By Kevin J. Price
Recently the Obama Administration navigated another "jobs creation" bill through Congress. Correction, it was a "jobs preservation" bill designed to bailout fiscally irresponsible states that are about to pursue massive layoffs to get their spending back in line. If the Federal government "should" help the states, shouldn't it be for the important functions that would be lost if the governments were forced to do massive cuts? Instead, it is all couched in job protection and an opportunity to pursue efficiency in government is eliminated thanks to Uncle Sam and at the expense of the American Taxpayer. It is the continued demise of moral hazard that is further destroying our free market economy.
If Obama and Congressional leaders were serious about job creation, they would take a decidedly different approach. The following are just a few suggestions:
· Eliminate the barriers between people and jobs. This isn't done through temporary government jobs that will run out with the recent bailouts (like the bill passed this week), but through real jobs that create revenue for them to grow in number and in quality. Although I oppose a federal minimum wage, you are not going to make one go away. However, the federal government could mandate that each state have its own minimum wage law and allow them to set it based on the needs of the people and the cities. This would not cost the federal government a penny, but would spur economic activity immediately. Certain cities, such as Camden (New Jersey), East St. Louis (Illinois), and Detroit each suffer from an unemployment of around 20 percent. they need help like this immediately. In addition to creating jobs and solving employment problems where they are -- locally -- it would also help to restore the Federalism system that helped make this country great.
· Since businesses do not pay taxes (they are only tax collectors through higher prices or lower quality products), we should eliminating taxes on them. Taxes are simply a fixed cost for doing business, nothing more. If taxes are too high, businesses have no choice, but move to other countries where the rate is less so they can lower prices and be more competitive. Businesses do not take these actions because they are not patriotic. In the words of The Godfather, "it isn't personal, it's just business." Eliminating taxes on business would have a profound impact on high quality job creation. This policy would also encourage an increase in productivity and soften the blow of inflation. Finally and, maybe most importantly, it would help restore honest government when the voters face the brunt of the taxes directly.
· Ending taxes on wealth (and job) creation and replace income tax with a sales tax. This would eliminate the economic genocide against job creators we are seeing today and would more fairly spread the financial burden of government on all economic groups. If every economic group shared the burden of funding the government, that would encourage all groups to make government fiscally accountable.
The "band aid" approach of bailouts and short term fixes are only making our situation worse. There is a root cause to our current economic situation. Employing the strategies above would put the United States on the fast track for recovery and would lead to a more accountable government.
--
Kevin Price
Host, Price of Business, M-F at 11 am on CBS Radio News
Frequently found on Strategy Room at FoxNews.com
Syndicated columnist whose articles appear on a variety of media outlets.
His http://BizPlusBlog.com/ is ranked in the top 1 percent of all blogs by Technorati.
Kevin Price's Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/PriceofBusiness
Thursday, September 30, 2010
JUDICIAL USE OF TORTURE: DID MEDIEVAL EUROPE LEARN IT FROM ISLAM?
By John J. O’Neill
In my newly-published book, Holy Warriors: Islam and the Demise of Classical Civilization, I argue at length that a great majority of the things commonly regarded as “Medieval” were in fact introduced to Europe from Islam, and that it was Islam, and not the Huns, Vandals and Goths, which terminated Classical Civilization, the rational and humane civilization of Greece and Rome. This civilization survived in Europe and in North Africa and the Near East until the seventh century, at which point it was destroyed by the Muslim conquests.
In point of fact, Islam’s influence upon Europe was much greater than is commonly imagined, but that influence was entirely negative. Not only did the Muslims terminate Classical Civilization, but in time they dragged Europe, on many levels, down to a more barbarous level of culture. It was from the Muslims, for example, that Christian Europeans got the idea of “Holy War,” a concept that would have been unthinkable in earlier centuries. And from Islam too, the institution of slavery, as well as the slave trade, received a new and powerful impetus.
Contrary to the beliefs of some modern anti-Christian writers, Christianity brought an immediate and dramatic improvement in the living conditions of slaves, the poor, and the oppressed, in the Roman Empire. In Holy Warriors, I show how the Church, in the early centuries, bit by bit made the holding of slaves morally indefensible and eventually helped bring about the entire institution’s abolishment. And just as Christianity worked inexorably to alleviate the condition of slaves, so its influence revolutionized the penal code and led to more humane treatment of prisoners. The first step was taken by Constantine, who, out of respect for Christ, abolished the barbaric punishment of crucifixion. Constantine also attempted (unsuccessfully) to abolish gladiator contests, though these barbaric entertainments were in fact finally outlawed less than a century later, after a monk named Telemachus was killed by spectators whilst separating two gladiators in a Roman arena.
It was precisely the same with the use of torture in order to extract evidence or confessions: the Church worked to rid society of it. In the words of Philip Schaff:
“The church, true to her humanizing instincts, was at first hostile to the whole system of forcing evidence. A Synod of Auxerre (585 or 578) prohibited the clergy to witness a torture. Pope Gregory I. denounced as worthless a confession extorted by incarceration and hunger. Nicolas I. forbade the new converts in Bulgaria to extort confession by stripes and by pricking with a pointed iron, as contrary to all law, human and divine (866). Gratian lays down the general rule that ‘confessio cruciatibus extorquenda non est.’” (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. IV: Medieval Christianity. AD. 590-1073)
Thus the attitude of the Church until the twelfth century. After that however there was a complete and dramatic turnaround. From 1215 onwards, the Church, which had hitherto worked to alleviate the condition of captives, now became the advocate of the most barbarous forms of torture. In the words of Schaff,
“… at a later period, in dealing with heretics, the Roman church unfortunately gave the sanction of her highest authority to the use of torture, and thus betrayed her noblest instincts and holiest mission. The fourth Lateran Council (1215) inspired the terrible crusades against the Albigenses and Waldenses, and the establishment of the infamous ecclesiastico-political courts of Inquisition. These courts found torture the most effective means of punishing and exterminating heresy, and invented new forms of refined cruelty worse than those of the persecutors of heathen Rome. Pope Innocent IV., in his instruction for the guidance of the Inquisition in Tuscany and Lombardy, ordered the civil magistrates to extort from all heretics by torture a confession of their own guilt and a betrayal of all their accomplices (1252). This was an ominous precedent, which did more harm to the reputation of the papacy than the extermination of any number of heretics could possibly do it good.” (Ibid.)
What could have caused such a complete volte face? A clue perhaps comes in the fact that not all parts of Europe accepted the new directive with enthusiasm:
“In Italy, owing to the restriction of the ecclesiastical power by the [German] emperor, the inquisition could not fully display its murderous character. In Germany its introduction was resisted by the people and the bishops, and Conrad of Marburg, the appointed Inquisitor, was murdered (1233). But in Spain it had every assistance from the crown and the people, which to this day take delight in the bloody spectacles of bullfights. The Spanish Inquisition was established in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella by papal sanction (1478), reached its fearful height under the terrible General Inquisitor Torquemada (since 1483), and in its zeal to exterminate Moors, Jews, and heretics, committed such fearful excesses that even popes protested against the abuse of power, although with little effect. The Inquisition carried the system of torture to its utmost limits. After the Reformation it was still employed in trials of sorcery and witchcraft until the revolution of opinion in the eighteenth century swept it out of existence, together with cruel forms of punishment. This victory is due to the combined influence of justice, humanity, and tolerance.” (Ibid.)
That the Inquisition found its spiritual home in Spain is of course well-known: Why this should be the case is neither known nor understood. Explanations have tended to resort to chauvinistic or frankly racist statements about the inherent character of the Spanish people. Even Schaff hints at such when he refers to the Spaniards’ delight in bullfighting. But there is a far more rational explanation; one that makes perfect sense of the facts. Unique among the nations of western Europe, Spain spent many centuries under the domination of Islam. Now Islam, unlike Christianity, had no difficulty whatever with barbarous forms of execution such as crucifixion or with torture. Torture was employed by the Prophet himself, and in one notorious incident he had the Jewish leader of a community he had attacked tortured until he should reveal the whereabouts of the town’s treasures. When the man broke and revealed the secret, Muhammad nevertheless had him executed. (al-Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 59, Number 512).
Muslims of course have always viewed Muhammad as the model of the perfect believer, to be emulated wherever possible. And so we should not be surprised to find that torture and mutilation, as well as the most barbaric forms of execution, were regularly employed by the Prophet’s followers throughout the centuries. Thus the history of Islam in Spain, from its very inception, was little more than an endless litany of tortures, crucifixions, massacres and rapine. Historians of Spain, even those well-disposed to Islam, have as a rule been scathing of the new faith’s impact upon the country and upon the character of its people: According to Richard Fletcher, as Islamophile a writer as may be found,
“The period of maximum turbulence and dislocation in the peninsula as a whole seems to have been the half-century or so after the outbreak of the Berber revolt in 740. Breakdown of public order, disruption of administrative structures and legal routines, faction fighting and vendettas, the forcible transfer of communities from one place to another, random slave-raiding and cattle-rustling – all the things to which Theodulf referred in one of his poems, perhaps with an inward shudder, as ‘overwhelming disaster’ – all of these must have had the gravest social and economic consequences, at which we can only guess. In some areas these would last for centuries. In the tierras despobladas olive groves and vineyards would go untended, grass and scrub would encroach on road and threshing floor, squatters in the abandoned towns would look round in alarm for their children at the thud of collapsing masonry. Cities like Salamanca would not rise from their rubble until the twelfth century.”( Fletcher, The History of Moorish Spain, pp. 31-2) This description of the country is restrained in the extreme and glosses over or ignores the horrific reality on the ground. For the war brought to Iberia by the Arabs and Berbers was like no other. According to Louis Bertrand, rapine and destruction was the order of the day from the very beginning:
“To keep Christians in their place it did not suffice to surround them with a zone of famine and destruction. It was necessary also to go and sow terror and massacre among them. Twice a year, in spring and autumn, an army sallied forth from Cordova to go and raid the Christians, destroy their villages, their fortified posts, their monasteries and their churches …” (Louis Bertrand, The History of Spain (19 ) p. 91)
The Spanish Christians, intermixing with the Arabs and Berbers for many centuries, now began to adopt many of their foes’ characteristics:
“The worst characteristic which the Spaniards acquired was the parasitism of the Arabs and the nomad Africans: the custom of living off one’s neighbour’s territory, the raid raised to the level of an institution, marauding and brigandage recognized as the sole means of existence for the man-at-arms. In the same way they went to win their bread in Moorish territory, so the Spaniards later went to win gold and territory in Mexico and Peru.
“They were to introduce there, too, the barbarous, summary practices of the Arabs: putting everything to fire and sword, cutting down fruit-trees, razing crops, devastating whole districts to starve out the enemy and bring them to terms; making slaves everywhere, condemning the population of the conquered countries to forced labour. All these detestable ways the conquistadores learnt from the Arabs.
“For several centuries slavery maintained itself in Christian Spain, as in the Islamic lands. Very certainly, also, it was to the Arabs that the Spaniards owed the intransigence of their fanaticism, the pretension to be, if not the chosen of God, at least the most Catholic nation of Christendom. Philip II, like Abd er Rahman or El Mansour, was Defender of the Faith.” (Bertrand, Ibid., p. 160)
We note here that it was from the Iberian Peninsula too that in the fifteenth and sixteenth century a new age of slaving and slave-trading was launched. Bertrand continues:
“Finally, it was not without contagion that the Spaniards lived for centuries in contact with a race of men who crucified their enemies and gloried in piling up thousands of severed heads by way of trophies. The cruelty of the Arabs and the Berbers also founded a school in the Peninsula. The ferocity of the emirs and the caliphs who killed their brothers or their sons with their own hands was to be handed on to Pedro the Cruel and Henry of Trastamare, those stranglers under canvas, no better than common assassins.” (Bertrand, Ibid., p. 160)
That the Popes, inhabiting Italy, should acquiesce in the revival of torture in Europe, can also be attributed to the influence of Islam. For centuries the Italian Peninsula stood on the front-line of the never-ending war between Islam and Christendom; a war which the Muslims themselves decreed to be endless. Southern Italy, as well as Sicily and Sardinia, for some time suffered the fate of Spain – with the same results: Christians of those regions too now began to adopt the attitudes and customs of their Islamic foes. Some became involved in the slave-trade; others kept harems stocked with numerous concubines and presided over by eunuchs; still others revived the old customs of torture and crucifixion, customs long previously abolished by the Christian prelates and monarchs who reigned before the seventh century.
