the 10 cannots
I recently came across a fascinating pamphlet written by the Rev. William J. H. Boetcker back in 1916. Nearly a century old, it still has remarkable application to the times we live in here in the 21st century. Boetcker, a noted conservative, seems to be speaking directly into the middle of the political and cultural firestorm that is modern life. The list:
1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
3. You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
9. You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
10. And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
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wish i’d written that, part deux
ObamaCare: The Sum of All Fears - Mary Katherine Ham and Guy Benson (originally posted at hotair.com on August 5, 2010)
On March 21, after more than a year of contentious debate, Congressional Democrats finally passed their health care reform bill without a single Republican vote in either house. The president has challenged Republicans to run against his unpopular health care law—implying that they don’t have the political courage to do so. He may be right on that point; he may not—but the facts show that (a) many of the highest-profile selling points employed by the Left to drag Obamacare across the finish line were either incorrect or intentional distortions, (b) the consequences of not repealing this law are dire, and (c) the public’s enduring hostility toward Obamacare demonstrates a political appetite for repeal.
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sorry, charlie
Dear Gov. Crist:
I have a lot of experience at this, so I can say from firsthand experience that it’s best to be direct: It’s over. And it’s not me. It’s you.
When we first met, I was struck by how sincere you seemed, and how that made you stand out from the rest of the cynical, me-first crowd. I don’t know what got you into politics, and it doesn’t really matter now, but back then you just had the it that made me weak in the knees. You knew all the right things to say, all the right buttons to push to make me dream of a long and happy future together. You were a real law-and-order type, weren’t you, Chain Gang Charlie?
What I didn’t notice as you rose through the ranks, moving on to challenge Bob Graham (that didn’t turn out so hot, although it did get you some name recognition) and then become our state’s Education Commissioner, was that you studiously avoided conflict as much as any human being possibly can. What can I say? I was still mesmerized by the total package you presented, even as Graham pile-drove you into the Florida turf. I couldn’t see that you were really just a nice guy who shied away from the contact sport that is politics, going along to get along as you steered your career steadily ahead.
You moved on from Education Commissioner to Attorney General (you never do stay in one place long, do you?) and had a solid 4-year run. Well, other than that whole Terri Schiavo mess, which, if I recall correctly, you were for before you were against. Or was it that you were against before you were for? Ah, well, that’s the beauty of being a good politician; all the folks remember is the tan face, the killer smile, and the “common folks” touch. Still, I hung in there with you because I believed in you, and that faith paid off in a big way when you became Governor in 2007.
That’s where the story turns, though. You probably don’t remember me telling you, because you did most of the talking and not much of the listening, that my undergrad degree is in human resources. That’s where I learned a concept called the Peter Principle. (No, it’s not dirty. It just sounds that way.) The Peter Principle postulates that most people are promoted to their level of incompetence; the idea is that companies assume a good line worker will be a good foreman, a good salesman will make a good VP of Sales, etc. Life doesn’t always work that way — and your term as Governor is (here’s where I show how much I learned about law from you) prima facie evidence of that. Oh, you did some things right, like continuing to support the rights of gun owners and capital punishment, but there were so many areas where I felt like you were becoming someone different. To say it’s been a wild 3 years is an understatement of epic proportions.
I put up with the pro-choice murmurings. I endured the flip-flopping as you tried to nuance your positions on the environment and offshore drilling. I even tolerated your decided un-conservative fiscal policy. After all, we each have our own little idiosyncrasies. But when you abandoned John McCain’s presidential run — and believe me, I understand how unattractive a candidate he was, but he was ours – I started seeing you in a different light. You’ve governed differently since November 2008. Some would say you’ve tacked toward the center, moderating your positions in an effort to read the political tea leaves and continue to place yourself in a safe zone. I say one of two things has happened: either you’ve abandoned (or sold) your soul to further your political ambitions, or perhaps I never really knew you and just projected who I am onto you.
When you took the coward’s way out of the U.S. Senate race after it became clear you could never beat Marco Rubio in a Republican primary, I knew. I don’t know how much you got for your soul, but I hope it was enough to help you sleep at night. Who knows? It might even have been enough to cover the costs of this ill-advised special session you just called in an effort to promote yourself and your campaign by trying to get the Florida Legislature to move on a constitutional amendment that would do nothing more than what state law already requires. I’d say shame on you, but you’ve proven now that you have none.
I wish you well, I really do. I hope you find the happiness you seek, although not in the U.S. Senate. Part of me will always wish for what might have been. But it’s a new day, and I’m moving on. I hope, after November comes and goes, that you will, too.
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a philosophical divorce
Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:
We have stuck together since the late 1950′s for the sake of the kids, but this latest election cycle has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.
Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.
Here is a model separation agreement:
Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass, with each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.
We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. We’ll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.
We’ll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens. We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEOs and rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.
You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll help provide them security.
We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.
We’ll keep the SUV’s, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.
You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We’ll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. We’ll keep “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “The National Anthem.” I’m sure you’ll be happy to substitute “Imagine,” “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” “Kum-Ba-Ya” or “We Are the World.”
We’ll practice trickle down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it so often offends you, we’ll keep our history, our name and our flag.
Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American
P. S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda with you.
P. S. S. And you won’t have to press 1 for English when you call our country.
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letter to obama
Dear President Obama:
I’m planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for my health, and I would like to ask you to assist me. We’re planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico and we’ll need your help to make a few arrangements.
We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. I’m sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So would you mind telling your buddy, President Calderon, that I’m on my way over?
Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:
1. Free medical care for my entire family.
2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.
3. Please print all Mexican Government forms in English.
4. I want my kids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bi-lingual) teachers.
5. Tell the Mexican schools they need to include classes on American culture and history.
6. I want my kids to see the American flag on one of the flag poles at their school.
7. Please plan to feed my kids at school for free at both breakfast and lunch.
8. I will need a local Mexican driver’s license so I can get easy access to government services.
9. I do plan to get a car and drive in Mexico , but I don’t plan to purchase car insurance, and I probably won’t make any special effort to learn local traffic laws.
10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from their president to leave me alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer.
11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my housetop, put U.S. flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.
12. I would also like to have a decent job without paying any taxes, or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business I may start.
13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say critical things about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy.
14. I want to receive food stamps.
15. Naturally, I’ll expect free rent subsidies.
16. I’ll need income tax credits so that although I don’t pay Mexican taxes, I’ll receive money from the government.
17. Please arrange it so that the Mexican Government pays $4,500.00 to help me buy a new car.
18. Oh yes, I almost forgot, please enroll me free into the Mexican Social Security program so that I’ll get a monthly income in retirement.
I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all of his people who walk over to the U.S. from Mexico . I am sure that President Calderon won’t mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.
Thank you so much for your kind help!
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freedom from the press
As if we needed any more proof that liberals consider themselves smarter than everyone else and believe that they should be in charge of all decision-making, here comes a mushrooming story courtesy of the Daily Caller about a somewhat sorta secret, under-the-radar group of lefty journalists who maintained a listserv, calling it the Journolist. (Yes, that’s their real name. They’re too busy doing our thinking for us to be that clever.)
Thanks to the intrepid work of the Daily Caller’s Jonathan Strong, we know now that the big-brained members of the Journolist (I feel the need to type it that way, so that you clearly understand just how über-special they are) determined among themselves — and who else is there to consult, really? – that:
1. The government should simply shut down Fox News.
2. They should work actively to kill any stories during the 2008 Presidential campaign re: Jeremiah Wright, in order to protect then-candidate Barack Obama.
3. Any attempts to link Obama and Wright should be met with immediate distraction and demagoguery, such as calling the offending linker a racist — irrespective of the truth.
4. It was/is appropriate to compare Tea Party participants and others who dared to question the President and the Democrat-led Congress with Hitler’s infamous “Brownshirts.”
5. Obama’s election was a time to ditch the “non-partisan” act and rejoice (WARNING: Strong language).
And yet, these are the same folks who shreik and howl at the notion that there is a left-leaning bias in the mainstream media. I know how stupid they think we are; it’s obvious in the way they interact with each other, but just in case you missed it, here’s an actual unabridged statement posted on Journolist by Dave Weigel, who has written for the Washington Independent, does commentary for MSNBC and recently kept a political blog at the Washington Post:
The problem [former New York Times editor Howell] Raines diagnoses is less Fox News and more the biases that have been with the “MSM” for a while now — this need to give equal/extra time to “Real American” views, no matter how f***ing moronic…
I don’t know about you, but I say a prayer every night thanking God that these Journolist geniuses are here to do my thinking for me. You know, when I can manage to string a few thoughts together that aren’t “f***ing moronic” ‘n stuff. God save us from a press that feels the need not only to report the news, but to ensure that it follows their narrowly-constructed narrative.
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wish i’d written that
From time to time I come across things in the blogosphere and the web in general that immediately make me smack my forehead and say, “Wow! I wish I’d written that!” I’ll collect them and post them here occasionally with the title (linked to the actual blog post) and a brief excerpt to give you the flavor of what you’re about to read. No surprise, these are conservative viewpoints by and large, and they are always posted with appropriate attribution, especially for my fellow bloggers.
