Friday Funnies

Dear Democrats, Your America Sucks | The American Spectator

To the Democratic Party, and specifically those of you responsible for shaping federal policies over
the last seven years and our cultural institutions over a far longer time…

Great job.

You’ve succeeded beyond your wildest dreams in your efforts to, as the front man for your current operation called it, “fundamentally transform America.” It’s been seven years with said front man in charge, and those of us not in on your game are staring slack-jawed at what you’ve made of this country.

When Barack Obama was first running for president, he cited the great Ronald Reagan, the most successful of modern American presidents and the principal hero of today’s Republican Party (which is problematic, seeing as though the man has been gone from the political scene for two decades, but that’s a subject for a future column), as his principal role model. Many misunderstood what Obama was saying in promoting Reagan thus; they expected that to mean Obama wanted rapid economic growth, peace through strength, and an eight-year celebratory revival of American culture and society.

As we’ve seen, that’s not what Obama and his fellow travelers had in mind. Rather, Obama wanted to be for the Left what Reagan was for the Right; the embodiment of political strength and leadership demeanor.

In this, Obama has succeeded. Future Democrat presidents will attempt, with futility, to match Obama’s policy achievements. None will manage to so forcefully establish his or her party’s identity and brand. He is the Reagan of the Democratic Party, and for the next three decades or longer his party will pine for another vessel of Hope and Change such as he.

But if Obama is the epitome of the Left’s political dreams, we now know America is no better at socialism than is Greece or Venezuela. In nearly every way imaginable, our society is in deep decline — and in nearly each of those ways the decline has come thanks to bad leftist policy and persistent leftist cultural aggression.

Was there any more compelling reason for Obama’s 2008 election outside of a desire on the part of mostly white America to transcend the racial tensions of the past and exorcise those demons? Where are we now after seven years of Reverend Wright, the New Black Panthers, beer summits, Eric Holder, Trayvon, Ferguson, Baltimore, and Dylann Roof? More Americans believe race is a larger problem after seven years of Obama than disagree. But while there will always be dead-ender white trash like Roof, Obama and his allies have brought the rise of militant anti-white racists, who will be with us for the foreseeable future with their #BlackLivesMatter hashtags and their La Raza agitation.

Our economy? Destroyed. Obama’s America prospers haltingly, if at all — not a surprise given his boast early in his presidency that he would outlaw the business cycle. The Democratic Party formerly seethed at Reagan for his allusions to welfare Cadillacs; now, after seven years of a leftist president, some 93 million of us don’t even bother to seek employment. Our people increasingly think the American Dream is a bad joke, and barely half of us even think capitalism is worth having. The number of businesses extant in America has declined every year since Obama was first elected, and those still alive make a practice of refusing to grow. No wonder that consistent 3-4 percent GDP growth, taken for granted in previous recoveries, now seems fanciful.

Obama continues to boast that America’s standing in the world has improved under his watch, but he cannot point to a single concrete example proving that claim. He has all but destroyed NATO, China now emerges as a hegemon in the western Pacific, he admits defeating the rag-tag jihadist caliphate is a “generational” struggle (largely because he refuses to recognize the proper role of guns and bombs in winning a violent ideological argument), under his watch Latin America from Mexico to Ecuador has become a collection of failed and failing states, Africa has devolved into mayhem and murder as the principal front in the global jihad, and he sits powerless by as Iran hurtles toward leadership in a new Middle East nuclear arms race.

Our future? Militarily we’re weaker now than we were before World War II began, and our president seems more interested in sex changes for our soldiers — giving a new meaning to “private parts” — than in maintaining our naval strength. That weakness is undoubtedly provocative; just ask Vladimir Putin, Khamenei, and the Chinese. And when the balloon rises, so does the specter of our now $18 trillion national debt. How to finance a coming major war when we’re already mortgaged to the hilt? The answer is it can’t be done, meaning American weakness is locked in. In fact, thanks to the president and his fellow social engineers our decline isn’t just reflected in geopolitics but on our border. We’re being colonized by the Third World, both thanks to our own policies — see the result of our refugee resettlement efforts in Somali Minneapolis — and lack thereof. When Donald Trump inartfully raises the question of immigrant criminality above and beyond the initial trespassing he is demonized as a racist, but few bother to ask why America has to accept criminal immigrants at all. That’s startling in the wake of the Kate Steinle murder at the San Francisco pier.

Our freedoms? Ask Aaron and Melissa Klein what they think of the state of our civil liberties, after an Oregon judge not only sanctioned the destruction of their wedding cake business but denied them the freedom to discuss their plight. Ask Brendan Eich, the former Mozilla CEO who committed the crime of writing a check to support organizations opposed to gay marriage. Ask any conservative attempting to ply a trade in Hollywood or academia. The Left’s cultural fascists have perfected the ability to silence their opposition without the use of jackboots and truncheons as in the past, though as we’ve seen an angry mob or a riot squad here and there is hardly out of the question. Next up will be the forfeiting of tax exemptions by churches — unless the Left is willing to make exceptions for those it deems “helpful” to the cause.

