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1VINDICATE ME, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity; I have [expectantly] trusted in, leaned on, and relied on the Lord without wavering and I shall not slide.
2Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; test my heart and my mind.
3For Your loving-kindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth [faithfully].
4I do not sit with false persons, nor fellowship with pretenders;
5I hate the company of evildoers and will not sit with the wicked.
6I will wash my hands in innocence, and go about Your altar, O Lord,
7That I may make the voice of thanksgiving heard and may tell of all Your wondrous works.
8Lord, I love the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells.
9Gather me not with sinners and sweep me not away [with them], nor my life with bloodthirsty men,
10In whose hands is wickedness, and their right hands are full of bribes.
11But as for me, I will walk in my integrity; redeem me and be merciful and gracious to me.
12My foot stands on an even place; in the congregations will I bless the Lord.
Remember redneck jokes? Blonde jokes? Polish jokes? So — why don’t we have leftie jokes? The United States is infested by out-of-control lefties swarming around the media like body lice. Why don’t we scratch where it itches?
To start making up for our humor deficit, here are a few starting ideas. Please add your own. Extra points for funny.
“You might be a left head if…
You can’t tell “it’s” from “its.”
Your mind cuts out after one tweet a day.
You think “like” is part of English grammar.
You believe Jerk Rap is better than Mozart.
You feel sure that 2 + 2 equals 5 in some cultures.
You think snowstorms prove global warming.
You believe God is dead but Karl Marx lives.
You secretly think human history started when you woke up in high school.
You’ve had at least twelve years of education, but you can’t read, write, add, subtract, multiply or divide, or make any sense.
Your eyes glaze over when somebody talks facts and logic.
You never liked history because it has too many dates.
You’re twelve years old and feel ready to have a baby.
You think undocumented immigrants lost their documents someplace.
You think blacks can’t be racists.
You consider Al Sharpton to be a spiritual leader.
You want to spend your life doing good for humanity, but you can’t stand math, science, business, accounting, agriculture, economics or engineering. Or work.
You think the Nazis were conservatives.
You’re sure you’re a Progressive but can’t explain what that means. If anything.
You believe Karl Marx gave human rights to women, blacks, and gays.
You think the Soviet Union was a good idea.
You think the most intellectually stuck president in history is a genius.
You think ObamaCare will balance the budget.
You think Bill Maher is funny.
You think race baiting is a perfectly good political argument.
You believe anything in the New York Times. Anything. A-n-y-t-h-i-n-g.
You know in your heart that people who don’t agree with you are evil, racist, sexist, gay-hating, and Islamophobes.
You think America deserved 9/11.
You’re scared about Islamophobia, but not about suicide bombers with nukes.
You believe Christians should not be allowed to criticize Muslims.
You think it’s ok for Hamas to kill families in Israel, but it’s not ok for Israel to strike Hamas.
You think that all drugs should be legalized, because people will use less of them if they’re cheap and legal.
You think Christians are evil, but Muslim terrorists deserve more sympathy and understanding.
Dearborn, Michigan: America’s First Sharia-Compliant Muslim Enclave?
Yesterday, (4/29/11) a Muslim mob of 50, disturbingly reminiscent of their co-religionists across a vast swath of official Islamdom, breached the security cordon at the City Hall in Dearborn, Michigan separating them from their speechifying nemesis, Pastor Terry Jones,
…breaking a barricade, throwing water bottles and shoes.
Riot police restored order within minutes and took at least two people into custody.
Not surprisingly, this convulsive effort by local Dearborn Muslims to violently suppress “anti-Islamic” free speech was abetted by the craven dhimmitude of a useful idiot politician, Dearborn’s mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., and worse still, the First Amendment-abrogating “ruling” by the 19th Judicial District Court of Dearborn, which “restrained and enjoined” Jones from protesting Sharia near the city’s supremacist mosque, i.e., the so-called Islamic Center of America.
