Tuesday, March 20, 2012

I Am An Extremist Because! Cheap Words - Costly Inaction? Toulouse!
























Dagny does not seem to miss me!
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A dear friend and fellow memo reader responds re government and religion: "One thought….separation of church and state is to protect both entities from each other. Religion is by definition illogical while government should, by definition, be rooted in logic.

My point? Those that want to inject religious values into our nation’s laws run the risk of government infecting their organizations. It’s a natural quid pro quo."

My response: " Agreed but certain religious symbols and concepts are there, on our currency, endowed by our maker... etc."

Then his response and question : "w/o a doubt.  The ever-present eye.  “In God We Trust.” 

A thought for you on abortion.  I THINK you and I are of similar views though I do not profess to know this.  But what I wonder is what would religious conservatives have us do with all the unwanted babies born out of wedlock should we outlaw abortion.  Let’s put aside if we can the argument that people should act in a responsible way.  Of course they should.  But they won’t.  People will continue to have impulsive, reckless and thoughtless sex as they have since Eve gave Adam the apple (in a mythological sense).  So assuming we will have thousands of unwanted children, what are we to do with them?  Who is to pay for their care?   It seem to me that outlawing abortion would also be signing on to an increase in government Medicaid, foster care, etc spending.  Perhaps abortion is proactive fiscal restraint! 

I don’t mean to be crass, but it always strikes me as more than a bit disingenuous to be against abortion, of Christian beliefs (golden rule, care for the meek, etc.) and for small government. "

My response: "I am not opposed to abortions. A woman has a right to her body and even her fetus, up to a time point. I just believe it is not the responsibility of government to pay for them nor to pay for the feeding and care.  Quit paying for children out of wedlock. Because government does, we now have over 50% of the children being born out of wedlock.  Progressives are opposed to both religion and a traditional family structure.  This is where the problem has its genesis.

Yes, unmarried people will have sex and babies will be born but the minute society no longer looked down on it you began having more of it.  There is no shame anymore for anything.  Just let it all hang out etc. has become our nation's moral anvil.  Me"

My friend's final response: "Understood and appreciate the thoughts!"

Joseph Story said it better than I did: "Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them." --Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833."
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Again a response from that bright, bright long standing friend of mind supporting my own comment about beating Obama with his words and failed policies etc. " It is worth remembering these words from Obama -- criticizing Bush -- when he accepted the nomination for President. Nice words. I wish he meant them:

You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. .... If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice -- but it is not the change we need.

We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans -- have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
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I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future."

What the above suggests, and Obama has proved - words are really cheap and when they drop from the lips of a fraud they are even cheaper. Inaction can become even more expensive, however!

Many got sucked in the first time, as I did when I voted for Jimmy Carter.  I learned the second time.  Will you?
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From another friend, fellow memo reader and conservative who has those who opposed Goldwater turning over in their grave: "The Ten Commandments of Extremism:

Being called ‘extremist’ is not so bad,” prompted me to resubmit the Ten Commandments of Extremism.

I first published this in 2000 when we were being called the same.

1. I am an extremist; I believe in God.
2. I am an extremist; I believe that we are one nation under God.
3. I am an extremist; I believe that responsibility begins with the individual, not government.
4. I am an extremist; I believe that killing babies is wrong.
5. I am an extremist; I believe that I can manage my finances better than Washington.
6. I am an extremist; I believe that character matters.
7. I am an extremist; I believe that business owners know more about business than bureaucrats.
8. I am an extremist; I believe that families can decide their needs better than Washington.
9. I am an extremist; I believe that a civilization which rejects God and worships the human mind and body is doomed.
10. I am an extremist; I am a Republican."
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How bout a little extreme, sterile Liberalsim?

"Sebelius: Free Sterilizations Must Be Offered to All College Women

Fire it up 

All student health care plans covering female college students in the United States must include coverage for free voluntary sterilization surgery, the Department of Health and Human Services announced late Friday afternoon.

Women of college age who do not attend school will also get free sterilization coverage whether they are insured through an employer, their parents, or some form of government-subsidized plan.

All student health plans, HHS said Friday as it finalized a new regulation under the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare) must cover the full set of cost-free women’s “preventive services” that HHS ordered last month must be covered by all U.S. health care plans.

These free 'preventive services' include surgical sterilization procedures and all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions."


Then how'bout a little budgetary extremism from Paul Ryan?  (See 1below.)
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Dennis Gartman holds forth on Supreme Court's hearings pertaining to 'Obamscare'.

