Hypocrisy is the proof of retrenched principles.
When those in leadership act according to policy, not politics, and according to a greater good, not the common good, we will make some progress. The kind of progress that lead to a 5,000-year leap, as author Cleon Skousen explained. Unfortunately we have too many leaders who are regressing on principles for votes and money. What we are left with, when the back-tracking and "let me clarify-ings" are spoken, are out-of-touch politicians who are ripe with poor judgement and weak characters making the decisions for the rest of us.
Just this week in the news we find several examples:
Jon Corzine, CEO of MF Global, a commodities brokerage firm and a primary dealer of U.S Treasury securities, filed for the eighth largest U.S. bankruptcy on October 30, 2011. This week Corzine, the former Democratic U.S. Senator and Governor of New Jersey, has been called to provide testimony in front of a House Committee regarding the $1.2 billion in MF Global client money that has gone missing. Corzine claims he doesn’t know what happened to the money, and also defended his decision to bet billions of dollars of MF Global money on risky debt of European countries.
As the Washington Post reports, "[t]he firm was required to keep clients’ money separated from its own. But more than $1.2 billion might be missing, the trustee overseeing the firm’s liquidation said last month."
Corzine claims he never intended to break any rules, he was not in position to know what happened regarding the movement of specific funds, and that he never intended to authorize the transfer of client funds-- but if he did, it was a "misunderstanding."
Prior to his stint as CEO of MF Global, Corzine was CEO of Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs, interestingly enough, was the second-largest donor for Obama's 2008 presidential campaign (approximately $1 million).Corzine also "has been a major fundraiser for President Barack Obama, having donated the maximum of $5,000 that an individual can give for a presidential campaign, according to campaign finance records. He also held a lavish $35,800-a-head fundraising dinner for Obama at his home in April and raised or 'bundled' donations of at least $500,000 so far for Obama's 2012 re-election effort."
Let's not wait for the media to report the connection between those "fat cats" on Wall Street and their liberal elite. Obama's Wall Street & Co team, including big hitters JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Sidley Austin LLP (one of the largest law firms in the U.S., based in Chicago), UBS AG, General Electric, Google, Microsoft and Morgan Stanley, maintain cozy solidarity with the Obama Administration as long as the financial benefits remain appealing.
Attorney General Eric Holder has also spent some quality time with a House Congressional Committee this week. He returned to account for his role in the failed Operation Fast and Furious, in which federal agents delivered nearly 2,000 weapons to Mexican Drug cartels without tracking their use. The weapons have been showing up at U.S. crime scenes, including the murder of a border patrol agent.
Emails from the Obama Administration have been released to the committee, explaining one desired outcome of the operation was to press states for stricter gun control laws.
A turning point in the hearing was Holder's Clintonesque pontifications about truth. Wisconsin Senator Jim Sensenbrenner asked Holder, “Tell me what the difference is between lying and misleading Congress in this context?” Holder responded, "If you want to have this legal conversation, it all has to do with your state of mind, and whether or not you had the requisite intent to come up with something that can be considered perjury or a lie."
Good to know, Holder, since you are the highest-ranking official of our Justice Department, that lying is simply a state of mind.
And then we have the Occupy Wall Street protesters, who have proven the meatiest fodder for conservative-minded pundits since Clinton's definition of "is."
OWS protesters in Zuccotti Park carried a lengthy list of grievances, including the rich who....well, are rich. The rich must pay their fair share, they cried out, while beating their drums and signing the lyrics of "Have You Been To Jail For Justice?"
In an effort to manage the proposals of the unruly group, a small cartel of OWS "leaders" met daily in the lobby of-- wait for it-- Deutsche Bank. Samantha Bee from the Daily Show interviewed the "council" to see how the process works.
Samantha asks once male leader, "So big decision for Occupy Wall Street are being made in the atrium of the Deutsche Bank building?" He replies with a simple yes, to which Samantha then asks, "Is my nose bleeding? Because I feel like an aneurysm just exploded in my head."
