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Hype: The Obama Effect

Obama; The Anointed One

The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organization with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.

He traveled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.

And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.

From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.

And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.

And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy plowshares.

From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.

In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.

As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for.

And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.

Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.

And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.

Then the Child ventured forth from Israel and Palestine and stepped onto the shores of the Old Continent. In the land of Queen Angela of Merkel, vast multitudes gathered to hear his voice, and he preached to them at length.

But when he had finished speaking his disciples told him the crowd was hungry, for they had had nothing to eat all the hours they had waited for him.

And so the Child told his disciples to fetch some food but all they had was five loaves and a couple of frankfurters. So he took the bread and the frankfurters and blessed them and told his disciples to feed the multitudes. And when all had eaten their fill, the scraps filled twelve baskets.

Thence he traveled west to Mount Sarkozy. Even the beauteous Princess Carla of the tribe of the Bruni was struck by awe and she was great in love with the Child, but he was tempted not.

On the Seventh Day he walked across the Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair and his successor, Gordon the Leper, and his successor, David the Golden One.

And suddenly, with the men appeared the archangel Gabriel and the whole host of the heavenly choir, ranks of cherubim and seraphim, all praising God and singing: “Yes, We Can.”

Gerard Baker; TimesOnline

Return of The Liberty Quiz

I've been slothful in my maintenance of The Liberty Quiz for the past few weeks.  I'm happy to tell you that it's back.  Check out the first sidebar to the right for the new quiz.  If you're a blogger, cast your vote, leave a comment stating how you voted and the URL of your blog, and if you voted correctly I will list your blog among the winners on the Liberty Quiz Results post next week.

Principle of Freedom #6 - Human Equality

  All Men are Created Equal

"That all men are born to equal rights is true.  Every being has a right to his own, as clear, as moral, as sacred, as any other being has....But to teach that all men are born with equal powers and faculties, to equal influence in society, to equal property, and advantages through life, is as gross a fraud, as glaring an imposition on the credulity of the people, as ever was practiced by monks, by Druids, by Brahmins, by priests of the immortal Lama, or by the self-styled philosophers of the French Revolution."
~John Adams

"The goal of society is to provide 'equal justice,' which means protecting the rights of the people equally:

At the bar of justice, to secure their rights.

At the ballot box, to vote for the candidate of their choice.

At the public school, to obtain their education.

At the employment office, to compete for a job.

At the real estate agency, to purchase or rent a home.

At the pulpit, to enjoy freedom of religion.

At the podium, to enjoy freedom of speech.

At the microphone or before the TV camera, to present views on the issues of the day.

At the meeting hall, to peaceably assemble.

At the print shop, to enjoy freedom of the press.

At the store, to buy the essentials or desirable things of life.

At the bank, to save and prosper.

At the tax collectors office, to pay no more than their fair share.

At the probate court, to pass on to their heirs the fruits of life's labors."

~W. Cleon Skousen (The Five Thousand Year Leap, pg. 105)

Source: The Five Thousand Year Leap; W. Cleon Skousen

 

   

Today's Newspaper Roundup

My typical morning routine places me at my desk at around 8:50 AM, with coffee, reading the morning newspaper.  I typically scan the stories from front to back, only pausing to read items of strong interest.  Today there were a few different items that caught my eye and I thought I'd briefly share them with you here.

The first was an Associated Press story with the headline, "Energy tsunami near, top ex-officials warn."

A bi-partisan group of 27 elder statesmen is sending an open letter to both presidential candidates and every member of congress saying that the country faces "a long-term energy crisis" that threatens the security and prosperity of future generations if swift action isn't taken.

The group includes Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and six other former secretaries of state or defense, former senators of both parties, and a half dozen former senior White House advisors and other cabinet officers for both Republican and Democratic presidents.

"We must re-examine outdated and entrenched positions.  Foremost we must rise above partisan differences and be united in our efforts," they wrote.

I actually wanted to write an editorial in the paper (I serve on the editorial board) saying much the same thing, but it was voted down.  It seems I'm in good company with an opinion shared by men called "elder statesmen."

The second item was a great quote by Thomas Jefferson offered by letter-to-the-editor writer Ray James of Columbus.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Hopefully we are not in need of a new bloodletting to preserve our liberty.  But sometimes the actions of our increasingly tyrannical government make me wonder.

And finally, another Associated Press story with the headline, "Leaders running out of economic options."

The nation's leaders are running out of answers to America's economic crisis.

