A couple of Top 10 Lists

1) Poverty in Cities over 250,000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, August 2007

What do the top ten cities (over 250,000) with the highest poverty rate all have in common?

2) Same Poverty Stricken Cities
Mayoral Voting Habits

'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." — Albert Einstien

It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats---yet they are still poor. Is there a logical, or reasonable explanation? Are these two anecdotal tidbits related to each other? Does this illustrate some sort of cause and effect that is occuring within US cities?

First of all, this is not insanity. Rather, is is the purposeful deception of America's lower class by Democratic politicians. They have created a self serving monster that will require a massive grass-roots rebellion to correct.

In my opinion, the government run public schools are filling young minds with trash about the collective, when our freedom is attainable only as individuals. America has long been famous for "rugged individualism" bound tightly to Judeo-Christian morals and ethics. To loose sight of this is to fail to understand true liberty.

However, the democratic machine has determined that caring about an individual does not pay well. They have given up caring about unborn children, or the dignity that comes from a man's own self-respect. For all of Obama's chatter he turns out he doesn't actually give a rip about the individual. He didn't care about Officer Crowley, or Professor Gates, only the fact that this incident promoted divisive group think items for the news. The White House spokesperson said, "this is every black man's nightmare and a reality for many black men."

Notice how this went from being a case of Professor Gates' personal lack of wisdom and discretion and became, "every black man's nightmare." Just what scientific evidence supports this proverbial wisdom?

Nothing. Only the desire to subvert individual liberty through the collective mind.

Radicals and Socialists have long focused on this technique. The Democrats have long been instrumental in promoting this divisiveness. You see it in all of their plans for addressing the peoples needs. They want to tackle the needs of women, Hispanics, blacks, minorities, factory workers. These are large groups of people — not individuals. The individual can't give them the power that they want. It takes too much effort to work at the individual level, so what is needed is some form of organized effort.

You see, it is much easier if you can get community organizers to help create momentum. This momentum is otherwise known as "mob thinking." The word "mob" carries a specific definition in sociology. The definition reads, "a group of persons stimulating one another to excitement and losing ordinary rational control over their activity."

This is why large portions of America continue with their activity, even though it is irrational.

Unfortunately everyone going through a public school camp has been spoon fed this "mob think." Many under privileged individuals are forced into these schools because Democrats don't like School Vouchers. Have you wondered why?

The rewards of the Democratic run monopoly of the National Education Association are just too great to forgo. The results speak volumes.

The US spends more per capita than most countries, yet is not even in the Top 25 for Math, Science, or Literature. Yet, large cities continually vote for Democratically controlled government policy makers. This is the result of a very focused effort to appropriately propagandize individuals to think like the mob. They no longer see themselves as distinct individuals but instead see themselves as suffering personally from someone else's personal experience. This mob mentality is not only erroneous, it is extremely dangerous.

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."

— Abraham Lincoln

Single-Payer... Who? What? Really?

CBS News - President Barack Obama told the American Medical Association that in some countries a single-payer health care system “works pretty well,” the White House reaffirmed that people in those countries liked their health care.

Lunacy - pure and simple.

A simple, cursory review of the concepts in a “single-payer” system would expose the sheer lunacy of the idea.

So, let’s start...

Uhmm, “Single-Payer”... Uhmm... Let’s see, now, who would that be?

The Single-Payer concept gets generic public support because the consumer thinks the “Single-Payer” won’t be himself.

Then who will it be?

If not the Taxpayer, then, who? Ohh, yes, we will tax the rich! Those rich, nasty, and greedy CEO’s who are busy lining their pockets with our hard-earned wages.

Now, everyone, even those who are not Bible-thumping Baptist, ought to understand that men and women have shortcomings. In the Bible-Belt you will hear this referred to as man’s fallen state. This means, that even though we often aim at high moral standards for integrity, honesty, goodness, and charity—we often miss the target.

The Obama Administration has perfected the myth that government employees are gracious and loving civil servants, while CEO’s are greedy, evil monsters. This is entirely false.

Avarice and greed exhibit themselves universally. There are greedy individuals in government. There are greedy people in healthcare. Greedy men and women exist in the local school district, and in your state’s capital. Greed exhibits itself in the personal conduct of men and women at the supermarket, and at the local hardware store. It is a universal flaw in the fabric of the human soul.

