American Exceptionalism – Back to Basics Recap

I did a series of posts this week that have received some fairly high praise. It all started with The Story of Stuff, A disgusting little propaganda piece cooked up by TidesAcornSEIUApolloSoros’ propaganda machine and shown to school children in many places.  Sorry to say it is pretty popular.   It hits pretty much all of my buttons: Nanny statism, Eco weenieism, Subversion of our Youth, and Anti Capitalism. Take a good dose of that and add to it the Obama "American Apology" World Tour.  Throw in a little bit of "America is a downright mean country" and you pretty much get where I am coming from with these posts. 

America is an exceptional nation. Exceptional in all recorded history. So, read these posts, not because I am a particularly great writer (I know I am not), or because I know something others do not, I just find out when I do not know. But because this information needs to be shared, read these posts and if you like them or any part of them, use them. It is not as though these ideas are new, they are not, and few ideas are;  but they are vitally important to understand.  They are vitally Important for our Children to understand. Many of you may not remember that cartoon pictured above. But it is/was emblematic of this whole problem.  In the early 90’s this show ran for a few seasons.  Captain Planet and the Planeteers.  I was in Jr. High.  I knew it was crap then. This is about when the subversion of our kids began in earnest.  Children of the 60’s were having their kids, kids who are now in their early twenties. That is a post for another time…
Back To Basics Part I -Exceptionalism not Imperialism
Back To Basics - Part II - Exceptional Science
Back To Basics Part III - Exceptional Economy
Back To Basics Part IV - Exceptional Culture
Read the Script to the Story of Stuff Here
-KOOK

Back to Basics IV – Culture

Read the Other Posts in this Series as well: Back To Basics I: American Exceptionalism; Back to Basics II: Science, Back To Basics III: The Economy, Back to Basics IV: Culture; Back to Basics V: Recap; and the drivel that inspired me to action: The Story of Stuff

For good or ill this Nation’s culture is the ONE culture that will be remembered in the 20th century.  It would be really nice if it could be the ONE culture remembered in the 21st as well.  I am not really saying that our Culture is better than any other necessarily.  It is just that it is MY culture and I was raised in an era when competition was *gasp*  encouraged. I want to stress that I am not saying that these things are good or bad for the world at large, just that our culture is all pervasive, and that  it is Exceptional.  Not even at the height of the British Empire did they have so much influence on the culture of the world.  Not since the Romans has one Country’s culture influenced so many, and we did not get that way at the point of a sword as the Romans did.  So what are some good cultural indicators? Food, Language, Trade, Fashion,  Entertainment, and Sports would seem to be good measures of a Culture’s pervasiveness.
The language of all Air Travel, Medicine and Computing is English; and as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level, making it the de facto lingua franca of the Globe.  This is not solely an indicator of the United States Cultural dominance as English is not only our Language, but it is worth noting.  Modern English, spread beyond the British Isles beginning with the growth of the British Empire, and by the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. Following the colonization of  North America, it became the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet. Had the US not risen to the status it is now, it is likely that a large part of the world would have been speaking Russian or German including England.
McDonald's restaurants are found in 119 countries and territories around the world and serve nearly 47 million customers each day. McDonald's operates over 31,000 restaurants worldwide, employing more than 1.5 million people. The present corporation dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois on April 15, 1955. But even McDonald’s as ubiquitous as it has become is the largest food corporation; as that distinction is held by another US company. Yum! Brands operates or licenses Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Long John Silver's restaurants worldwide. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's largest fast food restaurant company in terms of system units—over 36,000 restaurants around the world in more than 110 countries and territories.  Those two examples alone are enough to say that American Food or Americanized food dominates the globe.
As far as trade goes there is but one answer: Wal-Mart is the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 in Bentonville Arkansas,  Wal-Mart is the largest private employer and the largest grocery retailer in the United States, has over 2 MILLION employees worldwide and runs stores in about 45 countries worldwide.
Fashion: Nike Inc. is the world’s leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel, everyone knows what the swoosh means. Who doesn’t know what Levi’s are? Levi's was founded in 1873 in San Francisco, specializing in riveted denim jeans and different lines of casual and street fashion. From a company with fifteen salespeople, two plants, and almost no business east of the Mississippi in 1946, the organization grew in thirty years to include a sales force of more than 22,000, with 50 plants and offices in 35 countries. Blue Jeans were invented in the United States are are seen as a status symbol in many other countries.
Entertainment, besides basically inventing the internet, facebook, myspace, and Twitter, the US dominates Entertainment.  Look at the table below and find the Chinese, Japanese, Italian, or French films.  EH, there aren’t any.  Most countries could not even afford to make the movies that Hollywood makes.  The budget for the LOTR trilogy was about half a billion dollars.  That is a huge portion of most of the countries of the world GDP.
Worldwide All Time Box Office Movies adjusted for 2009 Dollars. Notice there are movies from the every decade starting with the 30’s through the 90’s.  This list is a few years old, likely there are some even newer movies in this list now.
 
