Thoughts for the Day 5

From Wolfshield:
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"Every time that we try to lift a problem from our own shoulders, and shift that problem to the hands of the government, to the same extent we are sacrificing the liberties of our people." --John F. Kennedy

"Promote then as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened." --George Washington


"If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs." --Theodore Roosevelt
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"Yes, letting GM go into bankruptcy would be scary. But a GM bailout merely kicks GM's problems down the road while spreading the fear about where Uncle Sam's big feet will land next. Besides, bankruptcy isn't the end of the world. It's the means by which bad companies restructure to fix themselves. Bailouts are the means by which governments subsidize bad companies." --Jonah Goldberg


"I was always taught when growing up that when you reward bad behavior all you get is more bad behavior. From the mortgage meltdown to the automaker debacle to cities and states going under, it's all bad behavior. It should not be rewarded. The problem here is that our culture of debt -- both personal and corporate -- has created a culture of dependency. Everyone is calling out to our central government to give them money. And horrors of horrors, many are willing to let the federal government take ownership stakes in these entities and have a hand in their management. That is the road to socialism. The first step to ending the culture of dependency is to tell these corporations, cities and states they need to start taking responsibility for their actions by dealing with the consequences they have created for themselves. If not, then we could accumulate a national debt that even our grandchildren will never pay off." --former Mayor of Cincinnati Ken Blackwell

"Evil acts can be given an aura of moral legitimacy by noble-sounding socialistic expressions such as spreading the wealth, income redistribution or caring for the less fortunate. *Let's think about socialism.* Imagine there's an elderly widow down the street from you. She has neither the strength to mow her lawn nor enough money to hire someone to do it. Here's my question to you that I'm almost afraid for the answer: Would you support a government mandate that forces one of your neighbors to mow the lady's lawn each week? If he failed to follow the government orders, would you approve of some kind of punishment ranging from house arrest and fines to imprisonment? I'm hoping that the average American would condemn such a government mandate because it would be a form of slavery, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another. Would there be the same condemnation if instead of the government forcing your neighbor to physically mow the widow's lawn, the government forced him to give the lady $40 of his weekly earnings? That way the widow could hire someone to mow her lawn. I'd say that there is little difference between the mandates. While the mandate's mechanism differs, it is nonetheless the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another. Probably most Americans would have a clearer conscience if all the neighbors were forced to put money in a government pot and a government agency would send the widow a weekly sum of $40 to hire someone to mow her lawn. This mechanism makes the particular victim invisible but it still boils down to one person being forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. Putting the money into a government pot makes palatable acts that would otherwise be deemed morally offensive. This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one's fellow man." --George Mason University economics professor Walter E. Williams
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"When the GOP took a beating on Nov. 4, no mass protests ensued; no nationwide boycotts erupted. Conservatives took their lumps and began the peaceful post-defeat process of self-flagellation, self-analysis and self-autopsy. In fact, in the wake of campaign 2008 there's only one angry mob gripped by 'insane rage': left-wing same-sex marriage activists incensed at their defeat in California. Voters there approved Proposition 8, a traditional marriage initiative, by 52 percent to 48 percent. Instead of introspection and self-criticism, however, the sore losers who opposed Prop. 8 responded with threats, fists and blacklists. That's right. Activists have published on the Internet an 'Anti-Gay Blacklist' of Prop. 8 donors. If the tables were turned and Prop. 8 proponents created such an enemies list, everyone in Hollywood would be screaming 'McCarthyism' faster than you could count to eight. ... Corporate honchos, church leaders and small donors alike are in the same-sex marriage mob's crosshairs, all unfairly demonized as hate-filled bigots by bona fide hate-filled bigots who have abandoned decency in pursuit of 'equal rights'." --Michelle Malkin

Proposition 8 Aftermath

So I finally have the time to post on this issue. For those of you who have been avoiding the news like the plague here it is: Proposition 8 passed in California (although no by much) and now the homosexual community is calling for the resignation and/or boycott of anyone who contributed to the cause of passing it.
I have been reading plans of boycotts of people and places that did their Patriotic Duty by voting on an issue they felt strongly about. There was even a mob that descended on the LDS temple in Los Angeles.
One of the members of Film Independent (they help run the California Film Festival) supported proposition 8 and now there are many folks calling for his resignation and plans to boycott the festival.

I am a getting weary of the cry that homosexuals are being denied their "constitutional rights" and that this campaign is just like the civil rights campaigns in the 60's.
What civil rights? What constitutional right?
If I really want penguins to be recognized as Catholic priests, it's to bad; They are penguins and I don't have the right to change the definition of a priest.
My point is that there is no "right to be married." No one has the right to be married. It is a religious institution dating from the beginning of man (and before?). No matter how much people say that it's about love or equality marriage is between a man and woman. That's it. Sorry if it doesn't work for you. Please stop trying to graffiti the civil and social and cultural painting that is our country.
We all have problems but We The People learn to deal with them rather than force others to deal. We have the right to the pursuit of happiness; we are not guaranteed anything we want.

