Left Wing Fear

In a previous post, I stated that what we needed in this country was the formation of an asshole party. We haven't gone that far as of yet, but the Tea Party has woken up the American people on both sides of the political spectrum. No, I'm not calling the Tea Party assholes. I am not a Liberal. Actually, Liberals would not call the Tea Party members assholes, they would say they were stupid. The Left considers anyone that doesn't agree with their positions to be stupid as well as any Average American to be stupid. However, I do feel that the Left is about finally to suffer their well deserved comeuppance. We have had enough of their hubris. Average Americans, who Professor Angelo Codevilla dubs the Country Party, are furious. Elite Liberal Americans, who Codevilla calls the Court Party, are scared. They should be. Their entire worldview, based on a society socially engineered into Democratic Socialism with them accruing the majority of the spoils confiscated from small business owners and those without college degrees who work for a living, has finally been shown for what it is: Left wing socially engineered pseudo-Communism. They kept it under wraps for years while they were working to create this "Utopia" behind the scenes through incremental Socialism was put into place.However, things are different now. The lid is off of the trash can, and the little people are looking down into that trash can and seeing the maggots crawling all over the garbage, which stinks to high heaven. It can't be hidden anymore. The Left moved their agenda too fast, and the average Joe and Jane finally woke up and smelled the sewage. The entire Progressive agenda has been shown for what it is. It is a fraud. The social engineering factory has produced too many defective products, and is now poised to go out of business. The "investors" in this system (read taxpayers), are now demanding a full accounting. Through their own arrogance, the Left has set itself up for failure and moral bankruptcy, and their are scared to death. We are no longer buying into their world view. We tolerated it for half a century, but it's now time to clean house.

Americans have finally woken up to the fact that the Left has always worshiped Communism. Liberals have longed for Marx's tenant that there would be a revolution in which the Proletariat would rise up against the Bourgeoisie , which at the time of Marx, through the Industrial Revolution, the Gilded Age, and until we became part of the Global Economy, was the Capitalist Industrialist ruling class. However, the workers joined up with the Capitalists and enjoyed a good solid middle class standard of living. Years ago, this put a class of self-absorbed college educated liberals in a bind. They envisioned themselves as a ruling managerial class that would control the masses until the Proletariat were ready to rise up in revolution, keeping themselves in place as society's managers. To them this was their birthright. However something that Marx never predicted happened. The Proletariat combined forces with the Capitalist Bourgeoisie, and together created a standard of living here in the United States that was the envy of the world. Compare the standard of living of the working classes and lower middle classes in Europe, with the standard of living of the same here in the US. There is about a 40% difference. While the "Managerials" too enjoy a good standard of living, there was something missing. They didn't become the ruling class, which destroyed their self-importance. Not only that, here in America, unlike Western Europe, a high school drop out owning a small business, could earn more money than someone with a PhD. This wasn't fair. How could it be possible that some crude "common" high school graduate owning, heaven forbid, a McDonald's franchise, make a million dollars per year, when the Elite, with a PhD in something ending in "Studies," might find themselves "saving the world" from the Capitalist pigs, working at Revolutionary Books for $10 per hour, or better yet ironically, working for $10 per hour for that high school graduate, or better yet, for that dropout McDonald's franchise owner millionaire, flipping burgers.

Ah, the "unfairness" of the Capitalist system. It doesn't recognize intellectual talent like a command and control European style Social Democratic system where salaries are based on education level, and dictated by federal law. This mindset was addressed by the famous Austrian School Economist, Ludwig von Mises in a book called, The Anti-Capitalist Mentality, published in 1956. It's worth a read, and is available as free download from the Ludwig von Mises Institute website. In addition, von Mises addresses another bone of contention of the left...the fact that their leaders in academia and the non-profit industries get little respect from the American business community. That's because the Capitalist American business community considers them a bunch of Socialist whiners. European society is more willing to suck up to them than we are. This is one of the main reasons for the Left pushing for a European style Social Democracy here in America. They feel that they are entitled to that level of respect when all they have accomplished in life is acquiring a college degree, and been involved in spending other peoples' money.

Here was the Liberals dilemma. When was Marx's revolution going to take place, in which the workers would rise up against the Capitalist system and allow the "Managerials" to lead the revolution, rise to dictatorial power, and secure their place as the vanguards of the Proletariat. What happened to their self-ordained birthright to become society's ruling class? It didn't happen, and it's not going to happen.

Here's the irony. As we have evolved from a manufacturing economy to a service economy where college degrees are the necessary pedigrees needed to secure a career that will allow a solid upper middle class existence, those educated, arrogant, paternalistic liberals have become the new Bourgeoisie...and the Proletariat are ready to rise up in revolution against them. The Progressive Left is scared to death. This is why Liberals are so quick to denigrate Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman. Both ladies, while only one is a serious presidential contender, have stirred up the masses. The Left claims that Sarah Palin is politically irrelevant. If she is, why spend so much time trying to destroy her? Because, she has mobilized Middle America, and the Left hates and fears Middle America more than they hate and fear the failed products of their social engineering factory that reside in our inner cities. Things could get violent and they know it.

This is something that is happening world-wide. Look at the riots in Greece, Italy, and Ireland, and the current riots in Britain. When are those riots going to happen here? Wait, they are. Take a look at the "flash mobs" comprised of young Black men that are attacking white people. If you look at the pictures and amateur videos of the riots in Britain, you will notice that the rioters are black, white, male, and female. All are products of an over-generous safety net, that has included the American dollar equivalent of about $80,000 in public education costs that they didn't contribute one penny to. Now let's look at the flash mobs in this country. Notice anything? You don't see those hoodlums going after the rednecks. Rednecks have guns, and they will use them. They are going after those that are considered easy targets: members of the class of middle class and upper middle class whites and/or their children. Most of them DON'T have guns.