13 of the top 25 selling Music albums of all time are from US Artists (Michael Jackson-3, Meat Loaf,  Eagles, Whitney Houston, Backstreet Boys-2, Bee Gees-2, Fleetwood Mac , Mariah Carey, & Bruce Springsteen).  And again, most all of the remaining albums are ENGLISH albums. 
It is next to impossible to calculate worldwide television viewing audiences but these two items are widely cited as being among the most watched ever: over 600 million people watched the Apollo 11 landing of the first ever humans to walk on the surface of the moon (a U.S. feat) and a satellite broadcast for an Elvis Presley show live from Hawaii, titled "Aloha from Hawaii" is reported to have reached over 1 billion viewers globally. 



Sports:  Four of the top ten team sports in the world were invented in the United States, Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball, and American Football.  Incidentally 5 more are from Europe, mainly the UK, and one originated in China, but was made famous by the British.  Note that the British originated sports were carried to their colonies, as Britain was an empire, something the United States is not(as previously discussed).


In an Internet list of most Famous People Ever, 11 out of the top 25 are from the U.S. They are George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Walt Disney, Elvis, Michael Jackson, Martin L King Jr, JFK, Mohammed Ali, Marilyn Monroe, Bill Gates,  and Thomas Edison.
  


I think the information above is enough to say that, be it for better or worse, our culture dominates the globe.   American Movies dominate screens across the world, American Sports are everywhere, American Fashion is seen everywhere from Tokyo to Mogadishu,  Wal-Mart is everywhere, you can get a Big Mac in China. I have personally seen Diet Coke, or “Coke Light” written in Arabic.  This nation did all that, we did it in less than 100 years, without conquering anyone.  That is a feat the Romans could not do.  No One has ever done it, and I do not know if it is a good or a bad thing, but I can tell you…
it is Exceptional.


Read the Other Posts in this Series as well: Back To Basics I: American Exceptionalism; Back to Basics II: Science, Back To Basics III: The Economy, Back to Basics IV: Culture; Back to Basics V: Recap; and the drivel that inspired me to action: The Story of Stuff

p.s. to all the people who already knew this:

and to those who don’t like it:

Back to Basics Part II, Science.

 

Read the Other Posts in this Series: Back To Basics I: American Exceptionalism; Back to Basics II: Science, Back To Basics III: The Economy, Back to Basics IV: Culture; Back to Basics V: Recap; and the drivel that inspired me to action: The Story of Stuff

I started this series of posts yesterday. I am fed up with BHO’s American Apology World Tour. I am fed up with finding out crap such as The Story of Stuff is being taught to America’s children. Maybe, if we pass this type of information along we can dispel some of this nonsense. Yesterday I focused on the way in which the United States has used its’ Overwhelming and Awesome Military power in a way that has never been used before in the history of the world, namely that a Nation who could probably defeat and rule the entire planet with its’ raw military whup-ass power has almost uniformly used such power only to free oppressed people and fight the spread of tyranny the world over.

Today I want to talk about Science. Since the beginning of the Oministration, we have heard about putting science back in its’ rightful place. We know (in my best Pepe LePew voice) that ze americans are filthay and stoopahd, stupahd Americans I spit un yoo! puh puh! All us Americans are a bunch of rednecks hillbillies. So let’s just talk about what makes the United States Exceptional in all of recorded history with regard to the advancement of science and technology.

I read the 5000 year leap book several months ago. It is a fantastic book, but I just want to focus on the premise of the book which is: in the last 200+ years our species has leapt forward in technology more than it did in the previous 5000 years. I say we don’t need to go back nearly that far, let’s go back to 1492. Many of you may remember that that was the year that Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Let’s talk about that. In Christopher Columbus’ lifetime this is what was invented that had a lasting historical impact: Johannes Gutenberg invented the Moveable type printing press in the early 1450’s; Nicholas of Cusa invented Concave lens for eyeglasses about 1451; The Globe (you know that map drawn on a ball that we use for decoration in library’s, it is what they used before they had GPS.) was invented about the time of Chris’s first trip to the Bahamas. Two other items of note were the double entry system of bookkeeping, and the toothbrush (completely unknown to the listeners of the Grateful Dead to this day). People walked or rode in wagons pulled by animals, ships sailed on the whim of the winds. And that was the way of transporting things and moving people for about another 400 years. Back then, Spain was one of the wealthiest nations on the planet and scientists had recently (re)discovered that the earth was not flat. From 1500 to 1600 here are the major technological advancements. Ball bearings:& Scissors: Leonardo Da Vinci; the Pocket watch, the Pencil the Hookah was invented in India (much to the delight of Obama voters) , Compound microscope, and that most wonderful of inventions the Toilet by John Harrington & Thomas Crapper .

