marriage.
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The Real Life of Julia
Reflections of a Rational Republican has introduced me to “Julia” the cartoon solder of the fictitious Republican “War on Women”. Both the Obama Campaign and the Heritage Foundation have differing versions about the “Life of Julia“. While the Obama Campaign’s version touts the benefits of living in a cradle to grave socialist utopia, the Heritage Foundation’s version extolls the virtues of freedom of choice. Neither version truly depicts the reality of Julia right here, right now. This is my version of the “Real Life of Julia” without the cutesy graphics. It depicts what her life would be like at each age, if she were that age today.
Age 3
Both of Julia’s parents work. Their combined incomes put them in an income bracket too high to qualify for head start or other programs designed for underprivileged children. After “doing the math” her parents decide that the high cost of quality day care makes it impractical for both of them to work. Julia’s mom’s income is less than her father’s so Julia’s mom decides to stay home with her.
Age 17
It was important to Julia’s parents to bring her up in as safe a neighborhood as possible. They purchased a modest home in a decent suburb. Because she lives in a working class family her parents cannot afford private school. Therefore Julia has spent her youth in the public school system. Her state uses standardized tests to measure the performance of the teachers, schools, and students. Because the teacher’s unions have made it difficult to weed out ineffective teachers, and because school administrators fear the loss of state and federal funding due to government programs such as race to the top, classroom time is consumed with teaching children how to pass the standardized tests instead of proficiency in basic skills. Sports, music classes, and pay raises for competent teachers are cut due to a lack of funds, but administration costs remain high. PE and recess are cut and replaced with programs to teach environmental awareness, anti-bullying, drug avoidance, and sexual abuse defence techniques that are of little value in real world situations. Julia’s parents stressed the importance of doing her best and made sure she did her homework. They communicated regularly with her teachers. Because of this, Julia worked hard and made good grades.
Age 18
Because she has made good grades Julia has qualified for a modest state sponsored scholarship. She barely qualifies for a Pell grant because her parent’s income is almost to high even though they do not make enough to pay any of her college expenses. She chooses a community college because it is the most cost-effective option, allowing her to live at home and commute to class. Her scholarship and grant still are not enough to completely cover her school and expenses so she works part-time to fill the gap. Her public school education has left her unprepared for college level work, she takes advantage of the resources the college offers, but in spite of her efforts to study hard, she fails her math and english courses. Because the state sponsored scholarship pays some of the costs of trade school, Julia decides to drop out of college and attend cosmetology school.
Age 22
Julia has to undergo emergency surgery for an appendicitis. The recent passage of Obama care mandates that she is covered under her parents care until age 26, however, before the passage of Obama care, she still would have been covered under her parents’ policy until her 23rd birthday because she is a student.
Age 23-25
Julia finishes cosmetology school and begins her career as a hair stylist. At first she lives with her parents, but through hard work and dedication to her career she lands a job at a prestigious salon and moves into her own apartment. Among the benefits provided are health insurance and the opportunity to participate in a 401K program. This particular salon offered such benefits even before Obama care was passed. Her insurance pays for mammograms, pap smears, yearly exams, and maternity care. Her copay for prescription birth control is fifty percent of the cost, but because she is focusing on establishing herself in this business and building a clientele, she has little time for a relationship or casual sex.
Age 29-31
Julia meets Ethan a local electrician. They begin a relationship. Julia explains to Ethan that since he would assume half the responsibility for raising a child, he should share half the responsibility for the cost of birth control. Ethan agrees. (He’s a keeper). Since her insurance pays for half of the fifty dollar cost of birth control pills* and Ethan pays half of her half, her cost for the pill is a manageable $12.50 a month. Julia and Ethan marry and decide to have a child. Her maternity and child-birth costs are covered minus the $25.00 office copays and a $500.00 deductable. Because she and Ethan planned ahead for this child, money was saved and these expenses prove to be little problem for them. Even though money is tight, they still make too much for Zachary to qualify for head start or other daycare options for underprivileged children. Because neither of them can afford to quit their jobs, Julia’s mother agrees to watch little Zachary.
Age 37
Zachary starts preschool. His parents make too much money for Zachary to qualify for school vouchers designed to give underprivileged children a chance at a better education, but they do not make enough to place him in private school. His parents depend on both incomes to get by, so having Julia quit her job to home school Zachary is out of the question. Julia has no other option but to place Zachary into the inferior public school system.
Age 42
Julia is a well-known stylist around town and has built up a loyal clientele. She decides to open her own salon. She qualifies for a small business administration loan and purchases equipment. She rents chair space to beginning hair stylists and teaches them the latest techniques. In spite of a loyal and growing customer base, she is barely breaking even. The regulatory costs of the required insurances and licenses are high and the time required to keep up with the paperwork keeps her from her customers. When the ADA fines her $25,000.00 for failure to install a wheelchair accessible styling chair even though she has no disabled customers or employees, she realizes she can no longer keep up. Julia sadly informs her stylists and customers she must close. She sells her salon equipment to pay off the fine and the remainder of her SBA loan. She then takes a job as an instructor at the local beauty college.