Little wonder, given the above, that the American mood is no longer the cheerful optimism of the Reagan years but a morose recognition of perhaps permanent decline.

That’s what Obama and his party have on offer. Decline and despondence. And if you’re not on his team, he demands that you get your mind right — as he lights the White House in rainbow colors and lectures Christians on faith and good works.

A few months ago, Scott Walker was embroiled in controversy surrounding former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s comment at a private fundraiser for the Wisconsin governor that Obama’s patriotism was lacking. But patriotism boils down to a love of country and its people. Where is Obama’s love for any but his own partisan constituency? Where is that love from any on the Left?

Nowhere. If you’re not with them, you’re the Other. You’re the recipient of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. You will be worn down, demonized and liquidated — politically or otherwise.

We’ve known this for some time, of course. We’ve seen it in Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Newark, New Orleans, Cleveland — all the cities where urban socialists like Obama and his pals have permanently seized power. Now it’s the country at large under their thumbs, and one third of America tells pollsters it’s ready to decamp for the national suburb — wherever that might be.

In short, Obama’s America sucks. And it can’t continue. Change is coming.

Source:
Dear Democrats, Your America Sucks | The American Spectator

About the Author:

Scott McKay is publisher of the Hayride, which offers news and commentary on Louisiana and national politics.

Hump Day Hunnies

Do the Rich Pay Their Fair Share?

Fast Food Workers: You Don’t Deserve $15 an Hour to Flip Burgers, and That’s OK

From Matt Walsh - Matt Walsh is a blogger, writer, speaker, and professional truth sayer.


Dear fast food workers,

It’s come to my attention that many of you, supposedly in 230 cities across the country, are walking out of your jobs today and protesting for $15 an hour. You earnestly believe — indeed, you’ve been led to this conclusion by pandering politicians and liberal pundits who possess neither the slightest grasp of the basic rules of economics nor even the faintest hint of integrity — that your entry-level gig pushing buttons on a cash register at Taco Bell ought to earn you double the current federal minimum wage.

I’m aware, of course, that not all of you feel this way. Many of you might consider your position as Whopper Assembler to be rather a temporary situation, not a career path, and you plan on moving on and up not by holding a poster board with “Give me more money!” scrawled across it, but by working hard and being reliable. To be clear, I am not addressing the folks in this latter camp. They are doing what needs to be done, and I respect that.

Instead, I want to talk to those of you who actually consider yourselves entitled to close to a $29,000 a year full-time salary for doing a job that requires no skill, no expertise and no education; those who think a fry cook ought to earn an entry-level income similar to a dental assistant; those who insist the guy putting the lettuce on my Big Mac ought to make more than the emergency medical technician who saves lives for a living; those who believe you should automatically be able to “live comfortably,” as if “comfort” is a human right.

To those in this category, I have a few things I need to say, for your own sake:

First, let me start with a story. It’s anecdotal, obviously, but then this whole #FightFor15 “movement” is based entirely on anecdotes.

I submit mine: I’m 28 years old now. I started working when I was about 15. I did hourly, customer service-type stuff at grocery stores, snowball stands and pizza places, never making much more than the bare minimum at any of them.

When I was 20 I moved out of the house and got my first job in radio. Starting out as a rock DJ in Delaware, I made $17,000 a year, or about $8 an hour. I lived off of that, earning a few small raises through the years — having to eat fewer meals, buy fewer things, and, God forbid, even forgo cable and Internet access in my apartment — right up to when I got married at 25.

Around my 26th birthday, over 10 years after my first job, I landed a position in Kentucky that paid me around $40,000. It was the first time I’d ever made the equivalent of $15 an hour or more. Again, this was after 10 years of working. Of course, our newfound wealth soon had to be split between four people, as my wife became pregnant with our twins within a few months of me starting the job.

After finding out that we were expecting not one baby, but two, I started my website. I wrote every day for six months before I made much more than a dime on it. It wasn’t until August 2013 that I earned my first significant chunk of money. By my 27th birthday last year, I was finally making a “comfortable living.”

It took me over a decade to get here.

You think the jobs I had when I was 16 should have provided me with the comfortable living I just established in my late 20s? Frankly, I think you’re delusional.

To understand how delusional, consider that a $15 an hour full-time salary would put you in the same ballpark as biologists, auto mechanics, biochemists, teachers, geologists, roofers and bank tellers.
You’d be making more than some police officers.

You’d easily out-earn many firefighters.

Ironically, you’d be fast food workers with starting salaries higher than many professional chefs, which is a bit like paying a tattoo artist less than the person who paints cat whiskers on your face at the carnival.