Two years earlier, in June, 2009 Dearborn’s Muslims — also sanctioned by their dhimmi mayor O’Reilly and “enforced” by their Muslim police chief — denied Sudanese Christian pastor George Saeig his constitutional right to peacefully distribute Christian religious literature during the annual Dearborn Arab International Festival. The steadfast legal intervention of the Thomas More Law Center was required for an entire year to finally overturn this anti-Constitutional travesty.
Richard Thompson of the Thomas More Law Center filed an appeal on behalf of Terry Jones on April 27, 2011 which initiated,
the appellate process of challenging the controversial show trial held in the Dearborn, Michigan District Court last week.
I maintain that these disturbing behaviors by Dearborn’s Muslim population were foreshadowed by — and now confirm — local Muslim attitudes documented by polling data collected in 2003, and reported during 2004.
“The Detroit Mosque Study: Muslim Views on Policy and Religion,” was conducted by Ihsan Bagby an Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kentucky and a fellow at the Institute for Social Policy Understanding — a Muslim organization. Data were gathered during the summer of 2003 and published online in 2004.
These ominous findings were described on page 37 of the report:
Mosque participants were asked, whether they agree or disagree with the statement, “Shari’ah should be the law of the land in Muslim countries?”
Apply Islamic Law in Muslim Lands Strongly Agree – 59%
Somewhat Agree – 22%
Such data supposedly reflected the Detroit area (read Dearborn) Muslims views of “Islamic countries,” only. But given the intrinsic, universally supremacist nature of Islam and the global umma (i.e., as stated in Koran 3:110, and the Orwellian-named Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, “Ye are the best community that hath been raised up for mankind. Ye enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency; and ye believe in Allah”), once an area has a Muslim majority it is assumed by Muslims that Islamic Law should prevail — hence the “enclave” phenomenon, even here in the United States.
All who oppose the threat of totalitarian Islam and the application of its heinous religio-political “law,” Sharia, must support the noble effort of the Thomas More Law Center to uphold free speech and thwart Islamic supremacism in Dearborn, Michigan, USA.
No to Sharia-compliant Muslim enclaves in America!
The Obama administration no longer considers Syria a potential peace partner for Israel because of its repression against its own people. This is according to media background interviews with government officials.
But wait a minute! What do we know about that regime now that we didn’t know–I should say, should have known–a month or six months or six years ago? Syria has been a repressive, radical dictatorship at least since 1963 and arguably a few years earlier.
We know the same thing about Hizballah and the other rulers of Lebanon; Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip; and–to a much lesser extent but it’s still basically true–the Palestinian Authority.
So what has been the Western idea up until now? Namely for Israel to make a peace with these “partners” involving major risks and concessions. For example, Israel is supposed to give the Golan Heights to this regime in Syria in exchange for its promise of peace.
If you’ve never seen the Golan Heights in person you can’t imagine its unique strategic significance. Israel’s territory is perfectly flat and stretches to the nearby Mediterranean. The Golan Heights rise almost vertically above it and looks over this land like a balcony. You can bombard downward to your heart’s content with artillery, rockets, missiles, and mortars. Once you come down the Heights there are no natural defenses the width of Israel. And by the same token it is very hard–and costly in casualties–for the “flatlanders” to capture.
It is almost impossible for any piece of territory to have a greater military advantage.
Giving this territory to the Asad regime is the kind of silly idea that passes as somewhere between brilliance and conventional wisdom in every Western government and mass media outlet.
Of course, if the Syrian government were the kind of regime that would agree to eternal peace and keep that agreement then such a deal would make sense. But it isn’t.
And if one could have a real knowledge in advance that it successor would also keep a peace treaty–as long as the sky is blue and the rivers flow–it could be justified. But that’s not true either.
And if one could have a real knowledge in advance that it successor would also keep a peace treaty–as long as the sky is blue and the rivers flow–it could be justified. But that’s not true either, as the situation in Egypt is showing, as the situation in the Gaza Strip has shown. How many examples do you need?
And if one could know that the Western countries would keep their promised guarantees and come riding like the cavalry to smite the evildoer who broke agreements with Israel than those guarantees would be credible. But, once again, that’s not true, as the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip with Hamas, and the truce ending the 2006 war with Hizballah, and the 1993 agreement with what became the Palestinian Authority show. How many examples do you need?
