Friday, February 29, 2008

Media Dinosaurs, Newspapers, Dying Off, Soon to be Extinct!

Media Dinosaurs, Newspapers, Dying Off, Soon to be Extinct!
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No politics today. This is “pet peeve” day!

I’m sitting here at the computer anxiously awaiting the arrival of my morning paper. The problem is, it will not arrive before mid-morning when I no longer need it. Yet, I have paid for it in advance. It has gotten so bad they we will now leave today’s paper in the box and get it out tomorrow morning and read it, a day late, in order to have a paper at the breakfast table!

Oh, I have already driven to the nearest newspaper rack and purchased a copy of their competitor’s newspaper, and read it. Plus, I have been reading Google’s news since around 3 this morning. So, I am fairly well informed at this point in the morning.

But…

That is not the problem!

The problem is… I paid for a newspaper to be delivered to my home, at a reasonable hour. It is not coming close and this has been going on since last summer.

I have spoken with everyone from the carrier to the circulation manager… and… out of desperation, to the publisher himself, about the situation and nothing improves. It’s as though they don’t mind losing subscribers… and many in my small city have dropped their subscriptions for that reason.

Look, it’s not like newspapers are a healthy business right now. They are not. They are in serious danger of going the way of the dinosaur. You would think service to their subscribers would be the first thing on their “to-do” list, but apparently it is not.

I have a friend, way across this state that, receives the premier newspaper in the state delivered to his home… when he gets it! He is having the same problem we are having, out here on the coast, with an entirely different publishing company. So, I can’t help but wonder if this is a national tend.

Newspapers are fast becoming a thing of the past. Home delivery is on the way out… I know that. The papers are having a hell of a time getting carriers as a result of the cost of gasoline and upkeep to their vehicles. In some I cases, I am informed that newspapers have had to guarantee carriers “X” number of dollars, a month, before they will even take the job. Believe me, I understand that. But, do not sell me a subscription to your paper and promise to deliver it before a certain time in the morning and then be either consistently late, by as much as 2 hours, or more, or… do not deliver at all. There is no excuse for that… none, whatsoever.


Question: is it time to go back to the kids on bicycles delivering papers on a paper route within the cities? No gas! No auto upkeep… and Ma will see he’s up and gone on time. OK, I know it is dangerous for a kid on a bike out in the pre-dawn hours these days and times. The US is a much different place than when I was a lad.

I have watched the size of the newspaper page diminish. I have watched the thickness of the newsprint paper diminish, and I have now seen service to subscribers diminish. Is the newspaper business deaf, dumb, and blind? There are some very real reasons people are not using their product nearly as much these days… I mean other than disagreement with their biases.

I believe, if I were a publisher, I’d take a look at my publication as a business. If the publisher did that, he would readily see the problems with his business, why his profits have decreased or even ceased to exist. A newspaper is still a business like any other. A business’s first responsibility is to its consumers; it’s subscribers, in the case of the newspapers, and, of course, their advertisers. Believe me, once their advertisers become aware their ads are NOT reaching the numbers they were told they would, by the papers sales department, there will be a huge decrease in the paper’s profits. A newspaper can survive a good while with dwindling subscribers. But when the advertisers begin to fall off, death comes quickly.

So, maybe this is the swan song of the newspaper business as a “brick and mortar” business. Do you think so? Actually, I hate to see that happen, but it certainly looks as if it is.

In the meantime, my paper just lost another subscriber.

Longstreet




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Thursday, February 28, 2008

THIS IS A CROCK!



This is a CROCK!!!!!

See the story at:


That WAS NOT THE SORT OF FENCE WE WANTED!

THIS is the fence we wanted!

It is in Israel!!! Maybe the US government can contract with the Israeli's to build a fence for us, huh?

JEEEEEEEZ!
The Congress and the President have been playing us for fools on securing the US/Mexican border. Let’s face it, folks! Both the Democrat Party, and the Republican Party, want that border kept open and it WILL be kept open, by force, if necessary. THEY WANT those illegals inside the US. There is absolutely no other explanation!

The border will be open until the American people rise up, in righteous anger, and clean the Globalists and “one-world government” types out and install some “honest-to-God-Americans” where all the internationalists reside now.

Time is growing short. The US is about to be blended into Mexico and Canada as the North American Union. They are working at a fever pitch to have it a fait accompli before the majority of Americans understand what is happening. Heck, Canada and the US have already formed a separate Army made up of troops from the two countries! Think I’m making this stuff up? Google it. See for yourself! Or, go here:

All three of the candidates for President are open borders supporters. Tell you anything??? It OUGHT to tell you WHO is in CHARGE of THIS GOVERNMENT and WHAT THEY INTEND doing to the United States!
When I look at the candidates running for president, I shake my head and mutter: “What a mess! What an unmitigated mess! We don’t have a chance of survival!”


Longstreet

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This is a Mainstream Media Controlled Election Cycle!

This is a Mainstream Media Controlled Election Cycle!

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Has anyone noticed how skillfully the Mainstream Media has chosen the Republican and Democrat candidates for President this election cycle? Certainly you don’t believe you actually had anything to do with McCain winning so many delegates that he is already the nominee to be for the GOP? Surely you don’t believe you chose to support Obama over Hillary and, as a result, Obama is well ahead of Hillary in delegates. Surely you are smarter than that! Well, of COURSE, you are!

From the git-go this has been a primary season run by the left leaning liberal media. I mean from day one! They set up McCain, as the GOP nominee, because they know he can be easily beaten by the democrat contender… IF that contender is Obama. Then they began to prop up Obama… and have succeeded in pushing a man, with no message, way ahead of a former first lady who preaches her experience.

Now the second phase begins. It will begin slowly at first then build up to a crescendo. McCain must be torn down and as nearly destroyed as is possible. It has already begun. In the next few weeks you will see, read, and hear a host of derogatory stories on McCain. On the other hand, they will begin to play down the “messianic virtues” of Obama and much of what he says, and does, will not be reported. Certainly nothing derogatory unless it is a minor infraction that will not, in the long run, hurt his campaign,

The big Eastern Papers have already begun to unload on McCain. Just watch, as it gets worse. When McCain loses that infamous temper of his, and creates a front-page story it will be played as a man “out of control” and we must not allow a man with “anger control issues” near “The Button”.

Don’t you, Mr. and Mrs. American Voter, ever get tired of being used??? I know I do! I am sick to death of being a pawn in the hands of the media and the government. Our election cycles, these days, resemble more closely those of a third world country. Maybe we DO need outside observers.

An election, in a republic, is the means by which a nation beats back civil wars. Instead of fighting we peacefully go to the polls and register our complaints. But, more and more there is a sense among the voters of America that it simply doesn’t matter, anymore, that the candidate has been chosen for us LONG before any election is ever held. It is only a baby step from that realization to fighting in the streets.

Some of us already see this election for what it is. Most of us are residents of 6 decades, or more, and we have seen the change, up close and personal, and we know what we are looking at from experience. The youngsters do not… and it is they who must become aware that they are being “shafted” and if they want to save their country as a democratic republic they will have to take matters into their own hands.

