Clancy and Flynn Dead

Clancy and Flynn dead.

If you're a reader and love books the passing of both Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn is a sorrowful double blow to your spirits.

If you happen to be a conservative and are action minded, then the pain of their passing becomes hard to bear, for me nearly intolerable.

I have enjoyed and read all the books of them both.  I remember first reading Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" and as President Reagan, I too lost some sleep because I couldn't put it down.  I remember hoping this was the first of many and indeed it was.
  
Tom Clancy's uniqueness was found not just in the fast paced and militarily cogent aspects of his action novels, but how he merged the genre of the cold war with the world wide spread of terrorism and political intrigue.
  
His books were blockbusters and the movies made from them were big hits also.  Most have seen "The Hunt for Red October", "Patriot Games", and or "Clear and Present Danger".  All were Big Time movies with the likes of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery as their Stars.

While we do not yet know the cause of death, his dying will be mourned by many.  Perhaps a blessing to ease us through our grief is that there will be another novel of his writing coming out this winter titled "Command Authority".  Also there will be a movie titled "Jack Ryan: Shadow One" coming out around the same time.

Some time into the progression of my reading of Clancy's "Jack Ryan" novels I found another author.  His name was Vince Flynn who broke onto the scene with his collection of titles featuring Mitch Rapp as the fictional lead character.  

The first book in the series was the Assassins, I read it and was hooked.  Mitch Rapp seemed a fitting candidate to take over for Jack Ryan in the never ending fight over good and evil.

Vince Flynn's books like Clancy’s were fast paced, factual and prescient.  These books also dealt with political intrigue at the highest levels, with terrorism running throughout. Flynn cemented the genre Clancy created.   

The real sadness for readers is the relative youth of their passing.  Clancy died at age 66 which may seem old for the creative juices to be flowing but if you look back in time, Robert Ludlum (of the Jason Bourne trilogy) was writing until he died at the age of 73.  The two authors both favorites of mine were much alike and I would say Clancy took Ludlum to the next step, evolving the genre for the next generation, just as Flynn was evolving Clancy's.  

The sadness becomes more stark with the passing of Vince Flynn at only age 47.  I remembered a quote from Flynn about Clancy in a recent interview.  I looked it up here it is.

 “Hey, if Clancy can do it, why can’t I? They need books; somebody has got to be the next Tom Clancy.” Talk about some irony, who will the next Vince Flynn be?
http://www.atlassociety.org/tni/tnis-interview-vince-flynn

That interview truly spells out the struggles of Vince Flynn from a poor background with a learning disorder and how one can overcome all with sheer grit.

Clancy sent out and received 60 rejection slips before a non fiction Naval publisher accepted it for $5,000. 

Both writers had their struggles and Tom Clancy would tell you that the keeping your dream is the key to it all.  This link to an article explains at the time the rise of Clancy as a literary force against the odds.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-clancys-first-book-2013-10

Tom Clancy, Article about his death.
http://www.newsmax.com/US/obit-tom-clancy/2013/10/02/id/528873

Tom Clancy's website

http://www.tomclancy.com/tom_clancy_books_fiction.php

Vince Flynn.  Article about his death.e
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/vince-flynn-dies-best-selling-author/2013/06/19/id/510783

Vince Flynn's web site.
http://www.vinceflynn.com/

Regards, Live Dangerously Be a Conservative
Never let others dream for you.

Democrat's War on the Middle Class.

Democrats =

War on the Middle Class

???

Jimmy Hoffa’s Letter to the Democrats about Obamacare.

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/07/12/union-letter-obamacare-will-destroy-the-very-health-and-wellbeing-of-workers/

“When you and the President sought our support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), you pledged that if we liked the health plans we have now, we could keep them. Sadly, that promise is under threat. Right now, unless you and the Obama Administration enact an equitable fix, the ACA will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”

“Like millions of other Americans, our members are front-line workers in the American economy. We have been strong supporters of the notion that all Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care. We have also been strong supporters of you. In campaign after campaign we have put boots on the ground, gone door-to-door to get out the vote, run phone banks and raised money to secure this vision.”

“Now this vision has come back to haunt us.”

“Since the ACA was enacted, we have been bringing our deep concerns to the Administration, seeking reasonable regulatory interpretations to the statute that would help prevent the destruction of non-profit health plans