According to the current way of thinking then, only after the concessions have been made, the risks undertaken, and the piece of paper signed do we find out that these weren’t partners for peace. But then it would be too late.
Isn’t it better to learn such things beforehand? In fact, isn’t it better to learn that reality right now this minute?
We need your contribution. Tax-deductible donation by PayPal or credit card: click Donate button: http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com. Checks: “American Friends of IDC.” “For GLORIA Center” on memo line. Mail: American Friends of IDC, 116 East 16th St., 11th Fl., NY, NY 10003.
BLOOM (screaming): “Have you lost your mind? What are you talking about? Kill the actors. You can’t kill the actors –they’re not animals, they’re human beings!”
BIALYSTOCK: “They are? Have you ever eaten with one?”
–“The Producers”
By Barry Rubin
The most common question—or remark—that I get from readers is to say that I’m wrong to talk about how Western policymakers (and especially the Obama Administration) are ignorant, ideologically deluded, and unable to learn from experience. They claim that these problems arise from a deliberate malevolent effort to destroy America.
It tells something about how bad a lot of the administration’s policies are as to make such a conclusion possible. Nevertheless, it’s not correct.
With academia, mass media, most of the publishing industry, and Hollywood on their side how would these policymakers know any better? Their professors told them they were brilliant; the books they read all tell them they’re right. Nobody corrects or criticizes them except those who they can rationalize are opponents–and evil people, too!–and thus these are partisan carpings to be disregarded.
If the critics can be described as conservatives their views are discounted. If you are proven to be correct that seems to have no effect on the powerful institutions and elite opinions.
In fact, the very fact of being a critic is used to disqualify criticism. When I wrote a detailed critique of Obama’s policies in a prestigious policy journal, the prestigious authors responded that what I said should be discounted–and my specific arguments need not be persuasively countered– because…I was critical of Obama’s policies!
I cannot imagine any other time in modern Western intellectual history when this kind of thing has happened.
So the usual corrective institutions aren’t functioning. If no one tells the emperor and his courtiers that they are under-dressed such people are going to keep peeling off clothes confident of the fact that nobody (or at least anyone who counts) will tell them that they are naked. With so much insulation, they don’t feel the chill.
Those certain that Obama and his government—and I only speak of foreign policy here—must be acting deliberately out of malice generally have one thing in common: they have never actually dealt with high-level politicians and decisionmakers.
Believe me, ignorance, arrogance, stupidity, a smug arrogance that closes one off to learning from advice or experience, and ideological blinders are not so unique in those circles. I’ve seen this pattern over and over again, both as a historian and from direct observation.
And those readers who have had such first-hand experience are no doubt nodding their heads at this point and thinking of their funniest anecdotes that demonstrate this point.
What’s unique is the almost totality with which various enablers keep up this pretense, making the situation far more extreme than usual. Presidents like Bill Clinton and George W. Bush no doubt believed in their positions. But having to confront daily a firestorm of ridicule and criticism forced them to question themselves constantly, to make adjustments, and even to change. policies that clearly were either not working or were too unpopular.
That’s the way the system is supposed to function.
What is different now are the following points:
–In the past, there was a lot of feedback from non-government institutions that had to be taken into account. Even if you were a smug, arrogant son-of-a-gun you had to be cautious so as not to be embarrassed or humiliating by doing something dumb and getting called on it. The Obama Administration doesn’t have to worry, and that has a bad effect on its behavior.
–Conservatives and Republicans still have to live by the old rules because they get no such pass by these institutions. On the contrary, they are subjected to intense scrutiny, biting criticism, and even deliberate misrepresentation. So whether or not they are correct, they know that every mistake or miscalculation will be relentlessly highlighted. This can be annoying and unfair but it is also a good thing for a government to deal with critics and not just courtiers.
If Sarah Palin says something stupid, a hundred sources will ridicule her and she won’t make the same mistake again. If Barack Obama says something stupid he won’t learn anything because of the silence of the fans.
