How did we get here?

"He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative."

G.K. Chesterton

I open with that quote because it is among one of my favorites and because it helps illustrate my point or rather my inquiry. A question I have been asking myself quite a bit lately as yet another young person, embracing Marxist ideals, acts as though he is somehow some sort of utopian building non-conformist.

How did we ever get to the point where the youth of our country identify with nanny statist authoritarians and turn their noses at the true home of rebelliousness? How is it that the very people who should most embrace individuality and systems that foster creativity, opportunity and freedom turn their back to it and instead align themselves with people who want to tell them how to manage every aspect of their lives from cradle to grave?

It is completely backwards. Modern "liberalism" or statism is so at odds with everything that should attract the young that, if you stop and really think about it, it is staggering. It also shows what a grievous error it was allowing our educational institutions and popular culture to be co-opted by the Marxist movements.

While we true Americans were pacified, minds like Bill Ayers were instructing the next generation of minds. As we have now see and as was told to us by the Soviet defector, Bezmenov, in 1985, the beauty of the system is that it is self-replicating. Each generation of useful idiots turns out the next generation of useful idiots. The minds, as Bezmenov points out, are "contaminated, programmed to think and react to certain stimuli". They typically can not be reasoned with, facts do not resonate.

Each day young minds are bombarded with Marxist ideals. Ridicule is the tool used to ensure their complete demoralization. We see how dissent is treated by the progressives among us in classrooms or the media. Imagine a young mind being twisted and turned by these forces day in and day out. It takes a strong constitution to withstand that sort of scrutiny and humilation. Most do not have it. Mixed with the idealism of youth and the need to conform, most surrender.

What is obvious now is that the damage has been done. Our institutions of education, civil service, entertainment and media are filled with minds and ideas hostile to American ideals. How do we undo the damage? Can we undo the damage? How do we stop it going forward? How we get back to a place where our youth is taught principles and ideas that are favorable and in the best interest of American society and founding principles? Is it too late?

Kristallnacht Attempt in Denver

I really do not know how much more evidence we need that to be aligned with the far left in this country there has to be a multitude of screws loose. Well, make that any country and at any time in history. The far left is a refuge for malcontents, misfits, outcasts and raving nutters. It is one big coalition of miscreants and because there is never any shortage of those raw materials they continue keeping on. Generation after generation they need to be beaten back. They are something like an ideological Terminator.

Today a 24-year-old man arrested on suspicion of smashing eleven windows at Colorado Democratic Party headquarters. He wore a shirt over his face, as he and another man fled the scene on bicycles. Fled the scene on bicycles--all I need to know right there. They were liberals.

The man in question does not appear in the state's voter registration database, a person by his same name in November 2008 received $500 from a political 527 committee called Colorado Citizens Coalition for Communications. What really should be investigated, and I am not expecting it anytime soon, is whether someone connected with any of the groups he is associated with paid him to fake an attack on the Democratic headquarters so that the blame would be placed on the “right-wing mob of extremists”?

State Democratic Party Chairwoman, Par Waak when asked for comment initially blamed tensions over the healthcare debate. She then added, "Clearly there's been an effort on the other side to stir up hate. I think this is the consequence of it". Let me see if I understand this. It is all the fault of opponents to the healthcare bill that this guy smashed up some windows at the Democratic party headquarters? Mmmkay. If I thought we had that kind of control over liberal behavior, I'd be mixing up a big vat of kool-aid and inviting them all down to Guyana for the weekend.

I see it as another fake attack or act performed by the left and made to look like the work of their opponents. The demonization of the health care bill’s opponents using the same tired old playbook they have been using for decades.

The Democrats are running a little scared right now. They see this healthcare debate as their battle of Ten-tsin for Chairman O. As the wheels continue to come off, be prepared for more staged acts of violence looking to incriminate right wing crazies. As they lose traction the acts will ramp up in frequency and seriousness. Every scenario in history points to it. Let's remember, these are the same people who ripped over ten million people from their homes from 1929 to 1932 in Soviet Russia. Oh sure, their names and faces are different but they are made of the same stuff and just as dangerous.

Funniest youtube to date..

David Horowitz Writes..