Ok so let’s go another one hundred years (we better get to the US soon, all these other countries are coming up with all the good stuff, we might never catch up). From 1600 to 1700 here are the major advancements in Science. The Telescope; Flintlock musket; The Slide rule (just wait until they invent the pocket protector); the Barometer, paving the way for seers and fortune tellers Climatologists in the future, the steam engine, water pump, and the Piano. Not one American in the lot.

Okay speeding up, from 1700 to 1800 here are some of the best of the best. the Seed drill by Jethro Tull (the rock band came later); and the Steam piston engine. In 1714 the Mercury thermometer was invented by Fahrenheit, further allowing the chicken little's and global warming alarmists serious scientists another tool at their disposal. This is the century in which we were first able to plot the position of ships at sea with any sort of accuracy thanks to the invention of the Octant and the Marine chronometer (both by Englishmen). Thanks to John Kay’s Flying shuttle mechanical weaving became a reality. Then Benjamin Franklin invented the Franklin stove, the lightning rod, and Bifocal Glasses just to name a few. Then Americans invented the Flatboat, the Submarine, the practical Steam Engine and Steamboat. To be fair there were several very noteworthy inventions by the French and the British around this time.

What was invented just by the USA from 1700 to 1865? The coffeepot, the circular saw, dental floss (still unknown in Europe to this day), the electric doorbell, the telegraph, the sewing machine, the wrench, the combine harvester, anesthesia, baseball, the safety pin, the potato chip, the clothespin, and canned milk, the elevator for people, TOILET PAPER (over one hundred years past the invention of the toilet itself sheesh), the mason jar, burglar alarm, can opener, oil well, water tower, repeating rifle, breakfast cereal, modern door locks, and roller skates; and that is just up to 1865.

Since 1865 I count 426 actual inventions listed in Wikipedia as originating in the United States. How many did France have? Every entry in Wikipedia attributable to France for all time = 84 items. Here are some of the most notable US inventions from only the last 100 years or so: Refrigeration, the telegraph, assembly line production, the airplane, the bulldozer, space based astronomy, EEG brain topography, the digital computer, nylon, nuclear weapons, the transistor, supersonic flight, the video game, cable television, radiocarbon dating, the atomic clock, the credit card, the nuclear submarine, the laser, carbon fiber, the microchip, the weather satellite, the birth control pill, Kevlar, the compact disc, the jumbo jet, the PC, email, the space shuttle, the GUI, GPS, the iPod and the iPhone and in case you missed any of that: you can rewind it with your DVR. Oh, did I forget to mention that this nation of racist redneck hillbillies landed on the moon almost fifty years ago, and that we beat the best estimate of how long it would take to map the human genome by about a decade?

Let’s look at it another way for a minute. Each year scientists write papers and those papers are cited by other scientists. Scientists keep “score” on the number of citations their papers produce. These statistics are out there. I guess you would call them units of scientific thought, if someone is referencing your paper it is a coup for you. To appeal to those who would say that the National Science Foundation would be biased I used some stats I found from a Japanese Foundation. From 1981 to 1994 here are the number of scientific citations broken down by several countries:

The United States had 33,923,883 citations the rest of the world combined had 28,234,877. Remember this is with the Japanese keeping score.

Or to put it another way,because we are the worlds largest marketplace (even The Story of Stuff admits this) when a person anywhere in the world develops a product, if they are serious at all about selling it they file a patent application, which makes this a good measurement for innovative thought.

Number of Patents in the US 1995-2008- 2,096,055, rest of the world- 1,728,002

# of Patents per State/Country 1995-2008
United States (Grand total)	2,096,055
JAPAN	718,729
CALIFORNIA	393,085
GERMANY	261,683
NEW YORK	163,184
TEXAS	131,120
NEW JERSEY	108,033
ILLINOIS	107,613
UNITED KINGDOM	99,760
FRANCE	99,397
MICHIGAN	97,709
PENNSYLVANIA	96,197
OHIO	95,507
TAIWAN	86,798
MASSACHUSETTS	85,021
CANADA	79,327
FLORIDA	67,175
KOREA, SOUTH	62,767
MINNESOTA	60,178
CONNECTICUT	51,747
WASHINGTON	47,055
WISCONSIN	44,574
ITALY	44,125
SWITZERLAND	41,980

Remember as The Story of Stuff tells us, the United States only has 5% of the world’s population. I think that is pretty good, 5% of the world population contributing 55% of the world’s inventions, and 55% of the scientific citations. One might even say that level of scientific advancement would be astounding, special, and maybe even Exceptional.

Of course, we could always go back to life as it was in the late 18th century.

