Conservatives Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory
When I was a kid, there was a very simply rule of conduct, people in polite society did NOT talk about politics, religion, sex, or money in public.
In fact, unless you lived in the proverbial “one horse town,” your neighbors probably wouldn’t have any idea what church you attended.
A man’s vote or support for a candidate was a private matter and people who wore support pins did so only at political rallies.
That old saying, “No one knows what goes on behind closed doors,” was both a warning to mind your own business about my private life and a pledge that I won’t get involved in your private life.
Your salary, how much money you had in the bank (or under your mattress), and how much you spent or saved was simply private and personal information and most people had no idea how a person lived their financial life until the reading of the will.
Today, Republicans claim to adhere to the values that made America great. Yet, second only to blaming liberals and Obama for the destruction of America, conservatives do their darnedest to play the self defeating game of exclusionist politics all based on rejecting those basic rules of polite society Read more
A conservative’s take on the Ex-Im Bank
As a rock-ribbed conservative, I support the entrepreneurial dynamism of free markets. I believe entrepreneurs are more likely than government bureaucrats to build successful businesses and provide stable, good-paying jobs. I oppose government interference in the marketplace. I want government to spend less, interfere less, do less, and tax less.
So when a few fellow conservatives criticize plans to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank on grounds that it is just another costly government corporate welfare program, why do I strongly disagree? The answer is simple – the Ex-Im Bank is none of the things some of my fellow conservatives claim.
The Ex-Im Bank assists U.S. manufacturers – small and large – to export their goods to foreign buyers. Typically it facilitates loan guarantees for foreign buyers who want to buy U.S. goods. Whether it is big names like General Electric, Caterpillar and Boeing, or small companies (which comprise 87% of the bank’s transactions), the Ex-Im Bank helps their foreign buyers obtain financing so that American goods are sold and shipped abroad. This means more American employment and more exports. Read more
Apprentice in Chief
Presidential campaigns help indentify unelectable kooks like the screaming Howard Dean. They even help spotlight unprepared candidates like Rick Perry. They also have low job performance predictive validity. Read more
Another Day, Another Obama Plan
Op-Ed from Boston Herald 9/20/11
President Obama is ignoring the first rule of holes — when you’re in one, stop digging.
But no, after putting forth a $447 billion so-called jobs plan (which was really just a jobs plan for public employees and construction workers), he has now doubled down on tax hikes as his way of not only paying for that plan, but tackling the deficit it would increase.
So yesterday he unveiled a $1.5 trillion tax hike as the way of tackling $3 trillion of the deficit over the next 10 years. It came with the usual Obama it’s-my-way-or-the-highway threats. Read more
The Art of Killing Young Life
Young unborn tigers being killed in their mother’s womb is not accepted in our society. What about killing young unborn golden retrievers? If large enough, the baby retrievers would have to be removed piece by piece, or if almost full term, would have to be wholly removed and left to die outside of the womb somewhere. Read more
The GOP’s #Winning Problem
Why isn’t the Republican Party winning?
If you were to believe Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips argument, it is John Boehner’s fault.
“Charlie Sheen still makes more sense than John Boehner because at least Charlie Sheen is winning.”
While his analogy may lack some merit about Boehner, the Republican Party has certainly not drank enough tiger blood to make any headway in Washington.
Coming off a historical victory in November, the GOP has failed the communications war to keep the party, and country, energized. Besides repealing Obamacare, the Republicans only accomplishment has been to cut a few billion from the budget.
Are they afraid to win?
Pres. Obama is a Moderate?
In his Jan. 24, 2011 column E.J. Dionne asks if Pres. Obama should retreat or spend the next two years consolidating the gains Obama has made. My question is what gains has Obama made? Passing a bill that a majority of our country doesn’t want, that was passed before it was written, and one that barely got bi-partisan support is not much of gain. Or is Dionne talking about the gains Obama made in getting Democrats elected to Congress and the state legislatures? The idea that Obama has any gains to consolidate is wishful thinking at best and delusional at worst.
Dionne quotes a poll of Americans who believe Obama is a moderate. Obama is not a moderate. This poll of Obama’s approval ratings, an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll is not an accurate poll of public opinion. First it was conducted of people who only have a cell phone and do not have a land line. About 20% of all Americans only use a cell phone. Most of the 20% are between the ages of 18 to 29 years old. This age bracket voted for Obama with an unusually high turnout in 2008. These factors make the poll a biased… Read more
Cowardly spiritual leaders censor messages, not Big Brother
Some want you to believe spiritual leaders across the land are a bunch of cowards more afraid of the IRS than the Almighty.
For instance, Wayne Gruden, research professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary, recently opined that since 1954 the IRS has forced churches to refrain from promoting or opposing any political candidate by name.
“The IRS has insists that any speech by churches that deals with candidates for political office, including a pastor’s sermon, could result in a church losing its non-profit, tax-exempt status,” Gruden says. “This law has suppressed the valuable moral guidance that American pulpits could be contributing to our political process.”
Wasn’t it the president’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who preached, “God damn George Bush?” Haven’t blacks Baptists, Catholics and Jews used the pulpit for political change over the decades?
Was God truly kicked out of government schools that same year as some well-meaning, but ignorant, writers would have us believe? Students in my post-1954 generation prayed every time the words “pop quiz” or “test” were announced.
Like the previous myth, no church has ever lost its tax-exempt status. The only church to ever lose its IRS tax-exempt letter is the Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton, N.Y.…
Tea Party Endorsement Stress Trauma
The dreaded PEST is back with a vengeance.
Post-Election Stress Trauma emerged in the U.S. in 2004 after President Bush won reelection. The symptoms included feelings of sadness, frustration, isolation, bitterness, moodiness and fear. In severe cases it elicited irrational impulses to emigrate to Canada or even France.
PEST in 2010 has mutated into the insidious TEAPEST, which stands for Tea Party Endorsement Stress Trauma. It hit Republicans in the primaries first, but that’s a tempest in a teapot compared to what Democrats face. Read more
