“A MAJOR SOURCE OF OBJECTION TO A FREE ECONOMY IS PRECISELY THAT A GROUP THINKS THEY OUGHT TO WANT…….UNDERLINING MOST ARGUMENTS TO A FREE MARKET, IS A LACK OF BELIEF IN FREEDOM ITSELF” ……..Milton Friedman
SEVENTY YEARS AGO, ON A SUNDAY MORNING, JAPAN UNLEASHED A SURPRISE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR CONDUCTED BY THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY……the attack was intended as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Fleet from interfering with the military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia, against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States. The base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. All but two of the eight were raised, repaired and returned to service later in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed, 2,402 American were killed, and 1,282 wounded.
The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War 11 in both the pacific and European theaters. The following day, the United States declared war on Japan. The lack of any formal warning, particular while negotiations were still ongoing, led to President Roosevelt to proclaim December 7th, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy”.
In this morning’s paper, there was an interesting article written by a guest writer named Daniel Burnett, who is associated with a non-profit group that supports U.S. colleges, who writes about the present youth of Americans, and whether they were living up to President Roosevelt’s prediction “always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us”. To which he makes the following observations “The historic significance of Pearl Harbor, it’s warnings against geopolitical complacency and its ongoing implications are not even concepts our college student would recognize. According to a study of college seniors from elite universities around the country, a third could not identify Germany, Italy and Japan as our wartime enemies… Almost two-thirds did not know the Battle of the Bulge occurred in World War II.
The sacrifices of our greatest generation are being lost on our youngest generation. This is not just of simply gathering facts and dates. It is about our obligation to teach our young people about the pilotable moments in the defense of the free world—–which still needs defending (maybe more than ever, with rogues like Iran, Pakistan, North Korea backing the mid-east turmoil) Let us not forget those who answered the call in Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, World War 1.
The Roman orator, Cicero is believed to have died on Dec.7th, 43 BC observed “not to know what happened before you were born, is to remain forever a child.”
Some abbreviated findings of this study. “only one quarter knew the significance of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation…….23% could identify James Madison as the Father of the Constitution, and only 60 % knew the Constitution established the division of powers……..a nationwide study of more than 1,000 colleges and universities found that 80% of the colleges don’t require students to take a fundamental course in American history……..a mere 5% require economics, barely 15% expect students to study a foreign language. Without a strong foundation, how the leaders of tomorrow can set the course for our future.”
The shaken nation that was pushed into war in 1941 was not the same nation that emerged in 1945. But if we fail to educate our young people on the importance of freedom, and the sacrifices of their ancestors, our young people will remain —as Cicero said—-children forever.”
“In the End, not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”… Martin Luther King Jr.
DEBUNKING THE ANTI-TAX MYTH…….Democrats are unanimous in charging that the debt reduction super committee collapsed because of the power of Grover Nor quest, whom Senator Kerry called “the 13th member of the committee, without being there”…….Senator Harry Reid suggested “maybe we should impeach Grover Norquest”……whom the Democrats now claim has replaced the Koch Brothers as the manipulator that now unseen pulls the strings of the Republican party…..nice theory. Except for the following facts:
1…Sen. Tom Clayburn signed the Simpson- Bowles tax reform that would have increased tax revenues by $1 trillion dollars over a 10 year period.
2…During the debt-ceiling talks, Speaker Boehner agreed to an $800 billion revenue increase as part of the “Grand Bargain”.
3…Super committee member Pat Toomey, proposed increasing tax revenues by $300 billion as part of the $1.2 trillion in debt reduction.
Leading, very conservative Republicans proposing tax increases!!!!! The Republican proposals raise revenues, by opening a gusher of new income for the Treasury in the form of loophole elimination. The Democrats, who flatter themselves as the party of fairness, are instead obsessed with raising tax rates on the rich as a sign of virtue. Has the President ever publicly proposed a single significant structural change in any entitlement? After Simpson-Bowles reported, in his February budget, in his April 13th‘framework”, during or after the super committee deliberations????NO. NO. NO. NO…… Another inconvenient fact, it was the Republicans who passed—through the House, the branch of government they control—–a real budget that cut $5.8 trillion of spending over the next 10 years. Obama’s February budget, which would have increased spending, was laughed out of the Senate, voted down 97-0. As for the Democratic controlled Senate, it has submitted no budget at all for TWO AND A HALF YEARS…..COPIED IN PART FROM Charles Krauthammer article Nov 30, Washington Post
THE SOLYNDRA MESS…..The Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, appear to have hit the “pause button” on their investigation into the failure of Solyndra, a solar panel maker that went bankrupt, defaulting on $528 million federal loan, made by the Obama’s Energy Secretary, which the Republicans hoped to prove this loan was a political favor to wealthy Democrats, chiefly George Kaiser, who Mr. Chu denied knowing who Mr. Kaiser was when he signed off the loan and said the loan had “been made only on its merits”. The Republicans, as their partisanship turned a legitimate inquiry into a circus of broad accusations aimed more at tarnishing the administration than enter into a serious discussion of our energy policies………guess there were some Republicans hiding in the woodwork….The Administration has approved about 48 other clean energy agreements, we now know that 2 have failed, have the other 38 been successful?………..back to the usual, the White house asked Herbert Allison Jr. a former assistant Treasury secretary to undertake a 60 day review of the loan program that have received loans and the financial condition of the recipients of those loans. CONGRESS MUST NOT LOSE SIGHT OF THE BIGGER PICTURE, THE NEED TO REPLACE ALTERNATIVES TO THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS, THAT ALSO PROVE THEIR FINANCIAL AND RELIABILITY TO THE REPLACEMENT.
