Society is, always has been and always will be a structure for the exploitation and oppression of the majority through systems of political force dictated by an elite, enforced by thugs, uniformed or not, and upheld by a willful ignorance and stupidity on the part of the very majority whom the system oppresses.
But that’s just me. – author Richard K. Morgan
Tag: QotD
From (formerly) Great Britain – America’s Petri Dish
The left has seen the pinnacle of its efforts to sell “utopia” and “social justice” pass by without the success they envisioned, and have resorted to voter cultivation and union terrorism to produce what their manipulation and appeals to compassion have failed to achieve. They are simply no longer interested in what the white British family wants, feels, or have the potential to be; the white British family is now a threat and a detriment to Marxist goals for the future state. When one fails to vote as commanded, then social engineering through mass immigration and a total breakdown of morality through creating apathetic dependence shall compel a “new” British voter to simply vote for what will keep them alive and free of any responsibility whatsoever. This, according to their plan, creates an unopposed mandate for generations to come. That, my friends, is the evil which we must eradicate with the coldest and most brutal determination if we are to survive.
I would also ask that my American readers take notice of these extraordinary times and try to draw parallels to their own demise currently in progress. The initial step was to create a two pronged attack; the first would be to effectively destroy one sixth of the economy, the private sector, and nationalize it. The second would be to create the ultimate dependency of the people to their well informed and all powerful dear leader. There can be no greater power over the people than the decision of who lives and who dies. “Vote for them and you shall lose your tit from which you suckle for your very existence” they will say. Meanwhile by eradicating such a major swath of the private sector, they can begin to scoop up the newly unemployed by putting them on the government payroll; no one would vote against the hand that feeds. The next and most obvious step would be amnesty for 20 to 30 odd million illegals.
— Torchlight – Great Britain: Emails Reveal Labour Is No Less Than The Future Communist Party Under Union Control
This is what reader PhilB abandoned the UK to escape. And it’s coming here. RTWT
Quote of the Day – ‘We’ve Met the Enemy’ Edition
From a comment to a WaPo piece, Obama’s 17-minute, 2,500-word response to woman’s claim of being ‘over-taxed’ from yesterday:
The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.
The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.
Posted by: Grandpa2 | April 3, 2010 11:24 PM
But what if he’s not? A fool, that is.
I’ve been arguing since about day one on this blog that the unannounced but obvious purpose of our public school system over the last 100 years has been the deliberate dumbing-down of the electorate so that they would be easier to lead around, said purpose justified by a philosophy that made its end game the destruction of the capitalist West – a philosophy still around even after the collapse of its spawning ground, the Soviet Union. “Grandpa2” believes Obama a fool that the country can survive, but 95 year-old Harold Estes is concerned that he’s not a fool, but a determined enemy. Lou Pritchett shares that concern.
So do I.
But “Grandpa2” has hit upon the problem: we elected him. Not only that, but we settled for John McCain as his opponent. And before that, George Bush and John Kerry, and before that George Bush and Al Gore. And before that….
Comedian Lewis Black had it right, back during the run-up to the 2000 election. “In my lifetime,” he said, “we’ve gone from JFK to Al Gore. In my lifetime, we’ve gone from Ike to G.W. Bush.
“If this is progress, in a few years we’re going to be voting for PLANTS!“
And not wondering why.
They’ve trained us well.
I’ve Never Heard of This Guy
But I LIKE HIM. Reader DJ DC pointed to this YouTube clip in comments:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pte_2vEnX8&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&w=640&h=505]
Here’s the text of the speech:
So this is what change looks like. If he were here, Mr. Speaker, in this time of momentous national distress, I would remind the President of the United States that he is not the leader of a party or an ideology; he is the leader of our country—one founded, not to emulate others, but to inspire the world.
As families lose their jobs, their homes, and their dreams for their children; as our troops fight and sacrifice in foreign fields for our liberty and security, President Obama’s obsessive-compulsive pursuit of an abominable government takeover of health care has defied the public’s objections, despoiled this, “The People’s House,” and further alienated Americans from their representative government.
As President Obama’s campaign mantra of “hope and change” has degenerated into “tax and hate,” reputable surveys prior to this vote report: the public overwhelmingly thinks that the U.S. Government is broken. Only 21 percent of the public thinks it is being governed with its consent. Only 26 percent of the public trusts the Federal Government most of the time or always; 56 percent of Americans think the Federal Government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedom of ordinary citizens; 70 percent believe the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors; and 71 percent of Americans think the Federal Government is a special interest.
In the wake of this health care debate’s despicable, dysfunctional process and product, it is clear: The most dangerous special interest is Big Government and President Obama is its lobbyist.
In contrast to Americans’ faith in themselves, every major piece of legislation proffered by the President and his Democratic Congress expands and empowers Big Government at the expense of the people. Possessed of a smug, cynical, patronizing view of Americans as dependents desiring State benefits, this arrogant administration and its enablers have defied the American people and bi-partisan opposition in Congress to unilaterally jam through a trillion-dollar government takeover of health care.
Why? For so many Americans, the answer is that this President and his Democratic Congress think they are smarter than you; want to run your life; and want to make government your ruler, not your servant.
Such hubris threatens not only our health care system but it tears the social fabric and political contract of our Nation. Instead of working for a more perfect Union, the President’s ideological obstinacy exacerbated the disorder and divisions within our Nation, and wrought a crisis of consent—one that puts America’s exceptional experiment in human freedom and self-government on the precipice of implosion.