Tomorrow we will talk about Economics…

Read the Other Posts in this Series: Back To Basics I: American Exceptionalism; Back to Basics II: Science, Back To Basics III: The Economy, Back to Basics IV: Culture; Back to Basics V: Recap; and the drivel that inspired me to action: The Story of Stuff

-KOOK

Back to Basics

Read the Other Posts in this Series: Back To Basics I: American Exceptionalism; Back to Basics II: Science, Back To Basics III: The Economy, Back to Basics IV: Culture; Back to Basics V: Recap; and the drivel that inspired me to action: The Story of Stuff

It has become very clear in the last few months that We know something that many of our children are no longer being taught and many of our elected officials have either misunderstood, or perverted in some way. We know that this country of ours is special and is a force for good in the world. We are blessed to live here. Two things have really driven this widespread lack of understanding home to me lately. First, during the presidential campaign I clearly remember American Exceptionalism being bandied about a lot. The fact that this was debatable outside of some far extreme fringe subculture of this society was incomprehensible to me. Second, the more recent stark lesson in just how fundamentally screwed up some of our children’s school lessons have become; specifically The Story of Stuff. So I am going to do a series of posts to correct this notion that America is a bad place and has hurt this world. First I want to make one point very clear:
Patriotism
a devoted love, support, and defense of one’s country; national
loyalty.
I am not arguing patriotism here. Every citizen of every country should love their country and see it as a place with a unique position in history. I am not talking about mere nationalism. I am talking about this country being unique in the annals of all recorded history. This country is different from all others before it and is uniquely different than every other country of the past and present.

ex·cep·tion·al·ism (k-spsh-n-lzm) n.
1. The condition of being exceptional or unique.
2. The theory or belief that something, especially a nation, does not
conform to a pattern or norm.

What is a nation?
Nation 3. A people who share common customs, origins, history, and frequently
language; a nationality.
What customs and values makes a nation unique? In what ways does a nation distinguish itself? Military Might? Scientific Advancement? A Powerful economy? Cultural Prevalence?

England, Italy(Rome), France, Spain, Russia, Japan, and Germany have all had a lot of military might in the past, what makes the US special with regards to the military? All of the previous countries have conquered other nations and had colonies on new lands. This is the definition of an empire; imperialism. But the United States has (with one near exception) only fought wars to free people not to enslave or assimilate them.

At the end of WWII, only two military powers of any consequence
remained: the United States, and the Soviet Union, and while the Soviets had a large army, They virtually had no navy, and their air force was nonexistent. Not to mention they were starving. Whereas, the United States possessed, intact, the most awesome kick ass Navy the world had ever seen (hell yeah), much larger and more advanced than that of the Mighty British navy that had helped the Brits establish an empire not rivaled since before the time of Christ. We possessed the largest and most advanced air force of any nation. We, alone, had the atomic bomb and the will to use it. (for better or for worse, we had the power to destroy the planet. )

What did we do with this awesome power? Did we do as Conan would have had us to do? “to drive our defeated enemies before us and to hear the lamentations of their women and children” as we settled their lands? No. We did what NO other country in history who has destroyed its enemies has EVER done. We departed the field of battle, returned home, scrapped our military, literally turning our war machine into construction materials, and then returned to the defeated lands and rebuilt the nations that we had just laid waste to. As Colin Powell has been quoted as saying, the only thing we asked for was the space to bury our dead. AND …WE, WE PAID for the rebuilding effort! And in all the time since then despite what many of the Hollywood crowd have implied, nor what many of the hippies and radicals have proclaimed as fact, we have never been imperial.

empire 1. a. A political unit having an extensive territory or comprising a number of territories or nations and ruled by a single supreme authority.3. Imperial or imperialistic sovereignty, domination, or control:

This is why Spain France and Britain colonized North America. First the lure of GOLD and then the lure of trees, furs, food, etc. This is a key charge of The Story of Stuff: that we have gotten rich by taking wealth and resources of the third world countries. So, is the US an Empire? Well, where are our colonies? Psst, there aren’t any. We have a handful of very small territories that stay that way of their choosing, and also repeatedly vote not to become states. We do have military bases all around the globe, but far from as we see in movies from back in the knight in shining armor days, our armies do not pillage an area, nor do we make other nations pay tribute to us, no declaring our right to prima nocte, but rather we pump vast amounts of money into those other economies. Other nations appreciate the income that military bases produce, and the protection they provide. A little known fact is that if the EU had to provide for its defense they would not be able to afford Socialism. Free trade (Capitalism) is the economic and moral antithesis of imperialism.

But you may say what our “wars for oil.” We have destroyed Iraq twice in the last 20 years and we did it both times in a matter of days. So stop and think, here is what a “war for oil” would look like: First the SEALS would HALO jump right down on the pumping stations and tank farms and in about an hour would secure the oil fields. Then we’d place an armored perimeter around the oil fields using M1A1’s, Bradley’s, and artillery. Lastly, using convoys protected by high flying air superiority fighters, and low flying Apache helicopters we would transport OUR oil to a secure port where it would be pumped onto US tankers and escorted out of the region by a Carrier Battle Group. Who would begin to oppose us? We had them, and what did we do in ‘91 when Saddam had set them on fire and they were ours for the taking…?

