America’s Five Make or Break Tests

The Big Five: America’s Make or Break Challenges | Via Meadia:

I respect Walter Russel Meade a great deal, it is a good article. I think it is much simpler than her presents it though. Here are his big 5:

1. Jobs
2. Services Crunch
3. Demographic Transition 
4. Coherence Crisis 
5. Virtue 

 I'd order them like this:

1. Return to God - Religion - Constitution, eg Transcendence. MEANING! What he calls #4, "coherency". He argues that "we can't go back", I argue we have been "going back" to pre-Reformation, even pre-Enlightenment thinking with "progressivism" which I call "regressivism". Read the seminal works of these people -- Rosseau, etc. They want to return to "the noble savage", "the perfect state of nature". We are regressing -- to a PC totalitarianism. To a forced paganism because the cultural connection with the sacred is prohibited. Our suicide rates are skyrocketing, our birth rates are declining. Man cannot create his own meaning and dies individually and as a culture without a meaningful life.  
   
2. Jobs, his #1  -- Which I would state as "Vocation". Somewhere around the '60s America lost the idea of craftsmanship and pride in work. Welfare and ADC were rolled out and the dignity of work was destroyed for the poor -- the hard working far from perfect husband that stuck at a low paying job and was honored for his contribution was replaced by the state, and both the family and the dignity of work suffered mightily. Unions and corporatism replaced craftsmanship, excellence and innovation with profits and salaries. With hedonism highly linked to consumerism declared to be the new "god", lucre became the both the totem and the sacrement of the tribe, and "work" became an evil. We don't need "high paying jobs", we need vocations which are respected independent of salary. We need a life vocation, because there is no such thing as a "living wage".
   
3. Virtue, his #4 -- I'd argue that if 1 and 2 happen, 3 will certainly show up at the same time, but what he says about it is valid. I may have complicated my #1 too much.
   
4. The Service Crunch, his #2 -- I'd claim that this is very much "vocation". We need to return "services" especially "government services" to being quality, efficient, respected SERVICE. Not very highly paid, benefitted, unionized and political contributing "positions". He missed education, I'd put it here -- it is one of the most critical of services, traditionally a "calling".
   
5. Demographic Transition -- I believe if we dealt with 1-4, this would be no issue. Were America still America -- "Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all", where "justice" means level opportunity, not result, then young, old, hispanics, etc would all operate just fine. Without at least 1-3, #5 is likely the catalyst that implodes the remaining husk of what America once was.
   

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Moscow on the Potomac

When Will America Burst D.C.'s Bubble? | RealClearPolitics:

All I could think about as I read this is the similarity of the current BO Beltway to Moscow during the heyday of the USSR. SIX of the TEN WEALTHIEST counties are DC suburbs!! How is that for "public service"!!!!

This article seems to think that America will "burst the DC bubble". Really? How? When that much power gets connected with that much wealth, I can't imagine any way to return to republican rule of law outside of armed conflict!

In fact, six of the 10 wealthiest American counties are Washington suburbs.
Washington once was the manifest of power. Now you can add “center of wealth” to its portfolio, crystallizing the elite institutional disconnect between it and the rest of the country.

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/05/thriving_dcs_bubble_will_burst_118261.html#ixzz2SZ0rt8Ny Follow us: @RCP_Articles on Twitter

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Q-Blood Let 3 (QB3)

RealClearMarkets - Why Friday's Jobs Report Was Ominous:

If you read this blog regularly, you know a lot of this, but it is a good summary. For the REALLY quick summary:

1. Taking blood out of people makes them sicker 
2. Deficit spending just makes an economy sicker. 

The following conclusion of the article is entertaining, the article itself is somewhere between sobering, ominous and sepulchral. Three bloodlettings for the father of the country, 3 "easings" for the country?

It took about 2500 years and countless deaths (including that of George Washington) before doctors figured out that bleeding patients was actually harmful. One has to wonder how much real-world data it will take to convince the likes of Paul Krugman and Jared Bernstein that Keynesian (spending) stimulus just makes the economy worse. 

Oh, and by the way. The recent five-month decline in the FTE jobs ratio coincides exactly with Ben Bernanke's QE3. And yet, the "market monetarists" keep calling on the Fed to "do more". 