Holy Warriors: Islam and the Demise of Classical Civilization, is published by Felibri.
In my newly-published book, Holy Warriors: Islam and the Demise of Classical Civilization, I argue at length that a great majority of the things commonly regarded as “Medieval” were in fact introduced to Europe from Islam, and that it was Islam, and not the Huns, Vandals and Goths, which terminated Classical Civilization, the rational and humane civilization of Greece and Rome. This civilization survived in Europe and in North Africa and the Near East until the seventh century, at which point it was destroyed by the Muslim conquests.
In point of fact, Islam’s influence upon Europe was much greater than is commonly imagined, but that influence was entirely negative. Not only did the Muslims terminate Classical Civilization, but in time they dragged Europe, on many levels, down to a more barbarous level of culture. It was from the Muslims, for example, that Christian Europeans got the idea of “Holy War,” a concept that would have been unthinkable in earlier centuries. And from Islam too, the institution of slavery, as well as the slave trade, received a new and powerful impetus.
Contrary to the beliefs of some modern anti-Christian writers, Christianity brought an immediate and dramatic improvement in the living conditions of slaves, the poor, and the oppressed, in the Roman Empire. In Holy Warriors, I show how the Church, in the early centuries, bit by bit made the holding of slaves morally indefensible and eventually helped bring about the entire institution’s abolishment. And just as Christianity worked inexorably to alleviate the condition of slaves, so its influence revolutionized the penal code and led to more humane treatment of prisoners. The first step was taken by Constantine, who, out of respect for Christ, abolished the barbaric punishment of crucifixion. Constantine also attempted (unsuccessfully) to abolish gladiator contests, though these barbaric entertainments were in fact finally outlawed less than a century later, after a monk named Telemachus was killed by spectators whilst separating two gladiators in a Roman arena.
It was precisely the same with the use of torture in order to extract evidence or confessions: the Church worked to rid society of it. In the words of Philip Schaff:
“The church, true to her humanizing instincts, was at first hostile to the whole system of forcing evidence. A Synod of Auxerre (585 or 578) prohibited the clergy to witness a torture. Pope Gregory I. denounced as worthless a confession extorted by incarceration and hunger. Nicolas I. forbade the new converts in Bulgaria to extort confession by stripes and by pricking with a pointed iron, as contrary to all law, human and divine (866). Gratian lays down the general rule that ‘confessio cruciatibus extorquenda non est.’” (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. IV: Medieval Christianity. AD. 590-1073)
Thus the attitude of the Church until the twelfth century. After that however there was a complete and dramatic turnaround. From 1215 onwards, the Church, which had hitherto worked to alleviate the condition of captives, now became the advocate of the most barbarous forms of torture. In the words of Schaff,
“… at a later period, in dealing with heretics, the Roman church unfortunately gave the sanction of her highest authority to the use of torture, and thus betrayed her noblest instincts and holiest mission. The fourth Lateran Council (1215) inspired the terrible crusades against the Albigenses and Waldenses, and the establishment of the infamous ecclesiastico-political courts of Inquisition. These courts found torture the most effective means of punishing and exterminating heresy, and invented new forms of refined cruelty worse than those of the persecutors of heathen Rome. Pope Innocent IV., in his instruction for the guidance of the Inquisition in Tuscany and Lombardy, ordered the civil magistrates to extort from all heretics by torture a confession of their own guilt and a betrayal of all their accomplices (1252). This was an ominous precedent, which did more harm to the reputation of the papacy than the extermination of any number of heretics could possibly do it good.” (Ibid.)
What could have caused such a complete volte face? A clue perhaps comes in the fact that not all parts of Europe accepted the new directive with enthusiasm:
“In Italy, owing to the restriction of the ecclesiastical power by the [German] emperor, the inquisition could not fully display its murderous character. In Germany its introduction was resisted by the people and the bishops, and Conrad of Marburg, the appointed Inquisitor, was murdered (1233). But in Spain it had every assistance from the crown and the people, which to this day take delight in the bloody spectacles of bullfights. The Spanish Inquisition was established in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella by papal sanction (1478), reached its fearful height under the terrible General Inquisitor Torquemada (since 1483), and in its zeal to exterminate Moors, Jews, and heretics, committed such fearful excesses that even popes protested against the abuse of power, although with little effect. The Inquisition carried the system of torture to its utmost limits. After the Reformation it was still employed in trials of sorcery and witchcraft until the revolution of opinion in the eighteenth century swept it out of existence, together with cruel forms of punishment. This victory is due to the combined influence of justice, humanity, and tolerance.” (Ibid.)
That the Inquisition found its spiritual home in Spain is of course well-known: Why this should be the case is neither known nor understood. Explanations have tended to resort to chauvinistic or frankly racist statements about the inherent character of the Spanish people. Even Schaff hints at such when he refers to the Spaniards’ delight in bullfighting. But there is a far more rational explanation; one that makes perfect sense of the facts. Unique among the nations of western Europe, Spain spent many centuries under the domination of Islam. Now Islam, unlike Christianity, had no difficulty whatever with barbarous forms of execution such as crucifixion or with torture. Torture was employed by the Prophet himself, and in one notorious incident he had the Jewish leader of a community he had attacked tortured until he should reveal the whereabouts of the town’s treasures. When the man broke and revealed the secret, Muhammad nevertheless had him executed. (al-Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 59, Number 512).
Muslims of course have always viewed Muhammad as the model of the perfect believer, to be emulated wherever possible. And so we should not be surprised to find that torture and mutilation, as well as the most barbaric forms of execution, were regularly employed by the Prophet’s followers throughout the centuries. Thus the history of Islam in Spain, from its very inception, was little more than an endless litany of tortures, crucifixions, massacres and rapine. Historians of Spain, even those well-disposed to Islam, have as a rule been scathing of the new faith’s impact upon the country and upon the character of its people: According to Richard Fletcher, as Islamophile a writer as may be found,
“The period of maximum turbulence and dislocation in the peninsula as a whole seems to have been the half-century or so after the outbreak of the Berber revolt in 740. Breakdown of public order, disruption of administrative structures and legal routines, faction fighting and vendettas, the forcible transfer of communities from one place to another, random slave-raiding and cattle-rustling – all the things to which Theodulf referred in one of his poems, perhaps with an inward shudder, as ‘overwhelming disaster’ – all of these must have had the gravest social and economic consequences, at which we can only guess. In some areas these would last for centuries. In the tierras despobladas olive groves and vineyards would go untended, grass and scrub would encroach on road and threshing floor, squatters in the abandoned towns would look round in alarm for their children at the thud of collapsing masonry. Cities like Salamanca would not rise from their rubble until the twelfth century.”( Fletcher, The History of Moorish Spain, pp. 31-2) This description of the country is restrained in the extreme and glosses over or ignores the horrific reality on the ground. For the war brought to Iberia by the Arabs and Berbers was like no other. According to Louis Bertrand, rapine and destruction was the order of the day from the very beginning:
“To keep Christians in their place it did not suffice to surround them with a zone of famine and destruction. It was necessary also to go and sow terror and massacre among them. Twice a year, in spring and autumn, an army sallied forth from Cordova to go and raid the Christians, destroy their villages, their fortified posts, their monasteries and their churches …” (Louis Bertrand, The History of Spain (19 ) p. 91)
The Spanish Christians, intermixing with the Arabs and Berbers for many centuries, now began to adopt many of their foes’ characteristics:
“The worst characteristic which the Spaniards acquired was the parasitism of the Arabs and the nomad Africans: the custom of living off one’s neighbour’s territory, the raid raised to the level of an institution, marauding and brigandage recognized as the sole means of existence for the man-at-arms. In the same way they went to win their bread in Moorish territory, so the Spaniards later went to win gold and territory in Mexico and Peru.
“They were to introduce there, too, the barbarous, summary practices of the Arabs: putting everything to fire and sword, cutting down fruit-trees, razing crops, devastating whole districts to starve out the enemy and bring them to terms; making slaves everywhere, condemning the population of the conquered countries to forced labour. All these detestable ways the conquistadores learnt from the Arabs.
“For several centuries slavery maintained itself in Christian Spain, as in the Islamic lands. Very certainly, also, it was to the Arabs that the Spaniards owed the intransigence of their fanaticism, the pretension to be, if not the chosen of God, at least the most Catholic nation of Christendom. Philip II, like Abd er Rahman or El Mansour, was Defender of the Faith.” (Bertrand, Ibid., p. 160)
We note here that it was from the Iberian Peninsula too that in the fifteenth and sixteenth century a new age of slaving and slave-trading was launched. Bertrand continues:
“Finally, it was not without contagion that the Spaniards lived for centuries in contact with a race of men who crucified their enemies and gloried in piling up thousands of severed heads by way of trophies. The cruelty of the Arabs and the Berbers also founded a school in the Peninsula. The ferocity of the emirs and the caliphs who killed their brothers or their sons with their own hands was to be handed on to Pedro the Cruel and Henry of Trastamare, those stranglers under canvas, no better than common assassins.” (Bertrand, Ibid., p. 160)
That the Popes, inhabiting Italy, should acquiesce in the revival of torture in Europe, can also be attributed to the influence of Islam. For centuries the Italian Peninsula stood on the front-line of the never-ending war between Islam and Christendom; a war which the Muslims themselves decreed to be endless. Southern Italy, as well as Sicily and Sardinia, for some time suffered the fate of Spain – with the same results: Christians of those regions too now began to adopt the attitudes and customs of their Islamic foes. Some became involved in the slave-trade; others kept harems stocked with numerous concubines and presided over by eunuchs; still others revived the old customs of torture and crucifixion, customs long previously abolished by the Christian prelates and monarchs who reigned before the seventh century.
Holy Warriors: Islam and the Demise of Classical Civilization, is published by Felibri.
Temecula Constitution Class to Wrap Up Article I, Section 8
FREE CONSTITUTION CLASSES
We the People have the duty to restrain a government operating outside Constitutional boundaries. Douglas V. Gibbs invites you discover your American heritage and birthright. Join us on Thursdays from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm for basic Constitution studies held in the classroom next to Faith Armory, 27498 Enterprise Circle West, #2 in Temecula, California.
Free Pocket Constitutions will be handed out to all attendees.
Join in the cause of preserving our God-given Liberty and
restoring our Constitutional Republic. After all, if you
don’t defend Liberty, who will?
I'm An American, John Schwarzman
Upcoming guest on the Political Pistachio Radio Revolution, and his song of love for America. . .
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Ben Franklin Quote on Pride
"In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will now and then peek out and show itself." --Benjamin Franklin
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Obama: Christian by Choice. . . Yeah, by Political Choice
By Douglas V. Gibbs
Growing up I was taught that the Holy Bible is largely a history book. Later in life, my personal investigations proved my childhood lessons to be true. The stories contained in the Holy Bible are filled with important lessons, and some doctrinal passages, but the stories are primarily historical accounts of actual events. Mixed into those passages are also prophetic statements regarding the coming of Jesus Christ, and others regarding the future of Israel, and what is often referred to as "the end times."
Science has verified many of the stories, as has various archaeological finds. Whether you believe in the existence of a Christian God, or not, the evidence supporting the accuracy of the Bible's historical text is overwhelming.
Non-Christians tend to misinterpret Scripture, applying a doctrinal context to passages that are nothing of the sort, or by attempting to interpret passages without using corresponding supportive passages, or taking in account the context of the passage. Sometimes, the interpretation by non-Christians doesn't even come close to the context, or what was stated in the original text.
The term "My Brother's Keeper" is one such example. Though Christianity teaches we should be loving, kind, giving, and charitable, there is no passage that indicates it must be mandated through government, or that we should be our "brother's keeper." In fact, there is no place in the Bible where we are doctrinally commanded to be our "brother's keeper."