August 22, 2009

The so-called “liberal establishment” today is a leftwing establishment. Unlike Buckley, I identify with 50s liberals like John F. Kennedy, whose politics in my view were identical to Ronald Reagan’s. My political enemies today — Ward Churchill, bell hooks, Cornell West, Nicholas DeGenova, the editors of the Nation – have views of the capitalist and individualist West that are identical to those of the cold war “progressives” who supported the Communist bloc and its cause and who have absolutely nothing in common with JFK or the liberal establishment at Yale in the 1950s whom William F. Buckley opposed. Mattson treats Buckley as the avatar of the conservative rebellion and I share that view. But I have never embraced a theo-centric conservatism such as that common to Buckley, Kirk and Whittaker Chambers. These three anchor their conservatism in a religious faith. I do not. I am an agnostic. I have outlined my own conservative philosophy in The Politics of Bad Faith - a book Mattson also has not read. My conservatism is conceived as an effort to defend the principles of the American Founding. It is true that according to the Founders we derive inalienable rights from “Our Creator.” I agree that rights have to be derived from a source other than human will. If Mattson has another way to ground rights that are inalienable without invoking a “Creator,” I’m all ears, but until then this agnostic will defer to the Founders

As an agnostic conservative myself, and yes there are many of us, I can identify with what Horowitz writes. My exception would be that I recognize that our core principles as conservatives come from the Judea Christian values that our country was built on. Most of our laws are derived from the ten commandments. I accept that and I accept those values as the basic building block to our society. I think the founding fathers appreciated this fact and even though they came from a mixed theological perspective, they appreciated that we should conform our lives to this sort of natural law.

However, to deflect to the Founders completely misses something. Socialism is tied to atheism, and liberty to, at least, the remote possibility of the existence of God. It is where the agnostic differs from the athiest. Agnostics are not prone to proselytizing and trying to enforce their lack of faith on others. They are open to idea of God and see the shortcomings in any humanistic basis to governance.

The HAPPY Act

In the ever growing and ever widening use of the tax code for vote buying there is a bill being introduced into the House by U.S. Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-Michigan). It is House Resolution 3501, aka the Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years, or HAPPY Act. This bill if passed would amend the Internal Revenue Code to allow an individual to deduct up to $3,500 for qualified pet care expenses.

I like tax deductions and I'll take them anyway I can get them. You have to wonder though, how long will it be before we start hearing the cries, "Veterinary care is a right" or "we demand free pet care". Next election cycle, both sides will be finding pet care sob stories to draw on for emotional based support. Stories of vets amputating legs for a quick $20,000 or Obama telling us how he watched on as his childhood dog die helplessly while he called from the dog's bedside trying to find good quality care for the pooch. The opportunity here for pandering and drawing on the old heartstrings is endless.

Let's not even state the obvious, OK let's state the obvious-they don’t even let you deduct the first $3,500 in medical expenses unless you make under a certain income level. I would imagine the guys making over a certain threshold will not qualify for this deduction either. You know, all those tax cuts for the rich. I have to wonder how long before there is an earned income pet credit also. Why not? Pay the guy who doesn't pay any federal taxes for having a dog or other "qualified pet". (Section 224, article d)

Lunacy like this is the reason we have a tax code of more than 67,500 pages. It is time to stop tying bills to the federal income tax code and time to stop buying votes with it.

Obama To Change Approach on Healthcare

The Fox Nation is reporting today that Obama is shifting his appeal for support for his healthcare bill to more of a moral argument. A softer, gentler approach than simply calling everyone who disagrees with him nazis and extremists and telling them to shut up. It is unclear, at this point, whether he will borrow a page from the Bill and Hillary Clinton playbook by shedding some crocodile tears or carrying around 50 pound bibles whenever he can get near a camera, which is seemingly all the time.

Having liberals preach to me about morality is a bit like having a guy who has had five triple by-pass surgeries lecture me on the horrors of trans fats. It just does not fly.

When any one of Pelosi, Reid, Waxman, Obama, etc. start showing me contracts for the health insurance that they’ve bought for others, maybe then it'll have some merit. Heck, when Auntie Zeituni gets off Boston public assistance maybe then Obama can start lecturing about goodness, humanity and morality. You remember Auntie Zeituni, the aunt he wrote about so affectionately in his memoirs. The aunt, he today, claims to not really know.

According to Fox, Obama has asked pastors to push his agenda from the church pulpit. Kinda violates the left’s belief in separation of church and state. There is not much that is more creepy than left wing religious organizations. I'd just assume be locked in a room with Pat Robertson for a week then attend one hour of a left wing sermon.

