In Memoriam

Of those who died, in a war they knew nothing of, of one many still know nothing of, and are being placated "does not exist" because of a "peaceful religion", a religion where many danced joyfully and gleefully, firing rifles into the air at the taking of American lives (and how many times has that been repeated at other bombings, or blowing up of people, and suicide bombings). LOW may say we are not at war against Islam, but the whole religion is made up of Dar-al-Islam and Dar-al-harb (tnat not of islam) and to them, the innocents are NOT us. the innocents that are killed, are the innocent muslim that may get caught up in one of their shenanigans. Go read Jihad Watch. Check out Geert Wilders' short movie Fitna on there. The lefties today say Christianity is such a great threat, that a big theocracy is on the way. Creeping Sharia is on its way. It's already well entrenched in Europe, and England. Check out the way the Netherlands are overtaken. 1 in 4 children in school there are native.

Today, in 2001, was a day like any other day, a day to go to work, a day to sit at an office, do your job, take a lunch, for little children to play at a daycare, for firefighters and police hopefully to not die en masse. For people not to die in fiery flames, or on a plane plunging from the sky. These terrorists were not poor jihadists. The majority of jihadists are the rich, educated men. They came here under false pretenses, and we let them in. Red lags didn't go up when one didn't care about learning to land a plane at all. These men overtook the planes with box cutters. This is yet another poke in the eye to those who have concealed carry licenses, you cannot carry on a plane, but I think of the plane of people who took on the hijackers and brought it down in that PA field, instead of its target. It took them courage. There are more than a few blogs that have pictures of that day. I don't think I'll ever forget that second plane crashing. I had taken the girls to school, and was napping, and had woken up, just gotten online, and a friend said GET ON THE NEWS NOW! so I turned it to Foxnews, and it was just before the 2nd plane crashed. I was .. shocked. its like "what the hell is going on here?" not a whole lot made sense that day. Until I decided to educate myself on what was going on in the world, with world politics, and national politics. Before that, I was in a nice little comfort zone, just sufficient to figure out who NOT to vote for in the local and presidential elections, and figuring that was good enough. Not any longer. And it should not be any longer like that for any of us. We should be involved in our world, in our governance, to make sure that placators don't get in (unfortunately Obummer did, and he's sucking up to everyone). For a good reaction in one single word, click on Cranky Professor and she sums it all up.

For updates on what is going on in the world, check out Jihad Watch. And find out what these kind, moderate muslims are up to, and what is happening over in Europe and Canada, and is slowly filtering down here. Atlas Shrugs is keeping up with the Rifka Bary story from Florida, the Muslim girl who converted to Christianity, and is now afraid for her life from her family, as leaving the Muslim faith is a death sentence.

"rights" and "general welfare"

This post kind of goes along with what I was talking in the previous posts, about the rights that everyone takes for granted. "he has a right to make a living" "he has right to own a house" "he has a right to a job" "he has a right to live here" . Let's look at those statements.

Make that even more so for those who get a check from the government. Meddle with that, oh boy, call out the dogs! Reform Social Security? AARP will roust the elderly. Have Medicare reformed? Heaven forbid! Change Medicaid? No way! As long as one's ox isn't gored, everything is peachy keen. Meanwhile, everything else goes to hell in a hand-basket. Charge everything to future generations.

And "tax the rich". I'm despising that phrase, along with "corporations who make too much money". Corporations aren't there to give people money, they are there to make things, and make a profit for their shareholders. People work there for a job. Again, it's a privilege, not a right, to work at a job.

Like healthcare. It's not a right. No one has a right to healthcare. It's a service, that one pays for. Like no one has a right to drive their car wherever they want. It's a privilege.

The Preamble of the Constitution goes:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The Preamble serves solely as an introduction and does not assign powers to the federal government, nor does it provide specific limitations on government action. Due to the Preamble's limited nature, it has almost certainly never been relied upon by any court as the decisive factor in deciding a case,except regarding frivolous litigation.



Welfare
WELFARE, n. [well and fare, a good faring; G.]

1. Exemption from misfortune, sickness, calamity or evil; the enjoyment of health and the common blessings of life; prosperity; happiness; applied to persons.

2. Exemption from any unusual evil or calamity; the enjoyment of peace and prosperity, or the ordinary blessings of society and civil government; applied to states.


"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constitutents." - James Madison, regarding an appropriations bill for French refugees, 1794

Despite the wishes of some to invoke "original intention" in interpreting the constitution, this author will only dare to the kind of originalism that looks at what the public thought that it meant, who would read this clause or hear about it, at the time it was written. At that time, it was clear that general welfare in this context dealt with the welfare of the Union, and excluded any individual or local welfare.

It wasn’t until the expansionist view of “general welfare” was promoted by the Progressive movement and by FDR. His “New Deal” used this as an power, thus making our country a big welfare nanny state.
first, but swung around, and as a result our country gradually became a welfare state.