Why are these youths rioting and creating mayhem? In England, the standard excuse is they are angry, because of an increase in college tuition and a reduction of social services. I think that is goes much deeper than that. Using the United States as an example, I have other ideas. Here's a theory. It's "Rage Against The Machine." Could it be that the youth of the Black community have started to wake up to the fake bill of goods sold to them by guilt ridden and power hungry white liberals? BINGO! These policies have done little to benefit those that the policies were designed to benefit. Instead, they created a permanent underclass of unsocialized urban blacks, rural poor whites, a new class of suburban poor Hispanics, while creating a self-ordained ruling class of college educated "professionals"drunk with the entitlement of power to rule over the other demographic groups? Ah, the poverty industry. Flush with government money, corruption is king, and it has devolved into a racket. Al Capone would be proud. Guess what? We the Little People noticed. Like I said, the lid is off of the trash can. The Left can not hide their intentions any more.

What is at stake here is an ideology bases on the following: revenge, restitution, reparations, revolt, redistribution, re-alignment, and rage, not necessarily in that particular order. We are no longer going to tolerate those seven "r" items. There is going to be no more free lunch. The kitchen is closed. I will address each of these items in subsequent posts.

Right Wing Hippies

Ayn Rand referred to Libertarians as right wing hippies. I guess you could say that I fit the bill. I have long hair and a beard, and I listen to the music of the 1060s and 1970s. I listen to country music, jazz and classical too. I'm a musician. I listen to all sorts of music. According to Rand, what defined a right wing hippie was a complete belief in rugged individualism. I can see her point. As we all know, however, there are few things in this world that can be qualified in black and white terms. Most of the time, things are defined in various shades of gray. Bruce Fleming, an English professor at the US Naval Academy wrote an article that can be found on military.com about right wing hippies. http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,125000,00.html . According to Fleming, "Many people in the military had to overcome adversity to get where they are, or at least put up with drill sergeants and COs. It made them tough. They have no sympathy for the weak ones, those not hard." I stand guilty as charged. I've worked my ass off to get where I am today. While I am not at the pinnacle of the music industry, I have managed to carve myself out a nice niche in the DC music scene, and the phone rings on a regular basis with work. I owe much of my current success to my 26 year tenure in the military. I have no respect or sympathy for spoiled, lazy parasites who think the world owes them everything.

Yes, I am a right wing hippie. As far as I can tell, there are more than a few of us out there that have long hair, and reject Socialism, Communism, and what James Burnham called, Managerialism. Oh, and we do bathe. I have no use for the holier than thou, sanctimonious, and victim and grievance "industry" Left. It's time that these defective human beings to grow up and face reality. There is no such thing as Utopia.

Let me explain something else to these cretins: When the shit hits the fan, you are not going to be the ruling class. We are not going to let you. You may think that you are the "potters" and we are the "clay," (according the an article by Angelo Codevilla), but we are not going to let you treat us like clay. We are not going to be "managed" by self-centered miscreants like you. We don't give a rats ass about your college degrees, your preening about how important you are, your sanctimonious worship of Gaia, your Environmentalism, your nose in the air attitude about fast food, pickup trucks, non-organic food, suburban sprawl, and your thinly disguised contempt for the "little people." You want us to ride bicycles so you can have less traffic on the road for your Prius? Well, you can take that bicycle and shove it up your ass. Americans are not Europeans. Don't expect us to bow and scrape to those that consider themselves to be our betters. Back off, because if you don't, you are not going to like the consequences. The bottom line is this: We will win and you will lose. We've had enough.

Are you too important to start at the bottom and work your way up?

There was an article in the New York Post about how 85% of recent college graduates are moving back home, because they can't find the kind of employment that they feel they deserve. I'm sorry, but if you get a college degree in something equivalent to revolutionary underwater basket weaving studies, you are going to have a very difficult time finding a job that doesn't require you to say, "Would you like fries with that?"

What we are witnessing here is the culmination of a entitlement society, nurtured by hippie parents, with no willingness to earn their place through sacrifice and hard work. That by the way, means taking jobs that you don't like, but you do anyway, because you need to put food on the table and a roof over your head. The $600 IPhone comes later...AFTER you've earned it.

The article mentions a student who, armed with a BS in human and organizational development, was looking for a high salary tech job in a big city. Well, I may be ignorant, but if you want a high paying job in the tech industry, shouldn't you get a degree in computer engineering, software engineering, or in addition to your BS degree, get yourself certified in network administration or something of the sort? Being the stupid lower middle class Republican scum that I am, I would think that having a BS in human organizational development would get you an entry level gopher position in some corporation's HR department. From there, you could work your way up. I guess that's not an option. Do I hear instant gratification?

Another "victim" was a young lady armed with a Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston. Berklee is a great school, but it's one of the most expensive music schools in the country. She's having a hard time finding a job, even though she completed business courses from Harvard and Columbia too. Let's see...Berklee, Harvard, Columbia...all expensive schools. My gut feeling is she doesn't come from the same side of the tracks as I do. She's looking for a job in the music publishing industry, and she's being told that there are no jobs. Well lady, maybe you'll just have to find a different line of work. That's what I've been told to do when my lifestyle choice has gone against the Leftists mantra.

I've been told that my choice of occupation is not my choice, but theirs, from Liberals who don't like the fact that I drive a big gas guzzler van in order to haul my drum equipment around. I had one Leftist tell me a few years ago, that he couldn't wait until the government ordered me to give up my van and forced me into a roller skate with a lawn mower engine. His exact words were, "Since when do you think that you have a right to destroy the environment by driving that truck. You'll need to find another line of work. You are an asshole Conservative, and you have no right, because of your political beliefs, to work in the music industry. Music is for Liberals and Liberals only. You Conservatives need to be destroyed." Nice guy. So lady, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you need to be forced into another line of work at gunpoint, like a good Liberal would do. I'm just going to say that since market forces are not going your way, you are going to have to face reality and work in another industry, regardless of what your education and training are in. People do it all the time, and many of them have found that the new career is rewarding. Of course if you sing or play a musical instrument, you can always seek out an opening in one of the military bands. That was my choice, and it worked for me. After 26 years, I retired and became what I wanted to be in the first place. I became a free lance musician. Yes, I have another source of income. It's a pension from the United States of America. It is a pension that I earned through hard work. I'm not living in Mom's basement rent free while I hit the reset button ad nauseum, because I don't want to go out and take a job where I might have to get my hands dirty. I had many a hands dirty job in my life too. I worked on a tobacco farm in Connecticut when I was a teenager. I washed dishes in a nursing home. When I was first in the military, being at the bottom of the pecking order, I did a lot of details like picking up trash, painting buildings, KP, polishing floors, cleaning toilets, filling sandbags and such, in addition to doing my regular job as a bandsman, practicing, 150 days per year travelling, etc.

You can't always get what you want. Ask any musician who has spent years practicing and honing his or her skills about audition failures and successes. Many aspire to win a position in a major orchestra like the Boston Symphony or the New York Philharmonic. Most never make it. It's the same in the commercial music industry too. Only the cream of the crop will end up making a decent living as a free lance musician, without some sort of financial backing. For those of us that were good enough to gain employment with a military band, our pensions earned after 20 or 30 years become that financial backing. For those that choose not to go the military route, having a day job becomes the financial backing for there passion. It's like that in any of the arts.

The basic premise of this article is to state this: First of all, you have to be willing to do things you don't want to do, because you need to survive. That's just the way life is. Not everyone will get to pursue their dream to the end, or if they do, there will be more than likely compromises and detours. Success must be earned one step at a time. Secondly, stop whining. You spent good money earning a degree in a subject where there is limited employment, or extreme competition for what little jobs there are. If you are not good enough to win a position, suck it up, and do something else. Third, no one owes you anything. That includes your parents, your friends, the government, and especially the tax payers. Don't expect us to fund your quest for self-gratification. If you are a musician and you are not quite good enough to get a major league gig, consider a military band, teaching position, or working in a completely different industry as your primary source of income, while you pursue your art for enjoyment, or as a part-time income supliment in order to have what ends up being a paid hobby. In another words, face reality and shut up.

Asshole Party

The Democrats have been taken over by Socialists and Communists. The Republicans have been taken over by spineless wimps. We need a third party if we are to fix this country. Based on the ideology and performance of the other two parties, what we need is an asshole party to knock both of them around.

We need a party that will, first of all, have the backbone to lead, and not worry about ruffling a few feathers. In fact, the more feathers that are ruffled, the better. Foremost, the asshole party needs to stand on principles and offer no compromises. They need to call out the Republican leadership that are spineless squishes and show them with the yellow streak down their backs. They need to call out the upper middle class Liberals who consider themselves to be America's ruling class. The asshole party needs to take figuratively the educated classes attitude, complete with their Volvos, organic food, and phony belief in the religion of Environmentalism, and shove it up their collective asses. Hey Liberals, you talk about class warfare. Well I've got news for you. We are in a class war already, and we are going to escalate it until we win it. It's time for "no more mister nice guy."

That's a start. From there, what the asshole party needs to do is hold the dear little Lefties feet to the fire, and make them conform to their rules, to the letter of the law. This is one of the "Rules For Radicals" from their "god" Alinsky. If they fall down on one little item, use that to discredit their entire movement. Hold them up to unattainable standards and then destroy them when they fall short. Use the same tactics against them that they use against the right.

Of course, people will say, "Aren't you just promoting class warfare?" We are already in the middle of a class war. What you have is an alliance of educated upper middle class liberals, who embrace Socialism because it's fashionable and it is their means to power. It's fashionable, because it gives them a unified vision where they look down collectively on the working class, especially the white working class. They despise the black and Hispanic working classes too, but they don't dare show their contempt. That would be racist, and they have evolved beyond those racists that make up the white working class. However, their policies are designed to keep the lower classes down, so that they can be forced into a voting block that will continue to vote itself monies out of the public trough...monies provided by the tax revenue from the efforts of the ambitious, transferred to the "managers" with a small percentage given to the poor. This way you have a perpetual funding mechanism and "client" base for the social services industry steeped in Marxist ideology, grievance, and victim hood. I will comment more about this in a future post.

Gas Prices

The president goes on television and claims that we are producing more oil today than we ever have in history. Then why are we producing about 5 million barrels per day today, and back in the 1970s we were producing over 10 million barrels per day?

The bottom line is this. Barack Obama, and his Socialist upper middle class minions want high energy prices in order to socially engineer the lower middle class and working class in this country. Why? There are several reasons, but it ties in with an elitist mindset that permeates those that received higher education in technology, arts, and humanities, and now run this country.

First and foremost, it's about control. The little people are stupid and need to be controlled by those that have evolved into a higher level of man. There are to be two classes in society, a ruling class and a ruled class, and they are to be the ruling class. We are to be put in our place, and exist to serve our masters. In addition, more of what we little people, not the so-called rich make, is to be channeled either directly or indirectly into their pockets. This brings me to the reason: It's about funding. Social service projects, no matter what they are, and federal research in alternative energy programs are nothing but social service projects when you take a good look at them, are nothing but being about funding. Follow the money trail.

Secondly, this is about revenge. Compare what the Liberal Elite establishment and the president are doing to Reconstruction following the Civil War, and you'll get the picture. It's payback time for the institutional racism that permeated the lower classes in the past. It doesn't matter that racism and bigotry are at an all time low in this country. The Left has been waiting for this moment for years, and they are going to punish the white working class for sins of the past. They are going to reduced the standard of living of the white working class to the standard of living of the blacks living in the ghetto. However, I'm not sure that the middle middle, and lower middle class are going to put up with this shit. More to follow...

A Different Era

I grew up in a different time. It was a time of prosperity, but it was a prosperity of having much less than we do now. We have so much more today, and yet we whine and complain about how unfair life is, and how we are so oppressed. It's time for a look back and a look forward while we look at today and realize how lucky we really are. Let's take a look at three different areas that are important to quality of life. Let's look where we were 50 years ago, let's look at where we are today, and let's look at where I see us 20 years from now.

Housing

My first recollection of a place to live, was when my family lived in teacher housing on the grounds of Farmington High School in Farmington, Connecticut. The teacher housing was where the tennis courts are currently located. Provided housing was part of the benefit package that was offered to Farmington public school teachers. We lived in that housing when my father taught at the junior high school, which was located in the new wing of the campus of Farmington High School. He had to walk a total of about 300 feet from where we lived to where he worked. I believe that there was provided housing on the grounds of the Noah Wallace school, where he taught when he first moved to Connecticut, and that he and my mother moved to the housing on the grounds at the high school when they moved the junior high from Noah Wallace to Farmington High.

From what I remember, there were about 30 housing units located on the high school grounds. They were row style housing that had been officer housing at some military base in Rhode Island, that had been shipped to Farmington and re-assembled on the high school grounds. Our unit was an end unit, and had two bedrooms, one bath room, a kitchen with a kerosene space heater for the entire unit, a living room, and a dining room enclave. We lived there until I was four years old, and my parents bought their first and only house in 1959. They lived in that house until my father passed away in 2008. My mother and I were recollecting the other day about the barracks. I can remember the layout very well. I remember the stove that had a deep fryer that didn't work. I remember the shower stall in the bathroom. There was no tub. I remember my father lighting the kerosene heater in the winter, and I remember the smell. I remember the old washing machine that had a ringer attachment that you cranked by hand to get the water out of the clothing. There was a floor drain in the middle of the kitchen floor, and my mother would roll the washing machine out of the corner, hook it up to the sink, and put the hose from bottom of the washer into the floor drain. Everything was done manually. Then, there was the refrigerator that had to be defrosted once a week too...and don't forget the TV set that was black and white, used vacuum tubes, and received three channels. Did I mention the party line telephone service?...

Food

I don't remember eating in a restaurant until I was at least in elementary school and my dad took the family out to dinner once a year. It was quite uncommon for middle class people to frequent restaurants. Even people working in offices used to brown bag their lunches unless they had company expense accounts. Today, a lot of people eat out frequently, and they are not rich people. I know I do. That's because there are many ethnic restaurants out there that are fairly reasonable in price. You don't just have high end places like most restaurants were in the 50s and 60s. Personally, I think what started the lower price restaurant trend was McDonald's. Soon, you had all sorts of other fast food chains, and then you started to see Indian, Mexican, Salvadorian, Chinese, Burmese, Thai, etc. You can get a nice sit down meal in an ethnic restaurant for the same price that you will get at a fast food place. Then you have the chain medium scale places like Bennigans, Applebys, and Chili's to name a few. They offer good food at a reasonable price along with excellent service. Places like that didn't exist when I was growing up. Chinese food came out of a can that said "Chung King."

When you went to the grocery store, you bought groceries. If you wanted meats, you went to the butcher. Meatown was the local butcher shop. I used to go in there with my father, and he would buy what was on special for the week. Most of the time it was chicken, hot dogs, cube steaks, pork chops hamburger, and occasionally roast beef if it was on sale. Steak happened about twice a year, and was a real treat. Chicken, of course, was bone in. I had my first boneless chicken breast when I was in my 20s. Fresh produce was pretty much only available in the summer, and most of the time, you got it from a local farmer. The Eaton family farm over on Meadow Road had the best corn in the world. People would come from miles around to buy Mr. Eaton's corn and tomatoes. Smith's orchard and Wadsworth's orchard had great apples, peaches and pears. We ate well, but we didn't eat anything fancy. There were a lot of casseroles, and on Fridays it was fish sticks and tater tots. Add canned vegetables to any meal, and you get the typical Clemmer supper. Brown bagging it to school was usually peanut butter and jelly, along with a thermos of milk and a Hostess cup cake or Twinkie. Yes Michelle Obama, I ate Twinkies and I'm still alive.

Recreation

Most of the time, my sister and I would spend a lot of time playing outdoors with our friends. That's how we stayed in shape. We would ride our bicycles everywhere. As we got older, we would ride our bikes a couple of miles to downtown Unionville, and occasionally to downtown Farmington.

Once I became junior high school age, I took up skiing. I lived for the winter. I can remember going to Mt. Snow once per season. Most of my skiing was at Sundown and Butternut Basin. For four years in high school, I remember the Canadian ski trip up to the Lorentian Mountains , with Mt. Tremblant being the great place to ski that it was.

In the summer, my family would go to Cape Cod or Maine as I got older. When I was younger, we used to take vacations visiting other family members. I have a feeling that was done to save money. As I got older, I would return to Maine with my parents for a week of relaxation and sightseeing. We used to go all the way up the coast to the town of Calais, which is right on the Canadian border. From there, we would head to St. Andrews By The Sea, Eastport, Lubec and other places up there in Washington County, Maine, and New Brunswick, Canada. I have not been up there since I retired from the Air Force. I'm working way too many hours in retirement to take a vacation. I need to change that. If I don't, I'm going to die from stress. My current form of recreation is more work.

Today, it gets harder every day to have a lifestyle similar to the one I had growing up. While I have currently more material things, I'm not sure the quality of life is the same as it was when I was a kid growing up in small town America. I miss the age of store brand string beans that came out of a can.

bin Laden is dead.

Congratulations to Seal Team 6 for a job well done. Let's make this the beginning of removing the scourge of Islamic terrorism from the world. It's time now to get down to serious work.

I can remember when I was in the military there were discussions about Islamic terrorism long before any of the previous incidents that occurred before 9-11. We were wondering why nothing was being done. I'll tell you why. Because, we have become too sensitive to feelings and political correctness.

While there should have been action taken following Beruit and the Kobar Towers, the real wake up call for the American people was 9-11. Rather than going into Afghanistan and Iraq in a half-ass fashion, like we have done with all of our military actions since Korea, we should have gone in to the Middle East with all the conventional firepower that the finest military in the world is capable of. Yes, there would have been whining from the spoiled cowardly Left. So what? Rather than having a president who refused to defend himself from his attackers, we should have had a president that would have told the Left to shove it where the sun never shines, and then had his folks go on the attack against the hippies using the Alinsky tactic of ridicule and humiliation. I would have loved to have seen all the Takoma Park Communists running en masse to their therapists.

Anyway, congratulations again to Seal Team 6, and giving credit where credit is due, congratulations to President Obama for making the decision to take out Osama bin Laden. Now that there is a possible retaliatory strike from the Islamic terrorist network, it's time to get down to business and do everything in our power to prevent that. Let's start by finally putting political correctness aside and turn over every rock to root out the terrorist cells in this country. The louder groups like CAIR scream, the harder we push. When we catch them, send them to GITMO, try them in front of a military tribunal, and then execute them. Once the Arab world knows we mean business, they will rout the terrorist cells in their country too.

Also, in order to let them know that we really mean business, start issuing drilling permits, and start drilling our own oil. That will plunge the price of oil, which means less money to fund terrorists. It's time to get to work.

Happy Earth Day (Lenin's Birthday); Happy Good Friday

Yes, today is Earth Day, founded by Wisconsin politician, and dyed in the wool Socialist Liberal, Gaylord Nelson. Do you think that this day, the birthday of Vladimir Lenin, was coincidence? I don't. Liberals love Lenin, just like they love Stalin and Chairman Mao. It's about revolution. It's about tearing down the Capitalist system that they hate. Why do they hate the Capitalist system? Because under Capitalism, they will have to work hard if they are going to become successful, and there are no guarantees regardless. Educated Liberals love Socialism, because they are fully aware that under any of the forms of Socialism, even as oppressive and tyrannical as the Communist Socialist countries are, those with the right credentials and connections live well. Even at the low end of "living well," they live better than any of the Proletariat that they claim to represent and support.

The whole environmental thing in a nutshell, is nothing but bullshit. It's about power over the little people, and denying the little people energy, so there is more for Liberals. The next time you see some sanctimonious Lefty preening around in their Prius, look at the size of their home. That will tell you how much energy they actually use. I don't give a shit if it's
Green Energy. Energy is energy. Here's a nice task for all Conservatives today. Don't be nice when confronting a Liberal who's wearing their concern for the environment on their sleeves, and at the same time, wallowing in their self-importance. Mock them. Make them go ballistic. Let them know that you see through their scam, and that you are not going to ignore their self-righteousness any longer. Send them to their therapists en masse. In fact, try a trick that I've done on occasion, which causes them almost to turn violent. Hand them a penny, and when they ask what it is for, tell them that it is a donation toward their next therapy appointment. Then sit back and watch the fireworks. It's fun.

Now for a solemn note. Today is Good Friday. Whether you are Christian or not, use today as a day of personal reflection. See how you can make yourself a better person. Think about what you can do, no matter how small it is, to make this world a better place. I can hear some of you now: "Yes, but didn't you say 'Mock them. Make them go ballistic. Let them know that you see through their scam, and that you are not going to ignore their self-righteousness any longer. Send them to their therapists en masse.'?" Yes I did. The faster we make Liberals grow up and become adults,rather than adult teenagers, the better we can make this world for all. It's time for some tough love. ˚

Fairness? Yea, Right

The cat is out of the bag. Talking recently with a couple of rabid Obama supporters, infected with the mutation of the disease from Bush Derangement Syndrome to Obama Adoration Syndrome, I comprehend now exactly what the Left means when they talk about fairness. It’s not about fairness. It’s about redistribution, with a vast majority of the redistribution going to benefit the standard of living of those with a college education who are not large income recipients. That would include those in the education industry and those working for non-profits and foundations.

People that work in these industries tend to be people that don’t want to deal with the cut throat competition and back stabbing, and 12 hour work days that you must submit to, in order to climb successfully the corporate ladder. Being in love with themselves however, they feel that because they have a college education, many have post-graduate degrees, that they should be compensated accordingly, no matter what choices they made careerwise. It burns them up to no end when they see a high school drop out who owns two or three McDonald’s franchises, making several million dollars per year, when they have a PhD and only make $75,000 per year. In their minds, that is what’s wrong with the Capitalist system. It rewards those that take risks and are willing to put in the necessary hours. They are not. In their minds, the time they spent in school is sufficient to guarantee them a nice cushy, self-fulfilling, upper middle class lifestyle with a minimal amount of work. This is why they push for a command and control economy. Those with the right education credentials will be compensated accordingly, and those without will be put in, and kept in their place where they belong.