The Federal Reserve has no more practical room to push interest rates lower; there's only so much taxpayer money for shoring up housing, and if depositors lose confidence there's little officials can do to stop a run on banks.

Bernanke warned that the U.S. economy faces "numerous difficulties," that the outlook for inflaton is unclear and that "financial markets and institutions remain under considerable stress."

I think this story finally brings to light the reality that the government should stop trying to fix things and simply get out of the way of Main Street Americans who have historically been the ones to come up with free-market solutions to America's worst problems.

Interesting news day indeed.

An American Soundtrack

Music has always had the power to stir my soul, to take me back in time to moments fading from memory.  I've collected some of what I consider to be the best music from the 1950's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's and offer them to you here with the playlist below.  Just click on the song you want to hear.  Enjoy!  I'll be setting this up as a separate page with a navigation button on the sidebar so you can return to it easily.

Democratic Doublespeak on Oil

Every time I see Nancy Pelosi on television I shake my head at the ignorance and hypocrisy.  A July 10th Associated Press story reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on President Bush to release oil from the government's emergency reserve to knock down gasoline prices she says "are helping push the economy toward recession."

Pelosi, D-Calif., in a letter to Bush noted that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been used three times before and each time the action has served to stabilize oil markets and lower gas prices.

Action is needed "to assist consumers and strengthen the economy," Pelosi said.

The threats to the economy and national security from high oil prices "are the kind of circumstances ... in which utilization of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is more than justified," Pelosi wrote in the letter sent late Tuesday.

It appears to me that Nancy Pelosi is saying more oil released into the market will lower prices at the pump, and such a decrease is a critical step toward our economic recovery.

On the same day as the above Associate Press story, a story at TheHill.com reported,

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday shut the door on expanding oil and gas drilling beyond areas that have already been approved for energy exploration, drawing a clear distinction from her counterparts in charge of the Senate.

“This call for drilling in areas that are protected is a hoax, it’s an absolute hoax on the part of the Republicans and this administration” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference. “It’s a decoy to punt your attention away from the fact that their policies have produced $4-a-gallon gasoline.”

So let me get this straight.  Pelosi and her Democratic henchmen will not allow discussion about getting more oil onto the market by drilling millions of barrels a day out of our own ground.  But, to lower gas prices through putting more oil on the market, she will begin depleting the national reserve that is in place to get us through military or natural catastrophes.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Obama said in a June 13th interview with Gannett media in Wisconsin,

"If we reduce our consumption of oil, that's what will reduce gas prices. There's really no other way of doing it," the presumptive Democratic nominee said in a one-on-one interview Thursday with Gannett Wisconsin Media during a campaign stop in Kaukauna. "We can't drill our way out of the problem because there's just a finite amount of oil out there, and you have got increasing demand from countries like China and India.  (Source: Green Bay Press Gazette)

Pelosi says more oil on the market will reduce gas prices, but only oil from the strategic reserve, not oil from the ground.  Obama says that more oil on the market will do nothing to lower prices, we just have to use less.

Are they just stupid?  Or is there a bigger agenda at work here?  I think it's an agenda, because neither of these two people are stupid.  There is an agenda coming from environmentalists to eliminate the use of fossil fuels.  And there is an agenda coming from the Democratic side to, through all possible means, blame Republicans for an energy crisis that is really the fault of the Democratic environmental lobby.

Is it any wonder that the Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid congress has achieved the lowest approval rating in the history of the Rasmussen poll. Just 9 percent of the American people approve of the job Congress is doing.

Bank Run

A huddled mass, confused and afraid gathers at the entrance.  Worried faces press against the glass of locked doors that separate them from their money.  There are people inside.   But nobody responds to a woman pleading at the door, "Please, please, I want to take out a portion."  At first, the scene described is likely to take your memory back to the Bailey Building & Loan of "It's a Wonderful Life."  But you would be wrong.  This scene took place on Friday at not just one, but 33 IndyMac banks in California.  And none of these depositors were greeted by a bank president willing to doll out his life savings to make sure that they were cared for.

The Los Angeles Times paints the picture for us of the second largest bank failure in U.S. history.

The federal government took control of Pasadena-based IndyMac Bank on Friday in what regulators called the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

Citing a massive run on deposits, regulators shut its main branch three hours early, leaving customers stunned and upset. One woman leaned on the locked doors, pleading with an employee inside: "Please, please, I want to take out a portion." All she could do was read a two-page notice taped to the door.

Schumer said in a statement that the cause of IndyMac's failure was "poor and loose lending practices" that should have been prevented by more active regulation.