DO WE WANT TO BE ANOTHER ITALY, GREECE etc.?………The Wall Street Journal calls the economic implosion taking place in Europe “crises…..The latest European country to hit the wall is Italy, whose national debt is 120% of their GDP, which translates that for every dollar their economy produces, they owe $1.20. When the Republican candidates for the presidency were asked if the United States should help the bankrupt Europeans, the answer was “NO”….should the IMF come to the aid of the EURO, the U.S. is responsible for 17%, by prior agreements, of the total advanced.
The way to deal with irresponsible behavior is not to find new ways but demand responsible behavior (are you listening Washington?). Over the past 5 years our national debt as a percentage of our GDP has doubled to70 %, where it stands today. Meanwhile our Congress is totally divided, some would have us believe that compromise is what always defined our political process. But what we are dealing with are fundamentally, irrevocably different views, resolution is what is needed, not compromise. This is the time for decisions and definition, or are we going to continue in the direction and materialism and bureaucracy and share the fate of Europe?
“When you think you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right”…..Henry Ford
STATE DEPARTMENT vs. FREE SPEECH………..This past July in Istanbul, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-chaired a “High Level Meeting on Combating Religious Intolerance “with the Saudi based “ Organization of Islamic Cooperation”(OIC) Mrs. Clinton invited the OIC to Washington for a conference to discuss “respect and empathy and tolerance” That conference is scheduled for December 12th through the 14th. For more than 20 years, the OIC has pressed Western governments to restrict speech about Islam. With the Islamic have developed an action plan that calls for “deterrent punishment “to all states to counter purported Isla phobia… The OIC does not define what speech should be outlawed.
Muslim reformers are widely and specially targeted for supposedly anti-Islamic speech. In Afghanistan a newspaper editor was imprisoned by the Karzai government for publishing “un-Islamic” articles criticizing stoning as a punishment for adultery. In Iran Ayatollah Boroujerdi was imprisoned for arguing that “political leadership “by clergy “was contrary to Islam. Egypt bans books and imprisons Muslims whose views’ contrary to start-funded Sunni center.
Encouraging a more civil discourse is commendable, and First Amendment freedoms mean the U.S. won’t veer down Europe’s path any time soon. But if the Obama administration is committed to defending Muslims and the OIC, it will soon undermine our way of life… President Obama should put a stop to this nonsense, and declare that in free societies all views and religions are subject to contradiction and critique—-and the OIC must learn to tolerate that.
IMPREGNATING AMERICA WITH ISLAM, SHARIA LAW…..”The one absolutely certain way to bringing to ruin, or preventing all possibility of its continuity as a nation at all, would to permit it to become a tangle or squabbling nationalities and languages.”……….President Teddy Roosevelt……..”Of all unwise and foolish things our Congress has imposed on the American people in the past 40 years, the late Teddy Kennedy’s 1965 Immigration Reform Act will prove to be the most dangerous piece, of legislation for the continuance of the United States……….While George Washington enjoys the moniker as “Father of our Country”, Kennedy may become known as the “Father of the destruction of our country.”……..Not only did his bill ram an added 100 million immigrants ( plus illegals , into the United States in the past 40 years, it can cram another 100milllion into this country by 2035, a scant 25 years from now, impregnating America with Islam, Sharia law and confrontation…….In 1990 less than 100,000 Muslims lived in the United States. In 2011 they boast over 7, 000, and 000; actually no one really knows the correct figure, which ranges from 2,500,000 million, upward. With 100,000 births a year, they can expect to add 5 million Muslims within the next 20 t0 30 years. As from this point in time, they have built 1,208 mosques across the USA. No women can enter from the front doors, they must use the side doors, no women can share worship with any men, and no woman can enter a mosque with their faces showing. If America expects to survive the 21st century with this nation intact, we must scrutinize all Muslims, we must impose a limit of Muslims immigrating to this country. Any need for proving this statement, one only has to see what Islam has done to France, UK, Norway, Holland, Belgium. Spain, Sweden and Austria. Or is this the route President Obama intends to create a more European way of life in the United States?
