The Filth Emanating from Hollywood

"The name of the game right now is compromise.  Meet in the middle to get things done.... According to the Bible, when that happens, we're no longer standing for anything. We are no longer on the side of the Truth....  You're either hot or you're cold.  We're in almost a period of the Laeodician Church.  We need to pick our side now....  If you're going to be for the world, be for the world.  Don't be doing so much harm being half in and half out.  You're harming yourself and those others who might actually want to know the Truth.  Choose ye this day whom you will follow."  (Angus T. Jones, ~11:30 mark, Part 2 Video)

As Curtis Bowers accurately lays out in "Grinding American Down," the Left's (Communists) agenda is to undermine America's Judeo-Christian culture in order to replace its government with a humanistic, collectivist one (which corresponds with Satan's goals).  The Left correctly understands that our religion and morality are necessary for the success of our nation.  They must remove the guiding star of the Word of God in order to replace our form of government with a tyrannical one.  One of the many ways they have sought to do this is by taking over Hollywood, which they have done quite effectively.  That is why we see such filth emanating from there today.  That filth is intended to assist America in turning away from the Word of God.

I like to divide entertainment media into three categories: meat, sugar, and poison.

Meat is the media that glorifies God, supports the Christian worldview, and strengthens your faith in God.  There is very little meat being produced in Hollywood.

Poison is media that encourages sin, perversion, carnality, depravity, and a worldview that is in direct contravention to that communicated to us by God through his revealed Word.  Poison rots your soul, weakens your faith, and pulls you away from God.  It is a direct replacement for what is provided by the Word of God.  I would contend that a majority of what comes out of Hollywood today is poison, and it is by design.

Sugar is neither meat, nor poison, but does not glorify God and cannot satisfy the longings of the soul by itself.  Therefore, if you do not balance sugar with a good helping of meat, you will continue to consume sugar until you move to poison to fill the emptiness in your soul.  Hollywood is very adept at disguising poison with a heavy dose of sugar to make it more palatable, so one must always be vigilant when consuming "sugar."  That vigilance comes through knowledge and study of the Word.

And now the testimony of Angus T. Jones of "Two and a Half Men."  At the 7:40 minute mark in the Part 2 video below, Jones describes to the Forerunner Chronicles how he realized that "Two and a Half Men" was disseminating filth.  I think he's onto something.  Christians should never apologize for exposing the evil of the world, the flesh and the Devil, if their analysis is grounded in the Word.  Hollywood needs more...a lot more...people like Jones to speak out against the immorality being intentionally peddled by Hollywood to destroy our nation.  Here are some quotes from his testimony:

"I'm on 'Two and a Half Men' and I don't want to be on it,” [Jones] said. "If you watch 'Two and a Half Men,' please stop watching it and filling your head with filth. People say it’s just entertainment. Do some research on the effects of television and your brain, and I promise you you’ll have a decision to make when it comes to television, especially with what you watch." (source)

"You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that." (~9:50 mark Part 2) 

"The name of the game right now is compromise.  Meet in the middle to get things done.... According to the Bible, when that happens, we're no longer standing for anything. We are no longer on the side of the Truth....  You're either hot or you're cold.  We're in almost a period of the Laeodician Church.  We need to pick our side now....  If you're going to be for the world, be for the world.  Don't be doing so much harm being half in and half out.  You're harming yourself and those others who might actually want to know the Truth.  Choose ye this day whom you will follow."  (~11:30 mark, Part 2)

Link to Angus T. Jones' testimony, Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT0DpLkQYMU


Link to Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTju7uI8-1o


--Against All Enemies

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Disclaimer: These opinions are solely my own, and do not reflect the opinions or official positions of any United States Government agency, organization or department.

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Freedom In America Is Now Illegal! ... J. D. Longstreet

Freedom In America Is Now Illegal!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
******************
Before you sigh and mutter to yourself:  "Oh, no! Another tome by Longstreet opining how we Americans have lost our freedom," consider the words of Eric Peters at http://www.ericpetersautos.com/

Mr. Peters says:  "Our slavery is ingenious because it’s so very subtle. Most people not only don’t see (much less feel) their shackles – they get angry when someone calls attention to them. Most people, in other words, still imagine themselves to be free. This despite the obvious fact that they must first beg – and obtain – permission before they may exercise any of their former natural rights."

Struck a nerve, did it?  If you love freedom, as I do, I am SURE it got your attention.

Mr. Peters goes on to say:  "Even the elemental right to choose your spouse, for instance, is no longer a natural right; the state demands the couple seek its permission to marry. Exactly as feudal lords once demanded of their serfs. And serfs we have become."

Mr. Peters continues:  "Thus, people beg the state’s permission. Much worse, they have accepted this as normal and reasonable. They do not  take umbrage – or even become mildly annoyed. Many – all too many – take pride in having begged for (and received) their permission slips. In having acquired a birth certificate (of ownership) for their children. A driver’s license, a Social Security number…. and so on."

Mr. Peters commentary continues to cut to the nub of the American experience today. 

We Americans are NO LONGER FREE!  We haven't been for a very long time. "Land of the free" ought to be scrubbed from our National Anthem because it is NOT TRUE! 

In a recent commentary, I endeavored to point out a few of the freedoms lost to Americans.  You may find it interesting.  Read it here:  http://flashpoint2016.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/the-shining-city-goes-dark-forever-j-d-longstreet/

America is now an oligarchy.  Our government is run by a small group of very powerful people.  Where did they get that power?  We, you and I, gave it to them.

America';s Founding Fathers were fearful that this day would eventually come.   Ben Franklin, upon being asked by a female by-stander what kind of government they had given us, is said to have replied:  "A republic, Madam -- if you can keep it!" 

Well, the plain truth is -- we DIDN'T keep it!

Freedom requires eternal vigilance.  You have heard that phrase time and time again -- and it is very true. Once freedom is gained it is hard work to maintain it. Apparently, it is work only a few citizens are willing to undertake.

To remain free, free people must constantly wage war against the passion of the few to rule the many.  Those who seek power, who thrive on power over their fellowman, are working unceasingly to grasp that power in manners too numerous to measure.  They are a constant and growing threat.

And they LIE! How they lie!  They will look America directly in the eye and -- with all the sincerity they can muster -- tell you a bald-faced lie.   We Americans have just undergone months of disingenuousness in the most recent presidential campaign.  And he won!

America spurned its last hope of recovering its freedom and its self respect.   That is why hundreds of thousands of Americans are petitioning the White House to allow their states to leave the so-called United States of America and create their own country ruled by the old, the original, Constitution.  (For those of you educated in America's public schools you may have to Google "constitution.")

Those rights granted by God, and God alone,  are now restricted, or forbidden, by the centralized authority of the US government.

Americans must now live in fear and dread, very much as the citizens of the old Soviet Union did, of the bureaucratic despotism of Obama's nameless, faceless, Czars, and despotic agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security (a domestic version of KGB), the Environmental Protection Agency, and a myriad of alphabet soup agencies that have locked our freedom away -- and -- from whom we must beg permission to exercise rights that Providence granted us at birth.

As Mr. Peters says:  "Free men do not beg permission. They insist that their rights be respected. Come what may.