Thoughts of the Day 4

From Wolfshield:
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"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." --George Bernard Shaw

"We'll ensure that economic justice is served---that's what this election is about... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." --Barack Obama

"You have to pinch yourself---a Marxist radical who all his life has been mentored by, sat at the feet of, worshipped with, befriended, endorsed the philosophy of, funded and been in turn funded, politically promoted and supported by a nexus comprising of black power anti-white racists, Jew-haters, revolutionary Marxists, unrepentant former terrorists and Chicago mobsters, is on the verge of becoming President of the United States. And apparently it's considered impolite to say so." ---columnist Melanie Phillips

Of the Second Amendment, a Freudian slip: "Even if I wanted to take it away, I couldn't get it done. I don't have the votes in Congress." --Barack Obama

The Face of "Change"

As I sit here and watch the country slip into oblivion I don't know how to feel. I have always known that Barrak Hussein Obama was a shinier, more charismatic candidate but I hoped deep down that we the people would choose moral stone over neon lights. We can only hope that no Supreme Court seat come up for appointment.

Arab Gas

After a long night of petroleum based darkness the falling prices of gas are staring to let we, the people, breath again. It's sad to say but I'm glad to see the prices nearer to $3.20 again rather than $4.20. If we think back I'm sure we can all remember earlier this year when gas prices started their solemn march of doom up into ridiculous prices . That seems to be when all the food prices started to climb and then, consequently, everything else went up in price. After that, people stopped spending so much money and that, I believe, is when the whole happy-go-lucky housing market came crashing down, putting us in our current financial situation.

Now there is a little light of hope. Gas prices are going down which, if it acts the same way as when they went up, will eventually allow prices to come back down a little. This could ease all our budgets in time for Christmas.
Here is an article telling us what the Oil nations want to foist on us. In it they say rising gas prices are not responsible for the current market situation. This may be only partly true. Their solution for gas prices going down is not to let them and allow demand to go back up but to cut production and increase prices. When are we going to use our own fuel?

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Oil prices continued their steep losses despite an announcement by the OPEC cartel that the producers will cut production by 1.5 million barrels a day next month.Friday, crude oil closed at its lowest level since May 31, 2007, settling at $64.14 a barrel, down 5.4 % or $3.69.

The oil producing nations called an emergency meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Friday and voted to slash production in an effort to stop oil prices from plummeting further. There was some speculation that the meeting could last several hours, with cartel members such as Iran pushing for cuts as high as 2 million barrels per day, however, it took less than two hours for producers to agree to cut 1.5 million barrels per day in November.

"Oil prices have witnessed a dramatic collapse -- unprecedented in speed and magnitude," said a statement released by the cartel.

Following the announcement of the production cuts, OPEC President Khelil was asked if a decrease in oil production would negatively impact the global economy. Khelil spoke adamantly against the assumption.

“Oil is not responsible for the market turmoil, it is the mismanagement of economies,” he said.

Khelil went on to assert that the price of oil by itself does not have an impact on the global economy. He said it actually supports economic growth and the high prices in July were motivated by speculation; they had nothing to do with supply and demand. Khelil said he suspects speculation is what is driving the U.S. dollar higher now.

The recent plunge in oil prices on fear of a global economic slowdown appeared to trump any efforts to decrease production. The commodity continued to trade lower, dropping as low as $62.65 Friday morning.

“Looking at the crude oil—it was following the Dow tick for tick,” said FOX Business contributor Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading. “Oil is totally focused on the health of the stock market right now. If the stock market does well, oil could rebound and it could rebound in a big way, regardless of what OPEC does…if the stock market looks ugly, oil, at least for the short-term, is going to look pretty bad.”

John Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service doesn’t think any action by OPEC will impact the market much.

“I don’t think that OPEC could have done much to stem the slide in 2008,” Kloza said. “This is tied to worries about a global recession and those will persist through new year, no matter what.”

Kloza thinks crude prices could fall near the mid-$50 per barrel range if the price drops below $62 per barrel early next week.

“It’s kind of like the Dow breaking 10,000—if the price of crude doesn’t stabilize as it approaches $62, you’re going to get a much larger drop,” Kloza said.

Coming into the day, crude was off its July high of $145.29 by 53%, after gaining $1.09 per barrel on Thursday, closing at $67.84.

OPEC will meet again in December, and could push for more production cuts if oil prices do not stabilize by then. The next meeting will be held in Algeria.