–Conversely, politicians want to be loved by the “cream” of society, the people they meet at Washington cocktail parties. They are stung by being considered fools and so trim their sails in order to court praise. But if the intellectual elite, the universities, the mass media, the cultural elite, and Hollywood almost unanimously sing your praises daily it is easy to think you are infallible no matter how wrong you are.
–The career bureaucracies at the State and Defense departments represent an institutional memory and an independent source of information and analysis. Even if one doesn’t agree with ideas and proposals put forward by the uniformed military, Foreign Service, and civil service, they have a lot of experience and knowledge that is indispensible.
Unfortunately, while all presidents decide not to listen to this advice at times no one has done so more freuquently than the Obama Administration.
This is partly due to having a secretary of state who is a former rival and a secretary of defense who is a holdover from the previous administration. The CIA is led by someone who is clueless, while the national security advisor is a political operative who administers ideologues who have their own channel to the president.
In short, this is a moment in history when external and internal checks have failed to an almost unprecedented extent.
–Finally, it is helpful to have a president with some grasp of international affairs, who is willing to depend on someone with tremendous knowledge (think of President Richard Nixon’s close working relationship with National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State Henry Kissinger), and doesn’t think he already knows anything.
Let’s face it, why would a man who has only been a community organizer, adjunct law professor, state legislator, and very briefly a senator with a bad attendance record have a real feel for international affairs. The fact that he is an ideologue and arrogant even by the usual standards of politicians and presidents makes things worse.
So while there are some very good people in U.S. government agencies and even some very competent political appointees, the mess does result from arrogance, stupidity, ignorance, inexperience, and ideology of those who are making the final decisions.
Of course, it is also true that the ideology guiding these decisions–which is supposedly so wonderful–is objectively quite destructive of U.S. interests. A reader wisely suggests the maxim that there are those who know what they are doing and those who don’t. For those who really understand the ideology they are promoting, it is intended to weaken the U.S. role in the world because they think it has been bad, to end U.S. leadership because they think it has been bullying, and to empower various people in the Third World because they think that they’ve been oppressed and exploited by the United States.
They are thus doing a huge amount of damage and dismantling–hopefully only temporary–much that American diplomats and soldiers have spent decades in building.
Yes, they are doing the best they can. And that’s precisely the problem.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal, and a featured columnist for PajamasMedia at http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center is http://www.gloria-center.org/. His PajamaMedia columns are mirrored and other articles available at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/.
Micah 6:8
Walk humbly with thy God
Genesis 6:9
Noah was a just man…..and walked with God.
God never goes back, and if we walk with Him, we never shall.
Walking is a regular uniform motion, step by step, each one in advance of the last. It is not a rush, a leap, a spurt, but a steady progress from one point to another.
Those who walk with God are not always speaking of palmy days and bright hours of fellowship that are gone. It is better with them now than ever in the past.
They do not now and then climb to ecstatic heights and then descend into the valley of lukewarmness. The Christian life with them means steady progress.
They go from point to point, from strength to strength, enjoying more, loving more, understanding more, receiving more and giving more – in all respects they go forward. Such Christians are never satisfied with present experience, “the goal of yesterday is always the starting-point of to-day.”
Napoleon believed that still further conquests were necessary to the existence of his empire, that only by pushing its bounds farther and farther could he retain the territory he had conquered.
In the Christian life this is certainly true. Going forward is the only security against not going back. It is much to be born of the Spirit, and still more to be filled with the Spirit, but these experiences do not exempt us from the necessity of daily progress in Divine things. By slow degrees the likeness of Christ is perfected, as day by day we sensibly dwell in the secret of His presence.
Walking with God means step by step in the will of God. A man who carries a lantern at night does not see the whole path home. The lantern lights only a single step in advance, but when that step is taken another is lighted, and so on until the end of the journey.
In like manner God lights our way. He makes one step plain, and when we take that, another, and then another. We have nothing to do with life in the aggregate. Each moment brings its duties, responsibilities, burdens, and needs.