Therefore, because this is man’s universal flaw, there is actually no difference between a group a greedy CEO’s sitting about a table making decisions and a group of dishonest politicians sitting around the very same table.

Remember, dishonest is dishonest. A dishonest criminal is no more, or less, than an dishonest politician. They are exactly the same. This conclusion ought to strangle your brain.

Please recognize that rich, nasty, and greedy politicians will be lining their own pockets with your hard-earned money.

Don’t fall for the lie.

Keep decision making in your own hands, where you can weigh accurately weigh the level of integrity, honesty and care you, yourself, bring to the equation. Then, focus on electing men and women who exhibit integrity, honesty, and sensible reason.

We the People

The following is a Reprint from FreeRepublic - It is worth reading (and forwarding...).

TThe emergence of the ruling class

VANITY | August 10, 2009 | Wildwood
Posted on Tue Aug 11 12:39:35 2009 by wildwood

Silent No More.

It became clear to me today.

The media are missing a significant piece of the puzzle in reporting what is happening across the United States. They cover the town halls and demonstrations in sound bites, moving quickly to elite panel discussions of how rude and discourteous taxpayers are being to their elected representatives, how this rudeness does not advance true discourse, how they are ruining their own arguments because no one can hear above the screaming, how the rudeness perhaps masks racism against the President of the United States.

Well, fine. Washington's not been listening anyway. That's why we're screaming. What have we got to lose, at this point?

The truth is this: we're not just protesting the government takeover of health care.

We're protesting the blatant and audacious emergence of a ruling class.

We don't like it. It is un-American. And unconstitutional.

Those of us who are conservative, a MAJORITY in this country, by our very nature do not protest. We do not get into people's faces. We do not march on Washington.
In the past, we didn't anyway.

We just paid the bills, made the mortgage on time, rolled our eyes when we saw healthy young couples buy steak with food stamps, groaned when we paid our taxes every spring and pursed our lips as we watched liberals try to steal God from every nook and cranny of our lives. We donate to the poor, volunteer at school and church and support all manner of beneficent organizations, more than any other group of people in the country.

Some of us voted for the first black president, gladly and with great hope.

Many of us voted reluctantly for a so-called maverick, who seemed to be more of a tool of the left than a guard of principles and conservatism, labeled a maverick only because he sided too eagerly with the left at times. We tolerated him, held our noses and went ahead and voted for him. Some of us stayed home.

It's true that 9/11 changed us. It struck deep in the hearts and minds of people who love this country.

Many young people responded to an enemy who threatens to swallow our way of life, who hates everything about us: our way of life, our love of country, our clothing, our music and, most of all, our religion. The young people see and understand the threat.

But still we did not stand up to the emerging ruling class. We hung flags, sent packages to our brave ones overseas, quietly went about our business sporting our patriotic bumper stickers and t-shirts, paid the bills and hoped for the best.

So why did the tea parties begin? What happened that snapped the attention of so many traditionally mute, law-abiding citizens?

I was talking to a liberal friend of mine one day and mentioned that I had attended a tax day tea party. He mocked me and sneered, "Nobody's raised taxes! You don't even understand the history of our country. You're protesting something that hasn't happened yet."

Ironically, President Bush is the one who started this revolt with the stimulus package.
"It must be done now!" they cried. "We must hire this [tax cheat] to run our finances and we must spend 200, 400, no EIGHT HUNDRED BILLION dollars to shore up our economy."

And where will we get this money?

Why, we'll print it, of course.

In circulation at the time this demand was made was $800 billion.

Breathtaking.

On April 15, 2009, we knew that the taxes we were paying now are only the beginning.

And the economy is resting on lacy porous bones.

We watched as Washington appointed dozens of czars outside the purview of any watchdog or accountability, had staffers write thousands of pages of legislation in the most obtuse language they themselves refused to read, and rammed it all through as quickly as possible before we could put down our cheese sandwiches and reach for the phone.

We watched as billions of dollars were thrown at companies with connections, while local auto dealers who had faithfully served their communities were cut off, bankrupted; we watched while people who had bought houses they couldn't afford were rewarded, and people who ran up credit card charges in excess of $10,000 were bailed out by our tax dollars. Why do I pay my mortgage, we asked.