In all our Imperial Glory We put out the fires and then we came home.
Not much of an empire…I would call that decidedly Anti-Imperial. No country ever in history has done that. That is unique. That’s exceptional.

Part two tomorrow…

Read the Other Posts in this Series: Back To Basics I: American Exceptionalism; Back to Basics II: Science, Back To Basics III: The Economy, Back to Basics IV: Culture; Back to Basics V: Recap; and the drivel that inspired me to action: The Story of Stuff

-KOOK

Goomba News Network: The UN loves Barack Obama because he is weak

Best comment I have seen all day! This was a comment in response to the story, it made me laugh. The commenter is Dillinger and here is his blog http://dillinger737.blogspot.com/

“Wait, do you mean to tell me that the office Obama won, this President thing, is supposed to support the will of the American people and not that of the U.N.? Are you sure the President isn't in office to pass out special privileges to minorities, violent religions, and people who are simply stupid and lazy? Don't yank my chain like that. I thought that office was sort of like a diplomat who was solely intended to appease officials from the country he meets? Damn, I feel so violated...”

Goomba News Network: The UN loves Barack Obama because he is weak

The story of stuff

Let's conduct a little thought experiment shall we? I briefly toyed with the idea of going through this script line by line but it would be too long to hold a readers attention. So, read it yourself and then you tell me why it is unthinkable for this to be lauded as a great lesson to teach to our children. The new York Slimes has given this crap its seal of approval as a wonderful way for our kids to learn about many issues important to today.
Read the script and then post a comment or send me an email why this is wrong. Best comment gets it's own post here and at conservative blog central. Click the link to read the file:
The Story of Stuff annotad unabridged script.

Back To Basics Part I -Exceptionalism not Imperialism

Back To Basics - Part II - Exceptional Science
Back To Basics Part III - Exceptional Economy
Back To Basics Part IV - Exceptional Culture
Back to Basics V Recap

Read the Script to the Story of Stuff Here



Ps. The story, video, book, and website for this "educational material" is funded by the Tides Foundation. Friends of Apollo and Acorn.

Is it Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Fascism, Totalitarianism? You tell me.

Huge H/T for New Conservative Generation: on this post. It is great.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Which of these things is just like the other?

Read the blogs, the protest signs and there are proclamations for and against the forms of economics and governments in the title of this post. There are assertions and objections being made all the time. Do you really know what they mean? Here are the definitions according to Webster.
Totalitarianism - centralized control by an autocratic authority
Communism - a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics b : a totalitarian system of GOVERNMENT in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production
Fascism - 1 a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic GOVERNMENT headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control
Socialism - 1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
Capitalsim - an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market
Now let’s put those definitions to the test. I’m going to give you some political scenarios and you tell me what direction government and the economy are moving.
1. A loan from the government to a private company is used by the government executive to take majority ownership of companies in the auto, banking, and insurance industries.
2. Push for and establish regulations and laws to allow the executive of a government to seize control of any private financial institution it deems to be in danger of collapse
3. The executive of a government establishes authority to determine the wages of employees of a private company
4. The executive of a government establishes authority to fire employees of a private company
5. The executive of a government requests authority from the legislature of a government, to bring the IGs who provide oversight of the government executive, under the executives direct control
6. The executive of a government proposed that the supply and production of energy be set to a specified limit set by the executive
7. The executive of a government seeks to end the private market for student loans
8. The executive of a government promotes legislation that would allow the executive to determine the supply and production of health care to lower costs
9. The executive of a government uses money authorized to bail out financial institutions to nationalize the car industry
10. The executive of a government uses and establishes positions of power that answer directly to the executive
If you answered capitalism, wanted to answer capitalism, or tried to find a moral equivalent for why capitalism is like or worse than the government executive, then you are likely to be supporter of totalitarianism.
If you just learned that you support totalitarianism, then you probably have a Philosopher-King mentality. I’ve often referred to the Philosopher-King mentality in my posts. It comes from Plato’s Republic. Plato philosophized that the best form of government would be a philosopher-king system, where a single individual, with unlimited power would be in control of all aspects of government (this was the king side). That individual would be very intelligent, always put the needs of the people first, and would make nothing but rational decisions (the philosopher part). Doesn’t sound so bad, right?
Perhaps you feel this way about our current President. You believe him to have a superior intellect. You trust him. You are certain he has the people’s best interest in mind. You have no problem with him taking the helm of important issues in your life and you feel that you are better off for it. That’s your right and you might even be correct to do so.
The problem with Plato is that he never thought about the Philosopher-King in the long term. The truth of history and rulers is that for every great, kind, and self-less authoritarian there are thousands of horrible, selfish, and petty authoritarians. Any one ruler may achieve the impossible and bring about peace and prosperity for their nation. I won’t say it’s not possible, but I will ask, for how long? Who will take the mantle after? Just look at hypocritical republicans. Those that had faith to hand the keys of power to Bush now fear what that power means in the hands of Obama. Those that had faith to hand the keys of power to Obama will fear what that power means in the hands of Dick Cheney or Sarah Palin.
There is something interesting in the definitions of Communism and Fascism (socialism too, since Marx argues that it's simply the second stage before communism). They both have the tenants of totalitarian rule in them. I wonder why?
The history of the world is crystal clear that all forms of government save those based on individual liberty and free markets, lead to some form of totalitarianism. You are your own guardian of your rights and property. They do not require a government to fulfill them, just a government that cannot interfere with them. A government that cannot interfere with individual rights is one that is checked by individuals who are working to ensure that government stays within its limitations. By the way, for those of you confused and there are many of you. Individual freedom does not equal anarchy - 1 a : absence of government b : a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority c : a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government. If you need proof, go get a history book on the US.