Stuck on Stupid – Pete Fleckenstein
Progressives rely on the ability of people to ignore what has actually occurred so that they can promote Progressivism as progress. It’s a movement of controlling the individual for the benefit of the few. Its destruction discriminates against no party, race, or religion. It seeks a utopia that is never based on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness through limited government. It violates every unalienable right given to every human being on this planet by our Creator. …
The Coming Resignation of Barack Obama – Peter Ferrara, The American Spectator
Months ago, I predicted in this column that President Obama would so discredit himself in office that he wouldn’t even be on the ballot in 2012, let alone have a prayer of being reelected. Like President Johnson in 1968, who had won a much bigger victory four years previously than Obama did in 2008, President Obama will be so politically defunct by 2012 that he won’t even try to run for reelection. I am now ready to predict that President Obama will not even make it that far. I predict that he will resign in discredited disgrace before the fall of 2012. …
And now for something I put together:
Just to show how post-racial the Democrats are, they’ve whipped out their big guns against Col. Allen West, a black Republican running for Congress in South Florida against entrenched Democratic Congressman Ron Klein. West, who along with his wife was to be honored by his local cystic fibrosis foundation as one of South Florida’s Finest Couples (an honor that comes with a $10,000 fundraising price tag), was summarily disinvited at the behest of two Democrats who are large donors to the foundation who threatened to stop giving if the Wests were allowed to attend and be honored. Rumors continue to swirl that Klein’s wife had a role in the dis-invitation as well, and there are purportedly emails that constitute a paper trail, so we’ll see where (if anywhere) that goes. For those of you interested in weighing in directly with the foundation, contact foundation executive director Christina (Chris) Landshut at 954.739.5006 or send her an email at florida@cff.org.
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welcome race fans
Raise your hand if you’re shocked that we STILL have problems with race in America, even though we elected a self-proclaimed “post-racial” president in 2008. Those of you raising your hands are choosing to ignore a few basic truths about race relations in the U.S. of A.:
1. There have always been, and there always will be, people of all races who dislike people of other races for no other reason than the difference in race. This side of Heaven, that’s a lead-pipe cinch.
2. Because #1 is true, there have also always been hucksters who seek to exploit this weakness in humanity for their own profit. These are the folks who can least afford any breakthroughs that improve race relations. As such, they are frequently front-and-center, stirring the pot and ratcheting up tension.
3. Newton’s Third Law of Motion is just as true for race relations as it is for the physical world: Every action produces an equal and opposite reaction.
These basic truths are evident in the news we see playing out these days. We have a President who, in spite of his “post-racial” protestations, continues to operate on a plane in which he and his supporters see every attack and every criticism as racially motivated. While I recognize that there are people in this country who dislike the President simply because he is partially black, they constitute only a small portion of the ever-growing group of citizens who do not support him. Yet, to hear the President, the Democrats, and the MSM tell the story, there are no legitimate criticisms of the President and his policies; all of the criticism is race-based.
This explains in large part the actions of the NAACP this past week. They (and the President) recognize that the Tea Party is gaining traction among citizens, and that their best efforts to marginalize it have failed miserably. In a last-ditch effort to damage the Tea Party brand, the NAACP floated a trial balloon early in the week suggesting that they were considering adopting a resolution at their national convention to brand the Tea Party as racists. Never mind that there was not one scintilla of proof — no signs, no Obamas hanging in effigy at Tea Party rallies, no express or implied threats — that the Tea Party is racist. Never mind as well that studies have shown that nearly one-fourth of the Tea Party movement’s membership is considered minority. In this, the last age of the MSM, the mere fact that one has conservative tendencies is considered proof positive of racism.
Yet for all its efforts to call attention to the racism it sees in the Tea Party movement, the NAACP lost a significant amount of credibility for its failure to recognize the racist actions of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP). The NBPP is the group that attempted to intimidate voters at a precinct outside of Philadelphia in the 2008 election. One of its leaders has recently become prominent thanks to a video that shows him calling for the killing of “crackas” (white people) and their babies. Not a peep from the NAACP, though. They’re too busy castigating private citizens for expressing disagreement with our “post-racial” president.
Good on the Tea Party for responding to the NAACP in an aggressive, proactive manner, even if the MSM largely ignored their response and/or used it as further proof of racism. Shame on the NAACP for its racial huckstering, for becoming an arm of an increasingly dangerous and out-of-touch president, and for its failure to recognize racism in all its forms and colors.
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rebirth
We are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We are not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope.
We have every right to dream heroic dreams.
Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981
I reached a turning point of sorts just now. I’ve spent so much of the last 18 months being angry about the direction in which our country is being led by a president that I do not believe has America’s best interests at heart. I’ve despaired about the deep divisions within our citizenry that, at times, feels as though they will never heal. I have feared for what America has already seen, and what she could become if We the People fail to recognize the power we have to create change. I’ve felt powerless to do much more than complain through every means possible. No more.
A quarter of a century ago, as we escaped the malaise that was the Carter administration, Ronald Reagan reminded us that America was still the “shining city on a hill” that exemplified exceptionalism. These days, as a fog more malevolent and hate-centered threatens to engulf that shining city, I am standing up to proclaim that America is STILL the exemplar of exceptionalism for the world. Though current popular opinion might say otherwise, I believe our best days as a nation might still be ahead of us, provided we are willing to accept the mantle of exceptionalism and do the difficult work necessary to rebuild they physical, spiritual, and intellectual infrastructure that the liberal-progressive mindset has tried to destroy.
I, for one, refuse to let the current administration and the liberal-progressive movement destroy the America that we once knew and replace it with their perverted version. By word and by deed, I will fight to my last breath to keep America free and strong, and restore her to her rightful place as the leader of the free world.
Just as the phoenix must rise from the ashes of its destruction, so too must America be renewed. The work of renewal will not be easy; nothing worth doing well ever is. But it can and will be done, by those of us who love this country and what she stands for. Will you join me?
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government in the twilight
This is an op-ed that I recently submitted to my local newspaper. Still waiting to hear if it will run, but would love your feedback on it.
The Opacity of Hope: Government in the Twilight
by Mike Lisle, Jr.
Opaque (adj.) – (a) blocking the passage of radiant energy and especially light; (b) hard to understand or explain; obtuse; thickheaded.
Among the earliest lessons of my childhood was that it is important to keep one’s promises. You’re only as good as your word, my parents admonished. Even the Bible weighs in on promise keeping, saying “It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it” (Ecclesiastes 5:5, NIV).
During the 2008 presidential campaign and in the months immediately following his election, President Obama made multiple public commitments to run the most transparent presidential administration in history. To be fair, the President offered many promising words, such as excluding former lobbyists from the administration, televising the healthcare debate, and putting bills up for review for 72 hours or more prior to signing them. Regrettably, these promises became – to borrow a phrase from the President’s campaign – “just words.”
Instead of government in the sunshine, which we as Floridians have come to enjoy, we have endured government in the twilight, if not outright dark. Do you remember the televised healthcare debates, which C-SPAN offered to carry in their entirety? Neither do I. Do you recall all of the press conferences the President held, in which he explained his decision-making processes, his legislative agenda, and his take on the issues facing our country? Of course you don’t, because the president went over 300 days between press conferences between July 2009 and May 2010. During that time, a number of significant events occurred: the terrorist attacks at Fort Hood and Times Square, the attempted Christmas Day attack, the loss of the Kennedy Senate seat in Massachusetts, and the passage of the President’s healthcare reform package, just to name a few.
Adding to the sense that transparency was essentially more promise than protocol are several recent and current issues where the administration would have benefitted from a huge dose of sunlight. Space prohibits an exhaustive listing, but let’s start with the decision by the Department of Justice to drop the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party after the case had been won. Who ordered the decision, and did the President approve? Then there’s the lack of resolution to the question about whom, if anyone, in the administration offered Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak a job if he would drop out of his Senate primary against Sen. Arlen Specter. The White House stonewalled the question until after Sestak defeated Specter in the primary, then declared it irrelevant. Add these to some of the earlier errors in judgment, such as the failure to post the first stimulus bill for the promised review period prior to signing it, and the promise of transparency is seen for what it is: a pithy sound bite designed to draw attention, rather than an intentional purpose statement.
Now there are reports out of Louisiana that the government is attempting to control what information the media have access to and what they can and cannot report regarding the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf. CNN’s Anderson Cooper went so far as to post a video on YouTube in which he decries the lengths to which the Obama administration has gone to keep information, including pictures of birds and wildlife affected by the spill, out of the media. Combine this breach of the First Amendment with the other issues about which the White House has been less than transparent and you have the foundation for unrest among independents and swing voters who were swung by the promise of transparency.
The frustrating thing is that it doesn’t have to be this way. We Americans are a hardy lot. We handle the truth, painful as it might be in some cases, better than we handle something less than the truth. We respect those who, having made a vow, keep it, no matter how difficult it is. And despite the myriad examples otherwise on both sides of the political aisle, we continue to expect our leaders to keep their promises.
The world is filled with examples of people who don’t or aren’t expected to keep their promises – the lazy co-worker, the cheating spouse, the used-car salesman – and while most of us view politicians in general with a somewhat jaundiced eye, it’s not too much to expect our President to fulfill the vow he so publicly made regarding transparency. In the end, it is the basic duty he owes to all Americans.
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