But before anyone can insist that his rights be respected, he must understand that his rights exist because he exists. Not because his rights were written on a document. Not because the state acknowledges them formally. Rights just are. And once he has such understanding, he will resent like hell ever having to ask permission to exercise them."            

There is a plethora of wisdom in Mr. Peter's article entitled:  "Permission Slips Instead of Rights." We recommend you read it in its entirety.  You will find it at:  http://ericpetersautos.com/2012/11/27/permission-slips-instead-of-rights/

Someone once said:  "Loss of freedom seldom happens overnight. Oppression doesn't stand on the doorstep with toothbrush, mustache, and swastika armband -- it creeps up insidiously... step by step, and all of a sudden the unfortunate citizen realizes that it is gone."

Certainly there was SOME of that in old America.  (There is ALWAYS that ten percent who do not get the word.) But that excuse REALLY doesn't fly when applied to modern America.  Americans were warned -- loud and long -- that they were giving their freedom away for ONLY the promise of security.
Americans today are jobless, homeless and broke -- ripe for the picking.  President Franklin Roosevelt once said:  "People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."

To see the wisdom of Roosevelt's words we have only to look to the Oval Office in the White House today.

There will remain a few who refuse to be silenced.  A few who will continue to point to the obvious, that America is now a Marxist state.  They are few now.  They will be fewer later as the fist of the dictator begins to crush them into eternal silence. 

Some will endeavor to keep the fires of freedom kindled and the spark alive.  As one of our Founding Fathers, Samuel Adams (a veritable thorn-in-the-flesh to King George)  once said:  "It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men."

Pass the matches, please.

© J. D. Longstreet

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The Shining City Goes Dark -- Forever ... J. D. Longstreet

The Shining City Goes Dark -- Forever
America Can Never Be Rebuilt
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
******************

Move over North Korea.  Move over China.  Move over Soviet Socialist Russia.  Move over Cuba.  Move over Nazi Germany.  Room must be made for a new entry on the list of police states on earth. Now we must add the name of --  the United States of America.

Shocking?  No.  It has been in the works for a very long time and the terrorist attack that took out the World Trade Center on 9/11 simply created the right condition for the powerful to extend their powers over a scared, frightened, people who, like all humans since the beginning of time (except for a few strong individualists), traded their freedom for security.

Welcome to "post constitution America."  The Bill of Rights is DEAD.  Freedom for US citizens is a mirage.  It no longer exists. 

America is no longer a part of the so-called "free world."  Come to think of it -- I'm not sure if there is, indeed, a free world any longer!

George Washington University law professor, Jonathan Turley, wrote a piece a while back that spelled it out for anyone not yet convinced that America has moved onto the police state list.  You will find his article here:  http://jonathanturley.org/2012/01/15/10-reasons-the-u-s-is-no-longer-the-land-of-the-free/

I'm going to highlight it a bit here.

Professor Turley says the list of powers acquired by the U.S. government since 9/11 puts us in rather troubling company. (See the incomplete list of authoritarian states I mentioned above)

Professor Turley enumerates the "new" powers our government now holds over its citizens:

Assassination of U.S. citizens

President Obama has claimed, as President George W. Bush did before him, the right to order the killing of any citizen considered a terrorist or an abettor of terrorism.  Last month, administration officials affirmed that power, stating that the president can order the assassination of any citizen whom he considers allied with terrorists.

Indefinite detention

Under the law signed last month, terrorism suspects are to be held by the military; the president also has the authority to indefinitely detain citizens accused of terrorism.  The Administration continues to claim the right to strip citizens of legal protections based on its sole discretion.

Arbitrary justice

The president now decides whether a person will receive a trial in the federal courts or in a military tribunal, a system that has been ridiculed around the world for lacking basic due process protections. Bush claimed this authority in 2001, and Obama has continued the practice.

Warrantless searches

The president may now order warrantless surveillance, including a new capability to force companies and organizations to turn over information on citizens’ finances, communications and associations. Bush acquired this sweeping power under the Patriot Act in 2001, and in 2011, Obama extended the power, including searches of everything from business documents to library records. The government can use “national security letters” to demand, without probable cause, that organizations turn over information on citizens — and order them not to reveal the disclosure to the affected party.

Secret evidence

The government now routinely uses secret evidence to detain individuals and employs secret evidence in federal and military courts. It also forces the dismissal of cases against the United States by simply filing declarations that the cases would make the government reveal classified information that would harm national security — a claim made in a variety of privacy lawsuits and largely accepted by federal judges without question. Even legal opinions, cited as the basis for the government’s actions under the Bush and Obama administrations, have been classified. This allows the government to claim secret legal arguments to support secret proceedings using secret evidence. In addition, some cases never make it to court at all. The federal courts routinely deny constitutional challenges to policies and programs under a narrow definition of standing to bring a case.

War crimes

The world clamored for prosecutions of those responsible for waterboarding terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, but the Obama administration said in 2009 that it would not allow CIA employees to be investigated or prosecuted for such actions. This gutted not just treaty obligations but the Nuremberg principles of international law. When courts in countries such as Spain moved to investigate Bush officials for war crimes, the Obama administration reportedly urged foreign officials not to allow such cases to proceed, despite the fact that the United States has long claimed the same authority with regard to alleged war criminals in other countries.

Secret court

The government has increased its use of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has expanded its secret warrants to include individuals deemed to be aiding or abetting hostile foreign governments or organizations. In 2011, Obama renewed these powers, including allowing secret searches of individuals who are not part of an identifiable terrorist group. The administration has asserted the right to ignore congressional limits on such surveillance.

Immunity from judicial review

Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has successfully pushed for immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens, blocking the ability of citizens to challenge the violation of privacy.

Continual monitoring of citizens

The Obama administration has successfully defended its claim that it can use GPS devices to monitor every move of targeted citizens without securing any court order or review. It is not defending the power before the Supreme Court — a power described by Justice Anthony Kennedy as “Orwellian.”

Extraordinary renditions

The government now has the ability to transfer both citizens and noncitizens to another country under a system known as extraordinary rendition, which has been denounced as using other countries, such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan, to torture suspects. The Obama administration says it is not continuing the abuses of this practice under Bush, but it insists on the unfettered right to order such transfers — including the possible transfer of U.S. citizens.
     
This, dear reader, is the description of an authoritarian government, a police state  -- and THIS is America today.

America lurches along today, struggling with every breath. Much like a wounded animal instinctively knows something is wrong yet hasn't the reasoning ability to understand that it is fatally wounded and will soon succumb to its wounds, collapse, and die. 

America, the wounded giant, struggles against the infinity of self-inflicted wounds draining the life from its once vibrant body. 

The lifeblood of the great constitutional republic, liberty and freedom, long since sacrificed on the alter of security, are no longer the life force of the once great titan that bestrode the earth.  The lights are out in the once shining city on a hill and darkness shrouds the land.

The weight of the heavy hand of an authoritarian government smothers the citizenry and emasculates thoughts of revival.

Too late Americans remember the warning of one of America's original Founding Fathers and our second President, John Adams. Freedom, once lost, can never be regained.  Adams said:  "A constitution of government, once changed from freedom, can never be restored.  Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."

America is done for.  She cannot be rebuilt.  redemption is impossible.  The hollowed-out husk that remains has joined the league of mediocre nations destined to become the foundation of a global government on the planet.