How to Fundamentally Transform a Nation

Here are the things one must do to fundamentally transform a Nation. A portrait of a TRUE nation transformer:
Born as the the eldest of five children he,very early on in life developed an "affinity for the poor". Growing up in a family with leftist leanings, he excelled as an athlete, enjoying swimming, soccer, golf, and shooting; while also becoming an "untiring" cyclist. His schoolmates also nicknamed him "pig", because he rarely bathed, and proudly wore a "weekly shirt." He learned chess from his father and began participating in local tournaments by age 12. During adolescence and throughout his life he was passionate about poetry, He could also recite Rudyard Kipling's "If" (funny so can I, it is one of the guiding influences of my life) from memory. He was an enthusiastic and eclectic reader. His favorite subjects in school included philosophy, mathematics, engineering, political science, sociology, history and archaeology.
Years later, declassified CIA 'biographical and personality report' would make note that he had wide range of academic interests and intellect, describing him as "quite well read" … He began to study medicine in college but soon dropped out and took a year off from studies to embark on a trip traveling about by motorcycle while traveling he was struck by the crushing poverty of the remote rural areas, where peasant farmers worked small plots of land owned by wealthy landlords. By trip's end, he came to view the land not as collection of separate nations, but as a single entity requiring a continent-wide liberation strategy. His conception of a borderless, united region sharing a common heritage was a theme that prominently recurred during his later revolutionary activities. Upon returning home he completed his studies and received his medical degree. It was his experiences while traveling which he cited as convincing him that in order to "help these people", he needed to leave the realm of medicine, and consider the political arena of armed struggle
Not long after this he sent an update to his Aunt in which he speaks of being convinced him "how terrible" the "Capitalist octopuses" were. This affirmed indignation carried the "head hunting tone" that he adopted in order to frighten his more Conservative relatives, and ends with him swearing on an image of the then recently deceased Josef Stalin, not to rest until these "octopuses have been vanquished." He had a conviction that Marxism achieved through armed struggle and defended by an armed populace was the only way to rectify such conditions as he had seen. During this time he renewed his friendship with some exiles whom he had met and was soon introduced to two brothers who had similar ideas as he did and were plotting to overthrow the dictatorship of their home country. During a long conversation with the brothers, he concluded that this was the cause he had been searching for. Although he planned to be the group's combat medic, he participated in the military training with the members of the Movement. At the end of his training, he was called "the best guerrilla of them all" by his instructor.