"My Brother's Keeper" comes from the story of Cain and Able, two of Adam and Eve's sons. Cain, out of jealousy of his brother, murdered Able. When confronted, he denied the action by saying he didn't know the whereabouts of his brother, and then asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" In other words, "am I supposed to be so responsible for my brother that I am supposed to always know his whereabouts?" The passage is in no way a command that we should be our brother's keeper.
In turn, Jesus never taught we must be our brother's keeper. It is our brother's responsibility to take care of himself. Like salvation, if a Christian desires to be giving, the choice must be voluntary, and the result of a decision made with both the mind, and from the heart.
Christians understand the context of the story of Cain and Able, and the "brother's keeper" passage. They understand why Cain said what he said. The lesson is as elementary for Christians as is learning the ABCs for school children. However, in a recent townhall meeting, Obama claimed he's a Christian because of the precepts of the teachings of Jesus Christ - but being one's brother's keeper is not one of the precepts of Jesus' teachings as Obama claims.
I desire to take Obama at his word that he's a Christian - not that it should matter. Liberals normally are the first to argue that there should be no religious litmus test in politics, yet they are defending Obama's self-proclaimed Christianity. But if Obama was truly a Christian, wouldn't he understand the context of the term "brother's keeper?"
Apparently, Obama does not understand it, because he indicated that being one's brother's keeper is one of the precepts of Jesus' teachings, and that is simply not true. Then again, every time Obama speaks of his supposed Christian faith, his deceptive nature becomes glaringly clear. I want to take him at his word he's a Christian, but his ignorance of the faith makes him look like a liar.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Obama says he's Christian by choice - Los Angeles Times
Bible Accuracy - Basic Bible Knowledge dot com
Science Proves the Bible - Truth For The World
The Geology of Noah's Flood - Healing The Land
Cain and Able - Light Unto My Path
Growing up I was taught that the Holy Bible is largely a history book. Later in life, my personal investigations proved my childhood lessons to be true. The stories contained in the Holy Bible are filled with important lessons, and some doctrinal passages, but the stories are primarily historical accounts of actual events. Mixed into those passages are also prophetic statements regarding the coming of Jesus Christ, and others regarding the future of Israel, and what is often referred to as "the end times."
Science has verified many of the stories, as has various archaeological finds. Whether you believe in the existence of a Christian God, or not, the evidence supporting the accuracy of the Bible's historical text is overwhelming.
Non-Christians tend to misinterpret Scripture, applying a doctrinal context to passages that are nothing of the sort, or by attempting to interpret passages without using corresponding supportive passages, or taking in account the context of the passage. Sometimes, the interpretation by non-Christians doesn't even come close to the context, or what was stated in the original text.
The term "My Brother's Keeper" is one such example. Though Christianity teaches we should be loving, kind, giving, and charitable, there is no passage that indicates it must be mandated through government, or that we should be our "brother's keeper." In fact, there is no place in the Bible where we are doctrinally commanded to be our "brother's keeper."
"My Brother's Keeper" comes from the story of Cain and Able, two of Adam and Eve's sons. Cain, out of jealousy of his brother, murdered Able. When confronted, he denied the action by saying he didn't know the whereabouts of his brother, and then asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" In other words, "am I supposed to be so responsible for my brother that I am supposed to always know his whereabouts?" The passage is in no way a command that we should be our brother's keeper.
In turn, Jesus never taught we must be our brother's keeper. It is our brother's responsibility to take care of himself. Like salvation, if a Christian desires to be giving, the choice must be voluntary, and the result of a decision made with both the mind, and from the heart.
Christians understand the context of the story of Cain and Able, and the "brother's keeper" passage. They understand why Cain said what he said. The lesson is as elementary for Christians as is learning the ABCs for school children. However, in a recent townhall meeting, Obama claimed he's a Christian because of the precepts of the teachings of Jesus Christ - but being one's brother's keeper is not one of the precepts of Jesus' teachings as Obama claims.
I desire to take Obama at his word that he's a Christian - not that it should matter. Liberals normally are the first to argue that there should be no religious litmus test in politics, yet they are defending Obama's self-proclaimed Christianity. But if Obama was truly a Christian, wouldn't he understand the context of the term "brother's keeper?"
Apparently, Obama does not understand it, because he indicated that being one's brother's keeper is one of the precepts of Jesus' teachings, and that is simply not true. Then again, every time Obama speaks of his supposed Christian faith, his deceptive nature becomes glaringly clear. I want to take him at his word he's a Christian, but his ignorance of the faith makes him look like a liar.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Obama says he's Christian by choice - Los Angeles Times
Bible Accuracy - Basic Bible Knowledge dot com
Science Proves the Bible - Truth For The World
The Geology of Noah's Flood - Healing The Land
Cain and Able - Light Unto My Path
Politics Over Prosperity. . . Democrats Adjourn Fearing Bush Tax Cut Vote
By Douglas V. Gibbs
The Democrats are running scared. They have spent the last month demonizing the Tea Party Movement as much as they can to stop the avalanche against them, and as a result, the number of Tea Partiers has tripled. And it turns out the Tea Party isn't some white, racist, fringe group either. Aside from representing a third of likely voters, it also turns out that more than one in three African-Americans support the movement. The hard left is making claims that isn't true because they fear the Tea Party, and they fear the truth.
The effects of the Tea Party has rippled all the way through Washington. John Boehner has announced that he had the votes to pass the full extension of the Bush tax cuts, but instead the Democrats voted to adjourn Congress rather than have the vote. A significant number of Democrats, 47 of them, want to extend all of the Bush tax cuts, including the tax cuts for those who make over $250,000 a year, the so-called rich. But the Democrats decided to vote to adjourn Congress rather than have a vote. They fear the truth of the insurrection happening in their own party becoming apparent. They would rather avoid doing what is right for the American economy, and get out of town instead. This would have made the vote for the tax cuts bipartisan, everything everybody claims to have wanted, and everything everybody thought Obama was going to do as president. But the Democrats have proven that their aim is power, and politics. They have no intent in allowing anything to happen that may disrupt their attack on American prosperity. They would rather avoid the vote, avoid the attention to their crumbling party, and run home so that they may campaign. They barely had enough votes to adjourn.
Now, what they need to be doing, is prepare for defeat, because for the Democrats, a major defeat is going to be handed to them in November.
The dire circumstances caused by Democrat control of the federal government was laid out clearly by yesterday's GOP Press Conference. "Fifteen million Americans are unemployed. Millions more have given up even looking for work. It is clear the economic policies of this administration has failed. But now Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats want to allow one of the largest tax increases in American history to take effect in just over one hundred days. And House Republicans won't stand for it. . . "
Hear the rest in the video below:
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Tea Party Movement Emerges As Major Force - Fox News
Surprise! 1/3 of blacks back tea-party movement: 'The wheels on the race-card bus are beginning to fall off' - World Net Daily
Boehner surprise: Dems barely get votes to adjourn after floor speech - The Hill
The Democrats are running scared. They have spent the last month demonizing the Tea Party Movement as much as they can to stop the avalanche against them, and as a result, the number of Tea Partiers has tripled. And it turns out the Tea Party isn't some white, racist, fringe group either. Aside from representing a third of likely voters, it also turns out that more than one in three African-Americans support the movement. The hard left is making claims that isn't true because they fear the Tea Party, and they fear the truth.
The effects of the Tea Party has rippled all the way through Washington. John Boehner has announced that he had the votes to pass the full extension of the Bush tax cuts, but instead the Democrats voted to adjourn Congress rather than have the vote. A significant number of Democrats, 47 of them, want to extend all of the Bush tax cuts, including the tax cuts for those who make over $250,000 a year, the so-called rich. But the Democrats decided to vote to adjourn Congress rather than have a vote. They fear the truth of the insurrection happening in their own party becoming apparent. They would rather avoid doing what is right for the American economy, and get out of town instead. This would have made the vote for the tax cuts bipartisan, everything everybody claims to have wanted, and everything everybody thought Obama was going to do as president. But the Democrats have proven that their aim is power, and politics. They have no intent in allowing anything to happen that may disrupt their attack on American prosperity. They would rather avoid the vote, avoid the attention to their crumbling party, and run home so that they may campaign. They barely had enough votes to adjourn.
Now, what they need to be doing, is prepare for defeat, because for the Democrats, a major defeat is going to be handed to them in November.
The dire circumstances caused by Democrat control of the federal government was laid out clearly by yesterday's GOP Press Conference. "Fifteen million Americans are unemployed. Millions more have given up even looking for work. It is clear the economic policies of this administration has failed. But now Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats want to allow one of the largest tax increases in American history to take effect in just over one hundred days. And House Republicans won't stand for it. . . "
Hear the rest in the video below:
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Tea Party Movement Emerges As Major Force - Fox News
Surprise! 1/3 of blacks back tea-party movement: 'The wheels on the race-card bus are beginning to fall off' - World Net Daily
Boehner surprise: Dems barely get votes to adjourn after floor speech - The Hill
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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Obama's Top Priority, Uh, Priorities, Uh, Lip Service
Obama's Top Priority from RightChange on Vimeo.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Democrat Alan Grayson Cherry Picks Dan Webster's Words to Decieve
In context, the Biblical verses call for submission to each other in a relationship. Marriages grow when the members of the relationship serve each other in a manner prescribed by Biblical text. The man, biblically, is charged to love his wife as Christ loves the Church.
Grayson, however, is trying to create an anti-Christian fervor against his opponent, Dan Webster, even if it means cherry picking Webster's words to make it sound like he is saying something he never said. . .
VIDEO
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Grayson, however, is trying to create an anti-Christian fervor against his opponent, Dan Webster, even if it means cherry picking Webster's words to make it sound like he is saying something he never said. . .
VIDEO
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
After Terrorist Threats, Eiffel Tower Opens Again
By Douglas V. Gibbs
In France, a European country where the Muslim population is reaching numbers that has Islam feeling pretty emboldened, French society has been wracked with terrorist threats of late. In fact, there have been so many threats in Paris that the Eiffel Tower has been closed twice in the last two weeks. The recent threats of terror attacks are specifically targeting crowds, such as the crowds of tourists that flock to the tremendous tower in Paris.
Bomb experts were involved in the latest closing of the Eiffel Tower, but found no evidence of explosives, or other terrorist items. The tower was closed for two hours during the investigation.
Local authorities suspect al-Qaida's North African branch of plotting a bomb attack on a crowded location in France. His warning came after Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, claimed responsibility for the Sept. 16 abduction of five French nationals and two Africans in northern Niger.
In the hopes of combating the Islamization of France, the French parliament recently voted to ban burqa-style Islamic veils in France. Counterterrorism officials say that the vote is just one of several variables that may be increasing the liklihood of a terrorist attack.
It is fascinating that these people never get that Islam engages in terrorism against The West because Muslims hate non-Muslims, and especially hate The West, regardless of what we do.
Challenging the Islamization of The West is not only recommended, but is necessary.
Otherwise, the dominoes are set to fall. . . and without standing up to this radical ideology, they will fall.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Eiffel Tower Reopens After Telephoned Bomb Threat - ABC News
Michigan Deputy Attorney General Andrew Leo Shirvell Targets Gay College Student
By Douglas V. Gibbs
My personal opinion is that homosexuality is a sexual deviation, and should not be justified as normal. The gay behavior should not be taught as something good to our children in the public schools, and should not be able to change the language regarding the definition of marriage. That said, we must also recognize that in a free society such as America's, people are free to do things that may not be societally accepted. In other words, though groups, such as conservatives, are characteristically against the gay agenda's attack on the sanctity of marriage, and the attempt to force societal acceptance through tactics of thuggery and deception, the right of an individual to be gay remains intact. Homosexuals have every right to practice their deviant behavior. However, gays must also recognize that those that disagree with their behavior also have a right, in a free society, to voice opinions of opposition.
The question, however, is whether or not someone in public employment has a right to their First Amendment right of free speech, or must such people exhibit no opinion regarding an issue like homosexuality.
Andrew Leo Shirvell is Michigan's Deputy Attorney General, who is now under scrutinization for his actions in regards to his opinions regarding one of the most pressing cultural issues of the day, homosexuality, and its growing presence on college campuses. Mr. Shrivell has made it his personal crusade to expose the University of Michigan's gay Student Body President Chris Armstrong. His crusade is not only against this single individual, but his growing concern regarding the presence of gay orgies at his alma mater.
To expose the facts about these homosexual activities, Shirvell has a personal blog, where he criticizes the activities, and has called Armstrong a “Nazi-like viciously militant homosexual activist” who is “Satan’s representative on the Student Assembly.” Shrivell has done this not just once, but many times over. In fact, his entire blog is dedicated to "battling" college homosexuality.
It comes as no surprise that the liberal media has taken up the case and is siding with the gay agenda and the supposed presence of repression on this one, stating that Shrivell’s statements are “cyber bullying.” Many leftwing legal analysts say that his acts are a violation of the anti-bullying laws of Michigan, though the state has no "cyber-bullying" laws in place. Some believe that federal cyber-bullying laws can be applied to this case, laws that Shirvell is supposed to be legally bound to enforce, rather than breaking.
Shirvell's defense that he has First Amendment rights during his personal time brings the U.S. Constitution into the argument. But where does the fine line between Free Speech and criminal libel and slander exist? Should Shirvell, despite his day job, be able to promote his opinions during his personal time in an outlet such as a personal blog?
Christian groups have come to Shirvell's defense, upholding his defense that his is a case of the Constitutional right to Freedom of Speech. Shirvell's history is one of siding with Christians on social issues, such as vocally promoting Evangelical values, protesting voter registration efforts of abortion advocates in 2004, boycotting a pizzeria for displaying a rainbow flag on its door in 2005, and joining the conservative blog, Right Michigan. In 2008, he issued a statement celebrating the departure of Sean Kosofsky, former policy director for gay-rights nonprofit Triangle Foundation, from the state of Michigan. Shrivell has slammed the homosexual group Log Cabin Republicans, personally emailing them to say, “You are all sick freaks!”
Earlier this year, Shirvell also joined extreme Reverend Fred Phelp’s Westboro Baptist Church to protest a homosexual play about murder entitled, “The Laramie Project,” earning Shirvell the moniker “the anti-gay heckler” in the liberal press.
Standing up for your values, or voicing your opinion regarding an issue such as the gay agenda is one thing, but there has to be limits. I agree with Shirvell that homosexuality is a deviant sexual behavior that is a detrimental variable in the ever-growing culture war America seems to be engaged in. I agree with him that the gay agenda is thuggish, and the lifestyle is damaging to the fabric of a moral society. But, as wrong as their behavior may be, gays have the freedom to engage in that lifestyle, and to be student body presidents if their ambitions should lead them to such a position.
Which returns us to the questions regarding Shirvell's opinions on his blog. Should he be able to post his opinions, as a tax payer paid employee, on his personal blog? Should he be able to compare gays like Armstrong to Nazis?
Would a gay Deputy Attorney General be allowed to post anti-Christian posts about a Christian college student on a personal blog? Would a gay Deputy Attorney General be allowed to put in his posts comparisons of the Christian student to historical fascists? Would the likes of Anderson Cooper come to the defense of the Christian Student Body President if that was the case? Should the liberal media be expected to come to the journalistic aid of a Christian student if he was treated similarly by a gay Deputy Attorney General?
What's good for the goose is good for the gander, in a free society. Shirvell has a right to his free speech outside of working hours.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Shirvell's defense that he has First Amendment rights during his personal time brings the U.S. Constitution into the argument. But where does the fine line between Free Speech and criminal libel and slander exist? Should Shirvell, despite his day job, be able to promote his opinions during his personal time in an outlet such as a personal blog?
Christian groups have come to Shirvell's defense, upholding his defense that his is a case of the Constitutional right to Freedom of Speech. Shirvell's history is one of siding with Christians on social issues, such as vocally promoting Evangelical values, protesting voter registration efforts of abortion advocates in 2004, boycotting a pizzeria for displaying a rainbow flag on its door in 2005, and joining the conservative blog, Right Michigan. In 2008, he issued a statement celebrating the departure of Sean Kosofsky, former policy director for gay-rights nonprofit Triangle Foundation, from the state of Michigan. Shrivell has slammed the homosexual group Log Cabin Republicans, personally emailing them to say, “You are all sick freaks!”
Earlier this year, Shirvell also joined extreme Reverend Fred Phelp’s Westboro Baptist Church to protest a homosexual play about murder entitled, “The Laramie Project,” earning Shirvell the moniker “the anti-gay heckler” in the liberal press.
Standing up for your values, or voicing your opinion regarding an issue such as the gay agenda is one thing, but there has to be limits. I agree with Shirvell that homosexuality is a deviant sexual behavior that is a detrimental variable in the ever-growing culture war America seems to be engaged in. I agree with him that the gay agenda is thuggish, and the lifestyle is damaging to the fabric of a moral society. But, as wrong as their behavior may be, gays have the freedom to engage in that lifestyle, and to be student body presidents if their ambitions should lead them to such a position.
Which returns us to the questions regarding Shirvell's opinions on his blog. Should he be able to post his opinions, as a tax payer paid employee, on his personal blog? Should he be able to compare gays like Armstrong to Nazis?
Would a gay Deputy Attorney General be allowed to post anti-Christian posts about a Christian college student on a personal blog? Would a gay Deputy Attorney General be allowed to put in his posts comparisons of the Christian student to historical fascists? Would the likes of Anderson Cooper come to the defense of the Christian Student Body President if that was the case? Should the liberal media be expected to come to the journalistic aid of a Christian student if he was treated similarly by a gay Deputy Attorney General?
What's good for the goose is good for the gander, in a free society. Shirvell has a right to his free speech outside of working hours.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Will the Democrats Rig The Election?
By Douglas V. Gibbs
The pieces are in place for voter fraud, and such activity by the Democrat Party is not something new. From ACORN, to the dead rising on election day in Chicago to vote, there is a concern that the Democrats will resort to fraud to try to stem the bleeding this coming November.
The journey to enabling them to act in such a way has been a slow and incremental evolution of manipulation and the twisting of voting rules.
In 1993, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, better known as the “Motor Voter” law. Painted as a way to increase voter registration and participation in Federal elections while safeguarding the integrity of the process and ensuring “accurate and clean” registration rolls, Motor Voter has opened up the elections to increased fraud by making it possible for someone to register under several false names, request an absentee ballot for each, and cast multiple votes with little chance of being detected. John Fund reported in his book Stealing Elections that the number of registered voters in Philadelphia increased by 24% from 1995 to 2004, even as the city’s population declined by 13%.
The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) required those who register by mail to show an ID when casting their first vote, but this did nothing to address invalid registrations already on the books. Also, many states permit first-time registrants to avoid the ID requirement by turning in their forms directly to election officials. A 2009 study estimated that US registration rolls contain more than 16 million invalid voters.
A recent poll found that 82% of Americans think a photo ID should be required to vote. However, only 25 states ask for any form of identification. A photo ID is required by just seven. The liberal left does not approve of showing ID, siding with those that believe illegal aliens should be able to vote in our elections.
Problem is, the process for locating illegal voters does not exist. And when voter fraud is attempted to be dealt with, leftists refuse to cooperate with state election officials seeking to verify the citizenship status of registered voters, and in a case where local officials in several states tried to remove felons and non-citizens from the registration rolls, lawsuits were filed by leftist groups alleging civil rights violations.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office up to 3 percent of the 30,000 individuals called for jury duty from voter registration rolls in one U.S. district court were not U.S. citizens.
The use of absentee ballots and early voting has increased, creating delays in deciding elections – delays that offer additional opportunities for fraud. “No excuses” early voting (voting early without having to provide a reason) is now allowed by 36 states, and often begins as early as 45 days before the actual election. Some experts have determined absentee ballots to be the largest single source of fraudulent voting.
Now, the Democrats are pushing for Universal Registration, which is consistent with the Cloward/Piven strategy of manufactured crisis, which seeks to undermine government institutions by overwhelming them with demands for services. The goal is to achieve a socialist state that will redistribute the nation’s wealth. ACORN was specifically created to execute this strategy.
Learn more at True The Vote
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
The pieces are in place for voter fraud, and such activity by the Democrat Party is not something new. From ACORN, to the dead rising on election day in Chicago to vote, there is a concern that the Democrats will resort to fraud to try to stem the bleeding this coming November.
The journey to enabling them to act in such a way has been a slow and incremental evolution of manipulation and the twisting of voting rules.
In 1993, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, better known as the “Motor Voter” law. Painted as a way to increase voter registration and participation in Federal elections while safeguarding the integrity of the process and ensuring “accurate and clean” registration rolls, Motor Voter has opened up the elections to increased fraud by making it possible for someone to register under several false names, request an absentee ballot for each, and cast multiple votes with little chance of being detected. John Fund reported in his book Stealing Elections that the number of registered voters in Philadelphia increased by 24% from 1995 to 2004, even as the city’s population declined by 13%.
The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) required those who register by mail to show an ID when casting their first vote, but this did nothing to address invalid registrations already on the books. Also, many states permit first-time registrants to avoid the ID requirement by turning in their forms directly to election officials. A 2009 study estimated that US registration rolls contain more than 16 million invalid voters.
A recent poll found that 82% of Americans think a photo ID should be required to vote. However, only 25 states ask for any form of identification. A photo ID is required by just seven. The liberal left does not approve of showing ID, siding with those that believe illegal aliens should be able to vote in our elections.
Problem is, the process for locating illegal voters does not exist. And when voter fraud is attempted to be dealt with, leftists refuse to cooperate with state election officials seeking to verify the citizenship status of registered voters, and in a case where local officials in several states tried to remove felons and non-citizens from the registration rolls, lawsuits were filed by leftist groups alleging civil rights violations.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office up to 3 percent of the 30,000 individuals called for jury duty from voter registration rolls in one U.S. district court were not U.S. citizens.
The use of absentee ballots and early voting has increased, creating delays in deciding elections – delays that offer additional opportunities for fraud. “No excuses” early voting (voting early without having to provide a reason) is now allowed by 36 states, and often begins as early as 45 days before the actual election. Some experts have determined absentee ballots to be the largest single source of fraudulent voting.
Now, the Democrats are pushing for Universal Registration, which is consistent with the Cloward/Piven strategy of manufactured crisis, which seeks to undermine government institutions by overwhelming them with demands for services. The goal is to achieve a socialist state that will redistribute the nation’s wealth. ACORN was specifically created to execute this strategy.
Learn more at True The Vote
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
President Obama's Aunt Zeituni Onyango, America's Burden
Obama has done nothing to get his aunt off public assistance. She is a burden to the tax payer. President Obama's Aunt is an illegal immigrant that is living in FREE Public Housing in Boston and received a $700 per month Disability Check monthly even though she has never made any contributions into Social Security. Thousands of people that are citizens that have paid in to the system for many years are still on the waiting list for Public Housing assistance and are not receiving social security checks.
Not only does his aunt have no respect for the law, but neither does Barack Obama.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Not only does his aunt have no respect for the law, but neither does Barack Obama.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Last Best Hope. . . Video
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. -- Ronald Reagan
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Citizen Assaulted for Filming Governor John Kitzhaber Event
Governor John Albert Kitzhaber was the 35th Governor of Oregon for two consecutive terms from 1995-2003. In May 2010, during his campaign for a third term as Oregon governor, he won the Democratic primary 2010. The people assaulting the cameraman are supporters of Kitzhaber.
Typical, thuggish tactics of the liberal left.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Typical, thuggish tactics of the liberal left.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Alexander Hamilton: Authority and Force
"The instrument by which [government] must act are either the AUTHORITY of the laws or FORCE. If the first be destroyed, the last must be substituted; and where this becomes the ordinary instrument of government there is an end to liberty! "--Alexander Hamilton, Tully, No. 3, 1794
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Germany Fears Islamization
By Douglas V. Gibbs
A week ago on Political Pistachio we wrote about how officials in Sweden are fearing an Islamic Revolution sweeping through their nation. The number of Muslims have increased to the point that there is no longer a need for the Muslims to act moderate, as far as they are concerned. In Islam, once the strength in numbers reaches a certain level, acting peacefully while proclaiming the Medina section of the Koran is no longer needed, and the violent teachings of the Mecca passages of the Koran come into play.