Generations of Americans are being taught that morals are relative-- what is right for you may not be right for your neighbor. Everything you want should be free, including education, health care and homes. Work ethic is replaced by childish whining and complaining about fairness and economic justice. Hypocrisy reigns, because after all, you only need to believe what is personally expedient for the moment.
But this ideology will never win out. There will always be some educators who push this on their students and liberals who are elected by the very same minority that will be hurt from their policies... while the rest of us are busy.
We work hard at our jobs, we save for our future and live within our means. We raise our kids to know right from wrong, and we help our neighbors when they need it the most. We live by a set of principles and we love our country. We don't have the loudest voice right now, but while we are refining our characters, the other side loses ground on theirs. We'll know what to do when it needs to be done.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
I'm not crying wolf. That expression from Aesop's Fables means to raise a false alarm. There is no false alarm, there is only the gut punch of reality. Our country is on the brink of an economic collapse (Happy Thanksgiving!), and Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) explains why in his statements following the "Supercommittee's" failure to reach a deficit reduction agreement last week:
Last week, our nation's debt surpassed the $15 trillion mark, and it continues to grow by approximately $100 billion a month. Add in the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare, and federal pensions, and our nation's total liabilities equal $99 trillion ($321,000 per person). When you consider the fact that our $99 trillion liability exceeds the entire net asset base of the United States ($78 trillion), it is easy to see how bad things are.
Unfortunately, Washington has failed to deal with this by resorting to another round of secret meetings and a ‘special committee.’ I was skeptical of the process from the start, but to encourage success, I submitted to the committee a list of savings totaling $1.4 trillion. Reducing the rate of growth in government spending should not be this hard.
We need economic growth and real leadership - something that has been absent from Washington for far too long. America is facing a financial emergency. It is way past time for us to start acting like it.
Rather than gloss over those numbers, because our congress is very effective at tossing out numbers so large we tune out, let me point out a few things.
The nation's debt is increasing by $100 Billion each month. From what? Why are we spending 100 Billion more every month from the previous month? What would happen if you added to your personal debt every month, without increasing your income?
Unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and federal pensions is simple to understand. It's what we know we will have to pay for some day, but we haven't started paying for yet, nor do we have a plan in place for how we will cover those costs. Read: the massive numbers of Baby Boomers who have begun to retire and the massive number of government workers (the only real job increases since Obama took office) who will receive benefits for the rest of their lives.
Our total liabilities today equals $99 trillion, which means your portion of that debt is $321,000 (congratulations). But more striking than this debt-you-never-knew-you-had is that this $99 trillion liability exceeds the entire net asset base of the United States ($78 trillion). Here is what net asset base means: if we were to gather together everything of value in America today-- businesses, land, homes, things, and say, sold them to China who came a-knocking, everything would be worth $78 trillion. Huh. That's less than our total liabilities. A lot less. $21 trillion less. What we have to pay for is LESS than what assets currently exist in America. (But taxing the rich will fix everything? I digress...)
Our congressmen are not stupid. Our President is not, either. They have seen the numbers. And yet they continue to add to our debt with as much consideration as a creep who steals Bill Gate's debit card. Want to build a $65 million streetcar that travels in a 2-mile loop through downtown Milwaukee? Sure. Should the Internal Revenue Service deliver $112 million in undeserved tax refunds to prisoners who filed fraudulent returns? Absolutely. Want to require taxpayers to cover 100% of the cost of public school teachers' pensions-- because, after all, they cannot set aside any of their own paycheck to do so? Perfect.
Why is our government spending money we don't have? It is not by accident, ignorance or passivity. It is a calculated attempt to redefine our way of life and fundamentally transform America (Campaigner Obama circa 2008).
In a way, the Occupy Wall Street protesters who are camping out and sharing diseases in the name of bringing "awareness" to the unfair and shackling amount of college debt they carry are right on. Yes, debt sucks. Debt is dangerous. Debt can ruin your opportunities and ruin your future. Now take this bar of soap, march on down to D.C., and have at it.