You’d be halfway to the income of accountants, engineers and physical therapists.
Does that sound fair? It might sound fun, but does it sound fair? These are highly skilled jobs that require years of training and education. These are jobs which, in some cases, our society profoundly relies upon. Jobs with enormous responsibilities. Jobs that are considerably more complex and complicated than refilling the soda fountain at Roy Rogers.

I’m not insulting you, but when you claim you ought to be able to stroll into Hardee’s and be immediately rewarded with a salary higher than crane operators and medical lab technicians, someone needs to talk some sense into you.

I wish I didn’t have to point out that you are doing something which is fundamentally worth very little, but when you stomp your feet and insist you should be handed what some of us worked decades to earn, that’s when it becomes time for, as the kids would say, real talk.

So, real talk: Your job isn’t worth 15 bucks an hour. Sure, as a human being, you’re priceless. As a child of God, you’re precious, a work of art, a freaking miracle. But your job wrapping hamburgers in foil and putting them in paper bags — that has a price tag, and the price tag ain’t anywhere close to the one our economy and society puts on teachers and mechanics.

Don’t like it? Well, you shouldn’t. It’s fast food. It’s menial. It’s mindless. It’s not supposed to be a career. It’s not supposed to be a living. An entry-level position making roast beef sandwiches at Arby’s isn’t meant to be something you do for 26 years.

It isn’t paying enough? OK, get another job. Get a second job. Get a third job. Get a different job.
Trust me, this is a better plan than asking the government to force your employer to pay you significantly more than the market allows.

I know you might not care about the economics of this thing. After all, you aren’t economists (but with $15 an hour you’d almost be in the same income bracket). But it should be of some interest to learn a $15 an hour minimum wage would represent a steep tax on jobs. And the problem is simple: when you tax something, you get less of it.

Why? Because, despite what Elizabeth Warren might tell you, these fast food franchise owners have a finite amount of money to spend on operating expenses. They aren’t making millions in profits, most of them, so when you come along and say, “Hey, your labor costs just doubled — congratulations!” that business owner will have to make decisions.

It’s not about what he wants to do, it’s what he’ll have to do.

And those decisions will likely start with the most obvious: hire less, fire more. If you do survive that first cut — which, if you’re skipping work to hold signs in the parking lot, I don’t like your chances — then you’ll have to deal with greater expectations, more responsibilities and less room for error. In other words, at a minimum, you won’t get away with treating your customers like dirt.

But after a while, as automation technologies become more and more ubiquitous, your employer will look for the first chance to replace you with a machine that can do the same thing more efficiently and for less money. It’s not that he’ll want to, necessarily, it’s that he will have to, in order to stay in business.

You might be aware that “studies” exist “proving” the minimum wage increases employment and reduces poverty. But studies can prove anything you want them to prove, and in this case, most credible research indicates the opposite.

Extensive investigations have demonstrated a causal link between job loss and minimum wage hikes, and even the Congressional Budget Office says that a minimum wage of just over $10 an hour could cost half a million jobs.

Besides, what we’re talking about here — or what you’re talking about — is not an incremental hike, but a massive, sudden, dramatic, calamitous spike that upends the economy and, in one instant, makes low-skill fast food employment more profitable than dozens of other far more skilled, far more important types of jobs. None of these estimates, then, even come close to capturing the lunacy of a $15 an hour minimum wage.

Do you think it can happen in a vacuum? Do you think we can magically take a 17-year-old Wendy’s employee, give him a salary commensurate with law enforcement officers and emergency medical workers, and everything will just continue along as normal?

No, these jobs have a value in the economy. You use the sledgehammer of government to flip the scales upside down like that, and you end up far into the land of Unintended Consequences. What would they be? Hard to know, exactly. I imagine, for one thing, given the “profit vs. effort required” calculation, we’ll have more people becoming Subway sandwich artists and fewer people putting out fires, teaching children and building bridges.

That is, unless these other professions raise their incomes to compete, which they can’t afford to do, so look for the inevitable mass firings to extend beyond the doors of your fast food establishment and out into virtually every other industry in the country. This is to say nothing of the hike in living expenses that will naturally follow when millions of people are given a huge collective raise overnight.

And all so that you could avoid working your way up the income ladder like everyone else had to do.
Speaking of which, lest you think your lack of a $15 per hour income puts you in some kind of Special Victim Category, I took an informal survey on Twitter this morning. I asked my followers when they finally earned $15 an hour, and what their profession was at the time. Here are some of the responses:

Read the rest here:
Fast Food Workers: You Don’t Deserve $15 an Hour to Flip Burgers, and That’s OK | TheBlaze.com

BBQ Outlaws

Seriously? You can't BBQ in your own yard? 

Nathan Bedford Forrest - Civil Rights Advocate

Forrest : Memphis' first White Civil Rights Advocate

Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) was a renowned Southern military leader and strategist during the War Between the States. During the Civil War, Forrest's Confederate cavalry wrecked havoc among Union forces throughout the mid-South. He gained worldwide fame from his many battlefield successes, but the wartime heroics have overshadowed his post-war work as a community leader and civil rights advocate. He fought fiercely on the battlefield, yet was a compassionate man off the field. After the war, Forrest worked tirelessly to build the New South and to promote employment for black Southerners. Forrest was known near and far as a great general, and was a well-respected citizen by both blacks and whites alike.

The Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association (predecessor to the NAACP) was organized by Southern blacks after the war to promote black voting rights, etc. One of their early conventions was held in Memphis and Mr. Forrest was invited to be the guest speaker, the first white man ever to be invited to speak to the Association.

After the Civil War, General Forrest made a speech to the Memphis City Council (then called the Board of Aldermen). In this speech he said that there was no reason that the black man could not be doctors, store clerks, bankers, or any other job equal to whites. They were part of our community and should be involved and employed as such just like anyone else. In another speech to Federal authorities, Forrest said that many of the ex-slaves were skilled artisans and needed to be employed and that those skills needed to be taught to the younger workers. If not, then the next generation of blacks would have no skills and could not succeed and would become dependent on the welfare of society. Forrest's words went unheeded.

The Memphis & Selma Railroad was organized by Forrest after the war to help rebuild the South's transportation and to build the 'new South'. Forrest took it upon himself to hire blacks as architects, construction engineers and foremen, train engineers and conductors, and other high level jobs. In the North, blacks were prohibited from holding such jobs. When the Civil War began, Forrest offered freedom to 44 of his slaves if they would serve with him in the Confederate army. All 44 agreed. One later deserted; the other 43 served faithfully until the end of the war.

Though they had many chances to leave, they chose to remain loyal to the South and to Forrest. Part of General Forrest's command included his own Escort Company, his Green Berets, made up of the very best soldiers available. This unit, which varied in size from 40-90 men, was the elite of the cavalry. Eight of these picked men were black soldiers and all served gallantly and bravely throughout the war. All were armed with at least 2 pistols and a rifle. Most also carried two additional pistols in saddle holsters. At war's end, when Forrest's cavalry surrendered in May 1865, there were 65 black troopers on the muster roll. Of the soldiers who served under him, Forrest said of the black troops: Finer Confederates never fought.

Forrest was a brilliant cavalryman and courageous soldier. As author Jack Hurst writes: a man possessed of physical valor perhaps unprecedented among his countrymen, as well as, ironically, a man whose social attitudes may well have changed farther in the direction of racial enlightenment over the span of his lifetime than those of most American historical figures.

When Forrest died in 1877 it is noteworthy that his funeral in Memphis was attended not only by a throng of thousands of whites but by hundreds of blacks as well. The funeral procession was over two miles long and was attended by over 10,000 area residents, including 3000 black citizens paying their respects.

Forrest's speech to the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association July 5, 1875.

A convention and BBQ was held by the Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association at the fairgrounds of Memphis, five miles east of the city. An invitation to speak was conveyed to General Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of the city's most prominent citizens, and one of the foremost cavalry commanders in the late War Between the States. This was the first invitation granted to a white man to speak at this gathering. The invitation's purpose, one of the leaders said, was to extend peace, joy, and union, and following a brief welcoming address a Miss Lou Lewis, daughter of an officer of the Pole-Bearers, brought forward flowers and assurances that she conveyed them as a token of good will. After Miss Lewis handed him the flowers, General Forrest responded with a short speech that, in the contemporary pages of the Memphis Appeal, evinces Forrest's racial open-mindedness that seemed to have been growing in him.

Ladies and Gentlemen I accept the flowers as a memento of reconciliation between the white and colored races of the southern states. I accept it more particularly as it comes from a colored lady, for if there is any one on God's earth who loves the ladies I believe it is myself. ( Immense applause and laughter.) I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to elevate every man to depress none. (Applause.) I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going. I have not said anything about politics today. I don't propose to say anything about politics. You have a right to elect whom you please; vote for the man you think best, and I think, when that is done, you and I are freemen. Do as you consider right and honest in electing men for office. I did not come here to make you a long speech, although invited to do so by you. I am not much of a speaker, and my business prevented me from preparing myself. I came to meet you as friends, and welcome you to the white people. I want you to come nearer to us. When I can serve you I will do so. We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict. Go to work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly, and when you are oppressed I'll come to your relief. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this opportunity you have afforded me to be with you, and to assure you that I am with you in heart and in hand. (Prolonged applause.)

Whereupon N. B. Forrest again thanked Miss Lewis for the bouquet and then gave her a kiss on the cheek. Such a kiss was unheard of in the society of those days, in 1875, but it showed a token of respect and friendship between the general and the black community and did much to promote harmony among the citizens of Memphis.

Friday Funnies

Blog: Progressive liberals reveal their true character

This piece was written by Michael Bargo, Jr. and was publiched at American Thinker.