The level of public dissatisfaction is not a deterrent to Supreme Court decision making.  If so. the prior Court would not have outlawed segregation. (See 2 below.)
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This editorial  was sent to me by a dear and very talented friend and fellow memo reader and supports why Israel was established and why nation's who attack 'everything' Israel does are either two faced, anti-Semitic or both. 

When it comes to the world's pious morality I do not trust and all I have to do is look at The U.N.! (See 3 below.)
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A hawk  friend and fellow memo reader is disgusted with Obama's  execution of the Afghanistan War but  has now become hawkish again after listening to MarkcTheissen: "Until I heard Marc Thiessen this morning on the radio and then read this article, I had been one of the 83% of Americans who are tired of the war, feel it is hopeless and supportive of a withdrawal. Now I feel differently …and although Afganistan may be very tough to (win”) , pulling out may be a much worse alternative. I agree with Thiessen’s final paragraph that it is the Commander in Chief’s responsibility to explain the consequences of failure to the American people….and Mr. Obama has not done that. And the timing of the withdrawal is scheduled for political purposes, not for strategic military timing. I question whether the GOP Presidential candidate will have the guts to address this for fear of losing votes in Nov."
I understand my friend's  frustration but when a president does not plan on winning a war you should not continue.  If you want fun then play tennis . 
This president has no intention of winning.  The only thing he knows how to win is the hearts and minds of idiots whom he can dupe.  He talked about Afghanistan being the right war , his war and then proceeded to disregard the advice he was given, buying only half a loaf. 
The only reason he is hanging around in Afghanistan is because to leave now would cost votes.  Forget about the lives it will cost. (See 3 below.)
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Went for annual chest x'ray today.  Had to produce ID .  Health of nation not as important according to progressives who prefer voter fraud so they can buy votes and steal elections and with it my freedom.
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No doubt you already saw this video about those seeking the Obama dollars.  (See 4 below.)
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Obama Tax hikes could have serious implications according to Martin Feldstein.  Like sucking air out of a balloon.  (See 5 below.)
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According to Dan Henninger, our president is "Poof The Magic Magician."  The only problem is the rug is not big enough to sweep the ills under it and one, N Korea, just snuck out from under.  (See 6 below.)
Dick
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1)Republican budget throws down election gauntlet

Blueprint draws contrast with Obama on taxes, Medicare
By
 Robert Schroeder

House Republicans unveiled an election-year budget blueprint Tuesday that dramatically overhauls the U.S. tax code and aims for deep spending cuts, seeking to draw a sharp contrast with President Barack Obama.
The budget, introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, provides for just two individual tax brackets — 10% and 25% — cuts spending by about $5 trillion over 10 years relative to President Obama’s budget, and shifts Medicaid to states to save money. It also balances the budget by 2040 and reprises a controversial plan to transform Medicare.
“We think we owe the country this choice so that they can decide in November,” said Ryan, who chairs the House Budget Committee, in a CNBC interview. “We’re showing the country how we would do things differently.”
Ryan acknowledged that the plan has almost no chance of becoming law. But it will serve as a rallying point in an election year defined by voters’ concerns about the economy, health care, and tax policy.
Moreover, the Republicans’ plan cuts the U.S. corporate tax rate to 25% from 35% and eliminates the alternative minimum tax.
Further, it seeks deeper cuts in discretionary spending for 2013 than agreed to last August by Democrats and Republicans.
Instead of the agreed-upon $1.047 trillion in spending for this year, Ryan’s budget proposes $1.028 trillion in discretionary outlays. Some Democrats say that proposal raises the specter of a government shutdown.
Obama’s budget plan, released last month, called for tax increases on wealthy earners and some modest spending cuts. But it mostly left alone both Medicare, the health-insurance program serving the nation’s seniors, and Medicaid, the program for low-income citizens.
The Ryan budget brings back a controversial plan to change Medicare to a voucher-style program for those currently under 55 years old.
“If we don’t deal with Medicare it goes bankrupt,” Ryan said on CNBC.

Partisan donnybrook over Medicare

Democrats jumped on that proposal when it was first unveiled last year, and even GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called it “right-wing social engineering.”