No need to cry wolf here. The numbers speak for themselves.
This is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering... And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Last week, our nation's debt surpassed the $15 trillion mark, and it continues to grow by approximately $100 billion a month. Add in the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare, and federal pensions, and our nation's total liabilities equal $99 trillion ($321,000 per person). When you consider the fact that our $99 trillion liability exceeds the entire net asset base of the United States ($78 trillion), it is easy to see how bad things are.
Unfortunately, Washington has failed to deal with this by resorting to another round of secret meetings and a ‘special committee.’ I was skeptical of the process from the start, but to encourage success, I submitted to the committee a list of savings totaling $1.4 trillion. Reducing the rate of growth in government spending should not be this hard.
We need economic growth and real leadership - something that has been absent from Washington for far too long. America is facing a financial emergency. It is way past time for us to start acting like it.
Rather than gloss over those numbers, because our congress is very effective at tossing out numbers so large we tune out, let me point out a few things.
The nation's debt is increasing by $100 Billion each month. From what? Why are we spending 100 Billion more every month from the previous month? What would happen if you added to your personal debt every month, without increasing your income?
Unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and federal pensions is simple to understand. It's what we know we will have to pay for some day, but we haven't started paying for yet, nor do we have a plan in place for how we will cover those costs. Read: the massive numbers of Baby Boomers who have begun to retire and the massive number of government workers (the only real job increases since Obama took office) who will receive benefits for the rest of their lives.
Our total liabilities today equals $99 trillion, which means your portion of that debt is $321,000 (congratulations). But more striking than this debt-you-never-knew-you-had is that this $99 trillion liability exceeds the entire net asset base of the United States ($78 trillion). Here is what net asset base means: if we were to gather together everything of value in America today-- businesses, land, homes, things, and say, sold them to China who came a-knocking, everything would be worth $78 trillion. Huh. That's less than our total liabilities. A lot less. $21 trillion less. What we have to pay for is LESS than what assets currently exist in America. (But taxing the rich will fix everything? I digress...)
Our congressmen are not stupid. Our President is not, either. They have seen the numbers. And yet they continue to add to our debt with as much consideration as a creep who steals Bill Gate's debit card. Want to build a $65 million streetcar that travels in a 2-mile loop through downtown Milwaukee? Sure. Should the Internal Revenue Service deliver $112 million in undeserved tax refunds to prisoners who filed fraudulent returns? Absolutely. Want to require taxpayers to cover 100% of the cost of public school teachers' pensions-- because, after all, they cannot set aside any of their own paycheck to do so? Perfect.
Why is our government spending money we don't have? It is not by accident, ignorance or passivity. It is a calculated attempt to redefine our way of life and fundamentally transform America (Campaigner Obama circa 2008).
In a way, the Occupy Wall Street protesters who are camping out and sharing diseases in the name of bringing "awareness" to the unfair and shackling amount of college debt they carry are right on. Yes, debt sucks. Debt is dangerous. Debt can ruin your opportunities and ruin your future. Now take this bar of soap, march on down to D.C., and have at it.
No need to cry wolf here. The numbers speak for themselves.
This is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering... And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning economist, hosted an award winning PBS television series in the 1980s called Free to Choose. In the series, Milton discusses the principles of personal, political and economic freedom.
Milton and his wife Rose published a book by the same name, which was the bestselling non-fiction book of 1980. Rose Friedman wrote in her memoir, Two Lucky People, why the idea of freedom motivated them to create the series:
Milton and I have spent much of our life trying to persuade our fellow men and women of the dangers of an intrusive government and the key role that a free competitive economy plays in making a free society possible. Bringing these ideas to the large audience that a television documentary could attract excited us.
You can watch many episodes online (reproduced in 1990), and after watching the first episode titled “The Power of the Market,” you see the importance of operating a life—a country—on principles (and you see Arnold Schwarzenegger, pre-governor, espouse the glories of a limited government).