Sad to say I am seeing nothing from the generation immediately behind mine… the so-called “baby boomers”, that would lead me to have any confidence In America’s future. The generation behind them shows me even less. The “Geezer” generation, myself included, is losing the energy to keep the continual pressure on a reluctant government and the there seems to be no motivation from the “youngsters” to do so. Without that “oversight” by the citizens the government will run wild… as it has already begun to do. Freedom is something to be trodden underfoot and forgotten.

Americans have grown tired of leading the world. We have grown tired of setting the standards. We have, instead, begun to look enviously at European Socialism with its hollow promises of “cradle to the grave care” by the government. It’s the lazy man’s way of life. It’s the way of life a simpleton yearns for. Yet that is what those who would be the leaders of this nation are promising and Americans are flocking to them.

In my youth Americans who would find acceptable that which Obama and Hillary are offering would be ostracized in their communities as some kind of “communists”. Back in those days we understood what socialism was and is. It is a soul rotting social disease. We fought Hitler and his Nationalist Socialist Party in a hot war to keep it out of America… and we fought the Soviet Socialist Republics in a cold war, for 40 years, to keep it out of America. But today we open the door wide and invite it in.

This election is a fraud, a sham, and a joke but, unfortunately, the joke is on America. And THIS time, he who laughs last, will, indeed, laugh LAST!

Longstreet




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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Democrats Demagogue Poverty. Again.

Democrats Demagogue Poverty. Again.
By Alan Caruba


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The Democrats are at it again. Both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama have made “poverty” a central theme of their campaigns, promising to lift up the poor and put a chicken in every pot, a large screen TV on every wall, and a new car in every driveway.

Predictably, the government, i.e., taxpayers, will be expected to underwrite a raft a new programs to alleviate the problems of the poor. Those of us old enough to remember President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” also recall that there were poor then and there are poor now.

On March 16, 1964, LBJ launched his War on Poverty with his Economic Opportunity Act saying that “It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty”, but we all know the causes.

Some poor people are born into poverty because their parents are poor. They often exacerbate the problem by dropping out of school, insuring that they lack an adequate education to secure jobs that pay well for real knowledge and skills. Others use drugs to escape the pain of poverty and often become part of the revolving door of the prison system. Some women become pregnant early in life without a husband and incur poverty as a result. Some are just lazy and think work is for suckers.

According to a 2004 article in the Christian Science Monitor, noting the 40th anniversary of the War on Poverty, as LBJ was announcing his plans the poverty rate in America was actually in decline from 22.4 percent to about 19 percent. The rate would fall to about 11 percent by 1973.

By the 1990s, public opinion about what should be done to reduce poverty and its cost to the nation had changed. Republicans advocated welfare reform, passed in 1996, and recipients were expected to get a job. The welfare rolls have since declined in most, if not all states.

Johnson’s War on Poverty predictably expanded the federal bureaucracy, creating a job corps, a work-training program, and work-study program. LBJ championed Medicare and Medicaid that later were enacted into law. Both, like Social Security, are tottering on bankruptcy in the near future and, of course, Congress has its head in the sand hoping the problem will go away.

The Democrats have always been seen as the party that has the greatest concern for the poor, while Republicans have been portrayed as largely indifferent as well as home to the nation’s richest citizens. Considering how closely the divide is in terms of voters, it would seem that both parties have an equal number of rich and poor. There are lots of Democrat millionaires and some like Bill Gates, the quintessential example of a self-made billionaire, are forever bleating about the poor. He is free to give away as much of his wealth as he wants, but many of the middle class are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.

A Washington Post article in August 2007 noted that, “The nation’s poverty rate declined last year for the first time this decade, but the number of Americans without health insurance rose to a record 47 million, according to annual census figures released yesterday.”

It should be noted that the decline in General Motor’s fortunes are closely tied to the health insurance demands of its unions. Across America, businesses sought to divest themselves of their employer-sponsored insurance coverage, thus accounting for the rise in the uninsured. Health insurance and poverty should be treated as separate issues.

In general, about 12 percent of the nation’s population has always been ranked as below the poverty line established to determine what it costs to live in America. This figure rises and falls with the cycles of employment and is affected often by events well beyond the control of the government. Globalization continues to have an impact.

The government, of course, plays a role when it raises the minimum wage requirements for small businesses and large. The utter indifference to the annual flow of a million illegal immigrants taking jobs that would otherwise be available to low income Americans is yet another factor for any rise in poverty.

The rich whom Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi seems to resent pay the vast majority of the taxes the government collects. “The rich have gotten richer, but every other income group under the Bush administration has lost ground,” laments Speaker Pelosi, ignoring the fact that she and her husband are very much among those rich Americans, as are all the members of Congress. This ignores the fact that America is all about getting rich.

Indeed, the failure of Sen. John Edwards’ candidacy, based on his “Two Americas” theme, pitting the rich, i.e. the middle class, against the poor, is a good indicator that most Americans understand the fundamentals of what causes poverty and what alleviates it.

Now the nation’s economy is suffering from the failure of the government to exercise oversight over the mortgage lending industry and Wall Street’s inventive schemes to bundle subprime mortgage vulnerability into new ways to make money. The failure to rein in the credit card industry will no doubt create a similar problem.

America has a portion of its population that is below the poverty line and someone should point out that America has always had this problem. The failure to address the invasion of millions of illegal aliens has put hospitals into bankruptcy, burdened school systems with millions more in property taxes to educate their children, and added millions to the cost of crime, law enforcement, and incarceration.

LBJ’s War on Poverty barely made a dent in it. Democrat proposals will also fail. Listening to Democrat candidates for president bleat about the poor should raise a note of caution because they clearly do not want to address the real problems facing the nation. In his farewell message, Sen. John Edwards said that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had pledged to make “ending poverty” central to their campaigns. It has never been done because it cannot be done.

There will always be poor Americans. Among the answers to solve the problem will be measures to encourage the creation of new jobs, reducing regulations that strangle growth, and reforming a poorly performing education system.


Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. He blogs at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/.

© Alan Caruba, February 2008



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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

“Guardians of the Faith”.



“Guardians of the Faith”.
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I saw this in the news over the previous weekend:


“The Archbishop of Canterbury is backing secret plans to create a "parallel" Church for American conservatives to avert fresh splits over homosexuality.” (From www. telegraph.co.uk)


You can read the full story here:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/23/nchurch123.xml

If you are familiar with the ongoing battle in the Anglican Communion then no explanation is necessary. It is the old battle between folks who are conservative and those who are liberal. The bottom line is: The conservatives have had enough and want out. Those tolerant Liberals, on the other hand will not tolerate them leaving and a battle royal has ensured. The battle is threatening to destroy the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Episcopal Church USA is the American branch of the Anglican Communion.

This battle has been coming for some time. I witnessed it from the pews. As the weeks and months went by, it became obvious to me the Episcopal church was on a course to self destruction and would have it no other way.