At remarkable speed America "fundamentally transformed" itself from a constitutional representative republic to a socialist authoritarian (police) state to a "has been" nation.  As John Adams warned -- there is no going back.

© J. D. Longstreet

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The Manchurian Electorate ... J. D. Longstreet

The Manchurian Electorate

America's Brain Washed Voters

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

****************

"So Europe got the American president it wanted – the one who would present no threat to its own delusions. The United States is now officially one of us: an Old World country complete with class hatred, ethnic Balkanisation, bourgeois guilt and a paternalist ruling elite. And it is locked into the same death spiral of high public spending and self-defeating wealth redistribution as we are. Welcome to the future, and the beginning of what may turn out to be the terminal decline of the West."   ...   Janet Daley, The Telegraph:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9668774/America-has-become-an-Old-World-country.html 

We hardily recommend that you click on the link provided and read the entire article by Ms. Daley.

Just as the Europeans have, for the most part anyway, seen the error of their ways and are attempting to dig themselves out, America decides Europe was right all along -- and we rushed to join them in their mass grave.

Government as omnipotent benefactor is now the model in the US.  Never mind that the very idea is totally un-American, Americans have embraced it whole-heartedly -- and the soul-rot that accompanies it.

I find it ironic that a news organization, Pravda, which was formally the mouthpiece for the Soviet Union's Communist Party government is able to see Obama for what he is when Americans were -- and are -- too dumb and/or too dense to see the Marxist agenda of Mr. Obama. (Frankly, I don't think Americans even understand, anymore, what Communism, Socialism, and Marxism really is/are. I mean, think about it.  Americans don't even know we used to have a constitutional representative republic.  Most think we had a democracy.  Now that we are a socialist state -- they don't know -- and can't tell (can't discern) -- the difference.  Such is the ignorance of the average American about his government today.)

In an article by Xavier Lerma entitled "Obama's Soviet Mistake" at Pravda.RU, the following is stated: "Putin in 2009 outlined his strategy for economic success. Alas, poor Obama did the opposite but nevertheless was re-elected. Bye, bye Miss American Pie. The Communists have won in America with Obama but failed miserably in Russia with Zyuganov who only received 17% of the vote. Vladimir Putin was re-elected as President keeping the NWO order out of Russia while America continues to repeat the Soviet mistake."  (Emphasis mine)  SOURCE: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/

The article in Pravda goes on to reallyrub it in by saying:  "Recently, Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society and he is ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them."  

OK, so now Lerma's Pravda article reallypulls the covers back on Obama:  "O'bomber (Obama) even keeps the war going along the Mexican border with projects like "fast and furious" and there is still no sign of ending it.  He is a Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so. (Emphasis added by me) How shrewd he is in America. His cult of personality mesmerizes those who cannot go beyond their ignorance. They will continue to follow him like those fools who still praise Lenin and Stalin in Russia.  Obama's fools and Stalin's fools share the same drink of illusion." SOURCE:  http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/

Comparing Putin and Obama, the article continues:  "President Vladimir Putin could never have imagined anyone so ignorant or so willing to destroy their people like Obama much less seeing millions vote for someone like Obama. They read history in America don't they? Alas, the schools in the U.S. were conquered by the Communists long ago and history was revised thus paving the way for their Communist presidents. (Emphasis added by me) Obama has bailed out those businesses that voted for him and increased the debt to over 16 trillion with an ever increasing unemployment rate especially among blacks and other minorities. All the while promoting his agenda."SOURCE:  http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/

Then, there is this line that made the small hairs on the back of this ole southern boy's neck stand straight up:  " ... residents in all 50 states have filed petitions to secede from the Unites States. We'll say that these Americans are hostages to the Communists in power. How long will their government reign tyranny upon them?"  SOURCE:  http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/

And finally, the line that put the stopper in the bottle for me:  "The question is how long will the once "Land of the Free" remain the United Socialist States of America?  Their suffering has only begun. (Emphasis added by me!) Bye bye Miss American Pie!" SOURCE:  http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/

(We highly recommend that you "click" over to Pravda.RU and read the entire article.)

I must tell you, it is one thing for me, as an American writer and commentator, to poke fun at American political ignorance, and even the ignorance of Americans in general, but it is quite sobering (to say the least) to read in the foreign press, especially a news organization in a formerly communist country -- the hub of Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire," Russia -- an article that makes  fun of the "ignorant Americans" who elected a communist President for the second time because the American public education system was taken over decades ago by communists who indoctrinated our young scholars in Marxism.  The implication is that -- like Pavlov's dog responding to Pavlov's bell, Americans responded, as they were taught, and voted for the communist candidate, Obama, when told to do so.

I couldn't help but think that someone ought to write a book (if they haven't already) entitled:  "The Manchurian Electorate!"

It is more than a little worrisome that America's enemies and former enemies understand what Americans have done to themselves and to their fellow countrymen.  It is clear to anyone willingto see that America is irreversibly divided and can no longer be considered a leader on the world stage. 

America is now a global joke!  Our President is considered a communist clown with the autonomy of a hand puppet.

There is no easy fix.  We first must decide whether we are to all be slaves, or if we are all to be free men once again. Or -- will we separate ourselves, one from the other?

America is now infected with communism and will surely die a slow agonizing death.  That cannot be reversed.  America IS terminal. 

The only question remaining, then, is how will those of us who desire freedom extract ourselves from the corpse that America is quickly becoming?

© J. D. Longstreet

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French Media Ignores Massive Anti-Islam Protest

From Moncton News:

"A patriotic march for French values and culture, and against radical Islam, was virtually blacked out by France’s politically correct media. 

Over the weekend, protestors chanted against Islamic fascism and about the French victory over Arab invaders in 732 A.D. It was the first march of its kind in France.
A broad coalition of groups from across France came together because they feel they’re losing their country to radical Islam, Sharia law, and a politically correct establishment that encourages the spread of Islam. 

“Sharia law is slowly being enforced in our country and we want to march here to protest that because our government is doing nothing,” one French demonstrator said.
“The French people — they want to defend their culture, their history – they are called ‘fascists,’” one woman said. 

“I don’t think it’s only a problem of France. It’s a problem of Europe. It’s also a problem for the U.S.A.,” another protestor said. 

France has more Muslims than any other European nation. Some believe there could be as many as 15 million Muslims in France, although the official figure is much lower.
Noted French writer Renaud Camus helped organize the march. 

“What I call ‘le grande remplacement,’ or ‘the big replacement,’ the change in population, is the biggest thing to happen in French history since the 15th century,” he said. 

The leftist French media ignored the demonstration, seeing it as racist. But it’s clear the movement to resist radical Islam is growing in France."

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ_goXHZlPE&feature=player_embedded

Generation Identitaire Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cLlL36kiCk&feature=fvsr


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Disclaimer: These opinions are solely my own, and do not reflect the opinions or official positions of any United States Government agency, organization or department.

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Items in the news: Three examples of labor unions behaving badly

By James H. Shott

Private sector labor unions have all-time low membership, which results from the fact that workers see a relatively low value in belonging to a union. Despite the lack of necessity for their continued efforts on the part of employees, unions nevertheless continue interceding to “improve” conditions that are already good enough for the vast majority of workers, a condition which threatens the continued existence of unions and thus threatens their leaders’ political influence and high pay levels.