Hamilton had the expansionist view of the general welfare, and Madison had the view that was meant with the constitution, however, in this day and age, Hamilton has come to rule, and look at what his view has gotten us. Good living to the hungry and the poor. Taking of resources from those who are productive, what you don't see until later is the beast of government that is created in this monstrosity, and the loss of freedom.

When the constitution was written, ‘general welfare’ was the general welfare of the states, and again, all rights not allowed to the Federal Government was RESERVED TO THE STATES (see 10th Amendment). The Federal government has yet again put their own spin on what the constitution says, and changed it, for the worse, and to the detriment of this country.

A Semper Fidelis Wedding!

My brother-in-law's kids are great - 2 are in the military, both are in the Marines. A higher calling than serving in the military, I could not think of. Maybe I'm biased, but I think a stint in the military grows up children into adults. It certainly grew me up from a child into an adult.. although it took a while! It grew my husband up from a youth into a man. He joined when he was 17. (Dad had to sign the paper so he could join, being under 18). I joined as a way to get out of a bad situation at first, but then I found I really liked the life. Got out of the Army, and a bit later, joined the Navy. Really did not like the girls that sucked up to the guys to do their work for them. Why were they there then? To find husbands? To sleep around? WTH were they doing sucky jobs for if they just batted their eyes and stuck out their butts and didn't want to carry two 24-packs of soda up the gangway or a 60 lb sack of rice onto the mess deck? Or climb over the potable water trailer and hook up big hoses and get dirty and break a nail? Big deal. I had no use for those type of women. I had little respect for the men that those women used also. After the Anita Hill debacle, we had to go to the mess deck, and fill out a survey on sexual harassment. I filled out mine that the sexual harassment was done by the women towards the men! That the women would use the men to do their work for them, and that the 'sexual harassment' was a bunch of BS. And I did not use an acronym or an abbreviation in my survey, I spelled it out. Those surveys went off to Washington I guess. Never knew what came of it.

OHHHH BACK TO MY SUBJECT! My niece got married this weekend!! Out in Folsom CA, a big Marine wedding - HERE is the link to read about her wedding, and see her wedding party. Enjoy.

Say what??

The total cost of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is projected to leap from 8.4% of GDP in 2005 to 18.9% of GDP by 2050.

· Federal program spending is projected to reach 27.6% of GDP by 2050, while net interest spending will consume an additional 9% to 46% of GDP (depending on whether massive deficit spending increases interest rates).

· Unless Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are reformed, lawmakers face three options:

A) Raise taxes every year until taxes are 60 percent ($11,000 per household) higher than today;

B) Eliminate every federal program except Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid by 2045; or

C) Do nothing and watch the federal debt expand so much that even a minor interest rate response would induce a spiral of rising debt and interest rates, threatening the entire economy.

Source.

Entitlements are out of hand. All of these should be unnecessary. People expect the government to take care of them, and their families - instead of providing for themselves, or let private charities take them up in hand. Where in the Constitution do we find provisions for giving people other people's money? General welfare does not mean payments from the government! Sorry, but entitlements should go. Give em the heave-ho. When Social Security was started, it was Social Security INSURANCE. It doesn't mean a guaranteed paycheck for 11, 12 or more years. Insurance means you don't rely on it for your sole support - you SAVE money while you are working. Too many people don't do this, and then they wail and bemoan the fact that their SSI check is "too small". What about their families providing for them? That's fallen into disfavor, however, it would be the best system around.

Are we marching towards fascism?

I think its inching along - look at the government takeover of the auto companies - and then Wall St. and its bankers/investment companies. Now Geithner and the administration is saying that they want to be able to take over companies that have never taken TARP funds, or bailout money from the government, on the way they pay their employees and executives.

From the WSJ article, 'During a recent congressional hearing, Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed was working on rules that will "ask or tell banks to structure their compensation, not just at the very top level but down much further, in a way that is consistent with safety and soundness -- which means that payments, bonuses and so on should be tied to performance and should not induce excessive risk."'

So much for this being the land of the free, being able to create a business, and run it, without micromanagement from the government - which has to date, not run anything well. Or even remotely well. Look at Social Security and Medicare - they are running out of money - the administration is talking about 'taxing the rich' for more money - How long before people get so fed up with this stuff that they stop looking for good positions, and starting a business, because they're going to get taxed to death? How will that help the economy? It won't, because there will be no new start-up businesses, for people to work at. Maybe more people will switch to a barter system, which the government cannot tax. Or maybe they will try to tax it. New York state is taxing everything imaginable, in order to make up for their shortcomings in the money coming in. New York City, around 40,000 people pay over half the taxes. What if 10,000 people got tired of paying all those taxes, and left? What would be left for their tax base?