There are many threats to American liberty.  Extremist regimes around the world long for the day of our destruction as a nation and support any and all activities to bring about that destruction.  An international agenda of leveling the global economic playing field by stalling the U.S. economy is afoot.  An internal shift away from free market capitalism toward socialism is gaining momentum.  And a greed-inspired, debt-driven society will never avoid collapse for long.  Time is running out (and perhaps it has already) to turn this ship around.

In light of what's happening, the best course of action for the average you-and-me is to pay off all personal debt as quickly as possible, live on a personal budget that spends less than you earn, and begin building an emergency savings fund that could get you through at least 3 months of unemployment.  Another good idea, if you have the cash on hand to do so, is to stock up on food staples, household items, and clothing.  Stockpile as much as you can now because the price you will pay on all of these items right now is much lower than what you will pay on these items six months or a year from now.  For example, buy now enough toilet paper to last for a year at $1.49 per package.  In six months, when everyone else is paying $1.99 for that same package, you won't be.

These are tough times.  And it will get worse before it gets better.  If you still have grandparents living who were in their teens or twenties in the 1930's, sit down and have a long talk with them about life during that time.

CNN Story

Image Source: Annie Wells/Los Angeles Times

A related developing story you need to watch (Fannie & Freddie)

To All Who Have Survived:

A tribute to everyone who survived from 1920 to 1979:

We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.  They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

We survived being put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paint.  We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets.

We survived riding our bikes without helmets, and the risks we took hitchhiking.  As infants and children we rode in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts, or air bags.  And riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was a special treat.

We survived sharing a soft drink with four friends from the same bottle.  We ate cupcakes, white bread, and real butter.  We drank Kool-aid made with sugar, be we weren't overweight because we were always outside playing.

We survived leaving home in the morning, playing all day, and coming home before the streetlights came on.  Nobody was able to reach us all day, and we were okay.

We survived  building our go-carts out of scraps and riding down the hill only to discover that we had forgotten the brakes.  After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We survived without Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, cable television, DVDs, surround sound, CDs, cell phones, personal computers, and internet chat rooms.  We had friends because we went outside and found them.

We survived falling out of trees, getting cut, breaking bones and teeth.  And there were no lawsuits because of these accidents.

We survived eating worms and mud pies mad from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We survived getting BB guns on our 10th birthdays, playing games with sticks, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We survived riding bikes, walking to friends houses, and walking into the house without knocking.

We survived not making the team during Little League baseball tryouts.  And we learned to either get better or find another game.

We survived when our parents didn't bail us out after breaking the law and instead sided with the law.

We are the survivors who have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors ever.  We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility.  And we learned how to deal with it all.

If you are one of the survivors, I salute you.

Libertarians and Rules of the Road

The Publisher of the newspaper for which I work sent a story to those of us on the editorial board about new, tough driving laws being passed by the state of California.  The New York Times article, written by Jennifer Steinhauer, comments on the following laws now in place:

• It is against the law to smoke in vehicles when minors are present.
• Legislation under consideration proposes fines for motorists with dogs in their laps.
• All driving cell-phone users must use a headset.
• Drivers under 18 may not use a wireless telephone of any sort.

My publisher laughingly remarked in her e-mail, "Gotta love California, however, Bill (me) the Libertarian will hate this oppression."

I surprised her, and my colleagues on the editorial board, with a reply stating my affirmation of these laws.  The nexus of libertarian concern is the inalienable rights of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness.  We who wear this label (if one must wear a label) believe that we own our lives and we are owned by nobody else.  We may freely offer ourselves in the service of others, but no person has claim upon us.  Because we uphold this principle as the zenith of our own personal existence, integrity demands that we also uphold this principle in the same regard toward those around us.  Which brings me back to these traffic laws.  And to begin, we must remember that driving is not an inalienable right.  It is a privilege mutually agreed upon by society with mutually agreed upon rules.

Just as we hold that no person has the right to infringe upon our life, liberty, property, or pursuit of happiness, neither do we have the right to infringe upon those same rights held by those around us.  A driver who smokes in a vehicle with a child present is essentially subjecting that child, against their will, to the inhalation of poisonous gas.  And a driver engaged in chatting on the phone, putting on makeup, shaving their legs, texting, or petting their dog is creating the potential for a scenario that could lead to the destruction of property, and at worst, the destruction of life.

Unlike anarchists, sensible libertarians understand that our individual freedom does not include the freedom to willingly cause harm, or the potential of harm, to our fellow citizens.