I must hasten to add that I am not a member of the Episcopal Church. I am a Lutheran who attended the local Episcopal Church, as we had no Lutheran Church in our town.

I cannot tell you how distressing it is to watch a church turn from the scriptures and embrace a modern day, nearly godless, form of, well, something or other. It certainly isn’t worshiping. It is more like a political meeting of leftists when the ministers speak of social justice, saving the earth from non-existent global warming, lobbying Washington for this or that.

See, folks, I go to church for one reason and one reason only. I want to hear about a fellow who lived over 2000 years ago. A man who, I am convinced was the Son of God, Himself. I want to hear the message that Man had, and has, for me. I want to hear Jesus Christ preached from the pulpit…. not politics!

I am firmly convinced that when one attends church once should leave one’s politics at the door, and that includes the pastors, ministers, preachers, or priests.

The mainline denominations in America have become infested with politics. It is a cancerous rot at the very core of the church and it is destroying the religious community. In a nation founded on the beliefs of the Judeo-Christian faith, it is rotting the core out of our nation, as well.

Look, if I want to hear someone ramble on about politics, I will turn my TV to Fox News, or CNN, or get on the Internet and read blogs. That is NOT what I go to church for. I go simply to hear the word of God preached, and to enjoy the company of fellow believers.

The hierarchy of many of the mainline churches has taken that away. As a result, these days, one can find as much inspiration, or more, at a civic club meeting as at a so-called church worship service.

Now… here’s the other thing: The hierarchy of the mainline churches does not seem to understand the fact that the majority of Americans are not interested in their brand of leftist pabulum. If they were, Americans would be flocking to the mainline churches. But just the opposite is happening. The evangelical churches are growing by leaps and bounds while the mainline churches are shrinking. Americans are going to churches where their spirituals needs are met.

(For a related article entitled: "Americans Are Switching Their Faiths", by Margaret Ramirez, go to:

http://www.bnd.com/news/nation/story/265616.html )

As a Lutheran, you may suppose that Martin Luther is a hero of mine. You would be correct. And, as I consider The Reformation, sparked by his attempt to simply “straighten out” The Church of his day, I am convinced we need a New Reformation today. The Christian church, today, as a whole, is in as bad a shape as the church of Luther’s day ever was!

The “church” has lost its way. This is not at all surprising. As St. Peter (while walking on water towards Christ) sank into the sea when he took his eyes off Christ, so the church is sinking… as a result of the exact same exercise! The church has allowed it’s attention to be diverted off things spiritual and onto things secular… and the twain cannot mix. The church, like individual Christians, “cannot serve two masters”.

I have spoken to national bishops of these matters… and my concerns. They indulge me… and then brush me off with platitudes, which interpreted mean: “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

So, here, as I see it, is the bottom line for the Christian Church in America, indeed, in the world. The existence, into the future, of the Christian church lies with the Evangelicals. Of all the branches of the Christian Church in America, they seem to be alone in their daily efforts to live into the tenents and the dictates of the Christian faith. They have become the modern day “Guardians of the Faith”.




Longstreet





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Monday, February 25, 2008

Is Barack Obama the Messiah???

Is Barack Obama the Messiah???
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The fanatical religiosity with which Obama’s followers are swept up would certainly seem to point to their acceptance of Obama as “The Messiah”. Those of us who have our feet planted on solid ground and know “in whom we believe” know it is bunk, but for those of the liberal persuasion, who do not have their lives grounded, Obama is something for them to grasp onto, and cling to, as a Savior. And they are doing it. No matter they are making perfect fools of themselves in the effort, but… you see… that is what happens to religious fanatics.

And religious fanatics are dangerous. Example: Islamofacists!

There is an article, by Jerome R. Corsi, over at World Net Daily, you should read. It is entitled: “Is Obama the Messiah”? You’ll find it at:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57090

For those of you who know little about oratory, allow me to share a little of my experience from my 50 plus years of public speaking:

There is a rare power in the spoken word. It makes no difference the language. If the words are strung together and presented by the orator with passion and sincerity, and “something more”, those words a can be moving and titillating and motivating… and a force for good, or a force for evil.

Now… about that “something more”… I think it is charisma. I say: “I think” because truly… I don’t know.

The definition of Charisma is: “divine favor”. Sometimes it is also defined as “gift”. Nobody knows “exactly” what charisma is. But whatever it is… it is powerful. When charisma is combined with the art of oratory… the oratory is elevated to realms of godly uttering. (Sorry to say… yours truly is not burdened with charisma… thank God!)

Now. Here is where it gets dangerous. If an individual is given the gift of the ability to orate… and the second gift, charisma, and that individual is inclined toward mischief, he can use those two gifts to get anything he wants, or go anywhere he wants, on this planet. He can mold and fashion a crowd of listeners into weeping lambs or raging wolves with an appetite to devour the world (as did Hitler).

I learned, while still in High School, how to work a crowd with the spoken word. I can remember feeling a power I rarely felt as a boy, when I was before a crowd of people speaking and holding their attention and taking them to emotional highs and lows and watching their eyes follow every gesture every body movement I made. I quickly learned that making every person in the audience feel that I was speaking directly to them, and ignoring everyone else in the auditorium, was the way to work a crowd. As I said, it is a rare feeling of power. To this day, I am more at ease standing before a crowd speaking, than I am in the crowd listening!

Where am I going with all this wandering?

I am attempting to shed some light on the reason the crowds flocking to hear Obama seem so attracted to him and seem so worshipful in lavishing their attention and praises on him. They can’t help themselves. It is truly a form of mass hypnosis. He has the rare ability to mesmerize an audience with his oratory and his charisma. So, to sum up, what you are seeing is, indeed, a form of worship.

So… is Obama the Messiah? Of course not! (Some may think he is A messiah!) What he IS… is a guy who has learned how to get what he wants using his gift of oratory and his charisma. That’s all. The problem is, those two gifts tell us absolutely nothing about the kind of man he is. Nothing! What we do know, from history, is that quite often many great orators have led their followers into destruction.

There is one thing I failed to include in the above passages. The really great orator, one with charisma, also carries a great responsibility… the responsibility to use his gifts in a responsible manner, never taking advantage of his audience. That is disrespectful. Don’t coerce them; don’t use them as a tool or a weapon. Too many times, down through history, it has been done and great calamities have ensued.

Obama is good. Often he is better than good. He is NOT great. Compared to the great orators of history he is a dud. But… here in America, where we have lost the ability to communicate to audiences, when a person comes along who retains that ability, he, or she, is immediately elevated to a position of prominence. It is a dangerous practice and one that can quickly lead to all sorts of mischief, for nowhere is it written that the great orator must be a person of great principle, or of great character.

How, then, do you know? How can you tell the difference? Listen to the words he speaks. Take no notice of the WAY he speaks. When his words hold no substance, save for the ability to inspire good feelings, then beware! You may, indeed, be listening to a huckster.

Longstreet




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Sunday, February 24, 2008

What Has Happened to the US Air Force?