It is a historical fact that George Washington's doctors performed three rounds of bleeding on him before he died. We can only wonder if they referred to the last one as "QB3".

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The Christian Minority

When Christians become a 'hated minority' – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs:

Very well done article by MSM standards, it covers the basics from both sides, it is overly long and it "leans", but it doesn't absolutely hammer just the current left thinking.

The following quote sums up a core element of the decline of CIVILization. Part of being civilized means leaving tribalism behind. Civilized people at one time would never allow something called "hate speech" to even be mentioned  -- they would call it out as "tribalism", "uncivilized", "plebeian, "anti-social" or some other term that indicated that those unable to discuss issues reasonably were "less than advanced".

 "There was a time when a person could publicly say homosexuality was wrong and people could consider the statement without anger, he says. Today, people have reverted to an intellectual tribalism where they are only willing to consider the perspective of their own tribe."

The other aspect completely missed was the Bible being about issues FAR more important than any past or present concerns of humanity. Eternity is far longer than human life, history, etc.

From man's view, "justice" in this world is critical ... slavery, poverty, being crippled, deformed, mentally ill,  having your own or a loved ones life cut short by accident / disease / war / crime / etc, abuse,  great bodily pain, ... the list is endless. There is no "worst". To the person to whom the "badness" happens, it is guaranteed to be an injustice of gigantic proportions. "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose yours". Perspective is everything.

So the human perspective is to argue endlessly about what man sees as "progress". Each "right" that is supposedly gained is a HUGE step "forward". We have continued so far "forward" that just recently it was reported the suicides in the US now exceed auto accidents. A life without meaning seems to not be worth living! It is also not worth having children  in such a life, so the west has already dropped below replacement birth rate and is dying.

Does that mean that slavery is good? or that stoning homosexuals is good? or that living with constant debilitating pain is good? Not at all, it just means that in many of the counties where those things are legal, less possible to control or more common, people report higher levels of happiness, less suicides and more meaningful lives than people in the "advanced" countries. How can that possibly be??

I'd argue it is because the temporal human condition is much improved by focusing on the eternal vs the temporal. The Bible is written for eternity, with the objective of us understanding at least the MOST key elements of God. He is sovereign, his ways are not our ways, and our relationship with him is the most critical aspect of our existence here. As they say, everything else is "just details".

If you are paralyzed, or have lost of a loved one in tragic circumstances, or are gay, or slave to alcohol, sexual promiscuity, or an actual slave in Africa or Indonesia, or a host of other conditions, you MAY feel that those conditions are the most critical "problem / injustice / burden" that anyone has ever had to bear.

Or, your perspective might be different, like this young man born with no limbs. From man's view, many lives involve great injustice. Some find a higher way and even the worst of temporal circumstance is suddenly changed into something completely different. Others will rail against god, nature, injustice, unfairness, and the host of earthly ills until the day that they pass to ???

I'm a strong believer that God created heaven with the desire not only that we spend eternity there, but that we begin to glimpse that eternity from this life. Hell was created for Satan, not for us, but if we choose to spend a lifetime rejecting God, we can work our way there ... and be well on our way to glimpsing it from our circumstance in this life.

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As Clueless as Kluwe

Chris Kluwe: When They Come for You:

I wrote a long response to this one on FB, so thought I'd "dignify" this rather foolish column with some elements of that response.

First of all, the following paragraph is completely backward:

TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED. If we do not make this the cornerstone of our society, if we do not understand that infringing on the freedom of consenting adults to live their lives (in whatever fashion that happens to be) is infringing on the freedom of us all, then we will eventually join other society, culture, and civilization that has ever existed, on the trash heap of history marked "Failure" -- brought there by conflicts those civilizations bred into being, conflicts between those lacking empathy and those desirous of freedom.

The Western civilization that makes the levels of freedom that made it possible for people to debate such issues as "gay marriage" has already committed suicide on the altar of contraception and abortion. Besides being broke, we don't have a replacement population. One can argue the future, but it will absolutely belong to those that show up. That is Muslims, Hispanic Catholics, and potentially African Christians. (one might give Mormons a charitable chance). Their positions on "gay marriage" are important for the next century, ours are really not. We already opted out of that century.

