About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Free World Challenges - From Soviet Russia's Communism To Muslim Demographics

One of our members sent this video with some startling demographic statistics re Muslim population growth rates throughout the world. I was not able to disprove the statistics on the video & in fact my research proved it to be quite accurate in that Muslim countries have a very high fertility rate (well over 4 for many & up to 8 in some) while the European Union (1.4), Canada (1.6), & the USA's (1.6 native born) is much less. The fertility rate in the USA is 2.1 (minimum number required to sustain a population) when you take into account immigration - if not for illegal immigrants, the population of the United States would be falling today & therein lies the point of the website but for Muslims not illegals - the population growth of Muslims is the dominant growth group in many countries; e.g. France.

Now many of us do not regard Islam as a peaceful religion so while we in America are having the absurd debate about whether or not to water board barbaric terrorists intent on killing every last one of us (homosexuals & women first) the Muslim demographic steamroller of Sharia law is bearing down on an oblivious world.

Lenin had a different idea re world domination when he said "there is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of Society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, & does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose." Since I first read that four decades ago I have tried to find & spend as much time as I can with that one ten-thousandth of one percent that could diagnose it.

Khrushchev said "we will bury you." (more accurately later clarified as - "Your own working class will bury you," meaning in his view that the inevitable class struggle favors communism). Shortly thereafter inflation forced women to go into the workforce in great numbers thereby undermining the family conditions of a stay @ home mom under which many of us grew up.

Since the Federal Reserve was formed in 1913 our dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power & two income families are the rule so both Lenin's & Khrushchev's points are well taken yet their communist society fell while ours still exists so their communistic economic plans could not outlast free market capitalism.

But the Muslim demographic challenge may be another matter as illustrated in the video on the website above. Is our best chance for long term survival that Muslims will find the American way of life superior to women hiding in a burkha or men blowing themselves up hoping to meet 40 virgins shortly thereafter? We are putting our way of life up as the only defense & alternative in this current peace @ all costs water boardless conciliatory world.

One thing is certain if the statistics in the video are right & the Muslims do not accept the American way of life - before many of us meet our maker we will meet the caliphate.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Universal Healthcare's Inevitabilities - Price Controls & Rationing

Below is a message I received from two members of our group re BO's plans for universal healthcare that will be ushered in by what is known as the "public option" - an insurance program financed by taxpayers, managed by the government, & open to everyone. Despite providing free or heavily subsidized healthcare the "public option" is advertised to supposedly compete with private alternatives. It will be default coverage for the medically uninsured & will destroy two of the main principles of the insurance business by accepting all comers (guaranteed issue) & charging similar rates to all enrollees (community rating) regardless of pre-existing conditions or how well you took care of your own health.

The centerpiece of any such plan is always price controls followed by rationing of healthcare & the WSJ lead editorial today pointed out that Medicare has already started the process by denying payment of virtual colonoscopies. As reported in the editorial "Private carriers generally adopt Medicare's rates & policies, & the virtual colonoscopy decision may run this technology out of the marketplace.....But scarcity forces choices. As the Medicare trustees note in their report, the tax increases necessary to fund merely the current benefit schedule for the elderly would cripple the economy.....government will clamp down with price controls in the form of lines & rock-bottom reimbursement rates." In essence, as BO's "public option" government price controls reduce payments to private hospitals & doctors the difference will be made up by private patients & their insurance companies until these insurance companies are driven out of business when they can no longer make up for the lack of government payments. Then you will have universal healthcare in America.

BTW, as a refresher from a message from September 30, 2007 - A good percentage of the current push for universal health care comes from the notion that we have 47 million people in America who don't have health care insurance. The Kaiser Family Foundation, a left leaning non-profit frequently quoted by the media, puts the number of uninsured Americans who do not qualify for current government programs and make less than $50,000 a year between 13.9 million and 8.2 million. Ten million of the remaining approximate 36 million are not U.S. citizens @ all (they predominantly use the very costly emergency room treatments @ our expense for free medical care), 8.3 million uninsured people make between $50,000 and $74,999 per year, 8.74 million make more than $75,000 a year, & 9 million did, in fact, have health coverage through Medicare. So out of the so-called 47 million uninsured Americans, 10 million aren’t American, 9 million are insured, & 17 million are young and healthy & choose not to have insurance. If the federal government wants to get into this why not just have a program to help the 8.2 million to 13.9 million people who really could use the help?

DEATH OF U.S. HEALTHCARE By DICK MORRIS Published on TheHill.com on May 12, 2009

When all of America’s top health insurers and providers met at the White House this week and pledged to save $2 trillion over the next decade in health costs, they were pledging to sabotage our medical care. The blunt truth, which everybody agreed to keep quiet, is that the only way to reduce these costs is to ration healthcare, thereby destroying our system.

Here’s why:

• Essential to any cost reduction is a cut in doctors’ fees. Congress is trying to cut Medicare fees by 21 percent. But cuts in fees and doctors’ incomes will just discourage people from entering the profession and those already in it from practicing. The limited number of doctors and nurses in the United States is the key constraint on the availability of healthcare. Our national inventory of 800,000 doctors is growing at only about 1 percent a year (18,000 med school graduates annually minus retirements), while the nurse population is stagnant at 1.4 million. To stretch these limited resources so that they can treat 50 million more people is possible only through the most severe kind of rationing.

• As in Canada, the best way to cut medical costs is to refrain from using the best drugs to treat cancer and other illnesses, thereby economizing at the expense of patients’ lives. Forty-four percent of the drugs approved by the Canadian health authorities for use in their country are not allowed by the healthcare system due to their high cost. As a result, death rates from cancer are 16 percent higher in Canada than in the United States. We will pay for the attempt to save $2 trillion with our lives. (And remember, one cannot opt out of the Canadian system and pay for the medications out of pocket.)

• The only real way to save money on the scale projected is to ration healthcare services. Optimists say that this can be achieved by increased use of preventive care. But the Canadian experience indicates that when government — or its satellite private insurance providers — ration healthcare, they cut preventive care first. In Canada, colonoscopies are so rationed that the colon cancer rate is 25 percent higher than in the U.S. (even though Canada has a much smaller proportion of poor people, whose frequently bad diets make them more prone to the disease).

Obama’s pretension that nobody will find changes in his or her current health insurance plans except for a magical reduction in their cost by $2,500 a year is a fool’s proposition. Private health insurers will be no more private than TARP-funded banks or government-subsidized car companies are in Obama’s America. They will be controlled by government healthcare planners who will approve treatments, limit drug use, hold down medical incomes and bring their cost-cutting programs to bear. Inevitably, their ax will fall on the oldest and the sickest among us, those least “deserving” of our newly limited and, under Obama’s program, diminishing healthcare resources.

The other radical changes Obama is bringing about in our nation can always be reversed. New taxes can be repealed or lowered. That which was nationalized can be privatized. Government which has grown can be cut. But once the healthcare system is extended to cover everyone, with no commensurate increase in the resources available, the change will be forever. The vicious cycle of cuts in medical resources and in the number of doctors and nurses will doom healthcare in this country. This wanton destruction will not be reversible by any bill or program. A crucial part of our quality of life — the best healthcare in the world — will be gone forever.

Politically, voters will feel the impact of these “reforms” very quickly. When they face rejection or limitation at the hands of the bureaucrats, they will quickly understand that the their options have become limited. Just as in the 1990s, when HMOs first became universal, the patient outrage will create a political force all its own and those who foisted this brave new world on the American people will be in their cross hairs.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Responses - To The Socialists Of All Parties

Well the subject message last night certainly brought passionate thoughtful responses. Below are four that illustrate the flavor of all of them.

They were received before the detestable Associate Justice David Souter announced his retirement thereby opening up a Supreme Court seat for BO to appoint another Statist who will continue to negatively affect our way of life for decades by turning the rule of law on its head like in the terrible treatment given to the Chrysler bond holders whose senior debt contracts will be torn up in favor of UAW interests if BO has his way. During the campaign Carol used to tell people that the appointment of judges was reason enough alone not to vote for BO - now 89 year old Stevens & former ACLU lawyer Ginsburg who is in poor health can also retire knowing their work will continue by other anti-American appointments made by BO.

Our messages to each other have always been geared not just to provide information but to provide information that we can do something positive with. The responses below fit that bill.

BTW - Some wondered why I entitled the original message "To The Socialists Of All Parties." It is the dedication that Friedrich Hayek put in his classic book "The Road To Serfdom" originally published in 1944 - the same year as the Norman Thomas Socialist Party Of America speech that was the inspiration of the original message.

---Response #1---

The statement quoted from Norman Thomas is so scary....but I believe it is true!

---Response #2---

Tell Carol we are too nice and have been silent too long. Fight fire with fire - that's what they understand. Fight them with their own fodder & call them out. I have been talking with friends and we all are shocked how it happened. Make no mistake the Socialsit-Democrat party has been looking for Specter for a long time and finally officially got him. They love corruption - that's why they smile and talk to cover up their real intentions and agenda until now and all we can do is wait for the next election.

---Response #3---

Well said. Simply put, it is time for us to make our stand. We need to stop complaining about the media being against us, etc. The liberals learned back in the 60's that every day is an election day, that every day they need to get their message out. The so called "leaders" on our side seem to think they can mention something once and then do not have to repeat it. We abandoned the cities, (remember up until the 1960 election most blacks voted Republican), and act afraid to attract minorities. Whether many folks like it or not, American is becoming less white and it is our job to go out and attract these groups to ideas such as freedom, liberty, etc.

Instead the "leaders" on our side seem to think that preaching to the choir is going to carry the day. IT ISN"T, we need to grow our side. The good news is that sooner or later, the left will fall under it's own weight, (read "Atlas Shrugged"). It is our job to make it sooner.
Which brings me on how to do it. Our side needs to get better at public relations. The Republicans stink at it. And it will not improve until the dead weight is gone. For years I would hear Limbaugh's, Gingrich's, etc make comments that the nation is turning more conservative. These statements were and are utter nonsense. On what grounds or evidence do they base this assumption on? One small example. Think about TV shows that was were considered risque as short as 10-15 years ago. Now they look downright quaint. On the government side we have been forced to listen to so called fiscal conservatives on "our side" argue, "the size of the deficit does not matter". This is what is passing as conservative? Two quick ideas, if the left wants class warfare, GIVE IT TO THEM! Call out every rich liberal who cries unfairness and demand that they give up all their money "to the poor". Every actor or actress in Hollywood who keeps making the faux, "I am a socialist at heart" statement, call them on it! Demand that they take their million dollar salaries and divide it up equally among all the struggling actors in America. Health care reform? Easy! Demand lawyers also be socialized and watch how quick health care reform via socialism is dropped.
All great movements (religious, political, social) came from the bottom, the grassroots level. Be it The FairTax, Immigration Reform, Health Care Reform, Social Security Reform, etc the movement for change has to come from us, the people. The time has come for us to start running candidates (again there should be a FairTax candidate running in every district in this state, if not the entire nation), to start giving it back. Start educating the people on the Ponzi scheme known as Social Security, how the politicians and insurance companies have screwed up health care, how judges have overstepped the authority given them in the state and federal Constitutions. We must be willing to be more confrontational and challenge the status quo. For example, I am sick and tired of hearing; "you have to respect them even if you disagree, after all they are the President, the Senator, Congressman, etc. And while they hold that office you must respect them". I respect people who earn that respect , not because they have a title. I do not care if they are a factory worker, a college professor or the President. Those who earn my respect will get it, regardless of their title. This is akin to German Jews telling their children, "we may disagree with Chancellor Hitler, but he is our leader so we must respect him."

Al Gore when running for President, said to his fellow Democrats, "the Republicans are our enemy" while urging them to stick together. Well Al was right, and the liberals and the left are our enemy and our job is to defeat them and bring back free enterprise, economic opportunity, freedom and smaller government. With Lonegan we have a chance to fire a shot across the bow, let's make the most of it!

---Response #4---

Josh Muravchik, who used to be with AEI and was a regular guest on my radio show, wrote a superb book on Socialism that reads like a novel. It's a series of portaits of Socialist leaders, compellingly told, so you learn about Socialism through their personalities and the drama of their lives. It's chilling. If I were rich, I'd put this book -- Heaven on Earth -- in the hands of every college student. Here's my own diatribe against Socialism -- in the guise of an essay on Bernard Shaw, which I just discovered is listed as a source in the Shaw Wikipedia article.

Friday, May 15, 2009

To The Socialists Of All Parties

Below is a message from a member of our group that describes what had been happening in America up to 1944 re creeping socialism in a view attributed to the six time Socialist Party of America Presidential Candidate Norman Thomas who supposedly said that the Democrat Party had adopted the Socialist Party platform thereby relieving him of the need to run for office again.

Well socialism in America is no longer creeping as it dramatically accelerates under BO & the Democrat Party cannot take all of the credit (debit) as far too many Republicans are all too eager & unprincipled to resist joining in. In truth there are but a handful of good politicians left in America (many of them are being targeted by the Socialists) & Carol believes that the American people have let this happen without a whimper. She tells me it is stunning to her.

The GOP complicity in the socializing of America can be demonstrated by just looking @ the lousy candidates Republicans keep putting up such as Socialist-Lite presidential candidate John McCain or even more recently in the March 31 special House election in which losing NY state-level career politician Jim Tedisco had trouble letting people know how he felt about the massive BO stimulus plan or the union card-check legislation that eliminates secret ballots in establishing unions in places of employment.

Make no mistake about it - the wealth creating people in America are outnumbered by those who want to redistribute wealth. I know many people who believe we have passed the tipping point for being able to recover because we know we will slide further away from America's founding principles until @ least November 2010. The party defection of the despicable Arlen Specter does not change much - he already had joined forces in February with Republicans Snowe & Collins (both of Maine) to supply the votes @ the margin needed to pass BO's $787 billion stimulus package. Without two of these three the stimulus would have failed the procedural control cloture rules of the Senate that require 60 votes to end debate. Add Republicans Voinovich (OH), Lugar (IN), & Martinez (FL) to the former mentioned three & you have plenty of Democrat-Socialist support in the Republican party for BO's agenda.

It is important in trying to peacefully reverse this socialist slide to find & elect good candidates for any office @ the primary level. In this regard the people in NJ are very fortunate in that Gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan is the genuine article & exactly what is needed - he is working his fingers to the bone for NJ. Unfortunately the Republican Party bosses don't want such a candidate who is dedicated only to his possible future constituents so they have put up a mediocre middle of the road candidate who they can control. Lonegan trails in the polls so we have our work cut out for us if we are going to surprise the Republican machine - but @ least we have a chance to vote for a real difference. If Lonegan loses the primary NJ will once again have as Governor either Socialist-Democrat Jon Corzine or a luke warm body going through some Republican motions but in all likelihood caving when it matters most.

Our founders warned of America's enemies - both foreign & domestic. But the domestic enemies are the most insidious & as indicated above & below they are everywhere - all around us @ every level of government from the presidency to other inconspicuous community organizers who also have Saul Alinsky's book Rules For Radicals - a step-by-step guide on how to overthrow American capitalist democracy and replace it with a communist system - on their desk for constant reference.



Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 - December 19,1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1911. As a candidate for President of the U.S. , Norman Thomas said, in a 1944 epoch speech:"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism", they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform."