Higher education riots

Amazing: I just read an article on the Moonbattery website about the student riots in Britain over the increase in the cost of higher education. I agree with the site's author, Van Helsing. Since when is higher education an entitlement? It's not. Yes, I know that it is virtually impossible to get a good job these days without a college degree, but that's because Liberals have established a marketplace where credentials mean more than knowledge and/or experience or practical know how. Not only that, what is the market for Philosophy majors or "Victim Industry" Studies majors? There isn't one, except for a very limited amount of positions in colleges and universities.

I'm so freekin' sorry that a lot of you spoiled brats just might find yourselves having to work some manual labor job that you consider beneath your dignity. The problems is, too many people are going to college in the first place. If you Liberals think that increasing federal funding so that more people can go to college is the answer, you are seriously misguided. First of all, if the government offers free higher education, it is going to limit the number of college students due to cost factors. The majority of you will not be allowed to attend college. You will be forced out into the workforce and into a career chosen for you whether you like it or not. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Here's the plan as I see it, and I hope that the PhD in "Revolutionary Underwater Basket Weaving Studies" working for $10 per hour at Borders Books gets it. Life isn't fair, and your choice of field of study has determined what you are worth in our Capitalist society. Yes hippies, Capitalist, that horrible word. Until the time when you get your Socialist dictatorship, you will just have to accept that there are people like myself that are not going to bow and scrape to your "superiority." I, and millions of others like myself, are not going to be the slaves on your "plantation." We do not consider you to be our betters. In fact, we hold you in the same scorn and contempt that you hold us. The difference is, we are the ones that fix the things that you break, and please remember that those of us that fix things for a living, are perfectly capable of breaking things and passing the blame up to you. Are we anti-education? No. However, we want real education reform and a return to high standards, strict discipline, and civility in our schools. Also, we are sick and tired of your excuses about how and why certain kids can't read. It's because you Liberals screwed everything up.

Could Britain's education riots happen here in the US? Yes, they could...and I would hope that Conservatives would put a stop to them once and for all. We need to become a lot less spoiled.

The pendulum swings

It’s been a while since the November election. I didn’t have a chance to blog about it, but I’m fairly pleased with the outcome. I wish that the Republicans could have taken the Senate as well as the House, but having the House means that we control the money. That’s a good thing. All the moonbat stuff can now be de-funded. If you can’t repeal it, you can always make sure that there isn’t enough money to make it work.

The big ticket item right now is the tax rates. Will Congress let the current tax rates expire and allow income taxes to rise for everyone during a recession? Yes, EVERYONE hippies. It’s not just taxes going up for the "rich." Stop lying liberals. The question is, has anyone actually seen the tax bill compromise? Where is it? There is speculation as far as what is in it, and the president stated that there was a compromise agreement, one that he really doesn’t like, but is willing to go along with. What is being reported is that the Bush era tax cuts would be extended for two more years, in exchange for another increase in time for collecting unemployment benefits. OK, that’s fair, and if you agreed to this Mr. President, thank you. I will give credit where credit is due. However, I would like to see a caveat to the unemployment extension: You must prove that you are seeking employment actively and not holding out for a job that is not "beneath your dignity" based on your opinion you have of yourself and your level of education. In another words, you will take any job offered, even if it is shoveling shit off the back of a honey wagon. In exchange, you will receive unemployment compensation that makes up the difference between what you make and what you would make in unemployment benefits. If you are going to make $400 a week in unemployment benefits, and the job pays $200 per week; you would collect the other $200 in unemployment benefits to make up the difference. As you make more money the benefits reduce until you are making on your own what you would have made in benefits. Other caveats: If you are collecting benefits, you are subject to random drug testing, and you are not allowed to drink or smoke. You are not going to waste valuable government resources on non-essential items.

What, you don’t like it? Then get yourself off of unemployment ASAP. There are plenty of "helper" jobs for unskilled labor in the trades. Look at all the highway and infrastructure work that is going on and needs to be done. Who knows you might actually find that you enjoy your new line of work as you develop skills in the trades…or is working with your hands beneath you? If it is, get off your high horse. Your sanctimonious attitude is what cost you educated Elite Liberals this last election. The little people are now in charge. You can take your Socialism and shove it.

Marxist rally...a dud. Sorry whiners, you are becoming irrelevant. Get over it.

I spent a large amount of time this morning reading reports online about the "One Nation Working Together" rally that was held yesterday in Washington, DC. From what I could see, it was pretty much of a flop. Canadian and British news sites showed comparison overhead photos of the rally with similar photos of the Glenn Beck Restoring Honor rally and the Tea Party rally last year. The ONWT rally seemed to have about 1/3 as many people as the Beck rally. In another words, the crowd size was somewhere between 20,000 and 80,000. Let’s split the difference and say 50,000. The Beck rally had crowd estimates between 200,000 and 800,000. I was there, and I’d estimate about 250,000. I didn’t attend the Tea Party last year, but online sources said that the crowd size was about 1.2 million, about the same as President Obama’s inauguration. In the ultimate example of Astroturf, CSPAN used crowd shots of the Beck and Tea rallies in their reporting of the Commie rally, in order to create the illusion that there were more people there than there really was. I’m glad that they got caught with their pants down. Sorry hippies, you’ll have to do better next time. Maybe next time your union thugs won’t pay members to attend a rally, and/or threaten them if they don’t.

Both the Tea Party and the Beck rally had one thing in common, besides the fact that they were populated by the Middle America types that the left hates. They both left the Mall virtually spotless after the rallies were over. People brought trash bags with them, and when the trash cans were full, they pulled the bags out, sealed them, put them next to the trash cans, and put new bags in the cans. Compare that to the condition of the Mall after the inauguration and the ONWT rally. There was trash everywhere. Why is that? Because when you are dealing with the Left, you are dealing with spoiled children who have never grown up, and are used to having other people pick up after them. It fits right into the mindset of these cretins. They gathered on the Mall, because they are mad that they are not getting enough of "other peoples’ money." They are also mad because they know fully well that if the Republicans get control again after the November election, the gravy train of other peoples’ money that is fattening their pockets is going to be sharply reduced.

The Communists and their Fellow Traveler Elites have pushed the American people to the breaking point. Enough is enough. What Comrade Obama and his band of Merry Marxists have done is woken up a sleeping giant. The Tea Party rally had about the same amount of people as the "coronation" of King Barry…without about 50,000 tons of trash left behind for someone else to pick up. Glenn Beck’s Restore America rally had about 250,000 attendees…without about 50,000 tons of trash left behind for someone else to clean up. The One Nation Working Together rally left a lot of trash behind too. Of course, I didn’t hear a peep about that from the environmental groups that were helping sponsor the rally. I guess being a litterbug is OK if it’s for a good cause.

It’s kind of fun watching the Left cave in. I can’t wait to see the long faces and I’m going to smirk and laugh when the whining starts about how the evil Republicans "stole" the election. I was polite to the Left the last time that the Republicans won. This time I’m not going to be. I’m going to go out of my way to rub their noses in their own shit. I’m sure there will be quite a few therapy sessions booked on November 3rd. I have a great idea. They say that doing things for the community is good for one’s self esteem. How about handing a bunch of Lefties a big trash bag and have them clean up after themselves and their brethren for the "common good." It would be nice to see those that have such exalted opinions of themselves out there performing janitorial duty. For their reward we can give them a Happy Meal from McDonald’s. I want to see the revenge against the Left be a dish that is served ice cold…Absolute Zero ice cold. They’ve earned it.

More on the comeuppance

Ah yes, the great comeuppance. I can smell it in the air. The Left is getting desperate. I guess they are going to stage a rally in DC that is supposed to attract a lot of people. From what I read online, the public sector unions and a whole slew of Left Wing, Socialist, Communist, and Anarchist organizations are hiring buses and plan on busing thousands of "Astroturfers" into the nation's capital for this mass group therapy session for disgruntled, spoiled brats.

OK, so who are the major players: the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, the Service Employees International Union, La Raza, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the American Federation of Teachers, the Rainbow Push Coalition, the Campaign for America's Future. The event is being promoted by Organizing for America, the permanent wing of the Obama presidential campaign. Interesting.

The claim is that "Hundreds of thousands of people from across America will gather at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to demonstrate our re-commitment to change," organizers say. "The One Nation march will feature human and civil rights leaders, labor leaders, environmental and peace activists, faith leaders, celebrities and sports figures…" Not being mentioned, of course, are the scum that are helping organizing this event: International ANSWER, Code Pink, and the Communist Party USA.

So what we have is a rally in Washington, DC that is sponsored by all sorts of Communist front organizations. Having done some research, I've found that quite a few of the individuals organizing this event on October 2nd sit on the steering committees of the Communist Party USA, World Workers Party, and the Socialist Workers Party. Do you think that the MSM is going to report that information?

Hey Lefties. We know where you are coming from. Some of us are going to make sure that as many people as possible know that you are nothing but Marxist pieces of $#&! that are hell bent on taking this great country down in order to advance your Communist world government with you being in charge. I've got news for you. We, the "little people," are not going to capitulate. You are going to get your Marxian revolt of the Proletariat against the Bourgeoisie, but you forget that you are now the Bourgeoisie. Unlike days gone by, it's not the Proletariat being kept down by the Capitalist Industrial class, it's the Proletariat being kept down by you information age, college degreed professionals who in your warped minds think that you are destined to be the ruling class. It's not going to happen. You know it, and that's why you are desperate. You are seeing your Communist world view going down the toilet. Of course that will depend on how much spine the Republicans can generate after they get control of the House and possibly the Senate. Are people angry? Yes. Let's hope that the anger ends at the ballot box on November 2nd. In the meantime, it's fun watching the world of "hopeandchange" go down the proverbial commode. I'm having way too much fun.

Glenn Beck Rally, Washington, DC, 8/28/10

Yesterday 8/28/2010, I attended the Glenn Beck Restoring America Rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. It was very well attended. I am not an expert at determining crowd size, but my best guesstimate was that the attendance was about 250,000 to 300,000. Some reports claim that there were up to 700,000 attendees, and one news source claimed 87,000. I’ll stick with my original estimate.

This was not a political rally. It was about celebrating the greatness of this country, and a cry to return us to the principles that made this country great. Another purpose of the rally was to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. The event raised over $5 million dollars for this noble cause. The mission statement of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation states: "The Special Operations Warrior Foundation provides full scholarship grants and educational and family counseling to the surviving children of special operations personnel who die in operational or training missions and immediate financial assistance to severely wounded special operations personnel and their families."

It was a very emotional event for a lot of people. Many of those in attendance had lost family members who were serving their country in the US Military. I’d say that about 3/4 of the people that I talked to either had served in the military, or had a family member that either served or currently serves their country. As I was walking around, I came upon a group of ladies sitting together in the shade under a tree. Some appeared to be in their late 30s or early 40s, and some appeared to be in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. They all had one thing in common. They all wore a rectangular pin that had a red border, cream background, and right in the middle, a gold star. They were members of the Gold Star Mothers, an organization of women who have lost sons or daughters in action.

There was many a tear shed as the various speakers gave accounts of how members of their families had been killed in action, and how the SOWF had helped them by making sure that their children or grandchildren had enough money to earn a college degree. Recipients receive scholarship grants, not student loans. Radio and television personality, Glenn Beck, hosted the event. Other notable speakers included former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, who was there speaking as a mother of a son serving overseas in a combat position, not as a politician. Dr. Alveda King, the niece of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., also was a featured speaker. It was hot, crowded, and rewarding.