“Do, or do not, there is no try”………Yogi Berra
BLOGOJEVICH’S LENGTHY SENTENCE ….. The downfall of former Illinois governor ended last week with a striking long sentence that the judge and prosecutor said reflected the scope of his crimes and the damage he inflicted on public trust.
GUTTING IRAN’S SANCTIONS……The Obama Administration claims its economic sanctions will bring Iran’s nuclear program to a halt short of war. So why is it working behind the scenes to neuter the latest sanctions that Senate last week, 100-0? The rare bipartisan compromise imposes sanctions on anyone who does business with the Central Bank of Iran, TIME WILL TELL IF THIS IS ENOUGH TO CURB THE GOALS OF IRAN.
GOOD ENERGY POLICY…….Optimism is the one essential ingredient to maintain a culture. Today’s pessimism is rising in America, and our culture is at risk. As our country struggles with its recession, Americans are struggling to throw off a sense of depression which effects all generations. This need not be the case: there is a cure for this. There is a reason to be hopeful, because we have been blessed with new sources of energy. Alas if only the United States had a national energy policy, eliminating “not in my “backyard argument”. If our elected politicians could sit down and have a debate on energy, what is best for America, not a mindless drill-drill-drill policy without reasonable, not political, but a thought full debate that balances opportunity with risk, and demands that reusable mitigates to risk be employed. Since the last election, America and Canada have found sources of energy, especially natural gas that will develop to these countries, the lowest cost of energy in the world. Wind power, an in-constant source of power, has not been cost effective, and requires huge sums for standby conventional power. Professor Albert Einstein said it elegantly “All forms of energy consumption will affect the environment”, and natural gas is the least noxious choice, with reserves that are almost boundless.
“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it “
THIRD PARTY in 2012? There is little doubt that Americans are fed up with politics with an intensity that extends to both parties. So the time should be right to launch a major third party assault on bipartism hegemony. Those who consider mounting such a challenge get scarce encouragement from the recent history of third-party efforts. Should the “Tea Party” offer a candidate for president independent of the Republicans, it would most certainly doom the chances of the GOP, and would join those who backed Perot in 1992, and by Democrats against Ralph Nader in in 2000. Neither assumption can be proven, nor do both parties believe that both Perot and Nader ran spoiling operations. No matter how you package it, a vote for a third party, is a vote discarded…..an exception, in 1912 former Republican president Teddy Roosevelt leading the Progressive Party, split the GOP vote with William Taft and allowed Democrat Woodrow Wilson to claim the presidency. At this point in time, there appears to be one Republican, who could disrupt the possibility of having the Republicans voters’ choice in challenging Obama, that person being Congressman Ron Paul, of Texas, who is not seeking re-election.
The two major parties, for all the dissatisfaction with them, a third party amounts to having a franchise, like McDonalds and Burger King, the GOP and the Democratic party are a somewhat known quantity , while the third party’s burger is a mystery. It’s tempting to say “a plaque on both your houses “and taste the flavor other than chocolate and vanilla., but you have to realize that getting on the ballot as a third party, can be intimidating. Should the “third party” nominee win, he would have to govern with a Congress composed of Democrats and Republicans………history will cast this third party as a “SPOILER.”
UNTIL EUROPE MEETS AGAIN………..Another agreement to agree on not very much….This past week, 17 European nations, led by German Chancellor Merkel , signed a treaty that is supposed to protect the EURO, and the signing nations are to be a little “more German “about spending , deficits and debt.
I apologize for the length of this issue, but the news is changing every time one of our world leaders, sneezes……..until the next time, I’ll see you in the funny papers……….AP
AP is a good friend of ours. AP is in his 90′s and what a great guy. A veteran of WWII, successful businessman, family man, he even dabbles in art, and is quite good at it. During World War II, AP worked after hours painting nose art on the aircraft. This to bring in extra money, and I’ve heard…was the source of many, many, “good times” on the weekends! One of the planes on which his nose art was painted is now in an Air Force Museum. It’s name…”Shoo Shoo Baby!”
AP is a firm believer in our Constitution, and an advocate of our Founding Father’s principles! His goal through “The Revolution,” is to help educate as many people as possible to the corruption, power, and loss of our personal freedoms as he possibly can! AP, is a true American, and a man we are happy to be able to call, “our friend!”
Dub and Deb