The prescience and wisdom of President Ronald Reagan unfolds anew in our current time of self-inflicted crisis. What I would give to see Obama and his clan sitting at the dinner table with the vibrant Ronald Reagan as seen and heard below taking them to task. "America is Freedom..."
This is a "must listen" from Ronald Reagan back in 1961...
I stumbled onto this one on YouTube.... an absolute riot...
Monday, April 20, 2009
On 1/9/09, Stephen Moore published a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled, 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years. I enjoyed Mr. Moore's piece and submitted the following to The Wall Street Journal:
During his 22 November radio broadcast, John Galt states:
“Drifters and physical laborers live and plan by the range of a day. The better the mind, the longer the range. A man whose vision extends to a shanty, might continue to build on your quicksands, to grab a fast profit and run. A man who envisions skyscrapers, will not. Nor will he give ten years of unswerving devotion to the task of inventing a new product, when he knows that gangs of entrenched mediocrity are juggling the laws against him, to tie him, restrict him and force him to fail…”
First the immediate crisis of liquidity in September that required emergency measures to get us through this “temporary” crisis… then the immediate crisis of the viability of the Big Three auto makers that required emergency measures to get us through this “temporary” crisis. Yesterday President-Elect Obama stated :
"I don’t believe it’s too late to change course, but it will be if we don’t take dramatic action as soon as possible… We won’t get out of it by…relying on the worn-out dogmas of the past.
"That is why I have moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will immediately jumpstart job creation and long-term growth. It’s a plan that represents not just new policy, but a whole new approach to meeting our most urgent challenges… It is time to finally change the ways of Washington so that we can set a new and better course for America."
Following this prelude, President Elect Obama proceeded to list the “new” spending plans with a promise that this “new” spending plan will be different in that it will “invest in what works”. An utter denial of reality. We are being extorted to deny what we think and know to be true and to believe the unreal. We are being extorted to suspend our reason and have mystic faith in “change”. We are being extorted to trust our lives to the new government.
Imagine, instead, if we heard the following yesterday:
“Stability and consistency of government policy being critical to the establishment of the trust necessary for every American to regain the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the following policies shall be implemented by the incoming Administration:
• “The current tax system, including payroll taxes, and the IRS will be eliminated effective 1 January 2011, replaced by the Fair Tax Act. This act will eliminate the gross distortion in the market caused by the government and will reward production instead of consumption;
• “The sale of Health Insurance will be disconnected from employers and shall be sold in an open market similar to auto insurance, homeowners and life insurance;
• “Pet projects / pork-barrel spending shall be outlawed. No longer will people from Montana have to pay for construction of water slides in Florida.
• “Effective 1 January 2012, the United States will return to the Gold Standard”
Too much of the blame for the current state of economic affairs finds its roots in Washington policy to suggest that more of the same will prove effective. It is a denial of reality that we can “fix” the pain with another dose of government spending morphine in the short term to get us through this “temporary” rough patch. How many more “temporary emergencies”, typically created by government intervention, must we suffer before we realize that we need to take the long view? Or, are we simply incapable or unwilling to take the long view? Are we no longer capable of building skyscrapers?
Today I mailed a copy of Atlas Shrugged to President Obama, in the hopes that he will realize that we know what he is doing and that he will be held accountable. There is a nationwide campaign (click on the link to the left) to mail copies of Atlas Shrugged to our dear political leaders to let them know that their days in power are numbered if they continue on the perverse, disingenuous course they have set.
The "leaders" of our national government, and many of our state and local governments, are frantically working to cripple America and Americans as soon as possible. After all, cripples will forever be dependent on the table scraps from the national government and will forever be less inclined to vote for any candidate who speaks about individual responsibility, property rights, hard work, fiscal prudence, freedom and liberty.
Just as Ayn Rand taught that there can be no contradictions, it is only within the paradigm of "how can we cripple America before it catches on?" do the actions of the Obamacrats not produce a contradiction.
Spending our way to prosperity... increasing our taxes to stimulate us... respecting private property by taking ownership of private companies...by forcing companies to take federal "assistance" and then telling the companies how to run their businesses...