Natural gas fell 5.3% on Thursday to $6.419, and continued that fall on Friday, with prices falling an additional 18 cents to $6.239, the lowest settlement since September 21, 2007. RBOB Gasoline fell 6.3% or 9.99 cents on Friday to settle at $1.4779 per gallon, the lowest level since January 2007. Heating oil prices dropped 4.1 % or 8.32 cents to $1.9465 a gallon; August 2007, was the last month when the fuel closed below $2.00 per gallon.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/
energy/oil-plummets--despite-opec-production-cut/

Obama Citizenship Debate

I have recently become aware of an on going debate over whether B. H. Obama is actually a citizen. The debate is over whether or not he was actually born in the State of Hawaii. From what I have seen/read it is said that Obama has not actually produced an original birth certificate but some records copy of some sort.

IF it was proved that he was not actually born in the U.S. the question of his citizenship would then fall to the legal circumstances of the citizenship of his mother. Also, it would take a symantic look at the clause in article 2, section 1 of the U.S. Constitution:

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Would the whole Democratic party and Obama himself really risk their whole campaign on a fraud that could be easily checked out by congress? All of this, however is moot seeing as the certificate is authentic. Please check the following links if you wont take my word for it.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/jun/27/obamas-birth-certificate-part-ii/
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html

This does not mean that I like him.

Immigration

An article on immigration appeared in a local newspaper a few days ago. This article was an interview with a couple who had illegally come into the US from Mexico. The Headline of the article pointed to the horrible dangers faced by those illegally coming to the U.S. The rest of the article told their hard story of the dangers they faced making their way here.

I am completely against illegal immigration. Now, before you roll your eyes or scroll away from this post let me clarify. I am fine with the idea of granting seasonal visas for field workers. I love that our country is still viewed by many in the world as a place of dreams. I think immigration to this country is great seeing as how that is the way my family came to be here many years ago.
I do not, however, feel that anyone has the right to just come here because their situation is bad, even if there is no border fence.

Back to the article: I despise these types of publications. I do feel very sorry for these people. I really don't like that they have to go through the ordeal of crossing the border and that their life was so bad they felt they needed to. I don't however enjoy people telling me their sad stories in the effort to get me to feel bad about these illegal aliens. I'm glad it's hard to come into our country illegally. It should be. If the situation is hard at home, fight to make it better. It's not all fun and games here either.

Now, it is hard to come into this country legally. It takes much money, time and effort. Perhaps we, as a country, should make it easier. If we do, or if we don't: coming to this country illegally is still illegal. Hard times, big dreams, and kids don't change that it's wrong.

Do I still feel bad about the hard things these people have to go through? YES

Thoughts of the Day 3

I would like to draw special attention to the quote comparing the current U.S. situation to Rome. Think about it.
From Wolfshield:
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“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.” --Ronald Reagan

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other... We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.” --John Adams

"Liberals have tried to convince me that Obama is brilliant. I find that odd because he has said that there are 57 states, that JFK got the Russians to remove their missiles from Cuba by sitting down and chatting with Khrushchev, and that Iran doesn’t really constitute an actual threat because they don’t spend as much money on weaponry as we do. Funny, but ‘brilliant’ isn’t the first word that comes to mind. But what do liberals know? They were also convinced that Jimmy Carter was intelligent.” —Burt Prelutsky

“I would appeal to... all Americans to acknowledge that the preservation of our liberties ultimately depends on the enormous dedication and self-sacrifice of our military men and women. I am very concerned about whether our professional class, buffed all shiny and bright by the elite universities, will ever have the will or stamina to defend this nation in a major crisis. As I’ve predicted for years, we’re heading down a path similar to that of the Roman empire—with a sophisticated, self-absorbed upper class enjoying a comfortable lifestyle whose security is maintained by a career military (increasingly foreign or mercenary as Rome declined). Soldiers must do or die by the good judgment or shallow caprice of a nation’s leaders, who are the ones who bear all moral responsibility in this matter.” —Camille Paglia

“Does it matter if Barack Obama is for sex education in kindergarten? It matters more than most things that are called ‘the real issues.’... Because one of the biggest and realest of all issues is the outlook and character of the President of the United States... What does being in favor of sex education in kindergarten tell us about the outlook and character of this largely unknown man who has suddenly appeared on the national scene to claim the highest office in the land? It gives us an insight into the huge gulf between Senator Obama’s election-year image and what he has actually been for and against over the preceding decades. It also shows the huge gulf between his values and those of most other Americans. Many Americans would consider sex education for kindergartners to be absurd but there is more to it than that. What is called ‘sex education,’ whether for kindergartners or older children, is not education about biology but indoctrination in values that go against the traditional values that children learn in their families and in their communities. Obviously, the earlier this indoctrination begins, the better its chances of overriding traditional values... Sex education for kindergartners is just one of many issues on which Barack Obama has lined up consistently on the side of arrogant elitists of the Far Left.” --Thomas Sowell

etc. . .