Liberal Democrats love to run for office wearing missionary robes.  They proclaim that they will help the poor, that they want the minimum wage raised, and that they want the sick, helpless, and elderly to receive money that they will take from the rich.  Republicans are not qualified to run government, Democrats say, since they are mean, selfish corporate types who want to do nothing but grab money from the working class and keep it to themselves.

Oh, really?  Look what Democrats do in Chicago, a crucible of Democratic rule.  For over eighty years, Democrats have run the city and its county, Cook County.  Unlike New York, which is contained within five counties, Chicago is wholly contained by just one county, Cook County.  This enables them to have absolute control.

This combination has resulted in huge debt burdens for all households of the county, not just the rich.  Each household in the city, poor as well as rich, now owes $63,525 for its pension and municipal bond debt.  And the muni bonds were largely issued to pay operating expenses so money can be diverted to their pension fund.

Now, with Obama in office openly flouting every constitutional constraint, even Cook County officials are no longer trying to hide their abuse of the poor.  Having achieved full political domination, they are openly acting like political elites and will tax the helpless residents into the dirt, the way Democrats did in Detroit and Stockton, CA.

The latest proof of this is a sales tax hike, passed just days ago, which raised the Cook County sales tax from 9.25% to 10.25% in one day.  This means every person in the county, poor and rich, will have another one percent of his disposable income taken by Cook County public workers.  And to add insult to injury, the County Board president, Preckwinkle, admits that 90% of the tax hike will go to pay the pensions of the lovely Democrats who run the county.  So poor and middle-class residents of the county will suffer just so the hotshots of the Democratic Party, the party so devoted to elevating the incomes of the minimum wage earners, can sit on their butts and enjoy their huge pensions, all at the expense of the poor and working classes, the exact thing they accuse rich Republicans of doing.  Only Republicans haven’t run any big Midwestern or Northeastern cities for eighty years.  Only Democrats have.

Wake up, those who vote for socialist Democrats.  You’ve been had.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/07/progressive_liberals_reveal_their_true_character.html#ixzz3giYtBHO8
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

Hump Day Hunnies

How To Explain Economics To A Liberal

A Legacy of Cliches - Thomas Sowell

Discussions of racial problems almost invariably bring out the cliche of “a legacy of slavery.” But
anyone who is being serious, as distinguished from being political, would surely want to know if whatever he is talking about — whether fatherless children, crime or whatever — is in fact a legacy of slavery or of some of the many other things that have been done in the century and a half since slavery ended.

Another cliche that has come into vogue is that slavery is “America’s original sin.” The great Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said that a good catch phrase could stop thinking for fifty years. Catch phrases about slavery have stopped people from thinking, even longer than that.
Today the moral horror of slavery is so widely condemned that it is hard to realize that there were thousands of years when slavery was practiced around the world by people of virtually every race. Even the leading moral and religious thinkers in different societies accepted slavery as just a fact of life.

No one wanted to be a slave. But their rejection of slavery as a fate for themselves in no way meant that they were unwilling to enslave others. It was just not an issue — until the 18th century, and then it became an issue only in Western civilization.

Neither Africans, Asians, Polynesians nor the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere saw anything wrong with slavery, even after small segments of British and American societies began to condemn slavery as morally wrong in the 18th century.

What was special about America was not that it had slavery, which existed all over the world, but that Americans were among the very few peoples who began to question the morality of holding human beings in bondage. That was not yet a majority view among Americans in the 18th century, but it was not even a serious minority view in non-Western societies at that time.

Then how did slavery end? We know how it ended in the United States — at a cost of one life lost in the Civil War for every six slaves freed. But that is not how it ended elsewhere.

What happened in the rest of the world was that all of Western civilization eventually turned against slavery in the 19th century. This meant the end of slavery in European empires around the world, usually over the bitter opposition of non-Western peoples. But the West happened to be militarily dominant at the time.

Turning back to the “legacy of slavery” as an explanation of social problems in black American communities today, anyone who was serious about the truth — as distinguished from talking points — would want to check out the facts.

Were children raised with only one parent as common at any time during the first 100 years after slavery as in the first 30 years after the great expansion of the welfare state in the 1960s?

As of 1960, 22 percent of black children were raised with only one parent, usually the mother. Thirty years later, two-thirds of black children were being raised without a father present.

What about ghetto riots, crimes in general and murder in particular? What about low levels of labor force participation and high levels of welfare dependency? None of those things was as bad in the first 100 years after slavery as they became in the wake of the policies and notions of the 1960s.
To many on the left, the 1960s were the glory days of their movements, and for some the days of their youth as well. They have a heavy emotional investment and ego investment in the ideas, aspirations and policies of the 1960s.

It might never occur to many of them to check their beliefs against some hard facts about what actually happened after their ideas and policies were put into effect. It certainly would not be pleasant to admit, even to yourself, that after promising progress toward “social justice,” what you actually delivered was a retrogression toward barbarism.

The principal victims of these retrogressions are the decent, law-abiding members of black communities across the country who are prey to hoodlums and criminals.