The total compensation of some labor leaders places them firmly among President Barack Obama’s 1 percent of people making more than the $250,000 threshold that he believes should pay higher taxes, such as: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka – $293,750; United Food and Commercial Workers President Joseph Hansen – $361,124; National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel – $460,060; and American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees President Gerald McEntee – $512,489.

In our still mostly-free country, if workers want to join a union they certainly may do so. But when you look closely, you see much union activity that does more harm than good, except for the relatively few workers that gain excessive benefits that hurt the businesses they work for and, of course, union leadership and the politicians with whom they are incestuously involved.

In one example from Thanksgiving week, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union was a party in a dispute that resulted in the closing of Hostess Brands, an 85 year-old company that made Wonder Bread, Twinkies, and 28 other products.

The company had 372 separate bargaining contracts for workers, 42 multiemployer pension plans, 5,500 separate delivery routes and a vast production system.

Hostess has had financial problems for several years and had previously gotten concessions from the 12 different unions that represent its workers, but in this last round the Bakery Workers, which represents about 5,000 employees, refused concessions, even after management said if concessions were not accepted, the company would shut down.

The union claims that vulture capitalists sucked out hundreds of millions of dollars by leveraging up the company, and that management had given itself millions in pay raises while demanding worker cuts.

Actually, Ripplewood Holdings injected $150 million in three rounds of investment as the company’s troubles grew, and lost every dollar. The raises were a tiny portion of the company’s losses of nearly $500,000,000 in two years, but Ripplewood rescinded the raises and made each executive work for a dollar per year.

Hostess paid out almost $100 million in health benefits for retirees last year, but over half of it covered workers who never had worked at Hostess. You see, the Teamsters’ “multi-employer pension plan” transfers the pension obligations of a bankrupt company to surviving rivals, speeding up the collapse of troubled companies.

Union rules designed to create more union jobs forced Hostess to run separate truck fleets for delivering bread and its sweet products. Instead of one driver delivering to each of Hostess’ thousands of customers, union rules required two, one for sweets and one for bread. Union restrictions on distribution routes made it unprofitable to serve tiny outlets, yet the union barred Hostess from using non-union distributors.

Workers were asked to take an 8 percent pay cut and pay 17 percent of their health-care costs, like most other workers do, instead of zero. In return, the union would have received 25 percent ownership of Hostess plus $100 million of debt to be paid back to the unions.

Instead, the union made a decision that closed the company, and nearly 18,500 workers will lose their jobs as the company shuts 33 bakeries and 565 distribution centers, and 570 outlet stores.

And then there is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that was voted out at Aviation Safeguards at Los Angeles International Airport by company workers who wanted out of the SEIU. In response the union brought in 1,000 members who weren’t employees of the company to block entrances to the airport, inconveniencing hundreds of innocent travelers.

“We petitioned to leave the SEIU almost a year ago, and the contract ended,” Frederick McNeil of Aviation Safeguards said. “And now they’re bringing in outsiders to block travelers who are just trying to get home for the holidays. It’s ridiculous.”

The United Food and Commercial Workers organized Black Friday protests against Wal-Mart, and the National Labor Relations Board refused to respond in a timely manner to a Nov. 17 Wal-Mart petition to prohibit the protest, saying the request would be dealt with the week after Thanksgiving.

Relatively few Wal-Mart employees participated, and one protester carried a sign that said: “I’m getting paid $5.50 an hour by the union to protest Wal-Mart paying $9.50 an hour.”

In the 1920s renowned union leader Samuel Gompers was asked what organized labor wanted, and reportedly answered, “More,” a philosophy that endures today. Unions raise employee costs beyond the competitive level, increasing prices to consumers and putting negative economic pressure on businesses. If unions are to survive, they must cease being enemies of business and become partners with them, working for the mutual success of companies and their workers.

Cross-posted from Observations

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Movie: Grinding America Down

If you are a freedom-loving American, then "Grinding America Down" is a critical movie for you to watch.

"Grinding America Down" is a movie by Curtis Bowers that accurately describes the design of the Communist Agenda in America, how it is has been executed, how successful it has been, and what those of us who love liberty need to do to counter it.  It is apparent that Curtis believes the Communists are closer than they ever have been to fundamentally transforming our nation, but they can still be stopped.  We just have to do something.

Some of the many topics he talks about are Fabian Socialism, Saul Alinsky, Herbet Marcuse, the Communist Party USA, the Frankfurt School, and Bill Ayers.  Curtis has done his research and is on-target with his analysis.  Encourage your friends and family to watch this film.

I am not able to embed this video, so you will have to go to the following link to view it.  From what I understand, it will only be available for free for a limited time.

AGENDA: Grinding America Down (Full Movie) FREE for a limited time

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AMERIKA: The Police State ... J. D. Longstreet

AMERIKA:  The Police State
You Asked For This!  No. You Demanded it!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
********************

The old adage: "be careful what you ask for --  because YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT" is absolutely true when applied to America today.

More evidence that America is not just "becoming" a police state but is already deep into that brutal condition slapped me right in the face at the top of the Drudge report on the morning of November 20th, 2012.  The screaming headlines read:  "SENATE BILL LETS FEDS READ YOUR EMAIL."

Reading a bit farther and I learned the bill is even worse and more dangerous than the headlines would lead one to believe.   It actually allows allows the feds to read your e-mail WITHOUT FIRST OBTAINING A WARRANT!   And it gets worse.  It's not JUST your e-mail, either.

The "teaser" line to the article says: "Proposed law scheduled for a vote next week originally increased Americans' e-mail privacy. Then law enforcement complained. Now it increases government access to e-mail and other digital files."  (emphasis mine!)

We recommend you read the entire article which you will find here:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57552225-38/senate-bill-rewrite-lets-feds-read-your-e-mail-without-warrants/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title

Welcome, Comrades, to the bold new "Obama World!" 

This is a "told you so" moment,  if there has ever been one.   And it is only going to get worse. But, hey.  This is what America said she wanted -- cradle to grave monitoring by the federal government.

The article goes on to say the following:  "A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, (emphasis added) giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law."

The " ... rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge."  (Again -- Emphasis added)

The article by Declan McCullagh at CNET NEWS goes on to say:  "The list of agencies that would receive civil subpoena authority for the contents of electronic communications also includes the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Postal Regulatory Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Mine Enforcement Safety and Health Review Commission."

More freedom and liberty -- gone!  Of course, there is a chance this bill will not clear the full Congress.  (It is due to come up for a vote in the Senate on Thursday, November 29th.)  But don't count on it.

Many Americans now believe we have a government out of control, a rogue government bent on sealing America off into a new form of police state, a leftist dictatorship with Obama at it's head as President for Life, or some such grandiose title.  For those who still do not grasp what is happening, maybe the veritable blizzard of Presidential Executive Orders about to bury America after January 20th, 2013, will convince them.  But I doubt it.

Whatever happened to the Constitution?  If you are not familiar with the US Constitution you are most likely in the majority of Americans today.  Those of us who DO remember when the US was a constitutional republic understand that this is more evidence that the US Government has abandoned the constitution in favor of a socialist dictatorship.