Raising taxes, and taking over businesses is NOT the answer. The outrageous spending by Congress and the Senate and the administrations are the problems to the solution. When you're in debt, you don't spend more, you spend less, however our elected representatives seem to think they are on a great gravy train that will never end, let's just spend, spend, spend. And spending us into a hole, and (hopefully not) inflation and hyperinflation. China wants the IMF to sell its gold to them.. what are they going to use for that gold? You guessed it, the money we've sold them - what are we going to do with a trillion dollars back in circulation? Prices will shoot up, the dollar will be worth even less than it is now. And remember, the borrower is slave to the lender. I find it suspicious that Barney Frank is for the IMF selling its gold to China. Actually I find pretty much everything he does, is NOT for the good of the country, but for what political gain and whatever other recognition he can achieve.

Does this make sense to you??

"Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less," Powell said last week. That's Colin Powell, a member of the GOP.. still? I thought he had left because he voted for Obama.. but that couldn't be, because he was just voting skin color like quite a few other people. McCain wouldn't have been much better than Obama, however, as he was for larger government, and socialism lite. The GOP has swung so far to the left, they've become just a different name than the Democrats. There's quite a few people that the D/R's have left behind, that are center, and to the right of center, not to mention the constitutionalists, who are starting to grow in numbers. 10th Amendment anyone? Politics has always been slimy though, and it seems the scum-suckers rise to the top of the heap in Congress/Senate.. and those men and women that go there to actually make a difference, listen to the people, and put things right.. just aren't heard, or they are belittled and mocked. I'm not looking for much on the Supreme Court, as they are all to the left of me, and Clarence Thomas, although they tried to malign him, and still do - he is the best one of the bunch. The Constitution *is* a living document, but we have strayed far from it.

As for the spending in Congress/Senate/White House - I'd like to know.. when you are running negative numbers, why *increase* spending? There are many Federal programs that can be cut out, reduced, or whole departments done away with (i.e. Dept. of Education), and if we could bring in a flat tax, then the IRS can pretty much go away. Nowadays the only sector of the economy that is growing lots of jobs is the government - this should not be. Its time for some good.. nay great.. men and women, who are willing to put shoulder to the load, and take on the established powers that be - and get this country to how it should be. Become aware of the bills that are put forth, and the amendments. Watch Cspan and Cspan2. Dull at times, I admit, but you find out what is going on. See if your local congressman/senator twitters or has a Facebook page. I know of one Texas Senator that does, and he keeps his followers updated daily on what he is doing in the TX Senate. By the way, he was a talk radio host, who got tired of the government and the idiocy that went on in Austin, and ran - and garnered 70% of the vote.

Words mean things

I'm tired of people hijacking and co-opting words that mean one thing, into another. Or by a grand show of words, make something that is easy to understand, obfuscated. The current administration is doing such a thing. Taking "the war on terror" (which is a misnomer, but I'll get to that later), to Overseas Contingency Operation. This is nothing more than doublespeak, and trying to 'put a right spin on things'. We can call the Navy Base in Diego Garcia (if its still there) an 'Overseas Continency something or other. just not what it is. Things like honesty, truth, and doing what you said you were going to do, doesn't seem to mean a hill of beans to politicians these days. Take Arlen Spector for example.. he changes parties because his re-election chances are slim as a Republican? He's been in there 29 years. Time for him to go home.

Raymond Ibrahim has a great article on words, and how they actually mean things, HERE.

Before I go, this "global war on terror" is like saying during WW2 we were having a "global warn on blitzkrieg". Get the drift?

Government taking over and life

It sure seems that is the order of the day - Government taking over companies. Taking over companies that take bailout money, and/or TARP money, AND companies that haven't even thought of asking for bailout money! What business is it of Congress, or the governments, what goes on in the boardrooms of businesses? And that retroactive tax, and pulling the bonuses of the AIG executives. It's part of their salary. Talk about heavyhanded overbearing cockamamie schemes. AND the people that returned the bonuses will still have to pay taxes on the amount of their bonus, albeit less the confiscatory 90% rate that the boneheads up in congress/senate were deciding on.

What is it that government does SO WELL that we will allow the government to take over our businesses and everything else? Are we a nation of cowards now? We quaver and quake in our boots while the government runs everything, and decides everything - how much we can make in our jobs, who's going to run the company, what businesses should even be in business? This is the word for the day >> pusillanimousness <<

Many people in this country are living it daily. People expecting the government to serve them, to make their life better, easier. To give them what's coming to them, when those eeeeeeeeeeevil "rich people" who "really don't earn all that money" are somehow taking from them, or causing them to be shot down in life.

Somehow people have gotten the idea that having equal rights means equal outcomes. NOT SO! Everyone has the chance to rise, and everyone has the chance to fail in life. It's what you make of your opportunities. And no whining! If you fail to take advantage of your opportunities, and then later on have to pay the consequences of it, its no one else's fault BUT YOUR OWN. Look at Thomas Sowell. He's a writer, an economist who graduated Harvard. Did he start off with a silver spoon in his mouth? No. He was an orphan in Harlem. But he didn't sit around whining that life was unfair. He worked, and he worked hard.

So if you are sitting around on your rear end, complaining life isn't fair, and you're behind the ball, whose fault is that? Pick up a mirror.