Back in the 19th century Frederick Douglass saw the dangers from well-meaning whites. He said: “Everybody has asked the question, ‘What shall we do with the Negro?’ I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us.” Amen.

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com.


A Legacy of Cliches | John Hawkins' Right Wing News

10 Reasons Christian Heaven Would Actually Be Hell

Most Westerners are at least vaguely familiar with the popular Christian version of Heaven: pearly
gates, streets of gold, winged angels and the Righteous, with their bodies made perfect and immortal, singing the praises of God forever. What’s surprising is how few people have actually thought about what a nightmare this kind of existence would be.

Let me start by laying out a bit more detail about what Heaven is supposed to be.

Our familiar images of Heaven come from texts written in the first and second centuries and incorporated by the Catholic Church into what we now call the New Testament. The Hebrew writers of the Torah alluded to an afterlife much like the Hades of the Greeks and Romans—a hazy underworld in which the souls of the dead neither die nor fully live. But by the time the New Testament was written, the concepts of a distinct Heaven and hell had emerged in the Jewish culture, from whence they entered early Christianity and then, later, Islam.

The books of the New Testament were written at different times and for different ends, which means they don’t always agree. Although Paul, in 1 Corinthians, says that Heaven is beyond imagining, other writers offer concrete details. The popular version of Heaven today is a composite that comes from several texts but relies heavily on the book of Revelation.

• Heaven is a real place. The writer of John puts these words in the mouth of Jesus, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3NRSV). Some Christian leaders use verses from Old Testament prophets to pinpoint the location of Heaven, suggesting that it is somewhere beyond the North Pole.
• People in Heaven have bodies. The earliest Christian texts, the letters of Paul, suggest that the eternal body is pneuma or spirit, but later New Testament writers inclined toward physical resurrection of both Jesus and believers, though with renewed bodies. This view was affirmed by Church fathers and is now the predominant Christian belief. From this we get the Evangelical belief that in the “End Times” bodies of believers will rise up to Heaven in a Rapture. This belief in a bodily resurrection is even used to explain why Christian women should keep their bodies “pure.”
• Trappings of wealth abound. Many translations of the Gospel of John say that the dwelling places in Heaven are mansions, which fits with other descriptions of heavenly opulence. In the book of Revelation, the writer is taken in a vision to glimpse Heaven for himself: “And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.” (Revelation 21). God sits on an ornate throne, and along with crowns, the heavenly hosts are clothed in white, a symbol of purity and a reminder that they do not need to work.
• Heaven is eternal and reserved for believers. The Bible verse that is most quoted by Protestant Christians is John 3:16, which makes both of these points: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. The author of Revelation assures that, “he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more” (Revelation 21:4). In this eternity, it is always light and there is no need for sleep.
• Children who die before an “age of accountability” also go there. Despite the belief that children are born bad, thanks to “original sin,” many Christians believe that children who die young go to Heaven because the alternative is simply unthinkable. For evidence, they point to two verses in the book of Matthew: “So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost” (Matthew 18:14). “But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs” (Matthew 19:14). Although Christians have disagreed over the centuries about when a budding human acquires an immortal soul, many now believe this happens in the process of conception.
• Inhabitants spend their “time” serving and worshipping God. Even though it is always light, we are told that the saints (meaning the saved) will serve and worship God round the clock. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them (Revelation 7:15). Several passages suggest that the faithful will receive crowns, which they can then offer up as gifts to God. Some take this literally and some do not.

Please note that I have made no attempt to analyze or explain what these passages may have meant in their original contexts, given the objectives of the writers. My purpose is to demonstrate where modern Christianity got the image of Heaven so often depicted in hymns, sermons, art and pop culture.


Read more here:
10 Reasons Christian Heaven Would Actually Be Hell | Alternet

Congratulations, ISIS!

You wanted attention, and yesterday, you got it. Only, you chose the wrong people to seek that attention from.
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You did not get the attention of our weak President. He tweeted his support for your medieval holiday following your cowardly attack.
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You did not get the attention of our useless and corrupt Congress. .
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They were too busy lining their pockets.
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When you attacked those four Marines, you got the attention of every one of our 186,800 active duty Marines, along with every Marine who ever served.
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You just stirred up hate, discontent, and malice within a group of people who relish the idea of engaging the enemy.
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There is something you obviously don't yet know about Marines...
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The brotherhood we share is stronger than the challenges we face, the weapons we master, or the enemies we destroy.
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You will learn that soon though.
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You attacked a group of men who bond over the smell of gunpowder and misery—and enjoy it. You didn't attack America's leaders, you attacked America's Marines, and that is a battle you are not prepared for.
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You see, we won't play by the rules you're accustomed to seeing.
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When you play in our backyard, we don't have to answer to any chain of command. We will not follow ridiculous ROEs crafted by a spineless bureaucrat to appease some goat herding tribal leader. .
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And we won't be wearing uniforms so that you can easily ambush us.
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Nope. None of that shit.
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When you think you're walking into a target-rich environment, you're really walking into an ambush.
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That pudgy, middle-aged guy wearing khakis in the mall, who unbeknownst to you, is a former 0311 and armed, will dump your sorry ass before you have a chance to scream "allah snackbar." .
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And that soccer mom pushing a stroller, she's got a Glock and will happily leave you gasping in a pool of your own blood before she lets you hurt her children.
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We are here and we still have the training and experience to wage war, whether here or abroad. And wage war we will. Every one of us are willing to fight and die to protect our Marine Corps brothers and sisters, our families and friends, and our way of life.
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And we will win, because while you fight to destroy what you hate, we fight to protect what we love.
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Semper Fi
Marine Sergeant Jeremy L. Knauff