Remember, the Religion of Peace is not peaceful, and in their eyes won't be until Islam rules the world.
The next domino in Europe fearing Islamization is Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Germans fail to grasp how Muslim immigration has transformed their country and will have to come to terms with more mosques than churches throughout the countryside.
Merkel said, “For years we've been deceiving ourselves about this. Mosques, for example, are going to be a more prominent part of our cities than they were before.”
Germany's population of 4-5 million Muslims are failing to integrate and assimilate, while swamping Germany with a higher birth rate.
Merkel's statement is yet another in the rapid realization that European countries have let the invasion by Islam go too far, and the continent is destined to become a stronghold of Islam.
In France, 30% of children age 20 years and below are Muslims. The ratio in Paris and Marseille has soared to 45%. In southern France, there are more mosques than churches.
The situation within the United Kingdom is not much different. In the last 30 years, the Muslim population there has climbed from 82,000 to 2.5 million. Presently, there are over 1000 mosques throughout Great Britain - - many of which were converted from churches.
In Belgium, 50% of the newborns are Muslims and reportedly its Islamic population hovers around 25%. A similar statistic holds true for The Netherlands.
It’s the same story in Russia where one in five inhabitants is a Muslim.
There are 751 No-Go Zones in France, and an unknown number in Britain where state police are no longer in control. Citizens are being attacked and raped for being "non-believers" or not submitting to Shariah codes of dress and conduct.
Muammar Gaddafi recently stated that “There are signs that Allah will grant victory to Islam in Europe without sword, without gun, without conquest. We don’t need terrorists; we don’t need homicide bombers. The 50 plus million Muslims (in Europe) will turn it into the Muslim Continent within a few decades.”
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Germany Will Become Islamic State, Says Chancellor Merkel - Family Security Matters
Islamic Revolution Feared in Sweden - Political Pistachio
The 751 No-Go Zones of France - Stop Shariah Now
A week ago on Political Pistachio we wrote about how officials in Sweden are fearing an Islamic Revolution sweeping through their nation. The number of Muslims have increased to the point that there is no longer a need for the Muslims to act moderate, as far as they are concerned. In Islam, once the strength in numbers reaches a certain level, acting peacefully while proclaiming the Medina section of the Koran is no longer needed, and the violent teachings of the Mecca passages of the Koran come into play.
Remember, the Religion of Peace is not peaceful, and in their eyes won't be until Islam rules the world.
The next domino in Europe fearing Islamization is Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Germans fail to grasp how Muslim immigration has transformed their country and will have to come to terms with more mosques than churches throughout the countryside.
Merkel said, “For years we've been deceiving ourselves about this. Mosques, for example, are going to be a more prominent part of our cities than they were before.”
Germany's population of 4-5 million Muslims are failing to integrate and assimilate, while swamping Germany with a higher birth rate.
Merkel's statement is yet another in the rapid realization that European countries have let the invasion by Islam go too far, and the continent is destined to become a stronghold of Islam.
In France, 30% of children age 20 years and below are Muslims. The ratio in Paris and Marseille has soared to 45%. In southern France, there are more mosques than churches.
The situation within the United Kingdom is not much different. In the last 30 years, the Muslim population there has climbed from 82,000 to 2.5 million. Presently, there are over 1000 mosques throughout Great Britain - - many of which were converted from churches.
In Belgium, 50% of the newborns are Muslims and reportedly its Islamic population hovers around 25%. A similar statistic holds true for The Netherlands.
It’s the same story in Russia where one in five inhabitants is a Muslim.
There are 751 No-Go Zones in France, and an unknown number in Britain where state police are no longer in control. Citizens are being attacked and raped for being "non-believers" or not submitting to Shariah codes of dress and conduct.
Muammar Gaddafi recently stated that “There are signs that Allah will grant victory to Islam in Europe without sword, without gun, without conquest. We don’t need terrorists; we don’t need homicide bombers. The 50 plus million Muslims (in Europe) will turn it into the Muslim Continent within a few decades.”
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Germany Will Become Islamic State, Says Chancellor Merkel - Family Security Matters
Islamic Revolution Feared in Sweden - Political Pistachio
The 751 No-Go Zones of France - Stop Shariah Now
Thank You, Bella, For a Successful Fund Raising Event
The name of the Restaurant is Bella's Pizza, but when you step through the doors and enter the establishment you immediately realize that Bella's is not your typical pizza place. The smells of the gourmet pizzas grab you, as does the homestyle Italian decor.
The owner is originally from Chicago, with a connection to New York as a chef. His pizza restaurant in Murrieta is a beloved location for romantic dinners, family nights out, and the opportunity to experience gourmet pizza you will find no place else.
Normally, Bella's is closed on Monday nights, but tonight the doors were open for the supporters of the Douglas V. Gibbs for Murrieta City Council campaign. I brought a gift for the V.I.P.s to thank them for their support. The gift was a three window frame with images of the Constitution, a pocket Constitution, and Old Glory.
A couple new faces were present, and one of them came to me after the event to tell me that he had heard I was someone he needed to hear speak, and now that he had heard me before this small crowd of supporters, he wished to help me get my voice out to more listeners. I thanked him, and told him that I appreciate any help he can offer.
So, what did we talk about at this event?
The primary platform of my candidacy is three initiatives that are concerned with term limits, and limiting the salaries of the City Council, and city administrative officials. Initiative C would impose a term limit of no more than two consecutive terms. The beauty of this particular term limit is that if the elected official is truly one that should have the opportunity to remain in office, after the one term off, they can run again, and serve two more consecutive terms, if the voters should elect them again. As for limiting salaries, we have to remember that though the Founding Fathers agreed that we should be compensated for our service through government office, the compensation should not be so high that it becomes a motivator. In addition to the base salary, and perks like insurance and a retirement plan, the part time city council members have an expenditure fund that last year totaled $255,000. That's $51,000 per year per council member. And what is such an expenditure fund for? Could it have been the money the council used for a trip to a convention in Las Vegas, where they took their families too, and then charged it to the tax payers?
As for the administrative officials, our City Manager is considered to be the CEO of the city. This would make him the most powerful man in Murrieta. But our City Manager was not elected. He was appointed. He claims to be in office for love of the city, but lives in Vista - meaning he doesn't even live in our county, much less our city. Recent budget reports are showing he is now making $241,000 per year. Is that excessive? Are Murrieta's officials capable of sending our city in the same direction as the City of Bell?
The initiatives will put into place a guard against such possibilities.
In Murrieta, we need to reduce spending, reduce our dependency on State and Federal funds, and eliminate the practice of zero based budgeting. Fees need to be decreased, and the process for moving through the gauntlet of planning, development, and Building and Safety needs to be streamlined. Plan check needs to be brought in-house, and the practice of letting environmentalists blue line properties needs to be stopped. The confiscation of property, as is being done right now in Los Alamos Hills, has to stop. The plans for multi-use units also needs to be stopped. Multi-use units is Murrieta's attempt to satisfy the State's requirement for Murrieta to provide low-income housing. Low income housing attracts the kinds of citizens that will slow down our city, and create a greater burden by also bringing to our city an increase in crime, which will increase our spending. We have been ranked as one of the safest cities in California for a reason, and I am not about to allow us to give that up because we have decided to bend over backward for the State of California, and their ridiculous demands.
It is time to break away from our dependency on redevelopment funds, and our unsustainable spending on programs like Cadillac health care, and pensions.
We can either be like every other city in Southern California, or we can stand apart and truly be the Gem of the Valley. The principles of limited government is what we need to put into place - not the same old politics, the same old "Murrieta won't, and another city would, so we lost that business too," and the same old allegiance to bureaucracy, State and County demands, and environmental strong arm tactics.
If you would like to contribute to my campaign by knocking on doors, or helping distribute flyers, or putting up signs, Email me at vote4doug at yahoo dot com. If you would like to contribute to the campaign monetarily, go to www.douglasvgibbs.com, and there you may contribute by Pay Pal, or credit card.
Thank You.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Monday, September 27, 2010
Election Fundraiser
for
Douglas V. Gibbs
"The Citizen Statesman"
for
Murrieta City Councilman
Monday, September 27, 2010
VIP 5:30 to 6:00 / Reception 6:00 to 8:00 pm
Bella’s Pizza
25320 Madison Avenue
Murrieta, CA 92562
Pizza for everyone who attends
$20 per person
VIP $50 per person
(not your typical pizza restaurant)
for
Douglas V. Gibbs
"The Citizen Statesman"
for
Murrieta City Councilman
Monday, September 27, 2010
VIP 5:30 to 6:00 / Reception 6:00 to 8:00 pm
Bella’s Pizza
25320 Madison Avenue
Murrieta, CA 92562
Pizza for everyone who attends
$20 per person
VIP $50 per person
(not your typical pizza restaurant)
The Obama economy: a report card from America's Heartland
By Kevin J. Price
I have been seeing several "reports cards" recently by political pundits, policy institutes, journalists and others who are all over the map on how to grade the President's performance when it comes to the economy. The vast majority are providing rather low scores. I think the highest I have seen was a "C+" by a very liberal think tank. What I wanted to do was get the opinion of real Americans who are living through this administration's policies on a daily basis. With that, I got the views of friends and fans of my Price of Business radio show on CBS radio at Facebook. Their responses provide real insight on what is going on in this economy and the role Obama is playing.
"President Obama's answer to everything is "spend more money." He appears never to have looked at the ways lower taxes and a tightened budget could benefit the economy. His economic philosophy is "more," not "less," and the effect has been only failure at every turn. (Michele Samuelson, Austin, freelance political writer).
Christine Marks (Jenks, Oklahoma) wrote "I am 53 years old. I have no recollection of the economy being even close to what it is now and has been for the last 2 years. I am a nurse and thank God I chose this profession as I feel there isn't any other professions that are safe from layoffs. I go to bed every night and pray for all the people, just that I know personally, that are unemployed. There are five nurses that I work with that have a spouse that has lost their jobs and they are the sole support of their families. Before I got my license reinstated after my divorce, I looked for 2 years for another job, ANY JOB, from pushing a lawn mower around to washing windows and was lucky if anyone could afford the extra money to hire me until I got back on my feet."
Annette Marie Jones (Dallas, Texas). "I work as an Account Representative for a career and technical school. I am probably one of the few individuals who just recently graduated from college that did NOT vote for him and become "mesmerized" by his "Hope" and "...Change" campaign. I do not see this administration addressing the unemployment or the devastated economy. Instead, I see an administration that wants to spend our nation into a bankrupt oblivion by passing this new health care reform, is out of touch with reality and the American people, is simply just set on progressing past the constitution and everything our nation was founded on. Please do cite me...I could write a lot more on here...if you need me to go further I will. Oh, and I will give Obama an F for a grade."
Ed Merkel (Lincoln, Nebraska). "I'm now convinced the President believes he can spend and tax the nation into equalized prosperity. I've been employed in the financial sector for three decades. And no, I'm not wealthy, not even close. I deal with businesses across the county, and have yet to hear a positive comment about the direction of the economy. And these are unsolicited comments. Beyond that, I'll give him a "D", because the country hasn't collapsed yet. But let them pass Cap & Trade and it likely will plummet further."
Nick Carbine (Houston, Texas) writes, "Kevin, the Obama administration's handling of the economy exposes a fundamental conflict of interest in a government "handling" an economy. Unleashing the economic might of the United States calls for dramatic tax cuts, reducing onerous regulations, and confidence that one's economic moves will not be arbitrarily undone. As fixing the economy calls for less of themselves, Congress and the administration are fighting against our economy rather than helping it. They would much rather siphon borrowed trillions to themselves and their pet projects. Better the whole country suffer than Washington insiders do without the lifestyle they have grown accustomed to. So for actual handling of the economy, a very predictable F."
These are the comments of real people, trying to pursue economic prosperity in very trying times.