The "cornerstones of society/culture/civilization" are things that have proven true over thousands of years. Marriage, Family and the Christian Religion were key "cornerstones", along with Judaism plus Greek and Roman thought. The ONLY incidence of "gay marriage" was Nero and a few other Roman rulers proudly flaunting their immorality "because they could" and it was not coincidentally very near to the end of the Roman Empire. Nero would have laughed at the idea that it was "moral". He was powerful, and he enjoyed it, nuff said.

In the culture that WAS our civilization, mans life had meaning because it was part of an eternal meaningful existence that included transcendent values that engendered virtues. Faith, hope, love that went beyond physical and involved commitment, honor, civility and many others. Life was not only worth living, it was worth having children and believing that their future was going to be better than yours. People would never have considered it remotely "moral" to saddle future generations with massive debt. It was a world where a sneering profane diatribe by some plebeian sport figure would have never been published in any forum remotely public.

His quote of the Niemoller poem with people that disagree over re-naming the oldest of human cultural institutions to a new purpose makes brings to mind the sagacity of a couple of folks arguing Global Warming while freezing to death in a May snowstorm.

"They", already came in the form of reality. Those that believed 100% in the non-teleological survival of the fecund decided that not having kids was a highly "adaptive" course of action, thus passing the most natural of judgement on our civilization while remaining as clueless as Kluwe.

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Benghazi, Truth Leak??

http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/05/benghazi-whistle-blower-hicks-internal-review-let-people-off-the-hook/?hpt=hp_t1

Wow, it made a side headline on CNN, FINALLY!!

The MSM lack of curiosity about Benghazi took "in the tank" to new levels in the opposite direction that their incessant coverage of the Valerie Plame affair during the W administration showed their stripes in the other direction. We get to see both the "yin and yang" of media bias with way too much regularity.

In the following, someone that knows points out a few of the facts relative to Benghazi ... but not the obvious "why". This MAJOR screw up that caused the loss of life of four brave Americans and has 700 our our finest retired Special Ops folks demanding answers was a political coverup of MUCH more import than Watergate!

Hicks said that despite being the senior diplomat in Libya after Stevens was killed, he wasn't consulted at all before Rice went on Sunday talk shows to discuss the attacks.
Rice contradicted Libyan President Mohammed Magariaf, who said the same day that "this was an attack by Islamic extremists, possibly with terrorist links," Hicks said. "He describes what happens. He tells the truth of what happened. And so, you know, Ambassador Rice says what she says, contradicting what the president of Libya says from Benghazi."

This violated "a cardinal rule of diplomacy that we learn in our orientation class, and that rule is, never inadvertently insult your interlocutor. The net impact of what has transpired is, the spokesperson of the most powerful country in the world has basically said that the president of Libya is either a liar or doesn't know what he's talking about. The impact of that is immeasurable. Magariaf has just lost face in front of not only his own people but the world. And, you know, my jaw hit the floor as I watched this. I've never been ‑‑ I have been a professional diplomat for 22 years. I have never been as embarrassed in my life, in my career, as on that day." 

That "affected cooperation with the Libyans," Hicks said. "I firmly believe that the reason it took us so long to get the FBI to Benghazi is because of those Sunday talk shows."

The day after Rice's appearance on the Sunday shows, Hicks says, he asked Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Beth Jones, " 'Why did Ambassador Rice say that?' And Beth Jones said, 'I don't know.'"

A Little Surprise for An Attacker

Another Thing to Thank the NRA For | Power Line:

The excellent little video alluded to in the title is at the end ... at least if you are a guy, it won't be very painful to page down to it!

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The Horror of Attempted Heterosexuality

Ed Driscoll » Dispatches from the Department of That Which Cannot Be Said At Any Tme:

Oddly, although Howard Kurtz could not speak of the horror of Jason Collins having had a girlfriend,  "The View" happened to be playing on a set right in front of me while I was doing 30 min on a Precor. While I was not paying close attention, it APPEARED that it was "Gay Day" and they had some ex-singer from an apparent boy band on, and they were talking about throwing their bras at him and flashing him in earlier years ... but, he is gay now,  somewhat disappointing to the girls on The View, however, as good liberals, they are totally great with it outside the fact that it would have cut into what they were thinking when watching him in their past.