He joined in the groups first battle and wrote that it was during this bloody confrontation that he laid down his medical supplies and picked up a box of ammunition dropped by a fleeing comrade, finalizing his symbolic transition from physician to combatant. As the war continued, he became an integral part of the rebel army and "convinced his leader with competence, diplomacy and patience." at this point he was promoted to the commander of a second army column.
He became an extremely harsh disciplinarian who unhesitatingly shot defectors. Deserters were punished as traitors, and he was known to send execution squads to hunt down those seeking to go AWOL. As a result, he became feared for his brutality and ruthlessness. During the guerrilla campaign, he was also responsible for the execution, often summarily, of a number of men accused of being informers, deserters or spies. He also viewed his role of commander as one of a teacher, entertaining his men during breaks between engagements with readings and poetry performances. His commanding officer described him as intelligent, daring, and an exemplary leader who "had great moral authority over his troops." When the revolution began he distinguished himself as a bona fide war hero whose tactics were admired by the US Marine Corps.
To implement a portion of the plan to reform the country after the revolution his commander named him commandant of the a large prison. He was charged with purging the old army and consolidating victory by exacting "revolutionary justice" against those considered to be traitors. Serving in the post as commander he reviewed the appeals of those convicted during the revolutionary tribunal process.On some occasions the penalty delivered by the tribunal was death by firing squad. the newly empowered government carried out executions "without respect for due process." Although the exact numbers differ, it is estimated that several hundred people were executed during this time.
Some say he was delighted to officiate the executions at the prison. Some exiled opposition biographers report that he relished the rituals of the firing squad, and organized them with gusto. What is acknowledged by all sides is that he had become a "hardened" man, who had no qualms about the death penalty or summary and collective trials. If the only way to "defend the revolution was to execute its enemies, he would not be swayed by humanitarian or political arguments."
Along with ensuring "revolutionary justice", the other key early platform of the new Government was establishing agrarian land reform. Almost immediately after the success of the revolution he made one of his most significant speeches where he talked about "the social ideas of the rebel army." During this speech, he declared that the main concern of the new government was "the social justice that land redistribution brings about." (spreading the wealth around, eh?) A few months later on May 17 1959, the Agrarian Reform Law called on and crafted by our man went into effect, limiting the size of all farms to 1,000 acres. Any holdings over these limits were expropriated by the government and either redistributed to peasants in 67 acre parcels or held as state run communes. The law also stipulated that plantations could not be owned by foreigners. The government soon began land seizures included in the agrarian reform law, but was hedging on compensation offers to landowners, instead offering low interest "bonds", which put the U.S. on alert. To speed up the plan of redistribution, a new government agency the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA) was established to administer the new Agrarian Reform law, and quickly became the most important governing body in the nation with our hero serving as its head as minister of industries. Under His command, INRA established its own 100,000 person militia, used first to help the government seize control of the expropriated land and supervise its distribution, and later to set up cooperative farms. The land confiscated included 480,000 acres owned by U.S. corporations. Months later as retaliation, other countries banned the importation of our hero’s main cash crop, thus leading our hero to address over 100,000 workers in front of the Presidential Palace at a rally called to denounce U.S. "economic aggression."
He was then appointed as President of the National Bank, which along with minister of industries, placed him at the zenith of his power, as the "virtual czar" of the whole country’s economy. His first desired goal was to see a diversification in the economy, as well as an elimination of material incentives in favor of moral ones. He viewed capitalism as a "contest among wolves" where "one can only win at the cost of others," and thus desired to see the creation of a "new man and woman". He continually stressed that a socialist economy in itself is not "worth the effort, sacrifice, and risks of war and destruction" if it ends up encouraging "greed and individual ambition at the expense collective spirit." In his view, the "new man" would be able to overcome the "egotism" and "selfishness" that he loathed and discerned was uniquely characteristic of individuals in capitalist societies. In describing this new method of "development", he stated:

"There is a great difference between free-enterprise development and revolutionary development. In one of them, wealth is concentrated in the hands of a fortunate few, the friends of the government, the best wheeler-dealers. In the other, wealth is the people’s patrimony."

A further integral part of fostering a sense of "unity between the individual and the mass", he believed, was volunteer work and will. To display this, he "led by example", working "endlessly at his ministry job, in construction, and even working in the fields on his day off. He was known for working 36 hours at a stretch, calling meetings after midnight, and eating on the run. Such behavior was befitting of the new program of moral incentives, where each worker was now required to meet a quota and produce a certain number of goods. However, as a replacement for the pay increases he abolished, workers who now exceeded their quota only received a certificate of commendation, while workers who failed to meet their quotas were given a pay cut. He unapologetically defended his personal philosophy towards motivation and work, stating:

"This is not a matter of how many pounds of meat one might be able to eat, or how many times a year someone can go to the beach, or how many ornaments from abroad one might be able to buy with his current salary. What really matters is that the individual feels more complete, with much more internal richness and much more responsibility."