The ruling class (those with botoxed foreheads and hair plugs) flies around the world on important missions, such as investigating global warming, in jets that spew thousands of gallons of fuel into the atmosphere, and are chauffeured around in their SUVS and limousines while advising us, the little people, to unplug our phone chargers from the wall and ride bicycles to work.

We watched while they voted each of their offices another $92,000 apiece in "petty" cash.

We watched their carefully staged and choreographed events whose purpose was to delude us into believing that things were all good, that everyone was in on the gig, that all change was good and that hope was still in store even as billions of dollars were routed toward crooked groups like ACORN and union thugs took over the once thriving auto industry. Under investigation in a dozen states, these groups are privileged recipients of our hard earned dollars, dollars representative of the time it took us to earn them, our lives.

So the cracks began with the stimulus package, which had even liberal taxpayers saying, "Gee, lots of earmarks in that package."

Regardless of the will of the people, the sneering ruling class patted themselves on the back, celebrated with raised glasses and rushed the bill through with an urgency that was so severe that, say, a President would surely sign it immediately when it hit his desk, rather than take his wife out to dinner in Chicago first.

Oh, wait.

Then they went to cap and trade. Billions and billions of dollars in taxes, regulations and restrictions in the way we live our lives. A few of us caught on, and we jammed the switchboards in Washington.

To no avail.

But then they reached too far. They reached directly into our daily lives to our health care.

Why? Because they could. And because this way they can complete the cycle of social engineering that is at the root of these legislations.

You're dumb for thinking government health care will end in euthanasia, they said, even though that is happening in Europe and the state of Oregon and the government is planning to meet with seniors every 5 years to discuss their end of life plans (hint hint).

You're deceived if you think government health care will lead to more abortions, even though it's in the bill.

You're a tool of the Republican party, the ruling class declared, as if those nitwits are organized enough to get THOUSANDS of people out for rallies for the Constitution and town hall meetings. Ha. Can you imagine?

They mocked us by saying, "But if you're on Medicare, you're already on government health care and SEE? It's not so bad." Yeah, except we heard you want to partially dismantle Medicare to pay for this other BIG government boondoggle. And many of us use

Medicare as supplemental, not primary, insurance.

You're being foolish, they said, if you believe that health procedures will be limited or controlled under government health care.

Except that the whole point of government health care is to save money, isn't it? ISN'T IT? And how do you do that without cutting?

By building parks and controlling our diets so we can all be physically fit and not get sick anymore? Those millions of baby boomers who are going to be taking their places as senior citizens will need to be supported by the younger workers in our society and you're going to CUT the costs of health care when they emerge on the scene as the largest segment of the population?

The President himself (or is it Himself) said you might be more comfortable taking a pain pill rather than having the procedure. His advisor, another Emanuel, believes health care should be determined by quality of life.

And who will determine that?

The ruling class doesn't want to drive out private insurance or tell you what doctor you must have, they claim, but it's too late. We're more informed than you are, we have YouTube now, and we've seen the President saying, with our own lyin' eyes, that the goal is universal single payer health care, yes, just like Canada, where you have to wait months to even get a doctor, where a movie star just died because they didn't have the equipment to handle her injury and where cats can get MRIs before people can.
We've had it.

Especially knowing YOU, the ruling class, will not even sign a commitment to enroll yourselves and your family in the same health care plan you want to herd all of us, the commoners, the peasants, the bourgeoisie, into.

So we took to the streets with our homemade (not mass produced) signs and our cheerful boos and our resistance to Nancy Pelosi's $550 million jets to sport her, the Democrats and the Republicans around the world and we started screaming, "Liar!"

We've been punched, slighted, abused, mocked and laughed at for believing in the founding principles of this country.

We’ve watched the great cities be destroyed, most of which are run by liberal and often corrupt governments. Even now, the wind blows through deserted streets and once grand buildings crumble under their own weight.

Last night the beloved Charles Krauthammer said our noisy protests are losing the battle. That the ruling class is winning because we are so uncivil.

No, dear Charles, a paradigm shift is reorienting this country. We have had it, and we know no other way to protest than this. We're screaming because we AREN'T organized and being told how to do this.