The only drawback that I saw was the lack of attendance of minorities. Others noticed that too, and expressed their regret. Every single person I talked to, and there were many, showed absolutely no racist tendencies at all. All of us would have loved having a large contingency of Black Americans and Hispanic Americans joining us. There were some, but not a whole lot. I have no idea why. Maybe they were told not to attend. Maybe they thought that they wouldn’t be welcome. If that was the case, they were 100% wrong.

I did not attend the counter rally sponsored by the Reverend Al Sharpton, who bitterly complained that Beck’s rally, on the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s "I Have A Dream" event on the same Lincoln Memorial steps, was a denigration of Dr. King’s legacy. I have news for Reverend Sharpton. There was no denigration at all. In fact, Dr. King’s legacy and greatness was addressed by speakers and approvingly recognized by the mostly white participants. From what I saw, those so insultingly called by the Liberal Elites and their minions, the "little people," the ones that out of "desperation cling to their guns and religion" at this gathering, showed not signs, covert or overt, of racism, if there was any at all in the first place. Have Reverend Sharpton and his followers? How much money did the grievance industry make this year? What was your cut of the action Reverend Sharpton?

I felt good about what I saw. I came away with a sense of hope and rejuvenation. Does this mean that I’m going to become a religious fanatic or something of the sort? No. I’m going to still go through life as a relatively spiritual person who, even though I was raised Roman Catholic and still loves the rituals of the traditional church, does not really practice a religion at this time in my life.

I will say this. If people attending this rally were but a microcosm of a much larger group of similar minded folks, we have a great future ahead of us…provided that people like this can become the dynamic majority force leading this country again. I think that the "Silent Majority" has been asleep at the switch for too long. This and the Tea Party movement may be the waking of the sleeping giant. I hope so.

Comeuppance

One thing that I’ve noticed over the years that I’ve been a musician. When you play in a club in the city, your audience is primarily made up of college educated professionals. They may have a wide range of income brackets. They share, however, one common trait: They despise those that they consider inferior, and for the most part those that they consider inferior, happen to be working class and lower middle class whites, and anyone who happens to be a Conservative. These Leftist spoiled brats, many of whom have a gold plated Ivy League college education and then some thanks to Daddy’s money, feel it is their birthright to be America’s ruling class. They also know deep inside that the only way that they will become America’s nobility, with a chance of rising up from there to America’s monarchy, is if they can orchestrate the destruction of the American Capitalist system, and replace it with a Socialist dictatorship. Despite what these cretins claim, it’s not about "fairness." It’s about Totalitarian control over the masses for the "common good."

I grew up in a different time than these cosmopolitans. My parents were from the so called, "Greatest Generation." My late father was born in 1917, and served in the Army Air Corps during WWII. My mother, still alive today, was born in 1920. Both of them grew up during the Great Depression, and the sacrifices they had to endure, put an indelible stamp on their personas. I was not given a "Progressive" upbringing like most of these current spoiled urban professional types. I was not brought up believing that I was special. Self-esteem was something that had to be earned. I think my generation was the last generation that was taught that there are winners and losers, and sometimes you are going to be the loser. Suck it up, and get on with your life. However, starting in the early 1960s there was a change in focus in our public education system. The education system’s policies slowly morphed from strict discipline (teachers could still spank you in front of the whole class), and tough academic standards, to a more value based education system that emphasized self-esteem over difficult subject matter. It was a process that was put into place to make sure that a small group of individuals would receive a quality education with lots of ego boosts, and that the rest of society would be "dumbed down" into a servant class.

These twenty-something, thirty-something, and forty-something egotists think they are special, because their entire life they have been told that they are special. Here they are with their advanced college degrees seething at the fact that they are not yet the plantation owners—and like lemmings falling off of a cliff, they all spout the same broken record rhetoric: It’s all George Bush’s and the Republicans fault. While they won’t admit it, they are jealous of anyone else’s success. They can’t stand the fact that some vulgar low class businessman, who makes several million dollars per year owning three or four McDonald’s franchises, makes more money than they do working for some non-profit, foundation, or in the education indoctrination industry. They want a Socialist command and control economy where no one with less education than they do will become more successful than they are. They are, after all, entitled to that success, simply do to the fact that they breathe air. Capitalism allows those that work hard and are innovative the chance to become wealthy. This aggravates the Elite Left to no end. It’s contrary to their egocentric worldview.

Karl Marx called for a rising up of the Proletariat to overthrow the Capitalist class Bourgeoisie. However, the Proletariat accepted, and joined the Capitalist class in order to get their own piece of the pie. After that, the game plan was to advance Communism through a long march through the culture institutions and a subsequent collateral brainwashing through the education system. What has transpired is a new Bourgeoisie of information age professionals, educators, public policy wonks, unionized public sector employees, etc. They have a problem however, the Proletariat, the working class and lower middle class who are sick and tired of being pandered to and insulted, have finally said enough is enough. There is going to be a huge backlash against the Progressives/Communists/Socialists (PCS)…whatever you want to call them in November. If the PCS manage to commit enough election fraud to squelch the will of the majority of the American Proletariat, I’m afraid that things could get real ugly. Marx may get his wish. There very well could be a rising up of the Proletariat to overthrow the Bourgeoisie. I’m not condoning this, but it is a distinct possibility if the "little people" have had enough. We’ll see what happens…

This November

Let’s face it. It doesn’t matter how much anger the American people can muster between now and the November election. It’s going to be impossible to completely reverse the damage to this country that the Obama administration has fostered on us. OK hippies, I’ll give you one. George W. Bush and his "compassionate conservatism" bullshit didn’t help either. I’ll give you another one. Bill Clinton, for the most part except for his management of the military, actually did a decent job as president. But let’s get back to the subject at hand. Even if the Republicans achieve veto proof control of the House, it’s going to be meaningless unless they get veto proof control of the Senate as well. That is impossible. Only one third of the Senate is up for election in November. There is no way that the Republicans can get a two thirds majority in the Senate, even if they win every single seat that is up for election. The numbers are not there. So what can be done? Here are a few things that the American people can do in order to bring this country back slowly from the Socialist abyss that it is spiraling into at record speed:

Number one, Never, never, never, never again, vote another George W. Bush into office as President of the United States. If you want a RINO or a Liberal Republican, look for a classic New England Republican or a Rockefeller Republican. There is a big difference in mindset between a New England or Rockefeller Republican and a George W. Bush Liberal Republican. First of all, the NE or RR Republican takes a strong conservative approach to fiscal matters, and basically considers most social issues, like abortion and gay marriage, as being between a person and their conscience. George W. Bush was more interested in social issues than he was about fiscal responsibility, because he felt that he was beholden to the Religious Right. However as a side note, I will give him credit for this: The US economy didn’t collapse after the attack on 9-11, and it could have very easily. Putting it in perspective, it’s the difference between Episcopalians and Southern Baptists. I am not criticizing either religion. I’m just pointing out a difference in ideology. If you are going to bring the younger voters over to the Republican camp, you are going to have to downplay the social issues. People under forty-five today, are not living in the prude era of the 1950s. They weren’t raised that way. You can debate all you want about the benefits and problems caused by the cultural revolution of the 1960s, but the results are here to stay.

The WW II generation spoiled the hell out of the baby boomers, who then neglected Generation X, which then doted, hovered and overprotected the Millennials. This pampered generation is now of voting age, and they consider Socialism to be a good thing. They have been well indoctrinated by our Marxist controlled education system, as were their parents. The Communists started working on their grandparents in the 1960s and early 1970s, and have sowed seeds that need to be uprooted and destroyed once and for all.

Next, the Right needs to grow some balls and start kicking ass and taking names. No more Mr. Nice Guy. The Democrats, who are now nothing but anti-Capitalist Socialists and Marxists, walked all over the Republicans during the 2006 and 2008 elections. The reason for this is the American people perceived the Republicans as a bunch of wimps. We need hard ass candidates like Chris Christie of New Jersey and not wimps that won’t defend themselves like George Bush. That being said, we need to take the Left’s weapons and turn them back on them with no mercy. No more being ladies and gentlemen when we are confronting the Left. We have to expose them for what they are–anti-American Marxists that are hell bent on destroying this great nation for their benefit. Their benefit? Yes. Under Socialism there is always a highly educated ruling class, a nobility have you, that lives quite well off of the "largesse" of the less educated working class and poor while pretending to have compassion for those less fortunate. It’s all a smoke screen. Highly educated Elites, Bobos as New York Times columnist David Brooks calls them, have nothing but scorn and contempt for those that they consider lesser human beings. Have any of the social programs that the Left has advanced worked? Of course not. They were designed to create dependency and to make the Liberals feel good about them selves, while they made money in the process. Liberals need to be shown over and over again as the whores that they truly are.

Finally, it’s time for Conservatives and Republicans to sit down and read the bible of the Left: Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals. They need to use Alinsky’s tactics, which were designed to foster a Left Wing take down of the United States of America. The most important tactic according to Alinsky is ridicule, because it is almost impossible to defend against without looking weak. In another words, throw it back in their face. Remember the smug arrogant Liberal Elites constant attack on George Bush as being stupid? The implication was also that anyone who voted for Bush, or any Republican for that matter, was stupid. So what should the Right do? The Right needs to constantly show the Liberals for the hypocritical, weak, phonies that they are, and constantly rub their noses in their own shit. The more they throw their child-like temper tantrums, the more you rub. No, the Right won’t look like bullies. People are fed up with the Left right now. Exposing them for what they are, and driving them to their therapists en masse will be fun to watch.

It’s going to take time to reverse the course that the Left has taken this country over the past one hundred years, culminating with the election of the first Marxist president, Barack Obama. It’s not going to be easy, and it’s going to involve a lot of confrontation. There are going to be some show downs, and the Right has to make sure that it is in a position to win those show downs by a huge margin of victory.

Thoughts On New Urbanism

I was online today doing some mindless web searching, when I found some information about planned redevelopment in Unionville, CT. This is the second redevelopment of Unionville. The first one happened in the early to middle 1960s. It appears that the plan is to return Unionville back to what it looked like before they redeveloped it the first time. Only this time, Unionville will become a typical high dollar Yuppieville mascarading behind the facade of the old New England factory town that it traditionally was.

Unionville is part of Farmington, CT. Years ago it was the blue collar "other side of the tracks" from old money, highbrow, Farmington proper. Unionville was the factory town with the Charles House Co., which was a felt factory, and Pioneer Steel Ball, which made ball bearings. There were other smaller factories at one time too. I don't remember what they made, but I do remember where they were located.They were still up and running when I was a child. They are no longer there, and the buildings were demolished a long time ago during the redevelopment project in the 1960s. The Charles House and Pioneer buildings are still there, abandoned rotting corpses that they are, and ready for renovation. The plan is to turn them into condos once major environmental clean up concerns are addressed.

As a child I can remember the old Unionville. South Main Street was a canyon of two story building along both sides of the street. It was a typical New England blue collar town. There were two banks, three or four small mom and pop grocery stores, a butcher shop, a couple of department stores that sold working class clothing, three barber shops, three pharmacies...two with lunch counters and soda fountains, a cheap hotel, and a bar and grill. The First National supermarket didn't come in until the early 1960s. Soon the butcher shop and a couple of the small grocery stores went out of business. That was the first wave of the redevelopment. Just beyond the downtown area, were residential neighborhoods. Most of the homes in the neighborhoods were small wooden frame homes that had been built in the early 1900s. Along Main Street heading toward Collinsville, there were some large Gothic and Victorian homes. I would guess that these were the homes of Unionville's captains of industry, who owned the various factories during the Industrial Revolution. Many of them had been, and are still divided into multiple residential rental units. Some are professional offices. A few are still large private residences. Also, I remember the ruins of a canal that ran right through the center of the residential sections of town. It had supplied water for the electric power company and the various mills at one time, but was no longer usable. The dam that supplied the canal with water from the Farmington River had been destroyed during the flood of 1955. Over the years it slowly filled in with dirt through erosion, and today all you can see is an indentation behind the homes that at onetime lined that canal. I'm sure many children had used that canal as a mosquito infested swimming hole in times gone by.