What Has Happened to the US Air Force?
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I saw some statistics the other day that pointed out the fact that the US Air Force is now smaller than the US Army Air Corp was on December 7th, 1941. And since not every one is as old as I, and not into things military, especially anything that flies, allow me to clarify: Before there was a US Air Force, there was the US Army Air Corp. It was AN air force, but it was a part of the US Army. After the Second World War it was decided, by the powers that be, that the Air Corp should be separated from the Army and built into a separate service. Frankly, that never made much sense to me. But nobody asked me!

The Army has had an unrecognized air corp ever since… recon aircraft, helicopters, even some jets, and a few sundry other aircraft. Point is…the Army needed an air corp and it found ways to get around the Pentagon and develop those aircraft… and to equip them for the uses they had in mind. The arming of helicopters, for instance. That was strictly against the rules. The army did it anyway... and it has proved to be one of the most effective weapons on the battlefield today.

Back to the Air Force: They’re downsizing.

What? Downsizing intentionally… even when they are at such a low ebb in personnel?


Yes! They are! The end of last month (October 2007) Air Force personnel had fallen to 334,000. By October of 2009, the Air Force is supposed to have pared down to 316,500 airmen. The Air Force is also divesting itself of some 8,000 officers as well.

Nearby Fort Bragg is about to gain it’s own Army Air Field again. Pope Air Force Base is being evacuated by the Air Force and turned over to the Army. Air Force transport aircraft will remain, because, SOMEBODY has to ferry the paratroopers, equipment, and other essentials the HUGE Army base needs daily.

Air Force aircraft are ancient. Look at the B-52’s. The planes are far older than the men who fly them. Our fighter aircraft are beat up and long in the tooth. Training of US Air Force pilots reportedly is not nearly as good as it has been. So bad, in fact, that East Indian pilots are regularly beating our pilots in war game exercises.

I’m still having problems understanding why this is happening. I have no clue as to why the government would allow this to happen. The Air Force was to be the service to take us into space and to the stars. But, apparently that mission has been dumped.

So, why have an air force, anyway? What not put the Air Force back with its parent service the US Army? Rename it the US Army Air Corp, or the Army Air Force… and be done with it. Either that, or allow the Army to develop it’s own aircraft, and air service, for close ground support, etc, and do away with the Air Force as a service, completely.

I’m just asking!!!

Look, our military is in bad shape. It needs to be at least 2/3rds larger than it is today (I’d rather see it doubled in size!). All services. And we need a crash program to re-arm and re-equip the troops in all services. Hopefully a conservative Commander-in Chief will get that done.

In the meantime, I hate to see what is happening to our US Air Force.

Longstreet

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Saturday, February 23, 2008

Your Social Security Card as a National ID Card!

Your Social Security Card as a National ID Card

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All the talk of a national ID card is so much drivel!

We already have one.

It is probably in your wallet, or purse, even as you read this. It is your Social Security card with that big number emblazoned across it. That allows anyone with access to that number to learn anything the wish to know about you.

I still oppose allowing anyone to have my number until it becomes an embarrassment for my family. Some of us old mossbacks can remember when there was a notice at the bottom of our Social Security cards, which said it was illegal to use the card for Identification. Yep, for you young, wet behind the ears chaps, it was there. Right up until 1971. Then it was removed. Seems that someone forgot to create any legislation to back up what turned out to be a “suggestion, only”.

So, these days, your bank has your card number, your doctor, your hospital, your insurance company, heck, darn near every time you do any business of any consequence, you are asked for your Social Security number. When you hand the person requesting that card your number, you are placing your entire life in that persons hands.

I would like to see national legislation to make it illegal to use the Social Security Card as a National ID card. I know, I’m dreaming. It’s not going to happen. You see, the Congress really wants us to have a National ID Card. But, they know they cannot get that law through the Congress. So, they fall back to plan “B”… use the existing National ID Card, the Social Security Card.

Look, our privacy is gone. The days of “Big Brother” Government has taken over our lives. How many times a day is your photograph taken without your permission, without your knowledge? At the ATM machine, at the Super store, at the drugstore at the highway intersection, all for, as the signs say ”Your Protection”. Well, please stop protecting me! I’ll do that myself!

The cradle to the grave “Nanny Government” is a reality in America today.

Do you have a cell phone? Everywhere you go that cell is emitting a radio signal, which can easily locate your position at any given time. You car, or truck, may very well have a black box under the seat recording the last 30 minutes of your activities as you drive your vehicle. Information form those black boxes have already been used in court to convict drivers of traffic violations.

Many pet owners are now having computer chips placed under their pets skin to identify them. I’m not going there, but you know where natural progression takes that step.

The Southern States of the US fought a war just be “left alone”... and LOST! I think we are just beginning to realize how badly we lost!


Longstreet

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Friday, February 22, 2008

This, Then, is How STUPID We Have Become!

This, Then, is How STUPID We Have Become!
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My jaw dropped in utter astonishment when I read that the government (The US Government… I hope yours isn’t as stupid!) is considering placing the polar bear on some sort of endangered species list because its numbers are decreasing due to Global Warming!

So, what’s wrong with that? Well, in the first place, the polar bears numbers are increasing and have been for decades! The other problem with it is the fact that there is no Global Warming and, if anything, we are on the threshold of another Ice age… beginning almost immediately.

Now, those of you who go “gaga” over the fluffy, squeezable, polar bear need to know something. You’re being foolish! The polar bear is not only a predator; it is one of the most dangerous animals on the face of the earth. You like Grizzly bears? The polar bear is every bit the vicious canivore as the Grizzly, only… with a white coat! If memory serves me, they have no natural enemies… save for man.

Point is… the polar bear is alive and well and multiplying… so leave well enough alone! If not, we are going to have another catastrophe as a result of the” law of unintended consequences”.

Let me give you an example: I live in a Mid-Atlantic state. We’re a southern state but our climate is sort of sub-tropical. We’re located at that demarcation line in weather patterns at which we still have seasons. I am surrounded by wetlands… swamps, marshes, lakes, rivers, streams of all sizes. Dig a hole here, with posthole diggers, and at just over a foot you’ll hit water. (Before the drought, anyway!)

For many, many decades we did not have a problem with alligators. Then, along came the government and they put the gators on an endangered species list, The gators propagated, like crazy, and now, here in Southeastern NC, you have to watch where you put your foot when you leave your house. Gators are everywhere! It is all because the government, and the “greenies”, didn’t allow nature to take its course. (Another Gator was found shot and killed just this week. It was 12 footer.)

Wait ‘til you have polar bears digging through your garbage in Wisconsin and Michigan! Wait ‘til the polar bears, which have virtually no fear of man even now, begin slaughtering your pets, as the gators will do to our canine friends down here.

Look, messing around with the natural course of animals on the planet is akin to going backwards in time and changing things. It will screw up the future to a “fair thee well”.

Nature proclaimed, millennia ago, that animal species come and they go. The vast majority of animal species having lived on this planet are now extinct. Someday, man will be extinct as well. At least on earth.