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The Confederate Flag and Sensitive Black People

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Mike Rowe Responds to People Criticizing the Tea Party...and it's AWESOME

Off The Wall

Carrie Simmons writes,
 
"Did you know the "Tea Party Express" was using your image and words (out of context) to "advertise?"

Hi Carrie,

Yes, I’m aware of the image, and no - it was not created with my knowledge or permission. Last I checked though, it’s been shared over 160,000 times, and seen by over 20 million people. Since my posts are intended to encourage conversation, this is a good thing. On the downside, many of those who oppose The Tea Party are no longer willing to talk to me. And that’s too bad.

Jack Grande says, “Seriously Mike? The Tea Party? Adios...”

Frances Jacobs writes, “I suggest you hop aboard the Tea Party Express and ride it straight to hell.”
Debbie Porchi observes, “Mike Rowe - “Another Dirty Teabagger.”

My own mother, more curious than judgmental, just saw the image, and called to ask why there was a “choo-choo train next to my face.”

“I don’t know, Mom. I guess maybe The Tea Party agrees with what I wrote?”

“Oh well,” she said. “At least they spelled your name right!”

For the record, I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of The Tea Party. And the irony of this situation is precisely why I'm not much of a joiner. My original post was an honest attempt to illustrate how a simple virtue like “work ethic” can no longer be discussed without becoming instantly politicized. Of the 20,000 comments that followed, nearly all were positive and thoughtful. But now that my thoughts have been reduced to a single sentence and associated with a group that half the country views with deep suspicion, my words are a touch more...inflammatory?

Janyl Stewart writes, “Wow. Mike Rowe just devalued a whole generation with one quote.”
Diane Sipple says, “Who are Mike Rowe and The Tea Party to tell us our kids a lazy? My kids are hardworking and respectful!”

Jason Givens declares, “Mike - Please stop judging the work force like you are in it. Working a half a day with someone and calling it work is show biz. Want to impress the work force? Come work in our foundry for 6 months with no cameras.”

Let me be clear - I stand by everything I said in my original post. The lack of work ethic in America is a serious problem, and it’s getting worse everyday. But obviously, that doesn’t mean every parent is a failure, or every teacher is a hack. Nor does it mean every kid is slacker, or every person out of work is lazy. However, there’s no getting around the fact that we - the collective we - are no longer instilling the belief that mastering a skill and working hard can lead to a prosperous life. 

Consequently, millions of able-bodied people have concluded the system is rigged, and stopped looking for work. This is, in my opinion, is the greatest threat our country faces.

Let me riff on the Tea Party quote for a second. Many are asking me to explain exactly how we are we “churning out” the people in question. Personally, I think it started when we began pushing a four-year degree at the expense of every other form of learning. Back when we started describing education as “higher,” vs. “alternative.” Back when we started embracing goofy platitudes like “Work Smart, Not Hard.” Traditional portrayals of hard work have been slowly devolving into stereotypes ever since. On TV, plumbers were 300 pounds with giant butt-cracks. Every other skilled worker looked like Schneider from One Day at a Time. Books like “The 4-Hour Work Week” became instant best-sellers, American Idol became the #1 show in the country, and Madison Avenue found endless way to remind us that true contentment required less work and more vacation. Hard work, delayed gratification, and many other virtues once acknowledged as keys to success were gradually repositioned as impediments to happiness.

Over time, people got the message. Enthusiasm for the skilled trades began to wane. Vocational education vanished from high school. The definition of a “good job” began to change, and before long, everyone was getting a trophy, or expecting one. Meanwhile, demand kept increasing for four-year schools, so universities were able to raise tuition at rates that far exceeded inflation. Vast amounts of money were then made available, and students borrowed it like never before.

Today, the results are self-evident. One point two trillion dollars of student loans hang like a millstone from the necks of college graduates. Many are now perfectly educated for jobs that don’t exist, and untrained for those that do. Thus, the people we’re “churning out,” have been told to expect something that isn't there, and trained to see genuine opportunities as vocational consolation prizes. Now, there’s an added obstacle that many employers talk about with real concern - a profound resistance to moving to where the jobs are. Not just a resistance - but a kind of indignation at the mere suggestion. Many people now believe a “good job” is a job that exists in one’s current zip code. 