Seems like a lot of girls kinda like gay guys in somewhat the same way as vampires -- they are sometimes cute, and I guess they assume that the gayness works kind of the same as the no blood would work for a male vampire. A bit like "synthahol" on Star Trek.

Anyway, they seemed to be discussing some connection with Collins, which sounded like he had this "girlfriend" for like "8 years" ... or something, "a long time for a woman of that age, thinking that she was going to marry him ..." was a View girl talk concern I think.

So apparently, this is something like being black. If you are black you can talk about whatever race-wise  and it is A-ok, but not if you are white ... unless you are TOTALLY certified as having 100% in-liberal club handshake hope to die creds. Which I think Howard used to have, but he must have missed some memo or something. Similarly, if you are gay, then it is OK to talk about things like the horror of attempted heterosexuality, but not if you are into sex with the other sex.

This is quite difficult for me,  because I thought that Bi, confused, trans, and probably a few other things were A-OK too if you had the liberal brain. Just to show what a backwoods hick I am, I have hard time understanding how one would for example distinguish between a "bi-marriage" of say two guys and 4 or 5 women and polygamy, which is definitely double liberal sinful. I'm thinking Polygamy is really bad because Mormons do it, and apparently with only with one wife at a time, so that is BAAAD!!

They don't seem to talk much about the Bi-marriage, but when they go for "marriage freedom", it is ALWAYS  GLBT, and I would swear that the B was for Bi and the T was for Trans ... which is a whole other deal. Lots of times in engineering it is the "boundary conditions" that are the most difficult, and may even make one have 2nd thoughts about the feasibility of something. The idea of "Bi and Trans" in marriages seems "boundary" to me ... you have a great "gay marriage" and then somebody decides to change sexes. etc.

But thinking like "guys being guys" (I guess like only conservative guys, cuz liberals would never think this way), they could just "liberal sinfully" leave out the gay part and have a couple small legal polygamous marriages. I guess liberals would never do that -- leave out the holy gay thing and all, because it would be like sacrilegious for them, sort of a Taboo, like cannibalism or something.

Anyway, enough confusion for today.

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The Unspeakable Right

Opinion: The euphemism imperative - Rich Lowry - POLITICO.com:

The following sums it up well, but it is worth the short and easy read.

President Barack Obama was proud to become the first sitting president to address Planned Parenthood last Friday. But not proud enough to utter the word “abortion.” 

The right to abortion is the sneakiest, most shame-faced of all American rights. Its most devoted supporters don’t dare speak its name. They hide behind evasion and euphemism and cant.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/the-euphemism-imperative-90840.html#ixzz2SFjIAXgd

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"Coming Out" Courage

Jason Collins exposes media double standard on 'coming out' | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com:

Extremely well written column on the Collins story double standard.

 "Jason Collins was the man credited with courageous behavior this week, but truth be known, it's people like Broussard and fellow Christians in the military whose valor is every bit the equal. They're facing the actual bigotry that the politically correct crowd only imagines them to be practicing."

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Marriage and Family Not So Bad

Brenda Heist, Pennsylvania Woman Missing Since 2002, Found Alive In Florida Keys (VIDEO):

Yes, marriage and family can be rough, but before you take off, a look at this before and after!

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Boobs over Breathing : Government Medicine

Annals of Government Medicine | Power Line:

I suppose my thoughts on this are just one more sign of my age. Somehow, in my late teens, early 20's, I would imagine that the government selected trade-off would have made more sense. Maybe it was just a younger guy making the decision?

Anyway, I guess two round, firm and slightly plump cheers for government medicine. We are supposed to all be in favor of it now or be racists, right?

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The Rich Have the Federal Reserve, The Poor Have Harry Reid

Obama's 'Fairness' Economy Has Backfired | RealClearPolitics:

Well written, concise, reality based article, read it all, but here is a sample.