Do you think I really cared that the red wolf was near extinction? Of course not! Do you think I really cared that the alligator was near extinction? Again…of course not! By the way, the red wolf will be wiped out again before too many decades are past. Farmers and livestock producers, across the nation, are silently shooting them and burying their carcasses as soon as one is sighted. Wolves are seen by most “reasoning” human beings as a menace to human society. Things that are a menace soon are eradicated. Let the polar bear range in populated areas and it too will be shot and killed.

What I am expounding here is what we used to call common sense. But, then, common sense is VERY uncommon these days.

When I hear, read, or see, an attempt at something as utterly stupid as declaring the polar bear endangered, I react in anger. Why? Because I know there is more to it than what we see on the surface. By and large, man, as a rule, is not THAT STUPID! Which means… there is something else going on here! What could it be, huh? Could it be just another way to keep the US from sucking the oil out of the ground in Anwr? Do you suppose? Well, of COURSE, IT IS!

So, this is not about polar bears. No! This is about turning the US into a third world country, by any means possible, and the poor ole polar bear is being used because it plays on the emotions of people who haven’t a clue that it is one of the most dangerous animals on the face of the earth!

Now, don’t think that is far-fetched. I saw men in the army who had never seen a real live cow before the army drafted them out of the asphalt jungle we call a city. I saw men chase a jackrabbit, across the plains of Oklahoma, in an attempt to “pet” it! Now, these were grown men! That was in the 1950s. Do you think we are any closer to nature in nearly sixty years? Not hardly!

The point is, dear reader, you’re being played for a fool… again. And it sure looks as if the ones playing you are going to win… again!

Longstreet

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Thursday, February 21, 2008

It Just NEVER Ends!

It Just NEVER Ends!
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Will the Clintons face a fraud trial BEFORE the election? Read the story over at World Net Daily and decide for yourself. You’ll find it at:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=56868

Question: Why isn’t the MSM reporting this?
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Is It Possible To Be Rid of the Clintons?

Is It Possible To Be Rid of the Clintons?
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Just for those of you in the ivory towers of the Mainstream media and similar towers for the Republican National Committee and the Democrat National Committee… you should know that out here, in the hinterlands, we are not talking about a McCain win, we’re not expecting a McCain win, and we’re not planning for a McCain win. Actually, we are counting on an Obama win. So far as we are concerned, the election is OVER! McCain lost. The Republican Party lost, big time, in the House and Senate and the Oval Office. It is a done deal. Many conservatives out here will not even bother to go to the polls and vote come November. Why should they? As I said above… they are convinced… as am I… that the election is over. The remainder of the campaign(s) between now and November is a “kabuki dance”.

OK, OK, settle down…. this is not pessimism. It is realism. The Republican Party has done a DUMB thing and they must pay the price. And they will…. and, sadly, so will the country!

The democrats have played their little game with Hillary long enough now. The old timers in the party were scared witless, for a few months that, somehow, she would pull it out and win the nomination. You see, the truth be told, the democrats are nearly as frightened of Hillary as are the republicans. These days there is actually hope, on both sides of the political spectrum, that American politics will FINALLY be rid of the Clintons! Even the super delegates seem to have gotten the word, do not cast your vote for Hillary at the convention.

Now, “this ain’t my first rodeo” and it will come as no surprise to you that I have deep reservations about a Hillary loss. The “Clinton Machine” always seems to have an ace in the hole they throw down at the last moment. I warn you… if Obama has a weakness, a skeleton some place, in a locked, secure, closet… they will find it… and expose it. “Obama on a Pedestal” could very well have feet of clay. As this never-ending campaign continues watch for the attempts to destroy Obama’s campaign. They are coming, rest assured… and they will be vicious!

So far as the GOP is concerned, the Republican Party may never recover from the 2008 election. Weeks ago, Rush Limbaugh warned that if McCain or Huckabee got the GOP nomination it would change the party forever. He was absolutely correct. As I write, a conservative party is in the formation stages. Conservatives are determined to have a home of their own and end the relationship with the GOP, which did not want them in the first place… only their vote every four years. Enough is enough! We have been told to sit down and shut up and take what was offered us, by the GOP, beginning with the George H.W. Bush nomination. We have done it... up to now… but no longer.

If you have paid attention to the numbers of votes cast in the primaries, so far, it is obvious that democrats are turning out and republicans are not. That SHOULD tell you something. We’re not interested in the “nominee-to-be”… John McCain. It should also tell you we are not interested in the ”new/old” direction the GOP is taking. The blue bloods and the country club set have retaken command of the GOP. That’s sort of the equivalent of changing captains on the Titanic... after the iceberg!

Of course, as I alluded to above, the Clintons could still pull out of their tailspin… but it is certainly looking doubtful. Those super delegates Clinton was counting on to throw the nomination to her are abandoning ship in rather large numbers and at an ever-increasing speed. That is BAD news for the Clintons. On the other hand it is great news for America. To be rid of the Clintons is remarkably akin to removing an anvil from the neck of a swimmer. Having the Clintons, (forever) hovering in the shadows of the US government, is a dreadful nightmare and one from which, I HOPE, we will soon be delivered.




Longstreet



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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Calm Sun, Cold Earth ... by Alan Caruba

Calm Sun, Cold Earth
By Alan Caruba




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I can understand why people believe that global warming is real and that all the things Greens say are true. One cannot read a newspaper or magazine, turn on the television or radio, without getting the Green message.

Since switching their message in the 1970s that an Ice Age was coming to the complete fiction of a massive, dramatic global warming due to greenhouse gases, the Greens have been able to influence policy at the international and national level. They have been utterly relentless, a modern version of the Mongols on horseback who swept out of the East to conquer everything before them until they reached the gates of Europe. These days the Greens have long since conquered Europe.

One thing alone stands against the Greens. The SCIENCE does not support them. Their sense of moral superiority, their contempt for all things modern, their resistance to all forms of energy except the weakest—wind and solar, and at the very heart of the Greens’ message is a contempt and hatred for the human race.

Humans have come to dominate life on Earth because we know how to adapt to the planet. We know how to use its minerals, the riches of its plant life, the domestication of its animals, and its reserves of energy in the form of coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear fission, to fuel the creation of great cities, farms and ranches, and everything that passes for modern civilization.

Long ago humans conquered the continents of the Earth and its great oceans to spread everywhere. Humans now fly between continents in hours. Everywhere on the face of the Earth humans now communicate with one another via the Internet.

For billions of years the Earth existed without humans and it will do so again when we cease to inhabit it. As a species, we are newcomers, but like every other species that lived on planet Earth—95% of which are extinct—we are subject to forces far greater than anything we possess.

To suggest that humans actually cause climate change is such idiocy that the Earth itself reminds us daily of our vulnerabilities. The news is full of tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and wildfires.

On February 7, Investors Business Daily had an editorial titled “The Sun Also Sets” in which it cited the views of Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada’s National Research Council. In essence, Tapping wants people to know that solar activity such as sunspots, i.e., magnetic storms, “has been disturbingly quiet.”