Our business is to live a moment at a time, and that moment for God. Dr. Kitto’s advice is, “Think not on a holy life, but on a holy moment as it flies. The first overwhelms by its immensity, the other sweetens and refreshes by its lightness and present stimulus; and yet a succession of holy moments constitutes a holy life.” – From the ‘New Testament Holiness,” by Thomas Cook.
‘So may’st thou walk! From hour to hour
Of every brightening year;
Keeping so very near
To Him, whose power is love, whose love is power.
So may’st thou walk! From hour to hour
Leaning on Him alone,
Thy life His very own,
Until He takes thee up to walk with Him in white.’ – F.R. Havergal.
- The Christians Daily Challenge: E.F. & L. Harvey
Dear Southern Storm Victims: You are dead because you didn’t believe in global warming
Rick Moran
Liberal hate site Think Progress (“When you Think Progress – think stupid”) has a jaw dropping blog post that is beyond “I told ya so” with regards to the dubious connection between climate change and severe weather. The headline says it all:
Storms Kill Over 250 Americans In States Represented By Climate Pollution Deniers
Note the slavish devotion to the cockamamie administration idea that CO2 is pollution. Someone should tell them that licking the boots of politicians in cases where even the administration knows they themselves are full of bull only makes the boot lickers look pathetic.
But what is up with that headline?
“Given that global warming is unequivocal,” climate scientist Kevin Trenberth cautioned the American Meteorological Society in January of this year, “the null hypothesis should be that all weather events are affected by global warming rather than the inane statements along the lines of ‘of course we cannot attribute any particular weather event to global warming.’”The congressional delegations of these states – Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky – overwhelmingly voted to reject the science that polluting the climate is dangerous. They are deliberately ignoring the warnings from scientists.
Kevin Trenberth is one of the lead authors of the UN IPCC Reports which failed to incorporate skeptical analysis from responsible opponents and predicted such events as Himalayan glaciers melting based on unproved research. It is a flawed document that climate change religionists treat as their Bible.
The problem with Trenberth’s statement is that it is laughably false. If we are to take the position that all weather events are the result of global warming, then how about non-events? How about a less than predicted number of hurricanes as we had last year? If bad hurricane season prove global warming, then few hurricanes must prove it’s a crock.
Neither is true. Trenberth knows better but he also knows where his bread is buttered; grants and position due to his unwavering support for warming and vicious attacks against critics. Imagine him coming out tomorrow in opposition to the IPCC. How long do you think he’d have a job? Scientists who have so much vested in the global warming industry are as suspect as those who receive grants from industry. They are both shilling for a master other than scientific truth.
Think Progress exhibits the empathy of a marmoset. To try and blame the victims of the storm for their own deaths because they didn’t “believe” in global warming (scientists – real ones – neither “believe” or “deny” warming. They examine the evidence and either agree or disagree with the hypothesis) and had no “faith” that charlatans pushing this theory for their own nefarious agenda were correct.
Next time a storm kills someone from a blue state, I’ll be eager to see what Think Progress has to say about that.
CNN traveled with us on Tea Party Express, to approximately 40 rallies nationwide. I, a black conservative, opened each rally singing my “American Tea Party Anthem”. And yet, not I nor any of the other blacks on our team were seen in the CNN documentary; thus, causing viewers to conclude the Tea Party Movement is a “white thing.”
For the most part, the liberal media ignores black conservatives. And when they do interview one of us, it is from a, “Can you believe this stupid Uncle Tom,” point of view.
Unfortunately, conservative media and most tea party organizers do not seem to grasp the strategic wisdom in featuring and supporting black conservatives.
Brothers and sisters, the Left is exploiting Obama’s skin color for everything it is worth. Their guy in the indestructible black coat of armor is making all of their liberal dreams come true; usurping more power than any “white” president could imagine in his wildest dreams.
You can’t say “no” to Obama. He’s black! All opposition is racist. Folks, the left is fighting to win, working the “black thing” to the hilt. We cannot afford to leave our black weapons of mass influence on the sidelines.