Here's an example. You have a college degreed lower end professional in Montgomery County, Maryland, living in a rental unit or a condo, because they can’t afford a single family home, while over in Prince George’s County, Maryland, you have an uneducated redneck tradesman owning his own single family home. This burns Liberals up to no end. That’s not fair. Now to add fuel to the fire, that redneck owns a van and a pickup truck, both of which Liberals hate. The Left can not stand anything that identifies with the working class...especially the WHITE working class.Things need to change, and Obama is the one that is going to make that happen. There will be redistribution of income from the successful uneducated to the unsuccessful educated, with a crumb thrown to the ghetto minorities, who were the pawns on the Left’s chessboard, and were the grease on the skids that helped elect our first true Anti-American, global citizen, Marxist president.

The other part of the jealousy factor is those at the lower end of the professional class are envious of those at the high end. Those at the top of government employment making an average of $150,000 per year or more. Then you have your extended government. You have those with the law degrees that practice regulatory law, those that work in the lobbying "industry," and all others that benefit directly, or handsomely indirectly in the "rackets" that benefit from the expansion of government and the ensuing contracts. It’s extremely profitable to be a Liberal Democrat as long as the government keeps expanding. So you have a racket that benefits from redistribution: the minority poor, the degreed lower middle class in the information and education rackets, public sector union paper pushers, and those with professional credentials that are connected to policy and contracts with government.

Here’s the problem for these folks. The little people are now awake, and they are not going to buy it. The little people like myself see through the smoke. We are not going to let ourselves be led into slavery on the Left’s plantation. The educated Left knows this, and they are scared to death. They need to be. We’ve had enough. We are sick of the rhetoric. We are sick of the condescension. We are sick of the perceived victim hood of the therapy attending left, when all they have to do is grow up. We are sick and tired of paying for programs that have accomplished little and continue to escalate in cost. Payback time is coming. It’s going to be fun to watch. I can’t wait.

Will The Government Shut Down On Friday?

I guess that is the big question. Of course both sides are digging in their heels...the Republicans with their usual facts and figures, and the Democrats with their usual shrill rhetoric about Grandma dying of starvation and little children dying of every imaginable ill, because the mean Conservatives want to cut the social services budget and give it to the military and the oil companies. Of course any idiot can go online to the congressional budget office and see where the facts are. Right now defense spending is about 20% of GDP, foreign aid is less than 1%, and guess what hippies? Social Services spending is almost 50% of the federal budget. You want us to spend more on social services? You mean you want to make it easier for lazy people to get on the public dole. Grandma and Grandpa are going to be taken care of. Don't worry. They are not going to be eating Alpo. Let's do something different here. Let's means test welfare benefits and Social Security. They are running out of money. Why should a wealthy retired couple making $100,000 per year in retirement income need Social Security. Yes, I know, they paid into it, and are entitled to it. I pay taxes that fund Welfare payments, but I'm not eligible to collect Welfare. I make too much money.

Speaking of Welfare, let's means test that too, and make it contingent on mandatory job training, job search, mandatory drug, alcohol, and nicotine testing, and having no social life. You stay home and take care of your kids, and you don't date. You learn to follow the rules and become productive.

Reform welfare and other social services with means testing and a requirement for personal responsibility. De-fund NPR and PBS. It's not that their funding is that large, but it's a symbolic gesture directed at the sanctimonious upper middle class, over educated Elites, who view themselves as our betters. You're not. We are not going to bow to you. Keep pushing us, and we'll shove it in your left ear, and you know which left ear I'm referring to. It's time for Middle America to stand up on its hind legs and get mean and nasty. The time is long over due.

Edumacation

Good Lord, the president was on the news this morning talking about how it is time to revamp our education system, because some study came out and said that 80% of our public schools are failing. Why is that Mr. President? It's not because failing schools need more money, which seems to be the plan. I'm sorry sir, but you don't throw more money at a broken system. All you end up with is a more expensive broken system. It's because Liberals have been in charge of our education system for the past 50 plus years, and have watered down the curricula in order to make school fun and a vehicle for social indoctrination rather than education. Add the emphasis on unearned self-esteem, and you have a recipe for disaster, which is what we have in the public schools today. The private independent schools still have high standards, but they are out of the price range of the vast majority of the people in this country. I teach in a private independent school, and the tuition per year is more than a lot of people make as an annual salary.

I experienced this "dumbing down" process personally when I was in school. When I was in first grade, I was part of a pilot program involving math that used the Cuisinaire Rod system for learning arithmetic rather than the tried and true method of drill and memorization of learning addition facts and the times tables. Consequently, I had a very difficult time with math from elementary school all the way through high school. I barely passed math by the skin of my teeth. The thought of having to take college math when I got to college scared the living Hell out of me. When I started taking college courses again when I returned to college when I was in my 40s, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to meet the college math requirement for graduation unless I took matters into my own hands. I hired a tutor for a couple of years, and because of the guidance of an outstanding grad student tutor, who walked me through math from the basics through college algebra, I finally was able to enjoy math. Why? Because for the first time in my life, I was able to understand it. We started with the basics. We went right back to 1+1 and built from there. Consequently, I discovered how much fun math really is. What was sad, was the fact that I had to do the tutor route in the first place just to get comfortable with the basics and then learn what I should have learned in high school.

The No Child Left Behind Act, just like Goals 2000 and similar programs are nothing but bullshit. Yes I know that the intention behind the NCLBA was to reintroduce Phonics as a way to teach reading, but it doesn't look like that was implemented at all. I'm not sure what Goals 2000 was about anyway, except for creating more bureaucracy. Here's what I think about both programs: They are nothing but smoke screens to get more money out of the tax payers, rather than actually doing something to improve education. The NCLBA does nothing but try to improve the test scores of the kids that are on the cusp of meeting the minimum standards set by the program, because this is where the federal funding trap is set. It does nothing for the kids below that cusp, who really are the ones that need the help, and it does absolutely nothing for the kids at the top of the heap that need the challenges that will drive them to the real top of the heap. Consequently, those at the bottom are ignored and bored, and those at the top are ignored and bored, and having bored kids is not a good thing, to put it mildly.