It’s useful to know that global temperatures and events closely reflect solar cycles.

The lack of activity “could signal the beginning of what is known as the Maunder Minimum.” While solar cycles tend to last about 11 years, the lack of normal or increased activity can trigger the Maunder Minimum, an event that occurs every few centuries, can last as long as a century, and causes a colder earth.

The most recent such event was the mini-Ice Age that climatologists date from around 1300 to 1850. In the midst of this there was a distinct solar hibernation from around 1650 to 1715.

“Tapping reports no change in the sun’s magnetic field so far this cycle and if the sun remains quiet for another year or two, it may indicate a repeat of that period of drastic cooling of the Earth, bringing massive snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere.”

If these events continue and become a cycle of cooling, it represents a major threat to the Earth’s population because it means that food crops will fail and, with them, the means to feed livestock, and the rest of us.

If you have been paying attention to global weather reports, you know that China has had the heaviest snowfall in at least three decades. David Deming, a geophysicist, in a December 19, 2007 article in The Washington Times, noted that, “South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918.” This occurred across the entire Southern Hemisphere. “Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26 years. Australia experienced the coldest June ever.”

It must be said that one big blizzard does not an Ice Age make, but a whole series of events that suggest a cooling cycle may well be the warning that is being ignored in the midst of the vast global warming hoax.

Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin, Merited Scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute. He recently published a commentary asserting that a global cold spell could replace global warming. Note that the Earth has been warming—about one degree Fahrenheit—since the last mini-Ice Age ended around 1850. “The real reasons for climate change are uneven solar radiation”, said Dr. Sorokhtin, while citing others that include the Earth’s axis gyration and instability of oceanic currents.

“Astrophysics knows two solar activity cycles, of 11 and 200 years. Both are caused by changes in the radius and area of the irradiating solar surface.” Yes, the Sun itself goes through periods of change. Dr. Sorokhtin believes that “Earth has passed the peak of its warmer period and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012. Real cold will come when solar activity reaches its minimum, by 2041, and will last for 50-60 years or even longer.”

There is a reason scientists refer to our current era as an “interglacial period”, i.e., a time between Ice Ages.

Up to now, the mainstream media has ignored the cold reality of the Earth’s known cooling cycles. They have been in complete thrall to the howling of Al Gore with his endless lies about an imminent warming. Given the accolade of a Nobel Prize and even a Hollywood Oscar, why should people unschooled in science believe otherwise?

The United Nations International Panel on Climate Change whose reports have been based, not on hard science such as observations of solar activity, but on flawed, often deliberately false computer models, has been the driving factor behind the global warming hoax. What better way to assert political and economic control over the Earth than to create a global crisis? To their credit, many participants in the IPCC have protested these reports.

Large numbers of scientists have sold their soul to the global warming lies in order to receive millions in research grants, but increasingly other scientists have been coming forth to tell the truth. On March 2-4, several hundred will convene in New York for the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change to offer papers and serve on panels disputing and debunking the global warming hoax.

Beyond the climatic threat of a cooling planet is the one posed by U.S. politicians and their counterparts in Europe who are seeking to impose all manner of regulation and limits on energy use based on the false assertion that greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming.

They want to mandate a “cap-and-trade” scheme that will make some people and industries wealthy selling credits that will permit greenhouse gas emissions. But it is not greenhouse gases we need to fear, it is the action or, in this case, the inaction of the Sun.

At the very moment the Earth is on the cusp of what is likely to be a very long cooling and possibly a full scale repeat of the last Ice Age, all the engines of government, nationally and internationally, are trying to inhibit the discovery, extraction, and use of energy reserves that will be needed to cope with climate changes that will impact millions and, ultimately, billions of people.

All the wind turbines and solar panels in the world will not keep you warm in your home or apartment when a short or long term cooling of the Earth occurs. Ironically, as the Greens rant about so-called endangered polar bears in the Arctic, the bears are far more likely to survive than humans.

What controls the Earth’s climate? The Sun!


Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. He blogs at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/.





© Alan Caruba, February 2008








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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Fidel Quits as President of Cuba!



Fidel Castro Resigns Cuban Presidency
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For the story go here:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UT9EKG0&show_article=1

I have to admit, right up front, that this story makes me feel really OLD! I saw Castro come into power and I am watching him leave power. I was one of those guys, in uniform, who sweated those 13 days when the US and Russia went eye to eye over the Russian missiles in Cuba. Every jet overhead made every one stop what they were doing and gaze skyward. The Muriel Boatlift when Castro opened the doors of his prisons and poured the baddest of the Cuban bad onto the US southern shores, once again duping a very “dense” man known as Jimmy Carter, our then President.

Frankly, I was hoping that at this point, or shortly after Castro’s death, (I mean hours) the US would invade Cuban and liberate that Island and make it, at the very least, a US territory like unto Puerto Rico. I don’t think that will happen now, unless the South Carolina National Guard happens to be available one weekend.

Look, the US needs that Island. How many times is the opportunity going to present itself and we stupidly take no action, or give it back after we have possession of it?

Cuba is closer than our backyard. Look where Granada is. We cleaned that rat’s nest out down there. Granada is in our backyard. Cuba is more like our back porch!

OK, so, Fidel’s younger brother, Raul, is taking over. Younger??? He’s 76 years old! Maybe that gives us a little time to get our “D” boys, here at Bragg, ready for some, uh, investigatory work in this prospective US territory. A little surveillance, a little map making, some photos, some target marking, etc., etc..

Anytime a dictator steps down, is removed, or whatever, it is good news. But, you’re not going to know that as the US Mainstream Media fawns over Castro for the next few days. They can’t help themselves for, by and large, they are socialist liberals themselves and actually admire Castro! Now that liberalism has been diagnosed as a mental illness those poor folks need to go in for treatment at the earliest opportunity.

In the meantime, let’s enjoy the exiting of Castro and await the invasion, shall we?!

Longstreet


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Monday, February 18, 2008

Dems Pleading with Terrorist Not to Attack US During the Campaign? Offer instant US Surrender in Iraq and the Persian Gulf in Return???

You have GOT to read this! The American Thinker has a piece by James Lewis that will curl your hair... if you are a conservative. Actually, you don't have to be a conservative. You just have to remember the Carter Adminstration and remember that it was THAT US Presidential Adminstration which is to blame for the mess in Iraq, Iran, and much of the Middle East today.


The piece by Lewis is entitled: "Is an October Surrender in the Making?"

The dems are so sure of themselves they are going right ahead and instead of measuring the Oval Office for drapes, hell, they are making foreign policy for the US! I think there is a federal law against that... somewhere.
As you can plainly see, from these antics, if we elect the dems to the Office of President again, the inmates will be running the asylum. If you don't believe that... look into the eyes of the worshipers at an Obama gathering. That is insanity you see peering out from beneath those eyelids.
Pure evil stalks the earth these days as never before. Worse, the only fortress against it is being laid bare by the Socialist Left in America itself. Their actions, as described in Lewis' article is akin to throwing the gates of the fort wide open. Do the dems care? Of course not. If that is the price of regaining power for them, then so be it! Fling the gates open and let the barbarians in!
Think, people! For God's sake... THINK!
Longstreet

The Obama Campaign: A Medicine Show! More Cult than Campaign!