We're screaming and booing because YOU AREN'T HEARING WHAT WE ARE SAYING. You won't listen beyond your talking points. Instead you hold "telephone conferences" for people you invite and then have the local newspaper print the results. What a joke.

You HAVE to say we are shills for some organization because you don't want to believe what's happening. You don't want to see that we aren't going back to the way it was and that scares the ruling class as much as 1789 France.

This country does NOT have a ruling class, no matter how much you cheat to make it so.

CAN YOU HEAR US IN THE BELTWAY NOW?

And, HEY, have you read the Declaration of Independence lately?

It's a pretty revolutionary document, ya know?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

America in Decline

The Wall Street Journal had a great editorial Drill, Drill, Drill that makes an excellent point. Daniel Henninger says that the US Congress, Senate, and public, have purposefully chosen regress over progress. This purposeful decision maybe a mistake, but never-the-less, that is where we find the US today. The US has chosen to be unimportant economically, strategically, and technologically. (I'll add, about the only thing we excel at is porn, online gaming, and pro-sports. But, hey, were happy.)

The media pushes this nonsense at us and we start to think that this is the way the world really is. But, the liberal left, and the media, are committing fraud by only telling us only part of the truth--verses telling us the "whole truth."

For example, when every I see pictures of News about the Middle East, the scene is always portrayed as some poor dusty village. The News pictures always show us bombed out buildings. The women and children are always bedraggled. The public square and market place are in crumbling ruins. Life in this war-torn world appears to us, in the affluent West, to be a horrible existence, requiring US and UN Financial Aid. Maybe a little more compassion would right the lives of the stragglers milling about in the mangled public square.

Additionally, aside from an occasional Molotov Cocktail or rubber tire burning scene, men are not present in these poetic images. In my mind, I always thought the men were in the guerrilla camps training to slit Americans by the throat. No doubt the media wants us to think that the men are all dead at the hands of those "nasty Americans". In either case, the media has left holes in their story so that we are forced to make unwarranted assumptions about the conditions of life in the Middle East.



Here, another facet of the story that is never seen. The men aren't at home because they are away at their construction jobs, in Dubai. Note, Dubai has more construction workers than residents.

There's More -- If you look under the hood...

Now that you've had a day or two, to digest the parable, here's something to think about...

Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US , claiming they can't make money paying American wages. TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter's results: TOYOTA makes $4 billion in profits while Ford racked up $9 billion in losses.

Here's my take...and I'll start with some questions...

1. Do you think the Japanese management, at Toyota, is just better a creating a profitable mix of engineering and factory management?
2. Is the profit missing from Ford's results because the Senior Executives squandered the opportunity and gave themselves an undeserved raise?
3. Does either culture have any underlying contemporary ideas that would influence quality or workmanship?

The answer to the first question is 'No.' Both the US and Japan exhibit Top-Notch engineering and management skill.

The answer to the second question is, also, 'No.' Even if you envision the upper management of Ford Motor Company as unscrupulous scoundrels, they couldn't possibly abscond with several billion dollars in profit. Nor, could they successfully hide their thievery while posting record-setting corporate losses.

This leaves question number three, as a possible culprit.

Notice, that in our parable, the US company doesn't have enough workers. The parable implies that the organization is heavy with supervisory personnel and upper management. This leaves only one poor sap to row the canoe. The modern management team realizes the job of a 'rower' must be terrible. So they offer pens, pencils, and an occasional free dinner. The cultural reason for this dilemma is that, in the US, hard-work has no place of honor. All of the men and women, who used to be rowers, got promoted. Why? Because there is no value to manual labor.

Do you think the Japanese are just persuing the profit motive? Or, could there be real value and satisfaction in a job well-done?

This is a classic example of the promotion of humanitarian equality rather than the kind of God-given equality promoted by a Biblical understanding. In the eyes of our founding fathers, equality was a simple rejection of 'rights-by-birth.' There was no longer to be a king or nobility. Hereditary offices were abolished and people were allowed to flourish. People could reach whatever station in life their qualities and efforts could earn.

Equality of opportunity and equality before the law were realized only imperfectly but remained worthy ideals for Americans. In our modern era, however, the old-fashioned Puritan Work Ethic has been jettisoned for an entirely humanistic (as opposed to theistic) perspective.