Here's where I disagree with many of my fellow Conservatives. We really do need a national education policy that has uniform national standards for graduation, and while those standards need to be implemented at the local level, the feds need to develop those standards, and have them apply to every school district in the country, managed at the local level. There can be no exceptions for race, sex, creed or national origin. No waivers. Blacks are not stupid. They don't need to be treated like second class citizens, and educated as second class students in order to advance a social agenda that does nothing but benefit highly educated white liberals and their guilt and their entitlement of power mentality. Look at the success of the American Indian Charter Schools in Oakland, California, and the success of Dunbar High School in Washington, DC during its heyday from the middle 1800 until Dunbar became just another neighborhood school in the middle 1960s, rather then the black academic high school in, at that time, segregated Washington, DC, a school where just about every graduate went on to college...not just the free UDC, but to Ivy League schools and the US Military Academies too. The Black Conservative intellectual, Thomas Sowell, has written extensively about the education of minority children. Dr. Sowell, for those who don't know about him, was raised in poverty in Harlem, dropped out of high school when he was 16, joined the Marines and served in Korea, returned and got his GED, went on to college, and ended up with a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. He is now 80 years old, and is the Rose and Milton Friedman Chair economist in economics at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. I wish he was younger. I'd love to see him run for president. If he ever did, I'd show up at the polls at 5 AM, so that I could be the first person in line in order to vote for him. Check out his website and follow the links.

School is school. It's not supposed to be play time. It's about learning. Sometimes learning is hard. Also, testing is the only way that you can determine whether or not someone grasps the material being taught. I am a firm believer in standardized tests in order to show whether or not students grasp the material being taught. For those that are opposed to testing, let me put this scenario out there. Do you want a doctor treating you that hasn't passed rigorous exams certifying that they are board certified in their respective field? Do you want a lawyer representing you that hasn't passed the Bar Exam? Do you want an accountant doing your taxes who hasn't passed the CPA exam? Do you want a barber or hair dresser working on you that hasn't passed the board exams that grant them the license to practice their trade? How about the same for the electrician that wires your home or the gas fitter that makes sure that the gas dryer in your home doesn't blow up when you turn it on?

I am a musician. There are many times that I have taken an "exam" for a musical job. That exam is called an audition. Many times I have "passed" the audition, and there are also many times when I haven't. Someone else, who was a better player than I was, was hired for the job. In an other words, they scored higher on the "exam." If you read the International Musician magazine, which is the official publication of the American Federation Of Musicians, there are ads in the back announcing the various positions available in various orchestras, both major and minor. In each ad, there is a statement at the end of the advertisement: "The audition committee reserves the right to dismiss immediately any candidate not meeting the highest professional standards." There are no provisions for race or sex. All auditions are held with the committee sitting behind a screen, so they can not see the applicant for the job. Only the best qualified applicant, regardless of whether or not they are male, female, white, black, Asian, etc., gets the gig.

I am going to throw this out to Barack Obama, Mr. President, I know that you are a big government liberal. I respectfully disagree with 99% of your policies, being a Conservative. Sir, may I make a suggestion? How about using your bully pulpit to push for undoing the damage to our education system that has been caused by social engineering over the past 50 years. Don't just throw more money at the No Child Left Behind Act and expect it to get better. It won't. Push for real education reform in this country that again will raise our academic standards to being the flagship standard of the world. In addition, leave the teleprompter at home, and start showing up at some of the worst performing inner city schools, and have the principal call a school assembly. Explain to these kids the value of getting an education. Your education is a key component on why you are the President Of The United States Of America. Explain to those victims of the ghetto culture that doing good in school is not "acting white." Enough said.

Gas Prices

It looks like gasoline is heading toward $4 per gallon real soon. Personally, I think that it's going to go much higher than that, and not just because President Obama and his minions want see European energy prices in order to lower the standard of living of the lower middle classes and working classes in this country, in order to "level the playing field" of the United States in the international world stage. It's because both political parties have done nothing for the past 40 years to make us more energy efficient. All they have done is kick the can down the road, so that it becomes someone else's problem in the future. That problem is now, and we are now confronted with the can.

Realistic energy products,including so-called "Green Energy," are going to come out of the private sector. That means oil companies. Hey hippies, do your homework. Those "evil oil companies" are spending millions more dollars on research for alternative energy sources than the federal government is. Why? Because, it is good for their profit "bottom line." Businesses exist to make a profit and they want to continue to make a profit in the future. Gee, I'm so sorry that you find that offensive. How about giving up your trust fund or daddy's allowance and going out and getting a real job? You perpetually angry at "The Man," Takoma Parkian Victim Industry pieces of shit obviously have way too much time on your hands.

Let me let you in on a couple of not so secret "secrets." First of all, Bio diesel was developed by the United States Military, especially the Air Force Office Of Scientific Research, and the Navy Research Lab. It was not developed by unwashed smelly hippies frothing at the mouth about life's inequities in Takoma Park, Maryland and their Marxist anger,none of whom are going to be willing to give up their cars. There will always be an excuse: "I'm a little white women, and it's not safe to ride the Metro," "Yea, I know, but it's not convenient." "It takes too long, and my time is important." Well let me explain something to you hippies. My time is important too. However, I'm now choosing to rely on public transportation six days per month in order to save money. Guess what? I'm using it, and I'm not making your "all about me" excuses. I'm doing it to save money. I'm saving money two ways. First of all, I'm not spending as much as the gas pump. Number two, the less gasoline I purchase, the less tax revenue is being collected from me. That in itself is worth the extra time spent riding Metro while reading a real good book. Go back to your "green" hypocricy hippies. I can't wait until the day when all the programs you are trying to force on us, jump up and bite you on the ass.