I am reminded of the wonderful line from Atlas Shrugged utter by Wesley Mouch, but words that very easily could come from the mouths of any Obamacrat: "The (Obama) Plan will reconcile all conflicts. It will protect the property of the rich and give a greater share to the poor. It will cut down the burden of your taxes and provide you with more government benefits. It will lower prices and raise wages. It will give more freedom to the individual and strengthen the bonds of collective obligations. It will combine the efficiency of free enterprise with the generosity of a planned economy."
Ayn Rand wrote those words 52 years ago but we are now hearing them, in some form, everyday from this cynically, corrupt and dangerous administration.
It's time for all us of to Go-Galt.
Below is my letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama:
As a US citizen, I am extremely concerned about the direction in which you and the Congress are leading this country.
The contradictions in your policies with both your campaign promises and with the principles that have made this country so great are deeply disturbing. Many of my constituents here in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, many of whom voted for you last November, have experienced a similar pattern of emotional response to your socialist policies. Hope gave way to wonder which gave way to rationalization, which gave way to disbelief which gave way to anger which has now, finally, given way to action. We will not be enslaved by your ambitious agenda.
The utter disregard you have displayed for private property, the proper role of government and the importance of job creation has not been missed by this nation’s voters. You have not only implemented policies that look to seize the fruits or production (higher taxes on the country’s most productive elements) but, now, with your takeover of AIG and GM (Government Motors) you are seizing the means of production.
Your disregard for the right of the individual to set the direction for his or her own life, and to retain the products of his or her own efforts, is generating a rising tide of resentment among the more productive members of society, which is fermenting into deep discontent, as witnessed by the recent flurry of Tea Party protests across the nation and by the outcry of numerous political commentators.
Banks across the country are desperately trying to give back the TARP money it wants off its books because of the demands your gang are placing upon them – yet you refuse to accept the taxpayer money back. Both Secretary Clinton and Mr. Emanuel displayed “the consciousness of the king” when they stated that they didn’t want to “waste” the opportunity of the current economic crisis. I need no other data to understand your true, socialist, motivations and will actively work to educate my fellow-countrymen to the risk your policies pose to our country.
The nature of our current problems and the consequences of these problems were identified by Ayn Rand in her novel, Atlas Shrugged, and that prophetic novel foretells a bleak future for us all should we continue along our current path. I am enclosing a copy of that book with this letter in the hopes that you will read it, take its message to heart, and that you will ultimately stop the damage that is being done to our country. Should you not “get out of our way” you will forever be known as President “Thompson”.
In this engaging 1959 interview, her first on television, Ayn Rand capsulizes her philosophy for CBS's Mike Wallace. The discussion ranges from the nature of morality to the economic and historical distortions disseminated about the "robber barons." She also comments on her relationship with Frank O'Connor, provides some autobiographical information and gives her perspective on the future of America.
As the wheels of the economy were coming off the tracks in Ayn Rand’s chillingly prescient novel Atlas Shrugged, one of the desperate, discredited, feeble central planners states to his cohorts, “You boys have no excuse for permitting all of that need and misery to spread through this country – so long as there are people who aren’t broke.”
As startling, though perhaps unexpected, as Obama’s first week's of Presidential Directives were, they are merely an overture to the greater pageant that is unfolding before our eyes. President Clinton, in his first term, had Gingrich and a united Republican House to check his leftist agenda. President Obama has no such counter-balancing force with which to limit the reach of his leftist agenda – an agenda that will fulfill his promise of change…but a change that few understood.
In a recent piece, entitled A Tyrant's 'Liberation', published in the 1/26/09 edition of the National Review, Otto Reich recalls his memories from another place in time, when the population unhesitatingly heralded the overthrow of an unbearable tyrant and the coming of their savior. All of their problems were behind them. Freedom and equality were finally within their reach. The long awaited liberator - a messiah, perhaps - was delivered. That place was Havana, Cuba on January 1, 1959 and the savior was Fidel Castro.
Fifty years later and after the total and undeniable emasculation of what was once a thriving economy and a vibrant people in Cuba, there are still apologists, if not out-right admirers of the Castro regime. Fifty years of denying reality. Fifty years of believing (of feeling) that, as Rand would say, "A is not A". Fifty years of living with the contradiction between the world that is and the world as these apologists would have it.