On the other side of the tracks and with about 3 miles of farmland comfortably separating the two from the working class masses, Farmington was where the professional money and old money lived. Stately 18th century colonial homes line both Main Street and High Street. There was, and still is, very little shopping there, except for a very high end grocery store, a women's clothing boutique, a bakery and some professional offices. Most Farmingtonites did their shopping in Hartford, West Hartford, or typically had other people do their shopping for them.

Demographically, the contrast between Farmington and Unionville are world's apart too. Many of the residents of Farmington can trace their ancestry back to the time of the Mayflower or earlier and that period of colonization in America. They were not leaving England to escape religious persecution. They were gentry settlers who came to this country to increase their fortunes. Most of Farmington's "old families" are descended from these settlers. They are gentry descended from gentry. By contrast, many of the Unionville families can trace their ancestry back to the early 1900s Eastern European immigrants that came here to work in the factories in order to have a better life than they had in the "old country."

Sometime in the middle 1960s, the town decided to redevelop Unionville. All those old buildings were torn down, and a smattering of one and two story buildings were built. Most of the small businesses left for good. Now 50 years later, the plan is to "New Urbanize" Unionville back to what is was when I was growing up. The only difference is it will now be Yuppie rather than working class. This is a trend that is happening all over America and parts of Western Europe including England. It seems like this is becoming the basic modus operandi: Take something that works, break it, and then rebuild it so it is more expensive, eliminating use or participation except for the favored few and their pets. This is why I'm skeptical about redevelopment plans.

Consequently, I have mixed feelings about New Urbanism. Here's what I like about it: First of all, I tend to have an urban mindset. Being in the country drives me nuts. I like convenience. I like the convenience of not having to drive everywhere. Having shopping and entertainment facilities within walking distance of where you live is wonderful. I'm also not in love with the small single family home in a suburban neighborhood, even though I live in one. That's because I hate yard work of any kind, not because I think that people should be forced to live in high density housing for "sustainability" purposes. I consider my single family home a drum warehouse where I reside. It's easy to load equipment out the front door, and I can practice without disturbing the neighbors. That being said, I would gladly trade where I live for an affordable high density housing living arrangement with no outdoor maintenance as long as there was safe, secure storage for my professional equipment, and I had convenient access to it 24/7. It would also have to be soundproof so that I could practice drums, or even have band practice without disturbing the neighbors.

I enjoy spending time in the New Urbanism planned communities of King Farm, Kentlands, and the recently redeveloped downtown area of Rockville in Montgomery County, Maryland. Kentlands and King Farm are built on former working farms. Rockville was redeveloped from a plain vanilla middle class outer reach Washington, DC suburb, into a upper middle class Yuppieville, with high dollar condos, fancy restaurants, and boutique level shops.

Rockville reminds me of many of the downtown areas of the small European cities that I visited like Trier, Germany and Ipswich, England—but on a much more modern scale. You have streets lined with shops and restaurants at street level, and five or six stories of luxury residential units above them. Parking is available in parking garages, and residents can purchase monthly parking permits and park in special garages just for them. There is ample metered parking for visitors in other garages and on the street. Downtown Rockville is served also by Metro, Metrobus, Ride On Bus, and MARC commuter rail. Eventually, I'm sure these planned communities will be connected by light rail systems, which in turn will connect with other light rail, subway, and commuter rail transit systems. I have no problem with that, being someone who finds driving a necessary inconvenience, necessary because I have to haul band equipment around at all hours of the night. Driving is also a necessary inconvenience, because the public transportation system in the Washington, DC area is not set up to get from suburb to suburb. It's designed to get people from the suburbs into the downtown area during commuting and business hours, and to get people around inside the city during business hours and early entertainment hours at night. I'm hoping that over the next 20 years that will change. Massive subsidies of public transportation projects are fine by me. I don't support public transportation projects out of any love of environmental issues. Most environmental issues are bullshit designed to grease the palms of certain liberals with money either forced out of the masses, or "guilted" out of Useful Idiots.

Here's what I don't like about the way that New Urbanism is being implemented: First and foremost is the very obvious excludent social engineering. I have yet to find any contemporary New Urbanism planned community that isn't geared exclusively to the high dollar six figure professionals of the Upper Middle Class. You can gate a community with a gate, or you can gate a community with an economic gate. This makes me wonder what these urban planning Socialists have in store for the working classes and lower middle class. This is how I envision the planned communities for the lower middle class, working class, and underclass...Ghetto! After all, those "scum" can't be allowed to stink up the enclaves of the sanctimonious Educated Elites.

Part of the social engineering process is to "dumb down" the working class and lower middle class standard of living, just like the public education system has been "dumbed down" for the masses. The way you do this is through economic "manslaughter." The best way to do this is by tax increases and skyrocketing energy costs, which affect everything else. As the lower classes are forced out of their small single family homes due to unaffordable energy costs and taxes, they will be forced into government subsidised, crowded, utilitarian housing. How much housing you get will be based on your "need," which will be determined by government managers. A single person living alone only needs a room in a group house, or at most, a studio efficiency unit.