Age 65
Julia enrolls in medicare. She has difficulty finding a competent doctor that accepts the plan. She must pay out-of-pocket for a medicare supplement insurance plan to cover the gaps. Ethan dies suddenly of a heart attack leaving her without his income. Fortunately he had the foresight to purchase life insurance even though paying the premiums was sometimes a struggle. This allows Julia to pay off the mortgage and Ethan’s funeral expenses.
Age 67
Julia applies for Social Security. The amount is nowhere near enough to cover her monthly expenses. She rolled over her 401K into an IRA but was not always able to contribute to it when her business was struggling. She realizes that her available cash flow is not enough to live on so she continues to work part-time at the beauty school as a receptionist so she doesn’t have to spend hours on her feet.
The truth is, neither scenario, whether it is Obama’s or the Heritage Foundations’s is going to help working class Julia. Making her dependent on the government for her cradle to grave care will eventually backfire like it did in Greece. Once the producers have been bled dry and robbed of any incentive to create wealth, the money will run out and untold misery will ensue. On the other hand, unbridled capitalism will not reduce the cost of healthcare and education to the point where they will be within reach of working class families. While it will create more freedom of choice, those choices mean nothing if you can’t afford them.
* Information on the cost of birth control pills was obtained from the Planned Parenthood website.
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The War on Wives
A Tribute to Housewives (Photo credit: Richard Loyal French)
The liberal feminist movement has long had an arrogant disdain for stay at home moms. Though they try to pretend otherwise, the truth slipped out in Hilary Rosen‘s remarks, and now the Democrats have to do “damage control”. If you listen carefully to the disingenuous apologies, you will hear the true agenda of the feminist movement. It’s not necessarily motherhood that they despise, it’s wifedom, and in their eyes the epitome of subservience is the “stay at home mom”.
Liberal feminists simply do not think it is possible in this “enlightened age” for an intelligent, woman to find fulfillment in caring for a husband and children and managing a household. They think that women who choose this lifestyle must suffer from low self esteems or are brainwashed by some sort of patriarchal cult. Because they see men as nothing more than abusive, condescending sperm donors, they celebrate motherhood by elevating single moms to heroic status. Especially women who choose to raise children without a husband. Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not criticizing single mothers, or trivializing the incredible juggling act that they have to perform on a daily basis.
Liberal feminism has created a culture in which women do not just have a choice of having a career and a family they are obligated to. Women are expected to live up to a “super woman” ideal that just isn’t realistic. The result is that today’s women live with an overwhelming burden of exhaustion and guilt. There are many women who would rather stay at home with their children but because of economic and or social pressures feel they can’t. Unless you have a part-time job at a school, there are no jobs where you can be home when your kids are. When you are at work, you feel guilty that you are not home with your kids. If you have to take care of a sick child, you feel guilty about not fulfilling your work obligations. If you call a friend or relative to tend to your sick child so you can be at work you feel like a terrible mom. If you choose not to work and stay home you feel guilty every time your husband works overtime to make ends meet, or you feel guilty when you have to tell your kids no because you can’t afford it.
The real “war on women” isn’t being waged by conservatives, it’s being waged by those liberal feminists and their supporters who claim to represent all women. All women except those who put their families first that is.
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Just Another Profile of Profiling
racism \ a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce and inherent superiority of a particular race (Webster’s New collegiate Dictionary 150th Anniversary Edition)
The Trayvon Martin case has once again prompted a call for a dialog about racial profiling. Usually this means that the black community wants the white community to understand that they find profiling to be demeaning and sometimes potentially dangerous. That is understandable. Profiling in its most basic form is a kind of stereotyping. Many cultures and subcultures are stereotyped in derogatory ways and when a person of a certain culture, especially one who is aware of the stereotype and works hard to overcome it is, however judged in that way, it is insulting and demeaning.
Any truly productive examination of profiling however has to look beyond the rhetoric, to seek the real reasons why certain groups of people are profiled. More often than not, it has nothing to do with skin color; rather it is a reaction to the behaviors of a large portion of people within a particular group. We all profile to some degree. Anytime we approach a person we don’t know, we subconsciously size them up to determine whether or not they are a threat to our safety. If that person appears by his looks or actions to be a threat we will behave in a defensive manner.
That is not racism. It is human nature. Black people are not the only ones who deal with this, Many Muslims who choose to dress in the traditional Muslim fashion are also profiled because of the terrorism committed by Islamic extremists. The main reason why black people, particularly young black males, are often looked upon with suspicion is not because they are black, but because young black males commit a disproportionate number of violent crimes. These young men usually dress and behave in a way that is meant to be provocative, (baggy pants with underwear showing, hoodies and jackets during the summer). When young black males who are not out looking for trouble choose for whatever reason (usually because they think it looks cool) to imitate the troublemakers they will be perceived as being part of that group. After all, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. In fact, young white males who choose to dress and behave in this manner are also looked upon with suspicion.