But…
Whatever the merits or demerits of his economic principles, his programs soon ended in failure. His program of "moral incentives" for workers caused a rapid drop in productivity and a rapid rise in absenteeism.
The revolution and the government it spawned lives on long after he was killed while calling for revolutions elsewhere, but his policies and legacies remain.
The Country still adheres to socialist principles in organizing its largely state-controlled planned economy. Most of the means of production are owned and run by the government and most of he labor force is employed by the state. Recent years have seen a trend towards more private sector employment. By the year 2006, public sector employment was 78% and private sector 22%, compared to 91.8% to 8.2% in 1981. Capital investment is restricted and requires approval by the government. The government sets most prices and rations goods. Moreover, any firm wishing to hire employees must pay the government, which in turn will pay the company's employee. Citizens can not change jobs without government permission. The average wage at the end of 2005 was $16.70 per month USD and the average pension was $9 per month.
Starting in the the late 1980s, the countries old trading partners started to dry up. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, it depended on Moscow for sheltered markets for its exports and substantial aid. The removal of these subsidies sent the economy into a rapid depression known in as the “Special Period”. Soon our little country took limited free market-oriented measures to alleviate severe shortages of food, consumer goods, and services. These steps included allowing some self-employment in certain retail and light manufacturing sectors, the legalization of the use of the US dollar in business, and the encouragement of tourism. It has developed a unique urban farm system to compensate for the end of food imports from the Soviet Union. In recent years, it has rolled back some of the market oriented measures undertaken in the 1990s. In 2004 officials publicly backed the Euro as a "global counter-balance to the US dollar", and eliminated the US currency from circulation in its stores and businesses.
Tourism was initially restricted to enclave resorts where tourists would be segregated from the rest of society. Contacts between foreign visitors and ordinary Citizens were de facto illegal until 1997. In 1996 tourism surpassed the farm industry as the largest source of hard currency for the country. The communist agricultural production system was ridiculed by one of the leaders in 2008 as the country now imports up to 80% of its food. But, before 1959, the country boasted as many cattle as people.
For some time, the country has been experiencing a housing shortage because of the state's failure to keep pace with increasing demand.Moreover, the government instituted food rationing policies in 1962, which were exacerbated following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Studies have shown that, as late as 2001, the average standard of living was lower than before the downturn of the post-Soviet period. Paramount issues have been state salaries failing to meet personal needs under the state rationing system chronically plagued with shortages. As the variety and quantity of available rationed goods declined.
That is how to transform a vibrant nation with a booming economy and free peoples to a poverty stricken cesspool in less than 50 years. The nation, if any of you have not figured it out is Cuba, and the Hero of our story, none other than Che Guevara, hero to millions of idiotic upper middle class brats and old hippies. Someday soon unless things change someone somewhere else will write a similar story about this Nation and BHO.

9/12: an accurate count on the real numbers

GO HERE: (thanks to LCR)http://www.scribd.com/doc/19743935/The-Real-Number-of-Protesters-Zac-Moilanen

Ants and Grasshoppers....

THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER This one is a little different.... Two Different Versions! ................. Two Different Morals! OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with thegrasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.' Acorn stages a demonstration in front of theant 's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake. Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on theant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by theGovernment Green Czar. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.. The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.

The New Party – A little remembered fact.

The New Party was a third political party in the United States that was active from 1992 to 1998.

The New Party was founded in the early 1990s by Daniel Cantor, a former staffer for Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign, and by sociology and law professor Joel Rogers as an effort to break with the largely unsuccessful history of left-leaning third parties in the United States.

The party could best be described as social democratic (for those that do not know, social democracy supports positions that include support for a democratic welfare state merging elements of socialism and capitalism, resulting in a mixed economy combined with a comprehensive welfare state) in orientation, although party statements almost invariably used the terms "small-d democratic" or "progressive" instead. Its founders chose the name "New Party" in an effort to strike a fresh tone, free of associations with dogmas and ideological debates.

After a false start in New York, the New Party built modestly successful chapters in several states. Some of these chapters — such as those in Chicago and Little Rock — had their main bases of support in the low-income community organizing group ACORN, along with some support from various labor unions especially the SEIU or Service Employees International Union. Left-wing critics of the New Party, such as supporters of the Green Party, argued that the New Party was merely a pressure group on the fringes of the Democratic Party, rather than a genuinely new political party

My point? We the American People were not told about these things during the campaign or before. If anything Beck, O’Reilly, and all the blogs have been too kind to the legacy media and the Oministration. The ties are deeper and worse than anyone ever imagined. Wait…you didn’t zoom in the picture did you? Look at it. That is right, our Dear Leader was endorsed by this “party”. This got like one mention in the press that I can remember during the election but BHO said that he was not a member of the party and the story lost traction and was forgotten. The more we learn of Van Jones, and the rest of the gang the more we seem shocked at the layers upon layers of connections to Statism (Socialism/Communism, etc.) and Radicalism. We recently learned that Valerie Jarrett’s mother worked for Bill Ayers’ Father. And that her Father in Law was friends with Frank Marshall Davis, who was friends with BHO’s Grandfather. Davis as we all know was a mentor to young Barry Obama-Soetoro. That they all knew each other is a given. I do not want to rehash what many of you know, and if you do not know it just Google those names together to catch up. The point I want to make is that how in heaven’s name did this guy get this far with these ties? We all know the corruption in the so called MSM. But I have difficulty wrapping my head around just how BAD it is. I knew McCain was a lame duck, but I didn't realize just how bad he was either. With all of this DIRT everywhere on the now pResident why on earth did McCain not capitalize on this stuff? How easy would this have been? Sour grapes now, I know. I guess I am just saying that some times I think that maybe, just maybe, I am listening to the wrong things and I have got it all wrong. Then I start reading and googling, and BLAMMO it is worse than I thought.

Make no mistake we have a Statist, Central Planning, Capitalist Hating Anti-Liberty Radical in the White House, and Race ain’t got a damn thing to do with it.