Someone needs to start teaching this lesson to our youth-- governments aren't moral, corporations can't, by design, be moral or immoral. Individual people are. Particularly in the United States, the government was never intended to the guidance of morality. That responsibility belongs to the family, society as a whole and faith. The government is not “our brother's keeper.” Neither is Proctor and Gamble, Ford Motor Company or Walmart.

Also, never taken into account with the vapid rhetoric of the left is the opportunity cost of their backwards endeavors. Impoverishing everyone to help the few in the end ends up hurting more people. If we are all left poorer and with less economic freedom we are all less likely to give of our own volition. It only makes sense that a more free, more wealthy more able to move in and out of classes society is more able to help one another or better yet, more able to produce citizens who do not need help. Which, ofcourse, is everything the progressives do not want.

Throughout history there are examples of governments trying to enforce morality, and it has always ended very badly. I'd argue that more lives have been destroyed by the ethical imperative: “each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” than any other.

Co-ops: Too Big to Fail?

There are certain words I hear and my radar goes off. Especially when the words are used in conjunction with other seemingly altruistic sounding words and involve large groups of people who do things such as grocery shop with net bags or just tell others to grocery shop with net bags. Peace, any group of people united in peace, international anything, unity and co-op come to mind. As a result when I heard the Democrats shift gears from the public option my fist impulse was a groan and a "now what are they up to" moment.

Ofcourse, co-op is just different packaging for the same package. A baby step in the general direction of a single payer system. Though, I am still hoping the entire bill is scrapped and looms as a huge political capital squandering 600 pound gorilla on the back of Obama. Co-ops would have to be successful in order to take this to the next level or would they? We have healthcare co-ops in this country already. GroupHealth, a Washington state co-op, comes to mind. I do not know that any of them have been very successful at controlling costs and GroupHealth has had problems with premiums steadily rising in recent years.

Initially, co-ops will be small, regionally based nonprofits that will be open only to people with incomes up to certain levels or for people who are not offered insurance by their employers. They won't take business away from private insurers because, by design, insurance company customers won't be allowed to switch to them. Even if people had a choice, they would not be likely to pick the co-ops because they won't have the coverage that the large insurers do.

Co-ops will likely turn into insurance ghettos. Though initially funded by the federal government they will be required to be self sustaining. Good luck finding the insurers to participate. Finding participants will be dependent upon finding enough people who make a certain low income level, are willing to pay the premiums and do the leg work required to join. Contrary to popular opinion, many of the millions on uninsured remain uninsured because they do not want to pay premiums. They want you, the guy with the Porsche or the big house, to pay their premiums.

As with most things the devil is in the details. Without members, co-ops die. With the Federal government involved, they'll never be allowed to die. They will be deemed too big to fail and we know what happens to industries and companies too big to fail.

What Happens After Healthcare is Passed?

If indeed, the Democrats are successful ramming this healthcare bill through Congress, what then? Let me clarify that I am not entirely sure they will but I do have my concerns. Let's face it though, they have the numbers. Our only real hope at this point is that there are enough Blue Dogs and other Democrats worried enough about their own seats to break from the party and vote no. At this very moment they are determining just how many seats they can afford to lose to still maintain power and who they will "allow" to vote against this bill.

Let's remember what exactly is on the table. Socialized health care, amnesty and the cap and trade bill. With the passing of just these three huge changes the Democrats would then control every aspect of our lives. With the citizenship of 12-20 million illegal aliens and their families, mostly from Mexico, there will never be a conservative idea voted into office again. Your children will be taught more about Cinco de Mayo than they ever will the Bill of Rights or our founding fathers. And that is by design.

The federal government will then be empowered with the tools to determine what kind of house you can live in, how warm or cool you can keep it, how big it is, what car you can drive, how and when you can defend yourself and your family, if you get medical care, and indirectly what types of jobs are available. With unchecked spending and no real opposition, inflation will render your savings and securities worthless. If they attain this level of power, it will be generations, if ever, that there will be any sort of pendulum shift back.

That's exactly why it's extremely helpful to have a third of the country come from conditions where living nine to a small apartment is not only acceptable, it is a step up.

What is more likely to happen than any large pendulum shift back away from these socialist policies will be that the United States will go the way of Yugoslavia. There will be more talk of secession and more desire to break from looting enabling Washington. At some point Washington will have to turn on its own citizens because their existence is dependent on taking from the producers and giving to the looters. They need to keep the producers captive. They need to keep the loot coming to all the special interest groups.