The Obama Campaign: A Medicine Show! More Cult than Campaign!

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I keep coming back to this: The Obama campaign has gone WAAAAAY past politics and has become a religious movement! It’s downright scary. I have said in at least one previous article that the look I see on the faces of crowds at Obama events is the same look of ecstasy I saw, in the news reels, on the faces of women and men in the crowds at Hitler’s speeches. That is an unhealthy thing. In fact it could prove, once again to be damning for a nation. Just ask the Germans!

You should read: The “Audacity of Selling Hope”… by Charles Krauthammer. You’ll find it at:

http://larryh.newsvine.com/_news/2008/02/15/1303589-the-audacity-of-selling-hope-by-charles-krauthammer-friday-february-15-2008-page-a21

Perhaps I am older and as a result smarter than those obvious airheads who follow the Messiah Obama, but, for the life of me, I cannot fathom how any thinking, reasoning, human being can be THAT DUMB! Alas, I underestimate the job our government schools have done on generation after generation of American young people. Indoctrination in socialism and communism is “de regur” from the daycare centers to the Universities. As a result we have a couple of generations of Americans who don’t know who they, are, don’t know from whence they have come, and have absolutely no idea where they are going. They are lost. They are twisting slowly in the wind as targets for any conman who comes along. And he’s here to reap the harvest so meticulously sown for him by the Government’s Public Education system.










What, exactly, is Obama promising? Nothing. Well, not exactly “nothing”. He is promising hope for… well… hope! And let’s not forget “change”. Look, change for change’s sake, is well, nothing. I mean changing from the electric chair to the gas chamber to lethal injection, as means of execution is… well… change! The end result is the same… death. But, hallelujah, it is CHANGE! Come on folks! Get real! You are following a Pied Piper!

The only thing I see coming from an Obama Administration is ruin. There will be massive disappointment. There will be, as Charles Krauthammer says: “A rude awakening”!

There is an interesting Article over at American Thinker entitled: “The Obama Cult of Nonthreatening Personality”. We recommend it. You’ll find it at:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/02/the_obama_cult_of_nonthreateni.html

Obama’s cult movement resembles the biblical description of the movement of the Anti-Christ. WHOA! I’m not referring to Obama as the Anti-Christ, I’m simply stating that if one searches the scriptures one will fine alarming parallels between the story of the Anti-Christ and the Obama Cult. There is enough there that it frightens the bejeebers out of religious folk. Nowhere is it written that the Anti-Christ must be a “white guy”.

Again, let me emphasize… I am not calling Obama “The Anti-Christ”. I want that clearly understood.

There is something more than just “passing strange” in the fact that human beings will latch onto another human being, with the same frailties as themselves, in a quest for salvation. In the case of those attaching themselves to Obama, I daresay they cannot tell you from WHAT they are seeking salvation.

The human mind is a fragile thing. It is easily taken control of from outside the individual to whom it belongs. The right words, the right phrases, and the right implications and… whamo!!! … you’ve got them eating out of your hand!

If you are unfamiliar with what can happen to people who allow themselves to be swept up in a charismatic movement… then I recommend you look up “Jim Jones” and “Jonestown”. Just plug it into Google and read what you find. We have seen the catastrophe such movements have had on the human society, the world over, many times in the past. You would think, these days, we would be far too sophisticated to fall for such mind traps. But, no! If anything we are much weaker, now, as individuals and as individual thinkers. That makes Modern Man an easier mark and easier prey for those who seek power, fame, fortune, etc.

And it makes me suspicious.

If Obama does manage to get the nomination of his party, expect the Republicans to hit him hard on the “cult” thing. Just so, his empty promises will be dissected in public view as well. His pacifism and his extremely liberal record will be laid bare. Can he stand that kind of scrutiny? We don’t know. Equally as important, though… can his followers stand that kind of scrutiny?

These are all good questions and the answers will be coming sooner rather than later.

Longstreet


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Sunday, February 17, 2008

Feminine Culture/Leadership

April 2007
America’s Adoption of the Feminine Culture is Getting Us Killed!
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One of the first reactions I received by, e-mail, after the Massacre at VT was an inquiry: “Why didn’t some of those people tackle the shooter and disarm him?” I answered that the will to resist, to fight back, has been bred out of our younger generation. That is why the war in Iraq is being de-funded by the Democrat Congress. They haven’t the will to resist.

For a long time now, I have thought that if we assigned genders to political parties then the Democrat Party would be female and the Republican Party would be male. Now, even those lines have been blurred. I am afraid both parties would now have to be labeled as female.

I mean, look at the current government’s response to danger: Throw both hands up, and/or cover your eyes with your hands. That is a female response. The masculine response is to lash out and neutralize the danger. That doesn’t happen anymore.

If you don’t think it can get any worse… wait ‘til after the 2008 election. The next President of this country is going to be Mrs. Bill Clinton. Unless there is an act of God… that is a given! If you want a feminine country… you’re about to have your wishes realized. Cat fights, scratching and clawing, and not one good haymaker thrown… at all. Pitiful! Absolutely pitiful!

But this is what America has come to. A castrated society, frightened of it’s own shadow, cowering behind the skirts of a female president!

Look, the GOP hasn’t a hope of a snowball in hell in the 2008 election with the candidates they currently have in the field. McCain, Giuliani and Romney haven’t even a chance against the REAL democrat.

Harry Truman once remarked: “if you give Americans a choice betwixt a fake Republican and a real Republican they choose the real Republican every time”! I submit… it works exactly the same way when reversed!

If we have learned anything, at all, from the massacre at Virginia Tech, it is: one, that you cannot rely on the police to protect you, and two: you’d damned well better be ready to protect yourself! That means owning, and being proficient in the use of, firearms. If you don’t have a gun, you had better get one… and you’d better learn to use it and… you had better be ready to use it.

Be ready to face action against you, in court, if, and when, you use your firearm. We have a “saying” down South… “It is better to have twelve men try me than to have six men carry me!”

The anti-gun lobby is going to come down HARD on the Democrat Congress for more gun control laws. Count on it. It’s as sure as sunrise tomorrow.

It is well to point out, for those of you who may have forgotten, nary a single gun was used in the greatest murder of Americans in history... the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight 93. Not a single gun was employed. No… it was a few box cutters. (That’s a razor blade with handles!)

Look there is something terribly wrong with a society, which will allow a single young man, with only two weapons, (both handguns, at that) to cower an entire community of 25,000 people! If we Americans don’t “suck it up” and begin acting like men again, we can expect more and more of this type of attack! Being politically correct when someone is threatening your life… is a death warrant! You fight back, and you fight back as though your life depended upon it… for it absolutely does!

The answer to this is not to take away people’s guns! The answer to this terrorism, domestic or foreign, is to toughen up! The perception of weakness is an open invitation to get your bell rung! And ring it they will!