Most white people want unity with black people and are able to look beyond skin color to see what’s inside. We are bewildered, saddened and insulted when we are accused of racism when it is so obviously not the issue. The black community needs to realize that more often than not, they are being judged by the content of their character and that character, for some in the black community is being found wanting. The people to blame for the mistrust between the black and white communities and the tragedies that result are not the so-called profilers, but the black hoodlums who terrorize not only whites, but their own neighborhoods as well. Beguiling their little brothers into a life of easy money, and wasted lives. Those law-abiding black people who have worked hard, educated themselves, and have become productive members of society who are tired of having to live with the taint of the hoodlums, need to understand that these problems will not be resolved until they look to the inside, of their community. Work with law enforcement and openly condemn the gang culture, and the entitlement culture and come to accept that maybe it isn’t about race after all.
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Understanding the Occupiers Part Two
Day 3 of the protest Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A little over a month ago in a post entitled “Understanding the Occupiers”, I posed ten questions that I felt would be a reasonable measure of personal responsibility and life experience. I was hoping to reach people who had attended a protest, but didn’t really fit the media profile of an Occupier. The response was, well let’s just say it was not overwhelming. I got a couple of comments from LiberalTalkingPoints. Housewifedownunder answered the questions,and turned out to be just the kind of response I was hoping for. My two commenters were from two different ideologies, yet both expressed genuine frustration at the lack of opportunities for today’s young adults. It is my hope that the leaders of business and industry will listen to the desperation of these young people and will create jobs for those who are really willing to work. I hope the government will ease its regulatory burden so that they will be able to do so. And I hope that our universities become a place where young people are taught how to be competitive in a world economy rather that a place of political indoctrination. As for the Occupiers themselves, I hope that as they continue onto adulthood, they will realize that there are better ways than civil disobedience to be heard and taken seriously.
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We’re Getting Closer to “Dear Leader” Everyday
The Lake County, FL Democratic party headquarters was displaying this flag today. Outraged Veterans groups demanded that the flag be taken down because it was a violation of the Flag Code. After checking the Code online the woman in charge took it down. Still, why did they put up this flag in the first place? Respect for the flag was once taught in school. Nowadays it seems that only the Military and the Boy Scouts know how to properly display and dispose of a United States flag. Flag etiquette aside, this flag represents the disdain many Democrats have for our republican form of government. The blind adoration that the Democratic Party faithful have for this man is almost cultish. Honored symbols of our country are theirs to manipulate into objects diefying their leader. Even our Constitutional separation of powers is seen as just a minor obstacle to his reformation of this country into a socialist democracy. Just how long will it be before our classrooms and public building will be filled with images such as this with only the leader changed?
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This is probably the most important election in the history of America. Indeed the very existence of the United States of America and what we stand for is at stake. Will we continue to be a country led “Of the people, by the people, for the people“? Or will we become a socialist welfare state, where the looters and moochers are entitled to strip the wealth from the producers. Every American who sees the truth needs to step up. There are too many in this country who are happy to trade their personal freedoms for a life free of personal responsibility. This is NOT what it means to be an American. Do not think we can stand by and things will work out. Our current president will destroy our republican democracy and replace it with a socialist one if re-elected. DO NOT GIVE HIM A SECOND TERM.
Observations and Opinions of a Middle Aged Housewife 
Blood On Their Hands
The unofficial military mission statement of “doing more with less”, the Secretaries of Defense that pushed it and the commanders who bought into it all share the blame. The dream of a “Lean Mean Fighting Machine” would only be possible if the military were staffed with robots, but it is not. It is staffed with men and women who think, feel, love and fear. Who have families and lives back home. It is their humanity that makes them vulnerable to the horrors of war, but it is also their humanity that gives them a reason to preserve the dream of liberty anywhere in the world. It gives them the courage to willingly accept that the cost of freedom could be their very lives. This courage should not be taken for granted. Every military doctor who has proclaimed a troop “fit for combat” when he should have been sent home, every commander who has proclaimed his unit ready when deep down he knew they weren’t, shares in the guilt. Every officer who has ever put his career ahead of his troops, every military leader who lacked the courage to tell his superiors the truth, that his unit was undermanned and stretched to the breaking point, shares the guilt. Every Secretary of Defense who failed to make unpopular decisions on how to increase manning, every Commander-in-Chief who was told what he wanted to hear and bought it, shares the guilt.
After all the investigations, reports and hearings, are concluded and “band-aid” recommendations are put in place we will still be left with a military that is undermanned and weary. We ask our military men and women to carry an unimaginable burden. Our military leadership owes the Afghanis and Sgt Bales’ family, who is now left without a husband and father, more than an apology. They are owed and honest assessment of what went wrong, and real solutions to prevent it from happening again. Until the people at the Pentagon find a way to bring more men and women in and retain the well-trained troops already in place, the stress of repeated deployments will create more Sgt Bales’.
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