This to me, is the most jarring thing. A nation once defined by a pioneer spirit and a willingness to keep moving, now seems stuck in one place.

I know it’s hard to relocate. In some cases, I know it’s nearly impossible. I also know it’s easy for a guy in my position to sound judgmental and out of touch with the problems so many face. But every statistic confirms my point. People are resistant to change. We don’t want to retrain, retool, and relocate. We want a job that meets our expectations. A job that we like. A job that’s convenient. A job that pays what we think we deserve. These expectations are both limiting and unrealistic. But we - the collective we - have allowed them to persist. We reward the precise behavior we should be discouraging. My foundation does not.

Last month, I heard from a 24-year old guy who went through a welding program on one of our scholarships. He lives in Kansas with his wife and young son, but he commutes to North Dakota for a few months at a time, and comes home when he can for brief visits. It’s not easy, but it’s opened up a world of possibilities. He just paid off his home. He’s debt free, making six-figures, and saving a small fortune. In short, he’s becoming indispensable, and giving his family options they’d never have if he had waited for the jobs to come to him. That guy’s heroic, in my opinion. He's also a threat to anyone who says The American Dream is dead.

Here’s an even better one. Last week in San Diego, I hopped in one of those Pedicabs, and let some guy peddle me around the waterfront. The guys name was Ali, and he came to this country ten years ago with nothing. In fact, he didn’t even speak the language. Today, he owns 90 Pedicabs, employs 60 people, and speaks English better than a lot of people who were born here. We spent the day together, and next season, you’ll see his story on Somebody’s Gotta Do It. To me, it’s an inspiration, and proof-positive that anyone can make it in this country who’s willing to learn a skill, provide a service, and work really, really hard.

Truth is Carrie, I’m not as bearish as The Tea Party makes me sound, but I’ll stand by the quote, even out of context and festooned with a logo I didn’t request or approve. Frankly, I’m glad the Tea Party chose to share my words, and wouldn't object if The Socialist Party follows their lead. In fact, I’ll officially invite them to do so right now, along with The ACLU, The NAACP, The AFL-CIO, The NEA, The EPA, The NRA, The FBI, Jews for Jesus, The SPCA, Greenpeace, OSHA, The USMC, The local PTA, and my old pals at PETA. The more the merrier! Because ultimately, the enthusiastic support of a national work ethic is something ALL groups should get behind, even if I can’t get behind all groups.* Some things are simply too important to be co-opted. Work ethic is one of them.

Mike

*Offer not valid to NAMBLA, The KKK, ISIS, Hamas, or The American Nazi Party. Because every rule has exceptions...

Mike Rowe Responds to People Criticizing the Tea Party...and it's AWESOME

Pin the Tale on the Donkey: Democrats' Horrible Racist Past | Bill Whittle

5 Mistakes That Will Lead To The Fall of America

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 Thousands of years after the Roman Empire fell, people are still speculating about how such a powerful empire became too feeble to defend itself. Did it become corrupt? Was its taxes too high? Was it widespread lead poisoning? The refusal to break up tribes it assimilated? Was it the loss of traditional values? Did it over-expand?

There are all sorts of theories, but nobody really knows.

However, if American falls, historians won’t have to speculate because the problems that are destroying our country are right there for anyone to see. You want to know how to break the greatest nation the world has ever seen over the course of a few short decades? Just look at what we’re actually doing because future generations will point to it when they’re trying to figure out where we went wrong.

1) Unsustainable Debt: By 2020, projections indicate that we’d need 20% of the GDP of the ENTIRE PLANET just to finance our debt, which will continue to increase at a rapid pace. Despite the fact that it would require a miracle bigger than what Joan of Arc accomplished in order for Social Security and Medicare to function for another 20 years without enormous tax increases, we just added another costly entitlement program (Obamacare) and politicians are incessantly clamoring for new spending. Simply put, that is unsustainable over the long haul and without almost revolutionary changes that are currently politically unimaginable, our country will either go bankrupt or our money will be inflated so much that we’ll need wheelbarrows full of greenbacks to buy a loaf of bread.

2) Enormous Centralized Government: The bigger the tick, the less blood there is for the dog and there is no larger collection of blood suckers on Planet Earth than our own federal government. Our government has become so massive that lawmakers don’t even read the bills they pass any more, trivial changes to regulations made by unelected bureaucrats can drive productive businesses into bankruptcy and perhaps worst of all, 49% of the public gets benefits. That has not only bled the private sector and made our economy less dynamic, it has led to massive corruption. As P.J. O’Rourke said, “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”

Read the rest:
5 Mistakes That Will Lead To The Fall of America - John Hawkins - Page 2

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The Department of Education budget has gone from around $12 billion in 1979 to nearly $80 billion in 2014. Sadly, this is what we have to show for it.

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