To do so the President has the power, but not the right. Thus he has merely scored a Pyrrhic victory over the American people. Ultimately, his government-run medicine scheme will be repealed and replaced with free- market, patient-centered wellness, because America’s strength and salvation remains her free people, not a person.
And this November, America’s sovereign citizens will remind the President and his Democratic Congress that We the People do not work for government; the government works for us.
No, the President and his Democratic Congress will not break us beneath Big Government. Devoted to our freedom and a more perfect Union, we will keep the faith, trust the public, calm the times, and heal our country.
Edited to add:
Here is Rep. McCotter’s one-minute on the floor of the House during discussion of the bill – another winner:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXvxzkyFtp8&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&w=640&h=505]
The Democratic Party believes that you can take an imperfect health-care system and fix it by putting it under the most dysfunctional and broken entity in the United States today: It’s called the Federal Government.
That proposition is insane.
QotD – And They’ll Be Running Our HEALTH CARE Edition
You know you have crossed the regulatory event horizon and are heading for the bureaucratic singularity, from which not even the most energetic particle of common sense can escape, when there are specific federal government guidelines for conducting security inspections of service monkey’s diapers at airports. — Tam, Down the Black Hole
The snark is unusually strong there, today.
Quote of the Weekend
From Dr. Sanity:
This weekend is clearly going to be make or break for those of us who value freedom and don’t want to see America take a giant leap forward toward socialism and Big Government.
Like Charles Krauthammer, I believe that–by hook or crook(and undoubtedly it will be mostly crook), this terrible thing is going to be foisted on the American public, who clearly do not want it. But we will get it nonetheless, because we were so careless about who we elected; so mesmerized by empty rhetoric and so zombified by the promises of hopenchange.
I am pessimistic, but willing to be pleasantly surprised that there are still people of conscience and integrity who will stand against this health care tyranny.
If there aren’t, then this will truly be the beginning of a pathetic end for the American values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I’ve seen this sentiment echoed all over the web the last couple of days. For the previous couple of weeks, there have been numerous references to the Declaration of Independence, specifically this passage:
. . . when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
But I am reminded again of the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn:
In a state of psychological weakness, weapons become a burden for the capitulating side. To defend oneself, one must also be ready to die; there is little such readiness in a society raised in the cult of material well-being. Nothing is left, then, but concessions, attempts to gain time and betrayal.
and of the timeline apocryphally attributed to Alexander Tytler:
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
And, of course, de Tocqueville’s warning:
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.
Finally Heinlein’s observation:
The worst thing about living in the declining era of a great civilization . . . is knowing that you are.
Quote of the Day – Whodathunkit Edition
This one comes from David Hardy:
I do know Jerry Brown. We went to law school together though we were not big buddies. And when I contacted him about supporting the pro-Second Amendment position in the McDonald case, he filed an influential pro-Second Amendment brief with the US Supreme Court. I know that he personally made the decision to do this, overruling his staff; and he wrote the brief himself. (He is an able lawyer.) When he was assailed by anti-gun forces, his response was that the 2d Amendment is a “civil rights issue.” – Don Kates on the California gubernatorial race
Color me shocked.
Quote of the Day – Victor Davis Hanson Edition
(T)he present attempt to remake America is the effort of the liberal well-to-do — highly educated at mostly private universities, nursed on three decades of postmodern education, either with inherited wealth or earning top salaries, lifestyles of privilege indistinguishable from those they decry as selfish, and immune from the dictates they impose on others. Works and Days, Reflections on the Revolution in America
Other People’s Words
It is true that recent immigrants seem to “get it” better than Xth generation “natives.” At a forum I’m a (recent) member of, this was a topic put up by one member:
Are you patriotic? If so why? To me,it makes little sense in feeling pride in something that was due to fortune and involves no personal achievement.
The very first reply says it all, and better than I could:
My grandparents and great-grandparents left a dangerous place to start a new life here.
I am fully aware of how lucky I am to live here rather than in Russia or the other locations.
I can say whatever I want, no matter how stupid or political.
I can drive anywhere I want with out clearance or papers.
I can earn any job I want, it does not depend on who I know or how much I pay in bribes.
I am proud and grateful that the US is able to help Haiti and other folks. I am proud that we in the US do this without a referendum and without moving speeches by our politicians.
I am proud and grateful that we change political control of this country every 4 years without fighting or protesting or bringing in the military to maintain the peace.
I am proud and grateful that the US has fought in many wars to help others when we could have sat it out.
I am proud and grateful that I have several family members currently serving overseas, not just blowing things up, but fixing things, helping the small farmer, helping to bring water and electricity to the poor, helping maintain peace. All can and have risen in the ranks by effort, not connections, not bribes.
I am grateful and proud that when my sister-in-law was part of the effort to put Iraqis to work, she was asked by the Iraqis how much they needed to pay her for giving them the contracts and my sister-in-law, along with everyone in her unit, was stunned that someone expected to bribe them for work. They did not take bribes, it had not even occurred to them that such a question would be asked.
I am grateful and proud that our soldiers are willing to die, willing to die to prevent the collateral damage, shooting deaths of the innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our war dead would be less than 1/2 of what it is if we were not so careful to fight only the bad guys.
Damned straight. And I’m proud to live in the same country as the man who wrote that.
Quote of the Day – Brady Campaign Edition
This one’s from Uncle:
Paul Helmke says gun owners are forcing guns into every nook and cranny of society, which is false. He also goes on to illustrate the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership’s real concern (and one that they lose ground on every day) that guns are being normalized. Well, they are normal, sparky.