It is where we differ from the European welfare state. We have too many independent people in fly over. John Edwards was half right when he said we have two different Americas. His error was that the difference was economical. The difference is largely cultural and philosophical. We have no desire to live with them and they have no desire to live with us. Only subjugate us. Too many of us remember and still believe in the strong traditions our country was founded on and we have zero plans to be subjugated.

Inspiration from the People of PA

All over the country ordinary Americans armed with only video recorders are doing the work the media should be doing. Each video, each viewing on Youtube, each time a neighbor informs a neighbor of what he has seen, each blog post and every seemingly inconsequential tweet; each time one of these independent acts occur a little more of the fraud that is the Democratic party and it's leadership becomes exposed.

It is hard to believe it is happening in America. Ordinary people are attending townhalls to express an opinion and in turn are being threatened by thugs. And it gets worse. These ordinary people pay the ACORN salaries with taxpayer dollars. They hire the unemployed to attire themselves in the, by now well known, ACORN branded red tshirts and try to break up the ability of the other side to communicate with each other - and to make it look like they out number them.

But, you have to work with the tools you are given.

What actually works in the favor of freedom loving Americans is Obama's inability to not "govern" as more of a Mugabe rather than a Richard Daley--in spite of all the references to Chicago style politics. Daley knew when to walk away from the table. This President seemingly does not. As smoothly as he can read a teleprompter, his actions are just the opposite. Calling out ACORN goon squads this early in the game will prove to be an egregious error.

Smart Dog!

Just Four Months Left...

A UN climate warning was issued today by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. And it is looking grim, folks.

It looks like we have just four months to secure the future of the planet regarding climate change. Four months? When did things get so dire? Last time I checked wasn't Al Gore touting the ten year mark? Now, it is four months? How much is it going to cost us to save the earth in just four short months? Four months!

Cash out what's left of the 401K? Stop paying into the Christmas Club? Stop showing up to work? Who cares about socialized healthcare now! 4 months!

The statement says: Any agreement must be fair, effective, equitable and comprehensive, and based on science. And it must help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change.

Translation: Americans need to pay up.

Fourth, we need an equitable and accountable mechanism for distributing these financial and technological resources, taking into account the views of all countries in decision-making.

Let the UN handle it, they did such a bang-up job with the oil for food program.

But leaders have agreed to cut green house gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. That is welcomed again. But that must be accompanied by the ambitious mid-term target by 2020 as science tells us to do. There I said, while I applaud their commitment, that is not enough.

There might be a lot of cold and hunger as a result. One of those cases of the cure being worse than the disease, for sure. I am guessing his fossil fuel chauffeured car, plane and heated home will be in the 20 percent of allowed emissions.

Really, at this point, does anyone need more evidence that these people are raving lunatics?

F22--RIP

Excessive overmatch is apparently the new code phrase for gutting out the military. It is no surprise, it is what Democrats do when given the keys to the kingdom. The excuse given this time--"Most every war since WWII has been against a second, or less rate military."

They were considered second rate militaries because we set the bar so high. American military strategy has always been preparation for large war against an equal or superior enemy in more than one theater. It has never been the opposite. It was our preparation and planning for this large war that gave us the arsenals to defeat the second and third rate powers of the last few decades and largely prevented even more unknown perilous scenarios. Many of the tools we are using today were not designed to fight Al Queda or the Taliban but they have proven themselves to be completely valuable.

Obama has offically ended the era of the F22. An aircraft that is the bench mark of technological sophistication. Light years ahead of anything produced any where else on the globe. It's diagnosis? Too expensive, too flashy, too high-end for the threats we face today. Forget about tomorrow and emerging threats.

In just the last year the United States Air Force has gone from having a funded and modern program to a program that is falling apart. Until this time, there has not been a country foolish enough to try to engage us in conventional warfare. The times they are a'changing and the Russians and Chinese have bought and stolen enough technology to make some competitive fighter planes. The United States must move ahead and with more than apology tours and state visits from Bill Clinton.

I do not claim to be a military arms expert but I do understand what it is that fighter aircraft is used for. Destroying targets on the ground and destroying other aircraft. How egregious is the error of gutting our first rate air force to the tune of what Retired USAF Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney called, “The most dangerous defense budget since the post-World War II period”?

I guess we will find out when American bombers start getting shot from the sky . Air superiority is not by birthright guaranteed to United States. It was bought and paid for and worth every cent. Paying for it in dollars assured us that we did not need to pay for it in blood.

Strange Bed Fellows

The far left never seem to disappoint anyone looking for examples of it's depravity. A few nights ago, Bristol Palin's ex, Levi Johnston, showed up at the Teen Choice Awards on the arm of "comedienne" Kathy Griffin. Griffin is a well known left wing fat mouth and all around political nitwit.

Sure, we have our crazies on the right. But, they are largely considered just that "the crazies". Fred Phelps is the most used example. I am not even sure if he adequately falls under the umbrella of right wing. He is just a zealot of some sort so by default he belongs to the right. From what I can tell he goes around to soldiers funerals carrying protest signs with such original thoughts as "God Hates Fags". See. I don't even really know what it is he does. Truth is, I would not know who Fred Phelps was if it were not for liberals always pointing him out. Not one conservative I know is a walking endorsement of Fred Phelps.

Griffin, on the other hand, is the perfect embodiment of the left wing in this country. She is only continuing the treatment given to Sarah and Bristol Palin during the run up to the 2008 presidential election and beyond.

You have to wonder how much thought and cunning went into this and to what end? To hope to gain access to Palin family secrets to destroy Palin's political career? To stop Palin from ushering in some sort of Christian theocracy, no doubt, is the rational. I'd imagine there was no thought to the innocent child or daughter in this either. I might expect this sort of ruthlessness from actual political operatives but not ordinary citizens.

I am just left wondering if there is a special place in hell for such heinous acts?

Go Leah!

Play It to Win It

Last week a piece of political agit pop went viral on the internet. Within hours the server that had originally hosted it was crashed by the sheer volume of internet users trying to access the image. It was the image above depicting Barack Obama as the joker with the word "socialism" printed across the bottom. Already, Obama supporters are crying time out. And already conservatives everywhere are crying "it is about damn time".

Supporters of Obama are calling the image mean spirited. This was only after, I am sure, they failed to come up with an argument to call it racist. Liberals have never been known for their thick skin but let's try to remember that these are same peope, who for eight long years, painted President Bush as--Hilter,a monkey and the devil. He was routinely shown portrayed with images of his likeness in guillotines or with guns to his head. You'll have to excuse me if I am not feeling really boo-hoo for the left wing.

Now the tables have turned, and ordinary American people are openly ridiculing this administration. This isn't supposed to happen. They aren't used to their tactics being used against them and they aren't quite sure how to react to it. Conservatives are supposed to sit back and suffer in silence on their lonely higher road. It's the way it's always been played and it has always worked very effectively for the liberals.

The reaction is a typical reaction from a bully who has been pushed back. It's not the reaction of pensive and serious leadership. Not the reaction of a uniter who transcends above politics as we have always known them. What we've seen to this date, is just another bully who is the leader of like-minded bullies. Americans, as a rule, do not care for bullies or mobs.

This image seems to have struck a very serious nerve. For whatever reason, it is resonating. It is powerful and it is getting the point across. As any fan of street fighting can tell you, when you have the enemy on the ropes, you don't stop to let him regroup. You give him a little elbow or shoulder and finish the job.

More than the image, though, it is the tactics that are being used. It is pure Saul Alinsky --"ridicule is the most potent weapon".

Use ridicule as a weapon. They are crying outrage because they know it works. Conservative/Republican victims line the sides of the road of history, images battered and torn. Bush, Reagan, Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter ...

Leftists are used to dictating the rules. They have effectively convinced conservatives that we are not allowed to fight back with any real ammunition and they've largely been operating without real opposition for decades. Strangely, the largest enemy they have had working against them are the disastrous results of their own policies. Though even in some depressed regions of the countries that still isn't enough to defeat them.

It's high time conservatives stop bringing feathers to the proverbial gunfights.

Open Question to Moderates

To all the so called moderates out there, I wish I could ask the following question:

When you voted in November did you think you were voting for an administration that , when faced with dissent, would:

1. Block access and marginalize dissenters as extremists

2. Repeatedly call them zealots

3. Marshall people and call in reinforcements to get submissiveness

Did you think you would see a day when the President of the United States, himself, would tell people that opposed his policies to shut up?

"I don't want the folks who created the mess do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking."

These are the words, yesterday, of the POTUS. I don't ever recall a modern President using words so divisive. This is all the evidence that Americans need that this is a man who simply has no idea on how to govern. He is in completely unfamiliar territory. This is not a college social experiment. This is the responsibility of running he world's most prosperous and successful society. And, despite his efforts to the contrary, many of us would like to keep it that way.

To all those who voted for this because it was the trendy thing to do, because you wanted to be a part of history, because he wasn't Bush, because Saturday Night Live made Sarah Palin look stupid--I'd love to know if you had any idea that what you who you were voting for was a child of the 1960s Marxist-Alinsky hippie street culture and that his entire belief system about this country was shaped from that school of thought.

Losing History..Damned to Repeat It

As the Greatest Generation dwindles and leaves behind the results of their bravery and sacrifice, on the other side of the globe we lose their counterparts. When the Cold War ended and the wall came down, tens of thousands fled to the west to begin new lives. Largely, the pensioners stayed behind and with them kept the stories and the tales that we can not afford to let conveniently left out of history books.

The stories are there but one has to seek them out. They won't be taught to your children in social studies or political science classes. You can bet, they'll be taught that Hitler and the Nazi's were part of a "far right wing movement", that McCarthy was wrong or that their cars are killing polar bears but they won't be taught of the apparatus of the largest and most efficient killing and dissent squashing machine of recent history. And they won't be instructed that the biggest tool utilized in this machine of terror and intimidation was neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother and even child turned against parent. Without these informants the carnage would have been greatly reduced. The lives wasted would have been far fewer. The DNA of the former Soviet Union, today, would be far stronger.

Envy was often the motivation. If a neighbor thought you looked like you were eating a little too well and grew suspicious, she would drop a dime on you. You would get a middle of the night call from a local officer of the NKVD, the Cheka or the KGB. The KGB, the most well known, but there were many other secret police agencies used to silence, intimidate and destroy dissent. You may have gotten questioned, a severe beating, or you may have never been seen or heard from again. Additionally, the same fate may fall on your loved ones. Worse, any children or family that you left behind could have been brandished as enemies of the people-socially and economically limiting to say the least.

Soviet citizens knew to never utter complaints or offer criticism unless in the company of those they could completely trust. Even then, the results were sometimes disastrous.

The alarm bell should be ringing from coast to coast regarding Obama's pleas on the Whitehouse website to help him usher in program to monitor American citizens’ speech opposing his health care policies. The administration has asked for links and information leading to the spreading of fishy material. Basically, a snitch program. A political enemies list?

My response to this is if indeed there is an enemies list of people who are in complete disgust with this group of unconstitutional bullies, then put me on it. I'll be in good company.

First Order of Biz...Eliminate Useless Eaters

Despite popular opinion, some degree of public outrage and many independents jumping ship Obama maintained as recent as yesterday, that "we will pass (healthcare) reform by the end of the year, because the American people need it".

"We're going to have to make it happen." Scary words if ever there were some.

Despite the wishes of the majority of Americans he is intent on passing this abomination. What's interesting is that, the old, who really need to take ownership of much of this election, are quaking in their flip flops down in their retirement homes in South Florida. They are learning that if they voted for Obama to reform healthcare, they voted for their own demise. Amazing what'll happen if you just pay attention and do a little research.

They are learning that countries with socialized medicine have neat little formulas that determine whether you are to receive a treatment or surgery. In Great Britain, they even have a mathematical formula for doing so, based on a "quality adjusted life years." While the guidelines are not easy to follow, they usually maintain that Britain cannot afford to spend more than about $22,000 to extend a life by six months.

Basically, if you are an active 68 year old and you need knee replacement surgery or want to fix that shoulder so you can spend your retirement days casting lines out on the river, you better hope you have enough quality of life years left in you according to the formula.

It's no secret Britain's health system is a casebook disaster. Wealthy Greeks who live in Britain go home to Greece rather than use the Brit healthcare system. What's that tell you? The Concord study published in 2008 showed that cancer survival rates in Britain are among the worst in Europe. Among women with breast cancer there's a 46 percent chance of dying from it in Britain, versus a 25 percent chance in the United States. In chart after chart Britain is at the bottom of it's class and America at it's top.

The stats could go on and on and move into other countries with socialized medicine.

Continuing to move forward, Obama is going to lose a good portion of his constituency. Advisors must be telling him this is a good bet for another office term. I can only guess that this is a multifaceted plan with the next step being some sort of amnesty for the tens of millions of illegal aliens who reside in the United States. He is going to need these voters to make up for the baby boomers he is losing.

The Democrats will gain the vast majority of this new voting block. Will they will receive care while those who contributed a lifetime to the economy and the nation be told to pound sand? Obama and the deranged leftists in Congress continue to show a policy of disdain for all that is America.

I never thought I’d say it, but I long for days of the Clinton administration.

Read My Lips...

How many times did you hear the soundbytes during last year's campaign? Barack Obama was not going to raise taxes on the 95% of Americans making less than $250,000 year. It was repeated ad nauseum. It was the basis of his campaign. Middle class tax breaks. Strange, since the middle class had been receiving tax breaks for the eight years prior. I don't know that many of them knew that.

Additionally, many of the lower income earners were receiving earned income tax credits, meaning they not only paid no income tax but received a payment from the taxpayers. A dangerous and shaky practice that was popular during both the Clinton and Bush administrations. However, many people do not distinguish between FICA deductions and federal withholding deductions in their paychecks. Meaning, they don't realize that they don't pay federal taxes. They just see that big chunk for FICA.

In recent days, word has leaked out and the MSM is even covering the idea that Obama is going to raise taxes on this income bracket. Ofcourse, this is of no surprise to anyone paying attention to these sorts of things. It's also simple math--there aren't enough people in the 5% bracket to tax. You could take every dime from the 5% and you might cover the interest on the ever increasing debt for a few years.

Additionally, this man of smoke and mirrors, is claiming he's already given the middle class a tax cut. Given? As though it's his to give? Folks, this is your money. Your economic freedom.

Even still, that's inaccurate. What Obama really did was adjust the witholding on your taxes. This is not a “cut”. Think this is wrong? Just wait until you file your taxes next year. For example, your $1000 refund you got back from Uncle Sam this year because you overpaid your taxes, will become a $300 tax liability next year because of the witholding change. It's playing with the numbers, more Obama Kabuki theater.

If you are in the middle class, your tax rates did not go down. During the years of 2000-2009, your tax rates did go down. And in 2011, your tax rate will go up after Obama lets the Bush tax rates expire next year. Then, as usual, for every 1% in tax increase, the GDP of the United States will fall by two percent.

Anybody Paying Attention to the Dollar?

Living overseas, I watch the dollar with a bit of invested interest and it's becoming somewhat of a hobby of mine. Thankfully, we are not completely vulnerable to the fluctuations but in some ways we are. For Americans with any degree of wealth or savings, it should be watched with concern. Students of history know that it wasn't once when a country woke to find it's "dollar" no longer existed and it took 10 of the old "dollars" to buy one of the new dollars. References are often made to the Weimar Republic and the wheelbarrows of cash needed to buy basic items such as bread. In more recent history look to the Mexican peso or the Argentinian 1994 peso crash.

The dollar dropped yesterday to it's lowest point against the Euro since last Fall. At the same time the 16-nation euro soared to $1.44 from $1.42 late Friday, peaking at $1.44, the highest point for the euro since last September. The Brit's pound, spiked up to $1.69 from $1.66, hitting its highest level since last October at $1.6.

The dollar is being debased because of all the deficit spending - the borrowing and printing of money. The world, much of it hostile to the United States, is making moves to diversify their holdings.

Until now, respect and power were the tools that ensured the U.S. dollar it's place as the world's reserve currency. The Chinese, and everyone else, need dollars to buy oil. When and if they don't need dollars to do that, then we have serious problems.

Iran, Venuzuela and Russia are continually trying to price oil in Euros or some alternative. In 2006 Iran stopped accepting dollars for oil and started an "oil bourse" to compete with NYMEX. Lucky for us, they don't control enough of the world's oil to threaten the status quo. Prior to the second Iraq war, Saddam Hussein started pricing his oil in Euros. Good news for Germany and France, but would have destroyed the United States if other OPEC countries followed. It's the reason why the second Gulf War is often referred to as the first currency war. A lot more complex than the vapid chants that the "no blood for oil crowd" would lead you to believe.

The difference today is we have an administration who is also hostile to the United States. Obama’s policies seem to be on a self inflicted suicide path to destroy our economy. The collapse of the dollar as a reserve currency would wipe out more wealth than we can imagine. He promised you change. This is certainly change.