There will be very little luxuries in the New Urbanism planned communities for the "little people." Heating and air conditioning will be controlled from a central location at a temperature that is set by government "managers" who know what's better for us than us. Shopping will be limited to what the elites determine that the little people need. Parking will be almost non-existent. I'm sure there will be places to park work trucks, but there is no doubt in my mind that they will be located away from the residential units. You will have to take public transportation, ride a bike, or walk to get to them. People that don't need vehicles for their work will be "strongly discouraged" from owning any form of private transportation, except for a bicycle. The little people can ride the bus or Metro to their job, and then ride it home. This will remove a lot of cars from the road, so that the upper middle class Elites won't have to sit in traffic jams. All this talk about "sustainability" is crap. It's a social engineering tool to establish a feudal society in America of a ruling class, a nobility class of government managers and their equivalents, and a serf class of everyone else.

I would have no problem with New Urbanism if it was designed to integrate all sections of the Middle Class into the same residential areas, with a large variety of shopping, entertainment, and restaurants of all price ranges in the same locations. However, that is not the case. New Urbanism as it is currently being implemented, is designed to socially engineer society into the "haves" and the "have nots." Unfortunately, this wonderful concept at its face value is being utilized as one more tool to turn the United States of America into a Communist nation. That being said, I still find it a pleasure to walk around downtown Rockville, Kentlands, King Farm or the Rio, and envision what it would be like to be able to afford to live in places like that. Once the re-redevelopment of Unionville is complete, it will be interesting to walk down the main drag and see how many nostalgia memories it will evoke. Will there be the reincarnation of Cliff Fontaine standing next to the chair in his dark wood paneled barber shop, full of young men getting "regular boys" haircuts and reading Mad Magazine? Will there be the drug store with the soda fountain next door, with Old Man Flynn the druggist, making every kid and teenager pay for their soda in advance and then throwing them out the door as soon as they were done? Will the South End Market and Kucia's Grocery Store come back to serve the residents of their respected neighborhoods? Will Myrtle Mills Factory Store and Dubow's Department Store return, selling low cost clothing and work clothes? Will Meatown return selling their daily and weekly specials of pork loin, cube steak and hamburger? Or will Whole Foods now replace Stop and Shop? Will some Yuppie fern bar serving $10 imported beers replace the Budweiser and Balantine Ale drafts at the Old Town Grill? Will ethnic and high dollar restaurants replace Reynold's Lunch Counter, George's Pizza and Friendly's? Will Parson's Paint and Hardware be replaced with Restoration Hardware and $100 garden trowels rather than nails and screws sold by the pound?

What about transportation? Currently, bus service into Hartford from Unionville and Farmington has deteriorated to where it is just barely usable during weekday rush hour. Will passenger rail served be restored like it was until the flood of 1955? Will their be a light rail line running from the center of Unionville into Hartford, like the former trolleys along Farmington Avenue connecting Unionville, Farmington, West Hartford, and Hartford? It will be interesting to see what comes out of this urban planning project.

Utopia

The Left in this country has a plan. The plan is to create Utopia here on Planet Earth. However, this is Utopia for them and Hell for the rest of us.

Liberals envision planned communities where people live in "sustainable" housing, ride bikes or walk to work, and use public transportation to get from point A to point B. The love the idea of planned communities where everyone lives, works, shops, and recreates in the same location. Exactly how will this be achieved?

First of all, take a look at the current planned communities out there. Everyone one of them, except for Greenbelt, Maryland, which was conceived by President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, caters to the upper middle class exclusively. Go to King Farm or Kentlands in Montgomery County, Maryland sometime. All the residential units start in the $600,000 range and go up. You are not going to see any working class or lower middle class "undesirables" polluting their Utopia. Yes, it's OK for them to work there serving their masters, but at the end of the day they will need to return to the "slave quarters," which will be planned communities that are a nice safe distance from Utopia. Here they will live in crowded tenement style housing, shop in stores that will sell only the food and other goods approved by the Mandarin classes residing in Utopia, and then ride the bus to their job serving the masters on the "plantation."

The question that arises, however is such: Just how many "slaves" are necessary to to provide services to the upper middle class "masters," and at what point do the rest of them become a costly liability? At what point do the lesser human beings no longer become "sustainable?"

Do you thing that maybe including mandatory body mass measurement requirements and information about drinking and smoking in electronic medical records, information that is going to be used to ration medical care, is not a tool to help "cull the herd" of "little people" that are going to be the slaves on the Utopia plantation?

We are living in dangerous times. The Eugenics movement of the last century, coupled with the Progressive movement and America's march to Marxist Fascism seems to be running full steam ahead. More to follow...

Streamline the government

Daniel Mitchell of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, has published an article on the Cato Institute website that states that too little government is just as bad as too much government. Basically, things should fall according to a Laffer Curve, but the midpoint where things are most efficient is at a 17.5% GDP. The last time this occured was in 1965. Right now the cost of government is running about 40% of the GDP and growing larger. There are some that predict that if we don't stop the growth of government, we will be looking at the cost of government to exceed 60% GDP by the end of 2010 and 90% by the 2012 election. We have to reverse course. If we don't, we will end up with economic collapse. This will lead to a world-wide economic collapse, followed by mass famines, mass violence, and possibly a nuclear World War III. What would be left after that is anyone's guess.

Let's face it, the size of government in the United States has grown into leviathan proportions. We can not sustain it. I agree with Mitchell. Yes, we need government, but we need smart, unbloated, efficient government. I will add to this and write subsequent articles for this blog on how I would fix the government problem in this county over the next several articles. Stay tuned.

Christie for president would be a good start

I'm quickly becoming a big fan of New Jersey's governor, Chris Christie. I like his no holds barred, straight talking mannerism, and the fact that he is not afraid to go toe to toe with special interest groups, especially the teachers' unions and the public employees' unions. Personally, I think this is the kind of candidate that the Republicans should run for president in 2012.

Can you imagine the debates between Governor Christie and President Obama? Christie would eat him for breakfast. Can you image the rage from the Left? I would love to see it.