If America doesn’t get a grip on itself and forsake the feminine culture we have adopted, and get back to the masculine culture we have forsaken, we are doomed as a free people. We resembled nothing less, these days, than a wounded animal surrounded by a pack of hyenas toying with us and snarling in for the occasional attack. This behavior by a “former” world super power is embarrassing to my generation! It ought to be embarrassing to you, as an American, too.

Longstreet



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Saturday, February 16, 2008

Bipartisanship is the LAST Thing the US Congress Needs!!!



From January 2007

Bipartisanship is the LAST Thing the US Congress Needs!!!
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If you are a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent, or a member of any of the Sundry other political parties in America… “Bipartisanship” in the US Congress is the last thing you should want!


One can hardly open a newspaper these days without seeing an article by a member of the MSM bemoaning the lack of bipartisanship in the Congress. Warning flares should go off in your consciousness as soon as you see the title of such an article.


Why? Isn’t bipartisanship a good thing? Maybe in other countries… but not in the US.


Look, Americans have deep rooted differences about the way the country should be run. These are, or should be, core beliefs. All political parties have those differences. Otherwise, we’d have only one political party. Then we’d really be in a mess! No checks and balances at all.


Bipartisanship requires, of a necessity, compromise. It also demands consensus. Both those things are unthinkable to “THINKING” Americans.


Look, I take a position on things, anything, because I believe I am right. So do you. So do Republicans and Democrats and all the others. To compromise your core beliefs simply means they were not core beliefs to begin with… or… you are a weak individual and your willingness to compromise is a character flaw. The same holds true for a political party. Where I come from compromise, by anyone, is seen as a weakness of will. A lack of will power. It is not seen as a good thing. One who refuses to compromise, and sticks to his guns, is looked up to as a strong individual, as someone to be admired. You may not like his position, but damnit; you know where he stands… at all times!


Now… what of consensus? Well, consensus, plain and simple, is lack of leadership. It means there is no single individual in the group strong enough to lead and/or guide all, or a part of, the group, to his way of thinking. Consensus is that paved road to Perdition!


Every organization needs, and must have, a leader. Without a leader there is blind stumbling about and nothing, of any import, is accomplished.


In our Congress we have two sets of political ideas and beliefs. For anything to get done one side or the other must surrender that side’s principles. And it is a disgusting thing to behold! I would rather my side lose every vote and not surrender their beliefs than to win any votes by compromising them.


Currently the Democrats control both houses on Congress. There is no Republican leadership in the House and the only would-be leader in the Senate, John McCain, is more Democrat than he is Republican. We have a weak President, who is not now, nor has he ever been, a conservative. So Conservative Voters in America are without representation in the Government of the United States. Yet the populace of America is, far and away, conservative. This means, of course, that anything the government does is met with derision from the American population. This produces a constant state of turmoil in the country.


A bipartisan Congress would ride, rough shod, over the wants and wishes of the American electorate. Laws would be passed and freedoms lost in the blink of an eye. A bipartisan Congress would rule rather than govern. We would awaken each morning the find a list of new laws in our newspapers, which were passed the preceding day by the Congress. The weight of those laws would soon crush the spirit of the America.


No, Dear Reader, we do not want a Bipartisan Congress.


So, never mind when the MSM calls for more bipartisanship in Congress. Consider the source, an MSM that is slightly to the left of Karl Marx.


Remember this when you see all the articles in your local paper calling for bipartisanship in Congress. Remember it when the Dems or the repubs call for it as well. Know that Bipartisanship is the very last thing we need in the government of the United States!


Longstreet


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Friday, February 15, 2008

Why I Can’t Support John McCain Under Any Circumstances.

Why I Can’t Support John McCain Under Any Circumstances.
*******************

First McCain insulted my family, and me, in 2000 in South Carolina. I have had “zero” use for him since. If there were no other reason, at all, I would not support him for that insult and that insult alone.


My family has been in South Carolina since the 1700’s. My roots are deep in the red clay and sandy loam of that state. She nurtured me, she succored me, and she gave my family a home when they clambered down the gangplank of the leaky old wooden bucket they called a ship onto the wharves at Charles Town, South Carolina. They hiked inland to a place called the 96th Precinct and there they settled. 80 years later they were embroiled in a war to defend their state from an invasion from the north. A number of my ancestors died in that war. At least one was hung by Sherman’s troops as they marched through my hometown… burning as they went.

I tell you this to say that when McCain (or anyone for that matter) insults the flag beneath which they died, it is personal to me… extremely personal.

McCain did that. Had he had my support, prior to that, he would have lost it instantly. As is was/is, he never had my support.

Look, I admit being a throwback to yesteryear. Hell, I even want to bring back dueling! I think it was an honorable way to settle differences. Unfortunately the government didn’t agree with me… and South Carolina finally outlawed dueling in the 1960’s. DRAT!

OK, with the “honor” problem out of the way… McCain is NOT a conservative. I know, I know, there is an argument that he IS. I don’t buy it. I have watched him side with the liberals and democrats in the Senate way too many times. I cannot trust him to do the “conservative” thing on any matter, which may come before him. I simply cannot trust him.

And finally, I just don’t like the man! Sorry, but there it is. He walks onto a stage… and I bristle immediately. He strikes me as a bully and I hate bullies.

And yeah, I am catching hell from fellow republicans because I will not fall in line behind McCain. Even in my local barbershop, jaws dropped when I stated I would not, under any circumstances, vote for McCain… period. (And I won’t!)

Look, I have paid my dues to the Republican Party…. and then some. All I expect in return is for the party not to dishonor me, not insult me, and to live up to their promises, or go down in flames while trying to implement conservative polices.

The Republican Party has now changed. It is no longer a political party for conservatives. My “discomfort level” is such that I am currently looking at the American Conservative Party, which is now in the formation stages. (You'll find The American Conservative Party at: http://americanconservativeparty.org/ )


I am approaching my 7th decade on this planet. I have learned, in all that time, that my father was correct. I think it was Will Rogers who said: “The older I get, the smarter my father gets!” I have discovered that truth and before he died I made damn sure my father knew that I KNEW he was right all along. He taught me: Honor. He taught me to protect the family name from tarnish. He taught me to have respect. He taught me to do my duty… even in the face of adversity. And he taught me to always, always, be my own man, never compromising my beliefs to anyone for any reason.

Let me tell you, in this era of compromise, having the internal fortitude to stand by what you believe and not bend, come what may, is an extremely unpopular thing to do. But, then, I never much cared whether people liked me or not.

My decision on John McCain as President was made in 2000. Nothing has changed to cause me to question that decision since. In fact, much has happened to enforce my belief that I made the correct decision. In any event, I cannot in good conscious vote for McCain, and I won’t.

Please don’t expect me to help save a political party, which has used me, abused, me, lied to me, and even dishonored me. I cannot, I will not, do it. If you feel compelled to do so, then by all means do so. I will not try to dissuade you. But I cannot.

Longstreet

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