--
Kevin Price
Host, Price of Business, M-F at 11 am on CBS Radio News
Frequently found on Strategy Room at FoxNews.com
Syndicated columnist whose articles appear on a variety of media outlets.
His http://BizPlusBlog.com/ is ranked in the top 1 percent of all blogs by Technorati.
Kevin Price's Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/PriceofBusiness
I have been seeing several "reports cards" recently by political pundits, policy institutes, journalists and others who are all over the map on how to grade the President's performance when it comes to the economy. The vast majority are providing rather low scores. I think the highest I have seen was a "C+" by a very liberal think tank. What I wanted to do was get the opinion of real Americans who are living through this administration's policies on a daily basis. With that, I got the views of friends and fans of my Price of Business radio show on CBS radio at Facebook. Their responses provide real insight on what is going on in this economy and the role Obama is playing.
"President Obama's answer to everything is "spend more money." He appears never to have looked at the ways lower taxes and a tightened budget could benefit the economy. His economic philosophy is "more," not "less," and the effect has been only failure at every turn. (Michele Samuelson, Austin, freelance political writer).
Christine Marks (Jenks, Oklahoma) wrote "I am 53 years old. I have no recollection of the economy being even close to what it is now and has been for the last 2 years. I am a nurse and thank God I chose this profession as I feel there isn't any other professions that are safe from layoffs. I go to bed every night and pray for all the people, just that I know personally, that are unemployed. There are five nurses that I work with that have a spouse that has lost their jobs and they are the sole support of their families. Before I got my license reinstated after my divorce, I looked for 2 years for another job, ANY JOB, from pushing a lawn mower around to washing windows and was lucky if anyone could afford the extra money to hire me until I got back on my feet."
Annette Marie Jones (Dallas, Texas). "I work as an Account Representative for a career and technical school. I am probably one of the few individuals who just recently graduated from college that did NOT vote for him and become "mesmerized" by his "Hope" and "...Change" campaign. I do not see this administration addressing the unemployment or the devastated economy. Instead, I see an administration that wants to spend our nation into a bankrupt oblivion by passing this new health care reform, is out of touch with reality and the American people, is simply just set on progressing past the constitution and everything our nation was founded on. Please do cite me...I could write a lot more on here...if you need me to go further I will. Oh, and I will give Obama an F for a grade."
Ed Merkel (Lincoln, Nebraska). "I'm now convinced the President believes he can spend and tax the nation into equalized prosperity. I've been employed in the financial sector for three decades. And no, I'm not wealthy, not even close. I deal with businesses across the county, and have yet to hear a positive comment about the direction of the economy. And these are unsolicited comments. Beyond that, I'll give him a "D", because the country hasn't collapsed yet. But let them pass Cap & Trade and it likely will plummet further."
Nick Carbine (Houston, Texas) writes, "Kevin, the Obama administration's handling of the economy exposes a fundamental conflict of interest in a government "handling" an economy. Unleashing the economic might of the United States calls for dramatic tax cuts, reducing onerous regulations, and confidence that one's economic moves will not be arbitrarily undone. As fixing the economy calls for less of themselves, Congress and the administration are fighting against our economy rather than helping it. They would much rather siphon borrowed trillions to themselves and their pet projects. Better the whole country suffer than Washington insiders do without the lifestyle they have grown accustomed to. So for actual handling of the economy, a very predictable F."
These are the comments of real people, trying to pursue economic prosperity in very trying times.
--
Kevin Price
Host, Price of Business, M-F at 11 am on CBS Radio News
Frequently found on Strategy Room at FoxNews.com
Syndicated columnist whose articles appear on a variety of media outlets.
His http://BizPlusBlog.com/ is ranked in the top 1 percent of all blogs by Technorati.
Kevin Price's Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/PriceofBusiness
Lame Duck Democrats Being Pushed to approve the National Women’s History Museum bill
By Douglas V. Gibbs
Women have played a significant role in the progress of this nation. I have no doubt that a museum for their accomplishments would be a wonderful thing. However, such a facility would not, I am sure of it, include such people as Sarah Palin, and how she was picked as a vice presidential running mate. I doubt such a museum would also include Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, or a storyboard of Nancy Reagan's courageous stewardship during Ronald Reagan's final years. Nonetheless, the women of pantsuit feminism are pushing the leftists, before all is lost as a result of the November election, to do whatever they can to make sure they pass the National Women’s History Museum bill.
It's not like doing such a thing would be very hard, argues those in favor of such an establishment. Everyone loves the idea.
If that's the case, then why hasn't such a thing been completed before?
The legislation would allow a private group to buy a piece of federal land on Independence Avenue for the site. The organization says they are willing to pay fair market value, and pay for construction. The bill would allow five years to raise the money and break ground. If the group fails to live up to the commitment, the land would revert back to the government, which would get to keep the purchase price.
Meryl Streep, one of the folks behind the push for this museum (hence one of reasons I know this is a leftist feminist project), says that it is literally difficult to get the government to take the money. Streep is one of many that has put up $1 million for the cause.
Streep admitted she "was a little mad that a man did it first.”
Really?
According to Streep, Washington already has a postal museum, a textile museum, a spy museum and the Newseum.
The bill has actually passed Congress, but is being held up by them mean-old Republicans. . . I still can't figure out how they Democrats claim they can't get anything done because of the GOP, even though the Democrats have control over everything but the kitchen sink.
Senators, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, have put holds on the bill. Coburn’s concerns are that taxpayers may be asked to pitch in a few bucks later, as well as feeling that the museum is unnecessary since “it duplicates more than 100 existing entities that have a similar mission.”
The museum is really going to be a tribute to feminism, a movement that has done more damage than good.
The women's movement began with a sincere and genuine attempt to improve conditions for women. Equal pay for equal work is a commendable effort. When the movement began, there was a sincere right for people to be angered by the treatment some women received, and the outcry by the women's rights movement is understandable.
The problem is, as with many things that start out with good intentions (like labor unions), and justifiable opinions, a shift in the approach, and in the type of women the movement attracted, changed the women's rights movement into a loud, militant cause whose views became based on a belief that women are superior to men, and that women don't need men. They began to push that to love and need men compromises women, and sets them back. The feminist movement avoided, and attacked, the traditional role of women because they somehow became convinced that being a wife and mother was responsible for making women, in their opinion, "subservient to men."
Society was being conditioned to accept a new feminist ideology that had gone way beyond equal opportunity, and reasonable activism. The roles defined by nature for men and women became the enemy of the movement. As a result, it became their very nature to be suspicious of all men, and to foment distrust between the sexes. It has literally gotten to the point that we don't even know how to act around each other. Chivalry has become synonymous with male chauvinism. Nature's defined roles are something to be eliminated by these women. Men were encouraged to be more like women, and women more like men. Sensitive men became all the rage, and dropping tears was a sure way to get a woman on your side as a man.
Then, the women began to complain that there wasn't any real men around anymore.
The militant style of feminism has gone way beyond concerns about equal pay, assertiveness, and expressing one's individuality. Now, it is about bitterness, hatred, and resentment toward men. Remember, Streep was upset a man had beaten her to the punch on donations.
The Women's Rights Movement is no longer about equality, but is more about radical leftism, and pushing the liberal agenda of the Democrat Party.
As for the hate of men, and the attempt to erase any need for men out of society? The greatest weapon the feminists have found for that is abortion. Feminists celebrate abortion, they are obsessed with perpetuating the millions of murders of babies every year. It has become their goal to see as many abortions performed as possible. To these women, abortion is the greatest show of power over men. It is their way to say that they don't need men to be happy, and that they have advanced so far that men don't even have say over the life or death of their own children.
With men precluded from the decision process of abortion, men have been reduced to nothing more than sperm donors.
Problem is, the natural balance of society has been upset. Feminism has been one of the factors in bringing into being high divorce rates, and out of control "out of wedlock" births. Men have literally walked away from their role. Men have thrown their hands up, and have abdicated their role as men. As a result, the family unit is breaking down, and society is in upheaval and confusion.
And for their partial role in the destruction of society, and the family unit, they want a museum erected where they can flaunt such accomplishments, while leaving out the real women of strength and character, like Ayn Rand, Margaret Thatcher, and Sarah Palin.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Unhold Us, Senators - New York Times
Women have played a significant role in the progress of this nation. I have no doubt that a museum for their accomplishments would be a wonderful thing. However, such a facility would not, I am sure of it, include such people as Sarah Palin, and how she was picked as a vice presidential running mate. I doubt such a museum would also include Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, or a storyboard of Nancy Reagan's courageous stewardship during Ronald Reagan's final years. Nonetheless, the women of pantsuit feminism are pushing the leftists, before all is lost as a result of the November election, to do whatever they can to make sure they pass the National Women’s History Museum bill.
It's not like doing such a thing would be very hard, argues those in favor of such an establishment. Everyone loves the idea.
If that's the case, then why hasn't such a thing been completed before?
The legislation would allow a private group to buy a piece of federal land on Independence Avenue for the site. The organization says they are willing to pay fair market value, and pay for construction. The bill would allow five years to raise the money and break ground. If the group fails to live up to the commitment, the land would revert back to the government, which would get to keep the purchase price.
Meryl Streep, one of the folks behind the push for this museum (hence one of reasons I know this is a leftist feminist project), says that it is literally difficult to get the government to take the money. Streep is one of many that has put up $1 million for the cause.
Streep admitted she "was a little mad that a man did it first.”
Really?
According to Streep, Washington already has a postal museum, a textile museum, a spy museum and the Newseum.
The bill has actually passed Congress, but is being held up by them mean-old Republicans. . . I still can't figure out how they Democrats claim they can't get anything done because of the GOP, even though the Democrats have control over everything but the kitchen sink.
Senators, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, have put holds on the bill. Coburn’s concerns are that taxpayers may be asked to pitch in a few bucks later, as well as feeling that the museum is unnecessary since “it duplicates more than 100 existing entities that have a similar mission.”
The museum is really going to be a tribute to feminism, a movement that has done more damage than good.
The women's movement began with a sincere and genuine attempt to improve conditions for women. Equal pay for equal work is a commendable effort. When the movement began, there was a sincere right for people to be angered by the treatment some women received, and the outcry by the women's rights movement is understandable.
The problem is, as with many things that start out with good intentions (like labor unions), and justifiable opinions, a shift in the approach, and in the type of women the movement attracted, changed the women's rights movement into a loud, militant cause whose views became based on a belief that women are superior to men, and that women don't need men. They began to push that to love and need men compromises women, and sets them back. The feminist movement avoided, and attacked, the traditional role of women because they somehow became convinced that being a wife and mother was responsible for making women, in their opinion, "subservient to men."
Society was being conditioned to accept a new feminist ideology that had gone way beyond equal opportunity, and reasonable activism. The roles defined by nature for men and women became the enemy of the movement. As a result, it became their very nature to be suspicious of all men, and to foment distrust between the sexes. It has literally gotten to the point that we don't even know how to act around each other. Chivalry has become synonymous with male chauvinism. Nature's defined roles are something to be eliminated by these women. Men were encouraged to be more like women, and women more like men. Sensitive men became all the rage, and dropping tears was a sure way to get a woman on your side as a man.
Then, the women began to complain that there wasn't any real men around anymore.
The militant style of feminism has gone way beyond concerns about equal pay, assertiveness, and expressing one's individuality. Now, it is about bitterness, hatred, and resentment toward men. Remember, Streep was upset a man had beaten her to the punch on donations.
The Women's Rights Movement is no longer about equality, but is more about radical leftism, and pushing the liberal agenda of the Democrat Party.
As for the hate of men, and the attempt to erase any need for men out of society? The greatest weapon the feminists have found for that is abortion. Feminists celebrate abortion, they are obsessed with perpetuating the millions of murders of babies every year. It has become their goal to see as many abortions performed as possible. To these women, abortion is the greatest show of power over men. It is their way to say that they don't need men to be happy, and that they have advanced so far that men don't even have say over the life or death of their own children.
With men precluded from the decision process of abortion, men have been reduced to nothing more than sperm donors.