The problem with the Republicans, and the Right in general, is the fact that they try to be too nice. You can't be nice when you are dealing with the Left. They are spoiled, self-centered, overgrown children who are in badly need of some serious discipline. We allowed them too much leeway, and look what happened. They were able to get a Marxist elected as our president, and they are systematically tearing down this country one brick at a time. However, now they are doing it 20 bricks at a time, because they think that there is no way for the Right to stop their impending Communist revolution. The Right has basically shown the Left that it is not going to stand up to their agena. They are only going to slow it down. Well excuse me, but a march to Communism, whether fast or slow, is still a march to Communism. The Right needs to grow a pair and start standing up for this country again. Electing someone like Chris Christie as president would be a good place to start. Then we could start tackling once and for all the failed Socialist agenda of the Left, and hold them in the contempt that they so greatly deserve. In subsquent articles I will address issues like education, public employee unions, government workers in general, crime, and the military. stay tuned.

Rolling Stone Article

OK, I read the article in Rolling Stone about General Stanley McChrystal called, The Runaway General. I don't get it. Why would an Army Four Star grant access to, or even talk to a reporter from a far left hippie magazine like Rolling Stone? The article by Michael Hastings drips with anti-military condescension of the worst kind, and labels General McChrystal and his staff as uneducated morons who's sole purpose in life is violence and eating at McDonald's. What was the general thinking?

Having been in the military myself for 26 years, I have seen support for the military among the majority of the population wax and wane depending on what administration is in power, and what is the real world threat to our mere existence. One thing that never changes, however, is the Far Left's contempt for the military.

I believe that the Left hates the military, because the Left hates any form of authority, unless it's their authority and they get to control the shots. You would think that the Left would love the military, because the social structure of the military is absolute top down Totalitarian Socialism, which is what the Left loves.

You get to wear a uniform, just like China under Chairman Mao. The further up the Aparat you go, the more privileges you get just like in the USSR. You get free medical, dental, and housing. Sounds like Utopia to me. They have free shuttle buses that take you all over the base, including the housing areas, and on some bases, the shuttles run 24/7. You can get hammered at the club, and then ride the bus home. They have exchanges and commissaries, bowling alleys, gyms, jogging tracks, golf courses, MWR facilities where you can sign out all sorts of recreational equipment ranging from skis to kayaks. Some even have marinas where you can park your boat. Gee, doesn't this sound like a Socialist paradise?

I guess the reasons why the Left despises the military has to do with its mission and what it has accomplished for many fine Americans...keeping America's enemies contained overseas in order to keep them out of this country. That goes against the Lefts World Citizen world view. All cultures are equal, except for the American white male culture. Another reason is the fact that the military has been a vehicle that has allowed many members of the underclass to escape the Left's "plantation." I have seen many black men from the ghettos become military leaders with advanced college degrees, and retiring after 30 years service as senior enlisted managers. Many of them used the college degrees to get into Officer Candidate School or Officer Training School, to become commissioned officers, who then work their way up into the executive ranks of the military. They become commanding officers, and some become flag officers in charge of major commands. What's there not to like?

Maybe there is another side of the Left's hate for the military, and it goes beyond the Left's contempt for authority. It has to do with the fact that many on the left don't have what it takes to serve their country. They are weak and they know it. Therefore, they have to tear down that which exposes them for what they really are. I've always said what a lot of the hippies in this country need is two years of compulsory military service, and make sure that that service includes boot camp. I think that experience would straighten out a lot of attitudes, including the holier-than-thou condescension of Michael Hastings.

Remember General Betray US from moveon.org?

Back in 2007, when George W. Bush was president, moveon.org ran a full page ad in the New York Times about General David Petraeus called "General Betray Us." Remember it? Remember the hatred that the Left had for him as well as President Bush? Well guess what hippies, your messiah has now appointed General Petraeus as the new commander in Afghanistan. As soon as President Obama made the announcement, the ad which was on the moveon.org website since 2007, disappeared? How come? Is Petraeus OK now that "Hopeandchange" has put him in charge of military operations in Afghanistan? Come on now hippie hypocrites, explain this to me, the Almost White Trash Old Sarge.

Regardless, I agree with columnist Pat Buchanan, who says that Afghanistan is now Obama's war, and only Obama's war. You can't blame Bush anymore. Everything that goes wrong over there, and if, Heaven forbid, we LOSE over there, it's now owned lock stock and barrel, by Barack Obama. I hope that the Right now pins every casualty, every setback, every problem over there on Obama, just like the Left did with Bush in Iraq. Turn about is fair play. OK hippies, it's now your war. Let's see if you have the fortitude to bring this to victory as soon as possible, with as few casualties as possible...or are you now in denial, trying to still blame Bush and looking for some dry diapers.

McChrystal "Resignation"

President Obama has accepted the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal, who in my opinion had a major league lapse of judgement when he and his staff criticized the civilian leadership of the United States Military, and their policies concerning the war in Afghanistan. I was in the military for 26 years, and it is a violation of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (88 USC) to do so. Its called insubordination, which is a court martial offense. Now there has only been one military member ever court marshaled for under 88 USC, and that was in the 1950s. It's very unlikely that General McChrystal will meet the same fate. However, the president was 100% right to relieve him of his command and show him to the door.

I have mixed feelings about McChrystal. He is a great general and an expert at counter-insurgency. However, it's his rules of engagement that put the lives of Afghani civilians over the lives of American and Coalition forces that I don't agree with. If you are going to fight a goddamn war, fight the goddamn thing. Do what we did during World War II. We put the moral blame on the enemy for the death of their civilians, and we kicked serious ass, until we completely broke the enemy both in means and in spirit. This is what needs to be done to our enemies in the Middle East.

There is an upside to this unfortunate chain of events. General McChrystal can now apply for retirement. That can take about 60 days. After that time, he would be able to run his mouth every chance he got. Maybe we will see him every day on Fox News tearing the administration a new asshole. Let's see...starting in September and the election being in November...that's just about the right amount of time to turn the majority of Americans against Congress and the current administration and its policies. This could get quite interesting...More to follow...