Our economy is an unprecedented disaster. Pundits are saying under “normal conditions” the president would be fired. However, they believe Obama will be re-elected. “Normal conditions” means the president would be white. In other words, pundits believe Obama’s black skin is the ultimate trump card deflating all opposition to his systematic destruction of America.
Patriots, a second Obama term is the end of America as we know it.
Meanwhile, black conservatives are giving it their all, tirelessly fighting to defeat Obama; for the most part, in anonymity.
We have many great black conservatives on our side. They should be featured front and center at our rallies, TV shows, radio shows and etc; not for the sake of black conservatives, but in defense of our Tea Party Movement.
Here’s how a black radio talk show host began his interview with me, “If they (meaning white tea partiers) want to attract black people, the least credible thing they could do is to stick a black guy out front wearing a cowboy hat (meaning me).”
I wanted to say, “Screw you and end the interview”. But, a still small voice in my brain said,
“Hang in the there”. I boldly espoused conservative principles. His scheduled 10 minute radio interview with me went for 30 minutes. Remarkably, every caller into the program agreed with me. Praise God! Folks, we have got to take our message to the black community.
Also, funding should be targeted to take our Tea Party message to the black community. Seasoned politicians say nothing gets votes like going to the people; knocking on doors and showing up at community events.
Obama and his minions including the liberal media continue to lie about the intentions of the tea party. In a soon to be released book, Obama says the tea party is motivated by race. It’s time we go to the black community and tell our side of the story, the truth. Let black America know the tea party has nothing to do with race and everything to do with preserving our freedom, liberty and culture.
I am trying to launch a mini tour to black colleges titled, “Reach Your Dreams”. The message of my rallies targeted to black youths is, “The best route to reaching your dreams is conservatism.” The rallies will feature mostly black conservative speakers including a few black conservative rappers. I will emcee, speak and sing. I need sponsorship.
Two of my buddies, Joe the Plumber and Kevin Jackson have launched their tour designed to deal with the “race” issue. Please support them folks financially and with your presence at their events. Again, not for them, but for America. Black conservatives should be flying all over the country speaking, performing and singing at tea party events.
Patriots, please do not think I am whining or asking you to feel sorry for black conservatives. Heaven forbid, I am not. All I am saying is the Left is exploiting Obama’s race “big time”, destroying America, while aggressively pounding the drum more than ever that the Tea Party is racist. Meanwhile, we have powerful black resources not being maximized.
Black Conservatives are valiantly fighting along side our fellow white patriots in the Tea Party Movement. It is time to rip away the cloak of invisibility.
Lloyd Marcus, Proud Unhyphenated American
“Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama 2012″. Please join us!
In his Time Magazine article — titled “Are America’s Best Days Behind Us?” — Fareed Zakaria lays out the problem, but he fails to address key elements in the solution: personal freedom and responsibility.
Reference “the carrot and the stick.” Zakaria understands the carrot. As he points out, he came to America from India because of the opportunities here, becoming a classic example of using the system to become a successful, admirable, and respected public figure. As a motivated person, Zakaria seeks the carrot, so he assumes that others will as well.
Conversely, Zakaria does not understand the motivating capacity of the stick. Understanding the fact that your next meal depends on getting off the couch and getting a job is highly motivating.
In the article, Zakaria cites Mancur Olson’s 1982 book The Rise and Decline of Nations, in which Olson outlines the decline of Great Britain and the rise of Germany as economic powers after WWII in spite of that war’s outcome. Zakaria’s analysis of Olson’s theory reads:
British society grew comfortable, complacent and rigid, and its economic and political arrangements became ever more elaborate and costly, focused on distribution rather than growth. Labor unions, the welfare state, protectionist policies and massive borrowing all shielded Britain from the new international competition. The system became sclerotic, and over time, the economic engine of the world turned creaky and sluggish.
Sound familiar? With the exception of the part about protectionist policies, you could substitute “the U.S. today” for “Great Britain” above, and the statement would be accurate.
Zakaria then cites the post-war boom in the ’50s:
The decisions that created today’s growth — decisions about education, infrastructure and the like — were made decades ago. What we see today is an American economy that has boomed because of policies and developments of the 1950s and ’60s: the interstate-highway system, massive funding for science and technology, a public-education system that was the envy of the world and generous immigration policies.