You want more control over education? Here's how.

Liberals talk about the need for the government to provide everyone with a free college education. That's not possible. We couldn't afford it. However, in order to satisfy the hippies’ pipe dream, here is my take on how the government could do that. That being said, there are going to be a lot of very disappointed people, especially the liberals who want that free education. Many of you upper middle class and rich liberals, who worship at the altar of a college degree, so that you don't have to take a job where you get your hands dirty, are going to end up in a job where you get your hands dirty. Do you still want to socially engineer America so that your salary, no matter what job you do, is tied in with your level of education like it is in much of Europe?

Here's the plan in a nutshell: You have a complete federal takeover of our public education system from Kindergarten through doctoral programs. Yes liberal hippies, I did say complete federal takeover. However, my plan will not be to your liking, because it won't offer any favoritism to you and your cronies. Private and religious education would still be available for those that wanted to opt out of the public system. You provide education vouchers that allow choice, so that the public schools have to compete with the private schools for the best students. This will increase the quality of education across the board for all.

From grades K through 10 students will advance to the next grade by passing comprehensive standardized tests. If you don't pass, you don't advance, and you repeat the year. No provision will be made for those that don't "test well." Too bad. Learn how to take tests. Like I said no special consideration for anyone.

At the end of their 10th year, students take blindly graded tests that are graded at the Department of Education. Only the top 10% go on to college prep grades 11 and 12. All others enter into some form of vocational training for the last two years of high school. This can be the hard trades like plumbing and carpentry, as well as the soft trades like computer repair, electronics, administrative assistant, etc. They may also apply for the US Military at the end of their 12th year. No preferences will be made for race or gender. All students will compete equally.

At the end of the 12th year, students take blindly graded comprehensive exams. Only the top 10% go on to a 4-year college. All others may enter community colleges for two years, and then either enter the workforce, test to get into a 4 year college (30% accepted), or apply for the US Military. Those who join the service will be able to take advantage of the military's tuition assistance program and/or enroll in the various services' own community colleges. These will be the only work arounds for the system. You don't get something for nothing. Also, every public college and university will be required to recognize the services' Associates Degrees as a completion of the first two years of college, or forfeit all federal funding. Same with ROTC programs.

For those earning Bachelors Degrees, 10% are allowed to go on to a graduate school and earn a Masters Degree. For those earning Masters Degrees, 10% are allowed to go on to earn Doctorate Degrees, and 10% of Doctoral candidates are allowed to continue on to post-Doctoral work.

Isn't social engineering through education a wonderful thing? Just think Lefties, you'll have the command and control economy that you desperately desire. The problems for you however, is that the command and control will be out of your hands. There will be no special consideration for race, gender, social and political connections, etc. What's the matter? You don't like equality? I thought that you wanted to level the playing field. I guess it's a different story when the playing field is going to be leveled without special consideration for you. Then again, this could never happen. The Left has too much of a stranglehold on education. Any plan to have it benefit anyone other than themselves would never fly.

Riots, Riots Everywhere

The Middle East is exploding. Whether or not the uprisings over there will lead to more democratic forms of government, or whether or not the countries will fall to Islamic dictatorships has yet to be seen. It's hard to get a grasp on the situation, because there are too many conflicting viewpoints. We'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, here in the US I can sense that the "little people" are getting quite fed up with the status quo. The public sector unions are taking to the streets protesting a modest loss of some of their entitlements, while the private sector lags behind up to 50% of what these spoiled cretins make in salary and benefits. Yes, people are entitled to a fair wage, reasonable job security, and a reasonably comfortable retirement after dedicating a large portion of their lives to a job. I think that things have gotten too far out of hand, and from what I've been reading and hearing, the "Average Joe and Jane" have had enough. If the public sector unions don't back off, there is going to be hell to pay.

The problem is, public sector employees should never have been allowed to unionize in the first place. Even the icon of the Left, Franklin Roosevelt, was against public sector unions. Public servants were never supposed to make 40% to 50% more than the private sector. You took a government job, because even though it paid about 20% less than the same job in the private sector, you had virtually layoff free job security, great benefits, and a decent retirement pension plan. Government service was for those that really didn't want to deal with the dog eat dog climb up the corporate ladder of Corporate America or assume the risks of self-employment. This is the main reason that people make the military a career. For enlisted personnel in the military, the pay is considerably less than a similar job in the private sector. You don't start to make any kind of decent money until you reach the rank of E7 or E8. Then again, once you lose your housing allowances and subsistence allowances, E7 retirement after 20 years of service is just at the poverty line. I retired as an E8 after 26 years of service. My pension is barely enough to live on in the DC area, and I have to supplement it by playing musical jobs 4-5 nights per week and teaching 7 days per week, in order to have a standard of living that is about 30% less than I had when I was active duty, receiving full pay, housing, and subsistence. Believe me, I'm not complaining. I'm just stating facts.

What I'm saying to the civil servants and teachers that are out there throwing their temper tantrums is this: Grow up. You are making a hell of a lot more money than either the military or the private sector. We have an official unemployment rate of 9.6% and a REAL unemployment rate of about 18%, with most of that being confined to the non-degreed working class. If we want to make this country work for all, we have to work together, and that means that YOU have to be willing to make sacrifices, not just those that you look down upon and your lessers. If you don't, you look at a very good possibility that your unions are going to get busted, and then when there is a Republican president and Republican control of both houses of Congress, public sector unions will become illegal. You are being used as political tools by your union leadership, who's salaries by the way, equal the salaries of the CEOs that you love to demonize. Again, grow up and stop being "useful idiots."