Fast forward fifty years. The parades celebrating Obama this week are no shorter than the ones that welcomed Castro fifty years ago. The mindless, desperate unthinking hope of the Cubans fifty years ago is no less than that displayed by hundreds of thousands of sobbing Americans who filled the Mall this week. The firing-squads that Castro used fifty years ago will be replaced by Obama with means more "politically correct" yet comparably effective to silence dissent and to consolidate power. An "unprecedented" time? No, the times are quite well precedented and are in plain view to all who would see them.
So, the Obama Clan (OC) is pushing forward a trillion dollar "stimulus" package, one that no honest, informed person can possibly think will stimulate anything but the rapidly-advancing left-wing power grab. If, the middle class, whom tax cheat Charley Rangel told Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary and current Obama economic advisor, at the 1/21/09 House W&M hearing, "And one thing you can depend on, you don't have to worry what the middle class will do. Things are so bad. They have to put food on their tables, get clothes on their kids, get them in school." Words uttered not in a smoke-filled back room somewhere - but in full committee, on C-Span. In August 2007, the nation shuttered at the thought of injecting $3 billion into the economy to ease a potential credit crunch. 18 months later, it is $1 trillion and Charley Rangel is saying not to worry...that the middle class is too busy trying to work hard supporting this corrupt government to know it is being further enslaved.
So, it is almost a fait accompli that within a month, in a fabulous signing ceremony (where the choicest interviews and photo ops will be provided to the media who pay more to play), we will witness the spark of the match which will result in our immolation. This stimulus bill will be worse than useless for it will empower the enemies of America. In fact, for its true, primary purposes the "stimulus bill" will be incredibly effective. With the stroke of a pen:
1. Money will flow from those who produce (and will produce in the future from generations to come) to the worst of the worst "shovel ready" programs. Rangel and former Labor Secretary and socialist Robert Reich, in their conspiracy caught on tape for all to see, want a federally mandated formula and criteria to "expedite" tax payer money to land not where it can be most productive, but where it can be least productive.
2. The money is not being spent to pander to current and future voters in the interest of improving their plight. Quite the contrary. The purpose of this "stimulus" package is to make the appearance of stimulating the economy while ensuring that every penny spent is wasted. The OC have no interest in remedying the emergency they have declared. For if the emergency passes, then what would justify their need for emergency measures? The sinister beauty of what we are watching unfold before us dwarfs the horror described by Rand in Atlas Shrugged.
Fast forward one year. As we slip deeper and deeper into recession, where the "light at the end of the tunnel" draws dimmer and dimmer, we will be reminded in the news that this is all the fault of George W. Bush and that President Obama is working feverishly for all of us and that while the initial $1 trillion stimulus doesn't appear to have done the trick, the problems inherited from the Bush administration were much worse than was admitted. But if we all work together we can get through this....but we need another infusion of cash.
So, where will the next "stimulus package" come from? The one that will be pushed in September 2009? It will come from your 401K. Yup. Your 401K. You know, for years, when you've been setting aside money instead of spending it now? That money.
In October 2008, Democrat-led sub-committee hearings were held to review a plan hawked by Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School of Social Research. In essence, the plan would empower the government to seize the assets in our 401Ks, provide some pedestrian income on these stolen assets and do so under the name of "Guaranteed Retirement Accounts".
Too audacious? Really? Do you think there are any bounds or moral limits to what the OC will try to do to bleed America? When candidate Biden was called by a courageous journalist who accused Biden and Obama of promoting socialism (from each according to his ability to each according to his needs) the left was ready in deflecting that parry. In essence, Biden stated "we're not trying to control the means of production." True statement. But as Milton Friedman cited in Free to Choose, "W. Allen Wallis put it in a somewhat different context, socialism, 'intellectually bankrupt after more than a century of seeing one after another of its arguments for socializing the means of production demolished - now seeks to socialize the results of production."
Charley Rangle doesn't worry about any resistance from the producers of this country because we're too busy trying to get by. But so long as there are men and women among whose who "aren't broke" the OC will take steps every day - each step more audacious and pernicious than the last - to bleed the life out of each of us and give our blood to the leeches who posses the one thing the OC needs... a vote.
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