True enough. But paramount as accompaniment to those policies was an inbred commitment by U.S. citizens to do their share and contribute. Remember John Kennedy? “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” But isn’t that about the time when exactly the opposite started to happen? Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, with help from both political parties, initiated the “Great Society,” instrumental in diminishing individual motivation and plunging millions into a constant state of dependency. Today, the more applicable statement among many is “Ask not what you can do for your country; demand what your country can do for you.”
I remember sitting down to dinner and watching the news in the late ’90s when CA governor Pete Wilson was attempting to reduce “welfare” payments to dependent families. One eighteen-year old woman with four kids responded by demanding that she receive what she felt was due. “I’d like to see Pete Wilson raise four kids on what they are paying me!” The fact that she was eighteen years old with four kids wasn’t the worst part. Nor was her demand that taxpayers pay her way. No, the worst part is that she was not embarrassed. In Zakaria’s 1950s, had this young woman collected public benefits, she would have been apologetic, and she would have vowed to get off public dependency as soon as she was able. The attitude of being considerate of your fellow person and feeling grateful to those who supported you was in the process of being destroyed.
Zakaria dismisses the considerable intrusion of creeping socialism into the American fabric as a cause of our diminishing economic dominance by citing examples of successful socialist countries — notably Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. While correct in his analysis, he fails to acknowledge that these countries are tiny with respect to the U.S. The personal attention policymakers can inject into a small economy is considerably different from what can be accomplished in a large one. Rules can be adjusted, policies can be changed, and wrongs can be righted in comparatively rapid fashion.
Zakaria states that “flexibility” is necessary going forward, but flexibility is much harder in a large society. More importantly, throw into the mix that those Scandinavian countries are ethnically and culturally quite homogeneous, and you create a considerably different canvas. The diversity that exists in America is both a strength and a curse. And the strength is definitely not in the administration of governmental programs, where all groups try to grab or maintain their “fair” share.
Interestingly, Mr. Zakaria’s article quotes Harvard historian Niall Ferguson’s book, Civilization: The West and the Rest, in which Dr. Ferguson states:
For 500 years the West patented six killer applications that set it apart. The first to download them was Japan. Over the last century, one Asian country after another has downloaded these killer apps — competition, modern science, the rule of law and private property rights, modern medicine, the consumer society and the work ethic. Those six things are the secret sauce of Western civilization.
I agree. I read the list over few times and can’t find redistribution of wealth or indications of a nanny state anywhere.
Mr. Zakaria goes on to say that we need to increase spending. And while “investing” in the future in similar manner as we did in the ’50s could very well be a good idea, we first have to plug the leak in the boat. You can’t row your boat very fast — not to mention keep it from sinking — if it’s under water.
We need to get our fiscal ship in order and stop the bleeding, and then we can think about “investing” in the future. The hard truth is that we don’t have the money to invest in the infrastructure of the ’50s directly because of the wild, unnecessary spending and entitlement programs we took on after our economy started to boom.
Most importantly, it is extremely risky to “invest” in the things called for by Mr. Zakaria unless we get the corresponding change in societal attitudes to more closely reflect our culture of the ’50s. Back then the goose was laying the golden egg, but we took away her food. We gave it to the pigs.
The carrot is out there; it always has been. We need to bring back the stick.
The recent 60 Minutes expose on Greg Mortenson, the author of the bestselling Three Cups of Tea, has prompted me to reflect on the question: why was this guy a household name and international hero?
A police spokesman tells the press, “If a victim believes that an alleged crime is racially aggravated, the police will treat it seriously. Investigations into this incident are continuing.” The incident in question? A pub singer belting out the once-innocuous ’70s hit, “Kung Fu Fighting.”
In an effort to undermine the Assad regime, the State Department gave millions of dollars to what they define as “liberal and moderate” Islamist groups.
More media hype: this is not remotely the most deaths we’ve seen in a season, and the total reported number of tornadoes will drop as we figure out which reports were of the same twisters.
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