Problem is, the natural balance of society has been upset. Feminism has been one of the factors in bringing into being high divorce rates, and out of control "out of wedlock" births. Men have literally walked away from their role. Men have thrown their hands up, and have abdicated their role as men. As a result, the family unit is breaking down, and society is in upheaval and confusion.
And for their partial role in the destruction of society, and the family unit, they want a museum erected where they can flaunt such accomplishments, while leaving out the real women of strength and character, like Ayn Rand, Margaret Thatcher, and Sarah Palin.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Unhold Us, Senators - New York Times
Colbert Proves How Idiotic our Congressional Democrats Truly Are
By Douglas V. Gibbs
No joke. The hardly funny, and quite the idiot, comedian Stephen Colbert made an appearance before a House panel on farm jobs and illegal immigrants. He was in comedian mode, proving the stupidity of the Democrats, and how little they revere Congressional standards.
The whole affair began before the Congressional show of the absurd when committee chairman Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, and Mr. Colbert, spent a few hours picking vegetables to draw attention to the issue of migrant workers.
Note: I know a number of individuals that have applied to pick fruit in this tough economy, and were not hired because they don't speak Spanish.
Once on the floor, the idiocy of what the Democrat's were doing, coupled with Colbert's lack of ability to form cohesive thoughts, even led Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, to plead with Mr. Colbert to leave the room before his testimony, sensing the mistake the committee was making. Ms. Lofgren overrode Conyers' plea. Then, as Colbert opened his pie hole, and the excrement began to fly from his lips, it became rapidly understood that what was happening was a huge mistake.
Mr. Colbert's character is a caricature of a conservative talk show host (who he claims to be Bill O'Reilly, of which is not conservative), amusing a tiny little audience who has this strange obsession with searching for ways to laugh at those crazy rightwingers. In reality, Colbert's antics are a nasty little example of the tasteless leftism that has done its damage to the Democrat Party, and has been a small part of encouraging the rise of the Tea Party movement.
However, Colbert's style was not received in the halls of Congress quite well, and proved how small-minded the Democrats truly are. The liberal Democrats are facing a rough November, yet they are still so smug in their elitism that they are willing to even make a farce of the process of lawmaking, and expect no rebuff from it.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Colbert's Corny Report - Washington Times
No joke. The hardly funny, and quite the idiot, comedian Stephen Colbert made an appearance before a House panel on farm jobs and illegal immigrants. He was in comedian mode, proving the stupidity of the Democrats, and how little they revere Congressional standards.
The whole affair began before the Congressional show of the absurd when committee chairman Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, and Mr. Colbert, spent a few hours picking vegetables to draw attention to the issue of migrant workers.
Note: I know a number of individuals that have applied to pick fruit in this tough economy, and were not hired because they don't speak Spanish.
Once on the floor, the idiocy of what the Democrat's were doing, coupled with Colbert's lack of ability to form cohesive thoughts, even led Representative John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, to plead with Mr. Colbert to leave the room before his testimony, sensing the mistake the committee was making. Ms. Lofgren overrode Conyers' plea. Then, as Colbert opened his pie hole, and the excrement began to fly from his lips, it became rapidly understood that what was happening was a huge mistake.
Mr. Colbert's character is a caricature of a conservative talk show host (who he claims to be Bill O'Reilly, of which is not conservative), amusing a tiny little audience who has this strange obsession with searching for ways to laugh at those crazy rightwingers. In reality, Colbert's antics are a nasty little example of the tasteless leftism that has done its damage to the Democrat Party, and has been a small part of encouraging the rise of the Tea Party movement.
However, Colbert's style was not received in the halls of Congress quite well, and proved how small-minded the Democrats truly are. The liberal Democrats are facing a rough November, yet they are still so smug in their elitism that they are willing to even make a farce of the process of lawmaking, and expect no rebuff from it.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Colbert's Corny Report - Washington Times
Comrade Obama at the U.N.
By Douglas V. Gibbs
Comrade Barack Obama still sounds like he is in campaign mode. The guy is unable to do anything else. He has no substance, no leadership skills, and is about as far left as a Leninist follower on May Day. Hell, he doesn't even have an original thought in his vacant head - which is why his teleprompter follows him wherever he goes.
The empty suit has now addressed the United Nations General Assembly twice. He was campaigning for Messiah of the world, perhaps, touching upon worldwide financial reform, his commitment to fighting the make-believe myth of man-made global warming, his efforts to withdrawal from Afghanistan and his goal of a nuclear weapons free world which is being worked on with such neat things as his new nuclear treaty with Russia (which will result in unilateral disarmament as the Russians do as they always do, and lie through their teeth, and keep their arsenal intact).
During Obama's second speech to the UN he mouthed the words “I,” “me” or “my” 34 times.
Ahmadinejad was there to speak too, and in his first speech the Americans did something they haven't done in a long time. . . they didn't walk out. In his second speech, the Iranian President launched into a few remarks about the “failure” of “the system of Capitalism,” (I wonder if Obama was nodding his head in agreement as Ahmadinejad spoke?), and then Iran's President said a few words about 9/11. Ahmadinejad then turned truther, indicating that “those responsible for the attack” includes “some segments within the U.S. government [who] orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime."
Surprisingly, at that point, Obama’s U.N. delegation had the decency to walkout.
Obama's speeches, according to the Heritage Foundation, revealed an "underlying assumption . . . that the General Assembly in particular, and the United Nations in general, plays a central role in arms control and disarmament. This is not true. The Security Council has an important, but qualified and limited, role to play in pursuit of international peace and security."
Hence, the reason that Obama's efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons will either fall flat on its face, or be performed on a unilateral level.
The Heritage Foundation also indicates that "The United Nations as a whole is profoundly handicapped by its assumption of moral equivalence between democracies and dictatorships, by its refusal to fully acknowledge the inherent right of self-defense, by its insistence on negotiating unverifiable and unenforceable treaties, and by its desire to supplant the authority of sovereign nation states with that of U.N. bureaucrats and unaccountable NGOs."
In other words, we need to promote peace through our strength, and to tell the idiotic United Nations to pack sand. Problem is, Obama believes himself to be an international guy. He believes America should be heavily influenced by international institutions, and international law. Obama believes the United States is a flawed nation, and our only hope is to admit our shortcomings, and knock ourselves down a few notches so that we are on an even plane with everyone else.
Meanwhile, he claims Arizona's immigration laws are in violation to human rights standards, and has actually appealed to the United Nation's Human Rights Council to review Arizona's law. Seems not to bother him that the council is populated by countries that are some of the greatest human rights abusers on this planet.
The guy is a joke, and a dangerous punch line at that.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Waiting for Crazy - Heritage Foundation
Comrade Barack Obama still sounds like he is in campaign mode. The guy is unable to do anything else. He has no substance, no leadership skills, and is about as far left as a Leninist follower on May Day. Hell, he doesn't even have an original thought in his vacant head - which is why his teleprompter follows him wherever he goes.
The empty suit has now addressed the United Nations General Assembly twice. He was campaigning for Messiah of the world, perhaps, touching upon worldwide financial reform, his commitment to fighting the make-believe myth of man-made global warming, his efforts to withdrawal from Afghanistan and his goal of a nuclear weapons free world which is being worked on with such neat things as his new nuclear treaty with Russia (which will result in unilateral disarmament as the Russians do as they always do, and lie through their teeth, and keep their arsenal intact).
During Obama's second speech to the UN he mouthed the words “I,” “me” or “my” 34 times.
Ahmadinejad was there to speak too, and in his first speech the Americans did something they haven't done in a long time. . . they didn't walk out. In his second speech, the Iranian President launched into a few remarks about the “failure” of “the system of Capitalism,” (I wonder if Obama was nodding his head in agreement as Ahmadinejad spoke?), and then Iran's President said a few words about 9/11. Ahmadinejad then turned truther, indicating that “those responsible for the attack” includes “some segments within the U.S. government [who] orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime."
Surprisingly, at that point, Obama’s U.N. delegation had the decency to walkout.
Obama's speeches, according to the Heritage Foundation, revealed an "underlying assumption . . . that the General Assembly in particular, and the United Nations in general, plays a central role in arms control and disarmament. This is not true. The Security Council has an important, but qualified and limited, role to play in pursuit of international peace and security."
Hence, the reason that Obama's efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons will either fall flat on its face, or be performed on a unilateral level.
The Heritage Foundation also indicates that "The United Nations as a whole is profoundly handicapped by its assumption of moral equivalence between democracies and dictatorships, by its refusal to fully acknowledge the inherent right of self-defense, by its insistence on negotiating unverifiable and unenforceable treaties, and by its desire to supplant the authority of sovereign nation states with that of U.N. bureaucrats and unaccountable NGOs."
In other words, we need to promote peace through our strength, and to tell the idiotic United Nations to pack sand. Problem is, Obama believes himself to be an international guy. He believes America should be heavily influenced by international institutions, and international law. Obama believes the United States is a flawed nation, and our only hope is to admit our shortcomings, and knock ourselves down a few notches so that we are on an even plane with everyone else.
Meanwhile, he claims Arizona's immigration laws are in violation to human rights standards, and has actually appealed to the United Nation's Human Rights Council to review Arizona's law. Seems not to bother him that the council is populated by countries that are some of the greatest human rights abusers on this planet.
The guy is a joke, and a dangerous punch line at that.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Waiting for Crazy - Heritage Foundation
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Chanting USA deemed unpatriotic
By Douglas V. Gibbs
A member of Academia in Illinois has determined that when students chanted "USA, USA" during an observance of 9/11 at a ballgame, it was neither patriotism, nor remembrance. This particular "academic professional" believes that it is our fault we were attacked on 9/11, via "American imperialism."
The leftist argument of American imperialism has always cracked me up, because if the U.S. was so damn imperialistic, then wouldn't we have taken over Canada a long time ago?
Anyway, the academic in question seems to have problems with the political, militaristic, propaganda (his words, not mine) nature of events by non-liberal students and faculty, calling such people "falsely patriotic" (remember, these liberals were the same folks who claimed their hatred of Bush and our troops during the height of the Iraq War was not only patriotic, but that anyone who suggested otherwise were small-minded extremists).
In particular, his complaint is concerning a military jet flyover, and students chanting "USA, USA." He feels such actions are disrespectful to the Muslim students, and doesn't take in consideration of the poor Islamists around the world that suffer from American aggression in the form of our planes, drones and soldiers.
Then the "educated one" threw in a little racism, claiming these "overwhelmingly white, privileged, Block-I students should be ashamed of their obnoxious, fake-macho, chicken-hawk chant, while poverty-drafted members of their cohort fight and die in illegal and immoral wars for the control of oil."
Jeez, Professor, don't beat around the bush. What do you really think of America's endeavors to keep us safe from an ideology that wishes to destroy our system, and replace it with Sharia law?
And our enlisted are poverty-drafted? Are you kidding me? What Kool-Aid have you been drinking?
Illegal, immoral wars? Yet calling for the censorship of kids you disagree with you isn't immoral?
The so-called academic then suggested that "University administrators eliminate from all events such “patriotic” observances, which in this country cannot be separated from implicit justifications for state-sponsored killing."
This moron is the same kind of person that defends the burning of the American Flag as a freedom of speech issue, supports the arrest of our troops for doing their job, supports handcuffing our military with ridiculous rules of engagement, and probably hates Bush to the point that at the mere mention of W's name blood starts squirting out of his eyes.
Cool down, professor, those kids just love their country. Or do you plan to suggest we eliminate that too?
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Block-I chant portrays ‘neither patriotism nor remembrance’ - Daily Illini
Joe Klein Joins the Political Pistachio Radio Revolution. . . Obama Paving The Way For Islamic Sharia in the U.S.