The Humane Society Soiree

Nelson (my Chesapeake Bay Retriever) and I had a great time at the Montgomery County Humane Society happy hour fundraiser yesterday. He made lots of friends both dog and human. The downside of the event was the rain. We were outside at a Spanish restaurant, and the downpours started. Everything got soaked, human and animal...and there is nothing like the smell of a wet Chespeake Bay Retriever.

Different vendors were giving out samples of their doggie treats and dog food. One lady who either works for, or owns a soon opening high end pet food store was trying to "guilt" me into switching Nelson from Purina One dry food, which is what he eats, to some high end $2.40 per can organic, no animal byproduct food, that she sells. I'm sure it's good food, but my vet told me that there is nothing wrong with Purina One. A former pet store owner told me that the difference between Purina One and Purina Pro Plan is one is sold in grocery stores, and one is sold in pet stores for more money. The formulas are identical. The idea was to "guilt" me into buying high end food. The condescention was dripping from every word she spoke. Well, I've got news for you. I don't care about animal byproducts and neither does Nelson. I happen to like scrapple. You don't want to know what's in scrapple. That's why they call it SCRAPple.

Ah, another example of Montgomery County guilt ridden elitism. I find it amusing and annoying at the same time. I don't worry about organic food, and neither does my dog. I think he's read the same reports that I have, about organic being no better for you than regular. It just costs more, so it makes certain people feel that they are more important than the "little people" like myself. Now I think I'm going to go make myself some bacon and eggs with white bread.

I'm enjoying watching things crash and burn

I'm having a great time watching the "show" as our government ends up with more and more egg on its face every day. What happened to your "hope and change"? I know I know, give him a chance. Well excuse me, but hasn't it been since January 20, 2009, and this is June 22, 2010? I think that's been 15 months, right?

50 plus days dealing with the old spill in the Gulf, and no end in sight? What's the real motive behind the lack of action. Could it possibly be that the administration knew that there was a problem with the rig, and gave it an outstanding rating last year anyway as a smoke screen for bigger things to come? BP has a notorious reputation for ignoring environmental and safely regulations. I think they were sited 752 or so times.

How about this scenario: The Obama Administration WANTED the rig to blow, so that Obama's boss, George Soros, as well as his com padres on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Al Gore, and other Left Wing Marxist billionaires could create a crisis that would make them billions or possibly trillions of dollars in the long run as the government "solves" the crisis. Sorry sanctimonious upper middle class "hippies," you can't blame George W. Bush for this one. Congress (the Democratic controlled congress), the current administration, and BP are to blame for this one, and the real reason for your inaction is you want to use this "crisis" to enact legislation that will drive the cost of energy through the roof. That way you can control the "little people," as everything including food is priced out of reach for everyone except for your Mandarin class of upper middle class and rich Liberals. Yea yea I know...if we weren't so "addicted" to oil. Well I've got news for you. Oil is going to be around for a long time, and don't give me that bullshit about Brazil and alternative energy. Brazil is drilling for lots of oil off its coast with money provided by the United States and your good buddy, George Soros.

"We should lead by example." OK hypocrites, YOU lead by example. Don't expect me to change my lifestyle while you live high on the hog. I don't see any of you giving up your big homes for smaller ones that use less energy. You want us, the little people to give up our small single family homes in the suburbs and be forced into "human habitat area" ghettos where we can be controlled for the "common good." I don't see any of you giving up your cars, even if they are hybrids, and riding the bus with the unwashed masses that you supposedly care so deeply about; you care about them when it's convenient for you to care about them, and there is something in it for you. I don't give a shit about your liberal white guilt. You are nothing but phonies.

Yes I know, your favorite targets are SUVs (which many of you drive), pickup trucks (try transporting a lawnmower in a Prius), cargo vans, and especially Hummers. You are so freekin' concerned about the environment...at least you pretend you are. Yes I know, you recycle. Whoppie Shit! You're lifestyles prove differently. What's that? The only reason men drive big vehicles is because they need to enhance their penises? It's amazing how you are so against sexism, but frame everything in sexist terms. Let me tell you why working class men drive big vehicles besides the fact that we need them for our work. We do it because it pisses you off. We do it to say "F*&# You" to the Marxist environmental movement. Sorry, but many of us don't share in your Liberal Guilt, or Liberal White Guilt, depending on the situation. Yes, our mommies were mean to us too, but we got over it. We see through your hypocrisy, and we are going to rub your noses in it every chance we get. Now go back to eating your tofu and drinking your herbal tea.

Another Hot Miserable Day

Yup, today the temperature is in the high 90s, and it feels like a sauna out there. I'm going to bring my Chesapeake Bay Retriever puppy, named Nelson, to a gathering of Montgomery County mucky mucks tonight in Rockville. It's a social activity called a "Yappy Hour." Bring your dogs to a Spanish restaurant. The flyer said "well behaved dogs on a leash." OK, a well behaved dog in a restaurant? Well, we'll see how Nelson does. He's a typical Chessie; hard headed, strong, gentle, good with people and other dogs...He's also a 70 pound, 9 month old puppy. I wonder what sort of chastisment I'll get from the Montgomery County meritocratic Mandarins about the fact that he's not neutered yet. I'm sure I'll be labeled a bad person, since this soiree is to benefit the Montgomery County Humane Society. Sorry, but he's got good papers. He's got good genes, and he is going to father a couple of Chessie litters before I have him neutered.

Ok, here goes nothin'

Greetings: I've decided to start a blog about the goings on in good old Prince George's County, Maryland, as well as the goings on of me, one of their lower middle class, anti-elite, semi-educated, conservatives, who can't stand the sanctimonious "anointed" ones that think that they know what's better for me than me. Please check back here from time to time, and don't forget to check out my other blog, Chip's Common Sense.