The left's answer to this accelerating disparity under Obama will, no doubt, be more regulatory burdens, more tax hikes (the president is still obsessed with closing loopholes on private jets -- a rounding error, in his budget), more deficit spending and more programs that smooth over all the unjust vagaries of life. Most often, these solutions erect barriers to mobility for small businesses and entrepreneurs -- the types of people who help alter the dynamics of mobility. Despite what you may hear, more revenue for government doesn't create wealth. A freer economy and more societal stability do.

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/02/obamas_fairness_economy_has_backfired_118217.html#ixzz2S9ykSLJS Follow us: @RCP_Articles on Twitter

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Weather, Climate, Science, Religion

Here we have a shot of our back deck this fine May 2nd AM. Were it not for a set of control freaks trying to use "science" as a religion in order to control the behavior of people, we would be able to just "talk about the weather" as man has done since he could communicate.

"Weather", like "shit", or "death" just happens. It is NOT like taxes ... taxes are actually under mans control and in even our natural social state up to a few hundred people living in a "tribe", there were no taxes. We have gotten so stupid, we seriously need to go back to basic definitions.

Science is about making ACCURATE predictions about phenomenon like climate and weather and then using MEASUREMENT to verify that the predictions match over LONG PERIODS OF TIME. A theory named "Climate Change" can certainly explain everything, which means it explains nothing. Predicting the climate will change is like predicting that the value of the stock market will change. If it is anything, it is religion.

SUCCESSFUL religion however is something that can be used to explain life from a transcendant perspective. Christianity has been around for 2K years and is one of the main drivers of what we used to call "Western Civilization" -- what gave science the gift of seeing an ordered and understandable universe. Without Christianity it is extremely doubtful if science would be any where near to the level of capability they were at before they began their "post modern" decline.

Snow in May is just that, snow in May. This will be our "ALL TIME record snowfall" here in Rochester, but of course that is absurd. We only have records for at best 100 years, which is a TINY amount of time even from a young earth biblical fundamentalist view. From the view of any good scientist, it is laughable ... this spot in MN would have been covered under over a mile of ice for tens of thousands of years at intervals of 10-20K for at least a few million years. "Snowiest on record" ... what a crock!

What we have misplaced is our place in reality and the universe. We are either pitiful little globs of protoplasm, here for but the blink of an eye in a purposeless cold random universe, or we are eternal souls, created and loved by a God whom wants us to be with him for an unimaginably wonderful eternity.

What we ARE NOT is some self-appointed deity that has any clue what is "natural" for either a God created or random accident of a universe, planet, etc. It snowed in May. It may snow in June -- the only month it has NOT snowed somewhere in MN even in our puny record keeping is JULY! Get used to it. It is EXACTLY as interesting (or not?) as last years record highs!

Christian Monsters

Michael L. (Mikey) Weinstein, Esq.: Fundamentalist Christian Monsters: Papa's Got A Brand New Bag:

It is quite disturbing reading, the paragraph that I quoted is a "good" summary, but I don't really think it fully captures the anti-Christian hate. Note, this is from Huffpo -- sadly, a major MSM outlet.

There are a set of organizations out there looking to stamp out Christianity, and you don't have to read much of this to realize they would find violence in doing it to be completely acceptable. The "Southern Poverty Law Center" (SPLC) is one of them, they are very commonly quoted as a source in MSM articles critical of Christians.

 This isn't a topic that requires much in the way of logical response ... it is obvious that Mikey is very pro-gay, but he is also a lot less concerned with Islam than Christianity. One might surmise he is simply insane on that basis, and that may be.  However, evil ALWAYS hates good ... but proper good hates only the sin, not the sinner. There is a very strong message in the fact that Mikey finds  Islam to be "good"  (or at least "comparatively OK") for those that have eyes to see and ears to hear.

 "If these fundamentalist Christian monsters of human degradation, marginalization, humiliation and tyranny cannot broker or barter your acceptance of their putrid theology, then they crave for your universal silence in the face of their rapacious reign of theocratic terror. Indeed, they ceaselessly lust, ache, and pine for you to do absolutely nothing to thwart their oppression. Comply, my friends, and you, too, become as monstrously savage as are they. I beg you, do not feed these hideous monsters with your stoic lethargy, callousness and neutrality. Do not lubricate the path of their racism, bigotry, and prejudice. Doing so directly threatens the national security of our beautiful nation."

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