I know. I know.  It's not a police state -- until the police come for YOU!  Believe me -- they are coming.

A commenter on a blog asked recently:  "What on earth would give the people we elect to represent us the idea that we want to live in a society which is monitored and controlled to this extent?"   To this scribe the answer is clear: The people we elect.

The police state is not coming to America -- it's here.  It may be a form of a "soft" police state, but that won't last.  A nation cannot flirt with despotism.  America did in 2008 and it gave us the election of 2012 and unless the people of the nation rise up and state "ENOUGH" it will lead us to another even more powerful dictator -- if there is a change, at all, in the occupant of the Oval Office.  After all, when the government no longer feels constrained by the constitution -- anything is possible.

So, this is the way American freedom and liberty dies, huh?   We're going out with a whimper, not a war cry, on our knees rather than on our feet fighting like hell to protect our birthright.

In my naïveté, up 'til the election on Tuesday November 6th, I had thought my fellow Americans would make a fight of it.  On the following morning I was disabused of that deeply mistaken belief. It was as if the revolution had been called -- and nobody showed up!

I think Americans will be surprised at the rapidity with which the change-over from constitutional republic to socialist dictatorship will proceed.  The lightening speed of the transition is due to many decades of advance planning. 

Like the many executive orders now resting in a secure vault somewhere have been written, rewritten, and finessed, (even before the election) to expedite their issuance and enforcement early next year, the installation of America's socialist dictatorship was planned long ago. The foundation has long been laid.  Like a prefab building, all that remains is for the pieces to be set atop the foundation and bolted in place.

Now we are ALL just gawkers watching our prison being constructed right before our eyes.

© J. D. Longstreet

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Reaping The Whirlwind ... J. D. Longstreet

Reaping The Whirlwind
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*********************

A whirlwind is a vertical column of air whirling around itself as it moves over the surface of the Earth.  Think about that for a moment.

Now.  Consider this:  "For they sow the wind; and they reap the whirlwind."  That is from the Old Testament book of Hosea chapter 8 verse 7.

Like so many of the conservative commentariat,  I am STILL trying to analyze why America deliberately decided to turn a corner, or choose a path, that will unquestionably lead to its own destruction.  

The choice to forsake a constitutional republic for a socialist, collectivist, Marxist, form of government is surreal.  It's like something from a bad science fiction movie in which the population is entirely controlled by some malevolent entity intent upon controlling the world.

I made a terrible mistake (concerning the recent Presidential Election) when I assumed the American people still had enough common sense, enough discernment, enough honor left to do the right thing. 

The American electorate proved me wrong.

Our ship of state was (is) (so obviously) headed toward the jagged rocks I assumed we would remove the less-than-adequate helmsman and replace him with a real mariner who would stir us away from certain destruction on the shoals and rocks. I was wrong. 

The reelection of Obama was a grand victory for ignorance.  It is the pay-off for years of indoctrination in our public schools.  The old Judeo-Christian ethics have been purged from our public education system in favor of secular humanism.  You can lay the blame for paving the way for it at the feet of our leftist, radical, Supreme Court and the Court's rulings from as far back as the 1960's. 

Abraham Lincoln is given credit for saying: "The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next."  Whoever said it -- it was spot on. 

If you, perhaps, thought those of us who warned for decades of the trouble ahead for America due to the secular (and even religious) humanism being taught in our public schools were just blowing smoke -- consider the following carefully: Expanding upon the role the public education establishment should play to bring about the goals described in the Humanist Manifesto II, John Dunphy wrote: "I am convinced that the battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers that correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being...The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent with the promise of a world in which the never-realized Christian ideal of 'love thy neighbor' will finally be achieved."  SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanist_Manifesto      

The generation of Americans who elected -- and then reelected -- Obama were graduates of this public school system.  They were programmed to act as automatons, to choose loyalty to the state over loyalty to God and their family.  They marched to the polls and did as they had been told, indeed, had been taught -- indoctrinated to do.

Author Ron Taylor, in his book  "Agenda 21: An Expose of the United Nations" in which he writes of  the  "Sustainable Development Initiative and the Forfeiture of American Sovereignty and Liberties" says the following:  "It is their stated goal...to steal one generation of children and teach them to place loyalty to the state above loyalty to family."

See, this generation knows almost nothing of American history.  They know next to nothing about the Judeo-Christian origin of America.  They are ignorant of our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.  The only thing they know about capitalism and the American system of free markets is what they were taught -- that capitalism is bad.  They know far more about the benefits of Socialism and Marxism and "equality." 

"Those coming out of years of humanistic brainwashing masquerading as public education know little of the Bible, America's Christian origins and founding documents, and the blessings of free-market capitalism. Instead, they know a great deal about sex education, values clarification, moral relativism, Darwinian evolution, Socialism and Marxism, earth worship, multiculturalism, one-world globalism, Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and appeasement foreign policy. Products of these schools comprised the Obama voters in 2012."  SOURCE:  http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2012/11/there-arose-another-generation-after.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BibleProphecyBlog+%28Bible+Prophecy+Blog%29#                    

The definition of discernment is:  The cognitive condition of someone who understands.  It also means:  The trait of judging wisely and objectively.  We learned on November 6th that "discernment" is something that is "verging" on extinction in America today.  We no longer know our right hand from our left -- nor good from evil.  Thanks to moral relativism, better known as political correctness, modern Americans believe there is no such thing as good and evil, or right and wrong.  Everything is, well, relative. 

It no longer matters what scripture teaches us, what history teaches us, what experience teaches us, what common sense teaches us, nor what plain old morality teaches us. No.  Now it is -- how do I feel about it.  "I," and/or "Me," is at the center of their very existence. 

For a perfect example of this self-centered life, one has only to listen to one of our President's speeches.  Try to keep a running tally of the number of times the words "I" and "Me" and "MY" are spoken in a single address.  What is equally troubling is how effective the narcissism indoctrination of our young scholars has been.  For the most part, they don't even notice the over-abundant use of those personal pronouns "I" and "me" and the  "possessive" adjective "my,"  because,  to them, it's NORMAL!   How inexpressively sad that is.          

Some years ago, I left my church when I "discerned" it was swinging away from the Gospels and embracing the apostate teachings of the leftist political agenda.  Now, we have social justice, environmentalism, inclusiveness, tolerance, multiculturalism, all lovingly spoken of from the pulpits of our religious community. 

With all the respect I can muster for those of America's religious community who have sold out to mammon, allow me to ask:  Are you REALLY surprised that the leftist agenda you supported, and led your flocks to support, would come back to bite you?   As you have now learned, you cannot pick and choose which parts of the leftist agenda you will support and which parts you will not. It is all -- or nothing!

The reason so many are so concerned about the reelection of Obama is not JUST his Socialist/Marxist agenda only.  It is the sudden understanding that this was a culmination of all the work the progressive left has done in our schools and our churches since, at least, the late 1940's.

The progressive left has successfully created a hybrid American. They have created a society wholly dependent  upon others for, well, everything.  Easily led these new Americans can be made to do, say, and believe anything their masters want.  They are the perfect slaves.  And they are self perpetuating.

Ultimately, it means the death of America -- the stabilizing force on the planet. Without America, chaos will reign on planet earth. 