Host Name: Douglas V. Gibbs
Length: 2 hrs
Description: Joe Klein is our guest tonight, and he says that Obama's defense of the Ground Zero mosque is yet another refusal to acknowledge that the building of that mosque by Feisal Abdul Rauf is a huge Islamic complex geared toward recruitment and training, and is funded by groups that support Islamic Terrorism. Klein is the author of the recently released book: Lethal Engagement - Barack Hussein Obama. Conservative News and Commentary
Join us live at 7:00 PM Pacific, or catch the archive later, at BlogTalkRadio.com/PoliticalPistachio
Liberal Democrats Running Out of Strategies
By Douglas V. Gibbs
Conservative Principles win elections. Whenever liberals reveal their socialist agendas, the American People recoils, so to win the Left must disguise their true intentions with conservative sounding rhetoric. Obama, during his campaign, and even now, claims to be a champion of tax cuts, when he has done nothing but raise taxes through fees and taxes on things like tobacco and energy. The media and the Democrats are even calling Obama's desire to not allow the Bush Tax Cuts to expire for the Middle Class "Obama's Tax Cuts," when they are nothing of the sort. Tax cuts are a reduction in the tax rate, but keeping those rates from rising is not a tax cut as Obama is trying to convince us.
With November approaching, it has become clear to the American People that Obama is no Centrist, and does not believe in the lies he told during his campaign. The "blame Bush" strategy has worn off in most circles, as well. The War on Poverty is being lost, and Obama is perpetuating poverty by funding it with more entitlements, while damning our grandchildren with the bill from his overspending. As the economy worsens, the spending has been increasing. The Liberal Democrats are throwing more money at everything they can as the American People are realizing that the Left's efforts are like using gasoline to extinguish a fire. As a result, America is sinking; but what is even worse about it is that the "joke of a political party" in control of the White House, and Congress, is claiming the recession has ended and we are in the midst of a recovery. Really? They claimed we were in a recession before it started, and they are now claiming it is over as it is escalating toward a great depression.
All the while, the Democrats scoff at personal responsibility, individualism, and self-reliance, also known as the Free Market System. While professing to care about the poor, the Democrats depress opportunity. They profess to be compassionate, while simply diverting taxpayer money into programs that increase one's dependency on government, literally paying people to remain in poverty. Meanwhile, Conservatism is working to help wean the dependents off of the dependency cycle, out of poverty, and back to work. But encouraging such self-respect is attacked by the Left as being uncaring. They refuse to accept the fact that if people are going to be independent and regain their dignity, the welfare way of life must be reformed, and ultimately ended. Providing opportunity in a thriving private sector that is growing because of free market principles, and government removing itself from influencing the private sector, is the key.
Liberals consider the true Conservatives as being a fringe element, yet at every election the Democrats try to emulate those very same Conservatives. Even Jerry Brown, the hard-left liberal Democrat running for Governor in California is running on cutting spending, cutting taxes, ensuring that any tax increase is voted on by the people, and limiting the size and scope of government. The things he is proclaiming to be is dead opposite of his history as a politician. But, unlike with Obama, the people are not believing the rhetoric of the Democrats this time around. The strategy of acting conservative, except in a few cases, is not working for Democrats because they have revealed who they really are over the last year and a half.
While their's are attempts to sound Conservative, true Conservatives are easily recognized because our beliefs are straightforward, grounded in moral clarity and common sense. Our task, unlike the liberal left, is not to convert people to our way of believing, but to open people's eyes to realizing that conservative principles are already their own beliefs, rather than the deceptions provided by the propaganda of the Left about Conservatism.
The true, close minded, narrow-minded ideologues in today's society are the liberals, and it is turning out that the majority of Americans are Conservative. In other words, it is conservatism that is mainstream. The liberal Democrats have proven since 2006, when the Democrats gained control of Congress, that they support failed policies, and that they are mindless ideologues about those failed policies. They continue to push for policies and programs regardless of what the populace thinks of those policies, and despite decades of painful history that has shown that liberal policies do not work. The liberal practice of rigid, and irrational, clinging to their abstract theories in the face of reality has exposed them for the socialist Marxists they are. Day to day it is becoming abundantly clear that the facts don't matter to these people. If the facts don't fit their leftist ideology, the facts are chopped off and discarded.
An example of failed policy is the Keynesian folly of "priming the pump" through deficit spending. Not only does history show that deficit spending doesn't work, but so does common sense and experience. In fact, Keynesian Economics not only does not work, but it is actively destructive to an economy. It runs against basic reasoning. Be it in government, or our own personal lives, it is unsustainable to spend more than you take in.
Acting like they have conservative values isn't working. Blaming Bush isn't working. Attacking conservative candidates like O'Donnell in Delaware, isn't working. The fact is, the liberal left has no strategies left for November, and they sure can't run on the record of the Congressional Democrats, or Obama, because there is not a single success to refer to.
Yet, there are actually Democrats that are claiming they have no worries about November. It is, in their opinion, going to be the basic loss of seats we often see in mid-term elections.
I can't wait to see the look on their smug, elitist faces when the Democrats are swept out of power in the House of Representatives, and the Senate.
But, just because the GOP will be regaining the reins of Congress does not mean we should relax. We must remain vigilant, persistent, and we must continue to hold the feet of the politicians to the fire. . . even those that seem to be the most conservative of the Republicans.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
It's Not The Economy, Stupid
By Keith Davies
The mid term election in November will be one of the most important midterms in our lifetime. It will signal either the stopping of the socialist agenda of the Obama administration along with its willing accomplices in the current Congress and their cheerleaders in the mainstream media, or it will allow it to continue and jeopardize the magnificent freedoms that the USA has worked so hard to preserve through the great sacrifices that have been made by the founding fathers and the subsequent generations through its history.
The American economy has been steeped in a recession and probably more accurate to describe it as a depression, though we do not admit as such. I would argue, if we look at the real rate of unemployment it is 17% and has been held in check at this rate only because of the band-aid of huge borrowing in order to keep public employees working on money we do not have. Without this spending the real unemployment would be well over 20%.
The reason the economy is in this mess is because of the abandonment of our constitutional principles of limited government and free markets. The real estate bubble and the default of mortgages came as a result of abusive and the stupid lending practices of Fannie Mai, Freddie Mac and many banks that bought into the ruling class policies in Washington which was predominantly Democrat but also Republican progressives who put corruption and greed above common sense and sound economic principles. Thomas Jefferson said “I sincerely believe…that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” We have ignored this principle on a massive scale for the last thirty years.
The last two years instead of returning to our constitutional principles, and common sense free market capitalism we have doubled up the previous policies that caused the problem in the first place. The government has borrowed massive amounts of money, which it cannot repay without destroying the dollar and all we have done is set us up for an even harder landing within the next few years or sooner.
The leaders of this current generation have not only squandered the economic welfare of the present but that of at least two generations forward. While economic strength is desirable for all, we as a country need to swallow some hard medicine, return to our constitutional principles, go through some economic pain so we can come out stronger the other side.
One of the biggest threats to our freedom is that of Islamic fundamentalism, which our government fails to deal with for the same reason i.e. corruption and greed; the same intrigues that caused the banking crisis. Too many of our leaders on both side of the isle are in bed with Arab countries because of bad energy policy, that has tainted the common sense principle of energy independence, and thereby has compromised the security of the nation.
The economy is at the top of the list of issues on the minds of the public, which says much about the real problems we have as a nation. Freedom should be the main issue based on what has been legislated in Congress over the last two years. Limited government and constitutional principles is what our economy needs; so it can redevelop. Free market principles and more power returned to the states as well as to the freedoms of the individual. We need lower taxes, lower government spending, energy exploration incentives and leaders willing to serve the people instead of padding their own bank accounts for political favors. Samuel Adams said “Mankind are governed by feelings than by reason.” If reason i.e. individual freedom is returned to the American people, jobs and prosperity will return, and the history of the past is proof to show us the way forward.
James Madison the main architect of the Constitution said, “I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse, and in a republican government, a greater curse than any other.” If our founding fathers were alive today they would have cursed the Bush administration and they would have cursed the current Obama regime even more.
And finally, as for Nancy Pelosi with her two thousand page bills and her statement, “that we need to pass the bill so we can find out what is in it,” the great James Madison had the perfect response, “It will be of little avail to the people that the laws by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.” If only some of our leaders would even bother to learn and follow the principles of our great founders we would not be in such a mess.
In November you need to vote freedom, as it is this ideal that is the real key to the economic success of the United States.
Keith Davies
Executive Director
Walid Shoebat Foundation
The mid term election in November will be one of the most important midterms in our lifetime. It will signal either the stopping of the socialist agenda of the Obama administration along with its willing accomplices in the current Congress and their cheerleaders in the mainstream media, or it will allow it to continue and jeopardize the magnificent freedoms that the USA has worked so hard to preserve through the great sacrifices that have been made by the founding fathers and the subsequent generations through its history.
The American economy has been steeped in a recession and probably more accurate to describe it as a depression, though we do not admit as such. I would argue, if we look at the real rate of unemployment it is 17% and has been held in check at this rate only because of the band-aid of huge borrowing in order to keep public employees working on money we do not have. Without this spending the real unemployment would be well over 20%.
The reason the economy is in this mess is because of the abandonment of our constitutional principles of limited government and free markets. The real estate bubble and the default of mortgages came as a result of abusive and the stupid lending practices of Fannie Mai, Freddie Mac and many banks that bought into the ruling class policies in Washington which was predominantly Democrat but also Republican progressives who put corruption and greed above common sense and sound economic principles. Thomas Jefferson said “I sincerely believe…that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” We have ignored this principle on a massive scale for the last thirty years.
The last two years instead of returning to our constitutional principles, and common sense free market capitalism we have doubled up the previous policies that caused the problem in the first place. The government has borrowed massive amounts of money, which it cannot repay without destroying the dollar and all we have done is set us up for an even harder landing within the next few years or sooner.
The leaders of this current generation have not only squandered the economic welfare of the present but that of at least two generations forward. While economic strength is desirable for all, we as a country need to swallow some hard medicine, return to our constitutional principles, go through some economic pain so we can come out stronger the other side.
One of the biggest threats to our freedom is that of Islamic fundamentalism, which our government fails to deal with for the same reason i.e. corruption and greed; the same intrigues that caused the banking crisis. Too many of our leaders on both side of the isle are in bed with Arab countries because of bad energy policy, that has tainted the common sense principle of energy independence, and thereby has compromised the security of the nation.
The economy is at the top of the list of issues on the minds of the public, which says much about the real problems we have as a nation. Freedom should be the main issue based on what has been legislated in Congress over the last two years. Limited government and constitutional principles is what our economy needs; so it can redevelop. Free market principles and more power returned to the states as well as to the freedoms of the individual. We need lower taxes, lower government spending, energy exploration incentives and leaders willing to serve the people instead of padding their own bank accounts for political favors. Samuel Adams said “Mankind are governed by feelings than by reason.” If reason i.e. individual freedom is returned to the American people, jobs and prosperity will return, and the history of the past is proof to show us the way forward.
James Madison the main architect of the Constitution said, “I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse, and in a republican government, a greater curse than any other.” If our founding fathers were alive today they would have cursed the Bush administration and they would have cursed the current Obama regime even more.
And finally, as for Nancy Pelosi with her two thousand page bills and her statement, “that we need to pass the bill so we can find out what is in it,” the great James Madison had the perfect response, “It will be of little avail to the people that the laws by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.” If only some of our leaders would even bother to learn and follow the principles of our great founders we would not be in such a mess.
In November you need to vote freedom, as it is this ideal that is the real key to the economic success of the United States.
Keith Davies
Executive Director
Walid Shoebat Foundation
Piping Mad: Fair People at the Mercy of a Government Gone Fowl
Liberal Policies, and Environmentalism, at War With Americans of Cape Hatteras Island
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Saturday, September 25, 2010
James Madison quote: The Chief Blessings of Civil Society
"Stability in government is essential to national character and to the advantages annexed to it, as well as to that repose and confidence in the minds of the people, which are among the chief blessings of civil society." --James Madison, Federalist No. 37, 1788
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Center For American Progress Says Our Nation Has Begun To Lean Left
The quiz offered by the Center of American Progress, and a study associated with that quiz, has the fringe leftists believing this nation leans left - and they are wrong. We will go over that quiz, and the report, tonight, to show that the liberal left is completely wrong in their assessment. Join us live at 7:00 pm Pacific as we discuss this topic on the air. You can catch the program live, or listen to the archive later, at BlogTalkRadio.com/PoliticalPistachio.
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