Humanism is a thoroughly materialistic religion and can only measure equality in monetary or material terms. This modern cultural rejection of the honor of achieving excellence in all aspects of work, creates a vacuum where only the high-profile jobs receive any attention. Normal jobs are deprecated leading to the needless promotion of superintendents and management.

The contemporary disdain for the actual working class has been growing, recently. The result is illustrated in this parable. Even though the rower got some free ball point pens, his position is not viewed as valuable and his work is not seen as honorable. In fact, all of the soon to be promoted rowers never choose to continue in their productive positions. There is no honor in hard work. Yet oddly, people find honor in being promoted to relatively worthless positions.

The modern humanistic perspective that denies the value of the boot-maker, or bread-baker, does so at its own peril. In the modern factory, this misguided notion also leads to the promotion, and protection, of workers who are not actually contributing to producing a viable product.

The battle-cry for this destructive behavior is always, "People matter more than the products they produce." Yet, paradoxically, people can't be seperated from their own activities. These ideas actually represent a counterfeit Christian love being exercised as Altruism. It permits the promotion of the non-productive, while allowing the destruction of the productive.

All because, as modern humanists, "We care..."

An interesting Tale...

I've received the following Modern Parable, as an eMail forward, and I liked it... Except...

Its quite the over simplification and I think if fails to target the real problem. The tale is shown here for your perusal. Think about it, laugh, agree or disagree; then tomorrow I'll add some of my thoughts to the mix.

A Modern Parable

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (Ford) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River.

Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to four steering supervisors, three area steering superintendents, and one assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the one person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing TeamQuality First Program,' with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.

The End.

Thoughts on Commitment

If you haven't read the Shay story, read the article below. It is a well written piece. By that I mean that it is engaging, heart-warming, and inspiring. There are however several notions expressed which have no lasting value. The sentiments expressed are warm, but shallow. They are like a stone skipping along the surface of the lake, but never sinking in. You will particularly notice this point with regards to how the real world works, including how we interact with others, especially the handicapped.

The trouble here is the Grand-Slam theory of 'right-living'. If you pretend on a large-enough scale, everyone will feel good. Al Gore lives this lifestyle. His habits boast of excessive consumption -- large homes, private jets, and a generally wasteful attitude toward the limited resources of our planet. But, he feels good about his pretend Grand-Slam! He feels like he actually did something worthwhile at the EarthDay Concerts staged worldwide. He is satisfied that he filled several stadiums across the globe with people who care. But, in the end, nothing was actually accomplished.

The liberal bent does not promote success, rather, it promotes feeling good about pretending. As long as you gesture, or as long as you try, then all is well. Or, like Shay's story, if everyone pretends, then it must be true.

Consider the emotional baggage contained in this entirely fictional story - 1) Shay joins the game in the 8th inning, 2) It's the bottom of the 9th when Shay is due to bat, 3) The bases are loaded, 4) Shay is handicapped, 5) then, Natural Order Rules???

• Would it have been The Natural Order, if all of the boys had chased Shay away when he first arrived? Why not?
• Would it have been The Natural Order, if the pitcher had thrown Shay out? Why not?

You see, Nature has no hold on humans. We share an innate understanding of goodness, fairness, courtesy and we understand appropriate from inappropriate. These are Judeo-Christian values which we carry with us. This is how we understand the world. This is how we judge and interact with people. We cannot expect any appeal to goodness, caring, love, or friendship on the baseball field, if we swallow the pill that claims we are products of natural evolution. If the strong survive, how did Shay get here in the first place?

-- I'll tell you how...

Someone exercised more than a pretend Grand-Slam commitment to feeling good. Someone exercised a consistent, long-term commitment to Biblical principles which place intrinsic value on every human life. A happy home-life was made available to Shay because someone faced the hard dreary days of consistent training, frustration, and work to make it a reality. This is more than sentiment. This is a commitment to principles and reason. How do you get those from the The Natural Order?

The field of strangers didn't impact Shay's life. What impacted Shay's life was a caring and committed family. A family who faced obstacles on a daily basis, and yet, didn't always feel good about it. They stayed in the fight because of a commitment to principle, not a shallow commitment to pretending that Grand-Slams make the difference.