Reuters
File photo of Rep. Paul Ryan, left, with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Speaking Tuesday on MSNBC, White House National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling criticized the Ryan budget’s Medicare provision.
“This process risks creating an actual debt spiral for the basic guarantee of Medicare, as more people are forced out of the system and those who remain face higher and higher costs,” Sperling said.
The House Republicans’ budget will land with a thud in the Democratic-controlled Senate. In comments to The Wall Street Journal, Ryan admitted that his party doesn’t foresee the plan becoming law but cast the document in a starring role in this year’s election.
“We don’t expect to make law this year, but we expect to give the country an alternative choice for the future,” he said.
Some of the House Republicans’ plan in fact mirrors GOP presidential candidates’ proposals. Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum wants to cut tax rates to 10% and 28%, while Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, would cut rates across the board and lower the top rate to 28% from 35%.
The tax proposals in the budget are pro-growth and fair, Ryan said, adding that lawmakers will begin a process of identifying which preferences to scale back or eliminate in order to lower everyone’s tax rates. 










































































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2)IT’S ALL GOING TO COURT: SOON
By Dennis Gartman: 

very recent Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that
there is rather widespread opposition to the individual
mandate portion of President Obama’s health care reform
law, euphemistically referred to always and everywhere
these days as Obamacare. According to the survey, 25%
say the so-called “individual mandate” portion of the law
should be voided and 42% say the entire law should be.
Only one of four voters support the law as it is currently
presently.

This is important because the Supreme Court is going to
hear the case next week and the Court is going to hear it
long and hard. Normally, we are told, that lawyers
presenting a case to the Supreme Court are given but an
hour… perhaps at the most two… to make their cases for
the simple reason that these cases have usually been
heard by several lower courts and have made their way
slowly to the Supreme Court. Papers, briefs, amicus
curiae… all have made their way to the judges of the
Court previously. This time, however, the Chief Justice,
Mr. John Roberts, has given those making their cases
three days and six hours to make their presentations to
the Court. We believe this to be unprecedented. Well it
should be for this case has the ability to become a central
thesis to the Constitution… a virtual column in the
building that is the American government.
Those opposing “Obamacare” oppose it on the simple
notion that a citizen cannot and should not be forced to
buy a good or service of any kind, and that doing so,
even in the name of healthcare, is an extension of
government that is anathema. This goes to the very core
of government and to the Constitution: is the state
sovereign or is the citizen sovereign. We hold with the
latter; the Obama Administration, by design and by
philosophy, holds with the former.

The winner of the case will have a partner then in the
presidential and congressional elections in the autumn,
for if the centre-Right wins the case… and clearly we
hope that it shall… it will give them the right to say that
the Obama Administration had tried, unsuccessfully, to
force large, impeditive government upon its own people
and failed. If the centre-Left wins, then the Obama
Administration will champion its victory in the election,
and will move to create even larger government
programs in the future, dependent upon this ruling. In the
modern world, this case is the Marbury vs. Madison of
the day and we await the presentations and the eventual
decision with a sense of dread and with a sense of hope
at one and the same time.

As we understand it, on the 26th, the Court will hear
arguments as to the actual standing of the case: can it or
should it have been brought to the Court in the first place.
This is far more complex than it first appears, for the case
is being brought on the grounds that the Tax Anti-
Injunction Act (and please forgive us for this complexity,
but this is a complex issue) has always forbidden a tax
case being brought to court until such time as a tax is
actually imposed, for only then can someone opposed to
the tax, having paid it, ask the court system for redress.
Since “Obamacare” is not yet law, no tax has thus far
been imposed and thus the case in question may not
have standing. Further complicating the issue is the
statement… ludicrous on its face, but debatable in court
nonetheless… that the penalties being asked for in the
law are not a tax at all but merely a penalty and thus they
claim the current case again has no standing.

From our perspective, the very nature of American
government is to be decided by the Court. We imagine
that Justice Marshall understood the seriousness of what
he and his court were deciding when they decided
Marbury vs. Madison; we suspect too that the Roberts
Court knows very full well what it is deciding.
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2)Beyond Toulouse

The slayings at a Jewish school at Toulouse are a moment not only of horror for France and the world but also of truth. They will remind that before the government of the Fifth Republic has any standing to lecture the government in Jerusalem on how to protect Jews in the land of Israel, it will have to show that it can protect the Jews of France. The killings in the southern French city are being attributed by police to a gunman who shot to death a 30-year-old Hebrew teacher and his two children and another child and wounded a 17-year-old. “The attacker was shooting people outside the school, then pursued children into the school, before fleeing on a heavy motorbike,” the prosecutor at Toulouse, Michel Valet, is quoted by Reuters as having told reporters.

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