THAT is why we are so troubled and upset by the results of the election.  Obama's reelection was the final step toward a single world-wide government or "global governance."

For many decades now we have diligently sown the wind.  Now, we shall reap the harvest from that which we have so blithely sown -- the whirlwind.  

© J. D. Longstreet 

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A State Of Palestine Will Solve NOTHING! ... J. D. Longstreet

A State Of Palestine Will Solve NOTHING!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*********************

If you think things are bad in the Middle East today, wait until there is a "state" of Palestine!

The creation of a Palestinian state will do nothing to bring stability to the region.  In fact, there will be more war, more instability, and more suffering.

A Palestinian state would effectively open up a front that starts ten miles from Tel Aviv and reaches 1,000 miles deep across the Arabian Peninsula to Teheran. That, alone, will be cause for Israel to go on their highest military alert and stay there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In other words… all the time. 

The buffer zone Israel counts on to give her time to activate her reserves and get them mobilized will no longer exist.  That short period of time, so vital for the defense of Israel, will be gone.  Therefore, Israel will have no choice but to adopt what, for all practical purposes, will be a “state of war” as a normal, everyday, lifestyle.

And it won't just be Israel in the gun sights of the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians.  Little Jordan will be toast!

If you are among those who have bought into  the school of thought, which says Israel would be the first target of a Palestinian State military, then may we respectfully suggest that you "think again!"  

No.  The military minds have another thought on that.   They think Jordan will be Target One.  

Why?

Think about it for a moment.  Eighty percent of Jordan's population is made-up of those Arab refugees who call themselves Palestinians.  They HATE the Hashemite Kingdom. In fact, they tried to overthrow the little kingdom over 40 years ago -- in 1970.  

Think about this, also:  Jordan is the only  remaining moderate, western-oriented Arab state in the Middle East.  The Palestinian State cannot allow the continued existence of Jordan as it is today.  Nope.  Jordan has to be brought to heel.

Once Jordan has been taken back, effectively, to the 11h or 12th century, then the State of Palestine's military will be enlarged by the wholesale enlistment/conscription of those Palestinians already in Jordan -- THEN they can turn their attention -- and their guns -- on Israel.

What we can expect is a blood bath in the Middle East.  These so-called Palestinians are the people who personify HATE and teach it to their children less their vigor for killing Jews grows dim.  Even their children's textbooks teach hate!

Why is no one -- outside the world's banking community -- asking about Palestine's  preparations for taking it's place among the nations of the world?  It's a legitimate question and one, I think, for which the answer is chilling.

Don't you think the US and other countries should be asking if there has been any preparation for oh, say, industrialization for the new country of Palestine?  How far along are they on developing export markets?  And, for goodness sakes, we need to know if the government of Palestine has given any thought, at all, to negotiating trade arrangements with their next-door neighbor, Israel?

I think we all know the answer to every one of the above questions is… NO. 

So, it is safe, then, to assume that a state of Palestine would be racked with poverty,  which will require billions of dollars in foreign aid (A huge chunk of which will come from the taxpayers of the US) from which the chieftains of the new state of Palestine will bleed off their shares -- and get rich -- while piling up hordes of cash in numbered bank accounts far from the Middle East.

Creating a State of Palestine is, itself, a terrorist plot against the world.   The UN will be creating a second rogue state in the Middle East.  It would better be named "West Iran" than Palestine. The state of Palestine will be run from Tehran, owned and operated by the mad mullahs of Iran.

A Palestinian state will only ensure the continuation of war, terrorism, and bloodshed.  The one thing we can be sure it will NOT bring to the Middle East is… peace.

When one stands back and considers, as objectively as possible, the problems caused by recognizing a Palestinian state one can instantly see that the stage is being set for a massive regional war in the Middle East with Israel, Iran, the US, Russia, and China ALL involved. 


For my Christian brethren this may sound uncomfortably familiar.  Things happen in that part of the world when the ancient markers are moved -- or removed. 

Establishing a State of Palestine would not necessarily be the beginning.  It could, in fact, mark the end.

© J. D. Longstreet

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Hate Speech

Most crimes are objective in nature, as they can be observed or measured.  For instance, murder means someone is dead.  Theft means something was taken (can be electronic as well as physical, but there is a record).  Speeding means that there is a limit to the maximum speed and it can be accurately measured.  Assault means someone was physically attacked, or verbally threatened with physical attack.  When it comes to objective crimes, their definitions remain consistent over time.

However, the introduction of "hate speech" into the legal system is purely subjective and can be manipulated to serve the causes and ideology of the State.  Once hate speech laws are enacted, it gives the government the ability to classify almost anything as "hate speech," up to and including opposition to the State.  The criminalization of hate speech directly contradicts freedom of speech rights granted by the First Amendment, and will ultimately result in State-sponsored censorship.

Here are two examples of how "hate speech" thinking is applied.  Through them it will be clear how the government decides what is hate speech and what is not based on their own ideology and political goals, and not on any higher standard of moral conduct.

Islam by it's very nature and conduct is replete with hate speech, and is in fact genocidal against those who do not accept Islam.  However, our government gives them a pass and labels them the "religion of peace."  In fact, the government goes so far as to label jihadic violence in the name of Islam "workplace violence."  Our Administration is even voicing their support for international law (Human Rights Council Resolution 1618) that prohibits that speech which incites religious violence in order to protect the Islamic faith (see David Horowitz's speech on the matter).

Christianity, on the other hand, is not given such a pass.  The assault on the Word of God and Christians is just beginning, as preachers are starting to come under scrutiny for preaching against homosexual behavior.  This teaching of the Word will eventually be categorized as "hate speech" and criminalized.  Then Christians will be forced to either edit any such "hate speech" out of their Bibles, or get rid of them altogether.  Leaders and pundits may even compare the Bible to "Mein Kampf" in its "intolerance."

Why does the government find this necessary?  Because the government wants to be god on earth, dictating what is right and wrong.  Just look at some of our government's actions that contradict the will of God:

• open support for, and encouragement of, homosexual behavior  
• encouragement of sexual promiscuity through education, birth control, and murder (abortion)
• discouragement of personal responsibility through bailouts, grants, "free stuff," etc.
• idol worship through the explicit legitimization of other religions and rejection of the God of the Bible
• destruction of the family unit through social programs and propaganda; employment of the educational system to perpetuate lies (such as the specious theories of evolution and man-made climate change) and encourage immoral behavior that undermine parents' teachings of morality, truth and religion; and ultimately replacing the authority of parents with the authority of the State
• encouraging taking from some to give to others, and that the government can provide everything that you need (coveting and theft)

All of these actions are designed to appeal to the carnal nature of man so that Americans will want to seek the baser, lower road that is encouraged by the government rather than seek the higher road as laid out by God.  The American government is making America safe for sinners, and pushing the Word of God aside to do so.  They may eventually make the Word of God illegal because it is "hateful" against those who follow the depraved guidance of the government.  Once the people worship the false idol of the humanist government, they will submit as slaves and liberty will have died in America.

"Your God is hateful and won't let you do what you want!  We, as your government, are much more benevolent...worship us!"

(And a final note: the criminalization of "hate speech" is a means to controlling the content of the Internet and suppress dissent amongst the population.)

--Against All Enemies

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Disclaimer: These opinions are solely my own, and do not reflect the opinions or official positions of any United States Government agency, organization or department.

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Shout Racism And Stop The Debate! ... J. D. Longstreet

Shout Racism And Stop The Debate!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
***************

I've had it up to my lower eyelids with the left's tarring of everyone who does not agree with them as racists.

See, right THERE, I'm a racist!  OK.  So be it! 

I am convinced that shouting "racist" is a coward's device to evade having to put up or shut-up. It allows a coward to claim to have won an argument by silencing the opposition.    
Look, if you want to play in the big boy's league you gotta get rid of the thin skin -- no matter the color it happens to be.

I am a southern white male. I have been labeled a racist all my life and frankly, I have never really gotten used to it.  I learned to put up with it, and ignore it, as much as possible. But now that I have attained a, ahem, certain age, damned if I will hold my silence any longer.

Let me spell it out for you.  If you cannot debate your position without resorting to screaming "racist" then you need to look up the word "transference."  For those of you who have yet to master the use of a dictionary, transference, simply put, is when you call someone something that you, in fact, are.  Or, you accuse someone of holding and opinion, that you, in fact actually hold. (Ask any shrink.)  You are transferring your feelings onto your opposition.  Boil it all down and you get the school yard version:  "It takes one to know one!"

A very nice southern lady, one of or vaunted "steel magnolias" told me the other day, upon hearing the ladies of the Congressional Black Caucus refer to Senator John McCain (and others) racists, that she was sick of it.  She expressed her feelings ever so delicately to me by saying, "I think I'll puke!"

I wonder, do they have any idea how foolish they appear?  Or do they just not care?   It must be the latter.

Look, black folks in America are going to have to accept that they are no longer in the cat bird's seat.  They are no longer the number one minority in America.  That position is now owned by the Hispanics.  Guess which group will no receive the most attention now?  Uh-huh. 

African Americans are going to have to decide to either act like grown-ups or continue to kick the sides of their cribs for attention.  The latter is going to less effective every day.

The black community in America needs better leadership.  If you really want to know who is "keeping you down" -- look to your own leadership.  Requesting a UN affiliated group to monitor US election? Indeed!  Did you think we wouldn't resent the heck out of that move?  Oh, I wonder if those monitors were monitoring Congressman  Allen West's loss in Florida?  Huh?     

White America is tired, broke, and more than a little disgruntled.  We're in no mood for the childish game of name-calling. 

Now, for those of you, especially in the NFM (Non-Fox Media), who swore paradise had been found when America elected its first black President -- going so far as to refer to our era as "Post Racist America" --  how foolish do you feel now, huh? 

Racism is not confined to one skin color. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is full of it -- or has an agenda.  I vote for the latter. 

Look at the so-called "poverty-pimps"  who seem to find every TV camera and microphone in the continental USA when there is a disturbance between people of the white persuasion and people of  the black persuasion. I'll refrain from giving them more publicity by referring to them by name. You already KNOW who they are.

Only a fool believes racism can be wiped out.  As long as there has been more than one race on this planet there has been racism -- and there always will be.  It is the nature of the beast.  We tend to fear and distrust those not like us.  It is a defensive mechanism.  Nature wired us that way to help us survive in a cruel world.

We have worked for millenia to overcome that natural inclination.  Sometimes we are successful.  But most of the time we are not.  So, we learn to live with it as best we can.  It's what civilized people do.

Now,  having said all the above, it is my opinion that as long as folks continue to point fingers and shout racism at other folks, regardless of skin color, the tension between the races will continue to peg the needle on the tension meter.

So far as America being in a Post Racism Era, that's hogwash.  Race relations in America today are not that far removed from what they were in the 1960's.  Deal with it!

As far as Obama being black, or half black, (whatever!) I could not care less.  Heck, I might even like the guy! I doubt it! But lightening does strike occasionally!  It's his politics I disagree with, his political philosophy, his socialist agenda, all that.

There is a very good chance that Mr. Obama will be the last black President America has for a very long time.  The political left has so threatened everyone else with the "racism sobriquet" that no one wants to go through that abuse again by electing another black person to that high office.

The point is -- shouting racism to get your way has a downside. It not only makes you look stupid, it also convinces people who know better, that you are. And it will come back to bite you. 

The "Estrogen Brigade" of the Congressional Black Caucus would do well to consider (in future) what they are going to say BEFORE stepping before cameras and microphones -- and making fools of themselves.  As Lincoln is supposed to have said:  "It is better to remain silent and and allow people to think you a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."   Harken, ladies, harken!

© J. D. Longstreet

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Job, I'm Not. My Patience Has Run Out. ... J. D. Longstreet

Job, I'm Not.  My Patience Has Run Out.
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************

Exactly one week after the election, on the morning of Tuesday November 13th, 2012, I ceased being a Republican.

It was a decision I had wrestled with since, at least, 2004.  It was, for me, a gut-wrenching decision.  And it was long overdue.

At this point, allow me to assure you that I remain a CONSERVATIVE, albeit, a conservative without a political party.  I am a social, fiscal, religious, political, and, well, you name it -- and I am that type of conservative.  I have mentioned before that I believe I entered the world hard-wired as a conservative.  It seems to be my nature.

Having registered the first time as a republican on my 21st birthday, I have been active in the life of the party for well over fifty years.  And after the GOP -- once again -- demonstrated its unparalleled talent for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on November 6th, I decided enough is enough.  My patience has simply run out.  Half a century is, I believe, long enough for the party to get itself together, if there was any chance at all that it would.  Job, I am NOT.

I am a political junkie and junkies of all kinds must eventually face  up to their problem and correct it, or they spiral into oblivion -- or cease to exist.   Since neither of those options was attractive to me, I chose to confront my problem -- head-on -- and correct it, or, at least, do what I could to extract myself from the seemingly ceaseless downward spiral of the Republican Party.

I take issue with those reports in the press as well as comments by other opinion writers concerning the war within the Republican Party.  So far as I have been able to determine, the "war" between the liberal/moderate faction and the conservative faction of the GOP simply does not exist.  It has been my observation over the years that it is extremely difficult to engage in a fight when the other pugilist refuses to do combat.
 
Don't misunderstand now.  The conservative faction within the GOP would love a fight to determine the leadership and direction of the party.  However, the blue-bloods and the country club set in the hierarchy of the party refuses to come out and fight.  They smugly sit tight -- holding the reins of power -- and deny the reality around them, the reality that the GOP is dying on the vine, withering up and about to blow away.

The high "muckity-mucks" of the party have insisted on offering up candidates for national office that have roughly the chance of a snowball in hell -- in the middle of August -- of winning in a no-holds-barred mud-slinging, in your face, roll-in-the-gutter, dog fight of which the democrats are past masters.

That leaves the conservatives in the party absolutely frustrated, angry, depressed, disappointed, and bewildered. 

And they do it every election.

You can rest assured, even today, that come the 2016 presidential campaign, the GOP will field a list of limp "warmed-over" candidates, whose only hope of victory is the off-chance that the democrats will field an even worse group of candidates.  That almost never happens. 

Even when the dems run out a less than acceptable candidate, they actually fight like hell, go to the wall, get toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball, roll in the mud and gore,  and hope that plain ole force-of-will pushes their candidate across the finish line to victory.   More often than I care to remember -- it has worked.

I am now, and always have been, a conservative republican -- NOT a republican conservative.  I'm conservative FIRST.

Look.  As many conservatives as there are in the United States, one would think a viable Conservative Party could be crafted which could  challenge the current Democratic and Republican Parties. Oh, there are a host of conservative political parties in existence around the fringes of the political playing field of America.

Yes, I am aware that both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have, over time, made it as difficult as possible for the formation of a conservative party that could present a viable challenge to their hold on power.  Just getting a new party on the ballot in most states is darn near impossible.

America is in shambles and neither of the political parties in power seem to really be concerned about it.  While America races toward the precipice they are busy playing games of "gotcha."

It is said that we deserve the government we get.  Honestly, I can't say that I disagree with that sentiment.  See, we American voters brought all these "troubles" upon ourselves.  It is we who voted the charlatans into office and it is we who rewarded their bad behavior with additional time in office to wreak even more havoc on our once fair land.  Yes, I am saying it, flat out. If you want to see the cause of the problems in America today -- you have only to look in the nearest mirror.  And yes, I accept my share of the blame, as well.

Unfortunately, in life there is no "redo" button or "undo" button, for that matter.  Everything we do has consequences -- especially elections.  

Democracy is a wonderful thing.  It is also an extremely dangerous thing.   Of all the bad forms of government on earth democracy is quite likely the least bad. But it is still bad.  For a democracy to work optimally, it must be populated by moral, educated, and, I would add, "God-fearing" people.  America's constitution and America's government were both designed for a moral people. Compromise the people's morality, compromise the people's education, and compromise the people's belief in and reliance upon their God, and that democracy WILL fail.  It will  turn on the people and devour them and their nation.

We are seeing the scenario described in the preceding paragraph play out in America today.  All three, morality, education and faith have ALL been compromised in America and we now find ourselves in an adversarial relationship with our own government.

My friend, Alan Caruba, said recently that America committed suicide on November 6th,2012.  I believe he was correct in that assessment.  That's what all those secession petitions are about.  For the thousands upon thousands of Americans signing those petitions, there are millions more who share the belief that our constitutional representative republic has failed and they want a chance to start over on a smaller scale beginning with their own state(s) many of whom, I would expect, would adopt the original US Constitution for their "new" country.

It is said that state sovereignty died at Appomattox, Virginia in April of 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army to U. S. Grant of the Union Army.  That may well be true, but I believe the sovereignty of the American individual remains and more and more of my fellow citizens are discovering their personal sovereignty is now under attack from a government they feel has betrayed them and their constitution. 
I would not be too hasty in ridiculing the efforts of those petitioners as history may record them as the opening salvos of another struggle for freedom within  America. Only time will tell.

After considering all the above, I felt I had no choice, if I wished to be true to myself and my core beliefs, but to emerge from the trees so I could, indeed, survey the forest.  And the forest, I must say, is foreboding.

So, I begin anew, in the early winter months of my life, as an Independent voter. 

©  J. D. Longstreet

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The cost of Obamacare seriously threatens businesses and jobs

By James H. Shott

It is a simple concept: A business is an organization that provides products or services that it believes people need or want, and if it provides good quality at a fair price it should succeed. Some businesses are single-person entities, but most employ a few people or as many as thousands of people to perform tasks related to the production and sale of its products or services, and in return for their labor they receive agreed-upon compensation that enables them to buy things from other businesses like food, shelter, clothing and other needs and wants. It is what makes America run.

Since Leftists don’t understand the way businesses work, they view them with suspicion and not infrequently seek to punish them for doing things they must do to stay in business. They sometimes even seek to punish businesses when they don’t do things the Left thinks they should do, but which have no business-related function.

When you combine the Left’s abysmal understanding of business operations with its compulsion for government solutions to every perceived problem, and add in the habit of implementing solutions without fully considering the repercussions, the stage is set for mass chaos.

Case in point: The ominous effects of Obamacare on employers, particularly small businesses, have been discussed since healthcare reform was just a poisonous glimmer in the Leftist mind. But despite the ample economic reasons for why this healthcare reform was a bad idea, the Left still doesn’t get it: Obamacare raises operating costs for businesses that implement the plan, and when costs rise, businesses must raise prices and/or cut expenses to offset the increase. Higher prices discourage customers, who either find a better price from a competitor or just buy less of that product or service. Both put businesses at risk.

But the Left freaks out when companies opt to protect their customers and themselves from the harmful effects of higher prices when they focus on the biggest expense most businesses have: employee costs.

Because the Left’s solutions are poorly thought out, they fail the common sense test and therefore fail to persuade people to accept them on their merits. The Left then resorts to forcing its ideas on us. Barack Obama’s manic effort to replace traditional energy with “green” energy is a prime example of an idea that people rejected because they saw that it couldn’t work. Nevertheless, the Obama administration declared war on coal and oil production to force us to use inadequate wind and solar energy because they arrogantly believe they know what is best for the rest of us.

Since Obamacare increases health insurance costs, often doubling them, businesses have to decide how to offset those costs. They can cut expenses, raise prices, or some combination of the two. Those who can’t justify increasing prices and can’t cut enough other expenses must look at employment expense, and reduce full-time staff below the threshold level through staff reductions and/or reduce full-time employees to part-time hours. Even companies that decide not to implement Obamacare must pay a $2,000 per employee penalty.

But despite the fact that rising employee costs are the problem, the Leftists reject staff and hour reductions as unfair; believing the money to cover the enormous costs of Obamacare will simply appear out of thin air. Thus, when the Papa John’s pizza chain said it must raise prices or reduce employee hours to get expenses under control, the Left suggested boycotting Papa John’s: To convince the company to do nothing about increased employee expenses, the Lefties propose that people buy their pizza from a competitor. Only the Left would react to an employer trying to stay in business by boycotting it.

Other chains also are boycott targets for the same reason: Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, McDonald’s, and Applebee’s.

Obamacare’s anti-business and job-killing requirements are not the only reason the Left proposes a boycott; a business that doesn’t spend its money according to Leftist dogma also may be attacked.

A self-identified liberal website urges liberals to “bring these people down,” referring to a list of “fast food joints” that the website owner dislikes because of how they use their own money: Chick-fil-A, Cinnabon, White Castle, Waffle House, A&W, KFC, Long John Silver's, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, IHOP, Arby's, Chili's, Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Hardee's, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, LongHorn Steakhouse, Wendy's, and Outback Steakhouse.

All of these businesses deserve our support, and at least one organization supports businesses targeted by the Left’s loony idea. Rebooting America organized a Papa John’s Appreciation Day last week.

One employer who owns about 100 restaurants nationwide decided to pass on the costs to his customers along with reducing employee hours. He plans to put a 5 percent surcharge into effect to help offset the increased cost of health insurance and also to help customers see the harmful unintended or unadvertised effects of foolish, ill-considered policies like Obamacare.

In order to fix a healthcare problem that required only a little tweaking, our intrepid Leftist government instead tried to revamp an entire economic system and created a myriad of other serious problems. What’s really scary is that the worst is likely yet to come.

Cross-posted from Observations

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