During the closing 10 minutes of the episode, David Brooks, Wall Street Journal columnist, and James Galbraith, Professor at the University of Texas, discuss what role a government should play in the free market. What is the perfect mix for a prosperous nation?
In one exchange, James Galbraith claims the best form of government is one that steps in to help the “have not’s” who lose in the game of capitalism. It is the responsibility of a rich nation to help those who are no as lucky, or as skilled, as those who have. Sound familiar?
Milton’s response eerily exemplifies the thorn in the side of the Obama Administration: the role of U.S. government should be limited to protecting its citizens and providing a strict set of laws that allow dishonesty and dangerous acts to receive justice, which in turn, further protects those citizens. The only difference between a communist government and the 20th century American government, Milton says, is that “China’s government has gone 100% and we are only at 50%.”
Creeping compassion, the kind OWS and Professor Galbraith celebrate, will in the end create the opposite of compassion—which is no secret to those who take the time to know history. I encourage you to learn from Friedman. Watch the episodes.
Not only can you watch the television series, but you can check out Free to Choose Media, an organization with a mission to “translate serious scholarship into widely understood rhetoric and icons.” The challenge Free to Choose Media has undertaken is “to become much more effective story tellers, thus making economic and political concepts accessible to all citizens.” Some of their productions include “Free or Equal,” “The Lesson of 1623” and “Volunteer Military.”
Milton and his wife Rose published a book by the same name, which was the bestselling non-fiction book of 1980. Rose Friedman wrote in her memoir, Two Lucky People, why the idea of freedom motivated them to create the series:
Milton and I have spent much of our life trying to persuade our fellow men and women of the dangers of an intrusive government and the key role that a free competitive economy plays in making a free society possible. Bringing these ideas to the large audience that a television documentary could attract excited us.
You can watch many episodes online (reproduced in 1990), and after watching the first episode titled “The Power of the Market,” you see the importance of operating a life—a country—on principles (and you see Arnold Schwarzenegger, pre-governor, espouse the glories of a limited government).
During the closing 10 minutes of the episode, David Brooks, Wall Street Journal columnist, and James Galbraith, Professor at the University of Texas, discuss what role a government should play in the free market. What is the perfect mix for a prosperous nation?
In one exchange, James Galbraith claims the best form of government is one that steps in to help the “have not’s” who lose in the game of capitalism. It is the responsibility of a rich nation to help those who are no as lucky, or as skilled, as those who have. Sound familiar?
Milton’s response eerily exemplifies the thorn in the side of the Obama Administration: the role of U.S. government should be limited to protecting its citizens and providing a strict set of laws that allow dishonesty and dangerous acts to receive justice, which in turn, further protects those citizens. The only difference between a communist government and the 20th century American government, Milton says, is that “China’s government has gone 100% and we are only at 50%.”
Creeping compassion, the kind OWS and Professor Galbraith celebrate, will in the end create the opposite of compassion—which is no secret to those who take the time to know history. I encourage you to learn from Friedman. Watch the episodes.
Not only can you watch the television series, but you can check out Free to Choose Media, an organization with a mission to “translate serious scholarship into widely understood rhetoric and icons.” The challenge Free to Choose Media has undertaken is “to become much more effective story tellers, thus making economic and political concepts accessible to all citizens.” Some of their productions include “Free or Equal,” “The Lesson of 1623” and “Volunteer Military.”
Saturday, September 24, 2011
9/11 BOATLIFT
If big brother performs its necessary functions, but steps out of the way for everything else, Americans will rise to the occasion. No doubt about it. And that is hope - of the type that is real.
May we one day be led by a real man or woman, and not a series of differing, yet consistently empty, suits.
May we one day be led by a real man or woman, and not a series of differing, yet consistently empty, suits.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
This Sunday will be the 10-year anniversary of the worst terrorist attack to take place on American soil, and New York has planned a memorial event to remember those 2,977 victims. That's two thousand, nine hundred and seventy seven lives.
And one of our esteemed political leaders stooped to a new low. Hard to believe, I know. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided not to invite any first responders to the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero on Sunday. The reason?
There is not enough room to accommodate because too many victims' family members are attending. There aren't enough seats for firefighters.
The firefighters should not allow Bloomberg to attend. He didn't run towards the towers right before they crumbled to the ground. Three hundred and forty-three firefighters, 37 Port Authority police officers, 23 NYPD officers and 3 court officers died at the World Trade Center.
I will not watch the memorial service. I don't want to see how many politicians will be sitting in the front row, somber expressions and shiny shoes; you know, those seats that the firefighters and police officers could not have. I would like to, however, propose a few options for a memorial.
Let the military loose to kill every SOB that is part of a terrorist organization, and then bring our guys home. Require that every public school student recite the Pledge of Allegiance (in its entirety) and listen to our national anthem at the start of each school day. Require every politician, including the President, place his hand on his heart when the national anthem is played. Profile passengers who are more likely than my grandmother to commit a terrorist attack on a plane (this shouldn't be hard, they've all looked the same). Don't be afraid to say they've all looked the same.
Hang the American flag outside of every government building and private business. Pay first responders and military service men and women more than congress, bureaucrats and union representatives. And give them the Ferrari health care plan. Condemn politicians who use the term "terrorist" to describe American citizens. Call a terrorist a terrorist. Demand that the proposal to build a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero not get any traction.
Don't vote for any candidate who associates himself with a radical who only wishes more lives were lost on 9/11. Don't vote for any candidate who thinks 9/11 was an inside job. Run for office yourself. Put a freakin' fence on the border.
That is a memorial I support. That is how you remember the 2,977 who died on September 11, 2001.
Michael Burke wrote his opinion about Bloomberg's decision in today's Wall Street Journal. Michael's brother, an FDNY firefighter, died when the North Tower collapsed. Read his response here.
And one of our esteemed political leaders stooped to a new low. Hard to believe, I know. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided not to invite any first responders to the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero on Sunday. The reason?
There is not enough room to accommodate because too many victims' family members are attending. There aren't enough seats for firefighters.
The firefighters should not allow Bloomberg to attend. He didn't run towards the towers right before they crumbled to the ground. Three hundred and forty-three firefighters, 37 Port Authority police officers, 23 NYPD officers and 3 court officers died at the World Trade Center.
I will not watch the memorial service. I don't want to see how many politicians will be sitting in the front row, somber expressions and shiny shoes; you know, those seats that the firefighters and police officers could not have. I would like to, however, propose a few options for a memorial.
Let the military loose to kill every SOB that is part of a terrorist organization, and then bring our guys home. Require that every public school student recite the Pledge of Allegiance (in its entirety) and listen to our national anthem at the start of each school day. Require every politician, including the President, place his hand on his heart when the national anthem is played. Profile passengers who are more likely than my grandmother to commit a terrorist attack on a plane (this shouldn't be hard, they've all looked the same). Don't be afraid to say they've all looked the same.
Hang the American flag outside of every government building and private business. Pay first responders and military service men and women more than congress, bureaucrats and union representatives. And give them the Ferrari health care plan. Condemn politicians who use the term "terrorist" to describe American citizens. Call a terrorist a terrorist. Demand that the proposal to build a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero not get any traction.
Don't vote for any candidate who associates himself with a radical who only wishes more lives were lost on 9/11. Don't vote for any candidate who thinks 9/11 was an inside job. Run for office yourself. Put a freakin' fence on the border.
That is a memorial I support. That is how you remember the 2,977 who died on September 11, 2001.
Michael Burke wrote his opinion about Bloomberg's decision in today's Wall Street Journal. Michael's brother, an FDNY firefighter, died when the North Tower collapsed. Read his response here.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Shelby Steele wrote an op ed for the Wall Street Journal that is one of the best I've ever read. I encourage you to take a few minutes and read about American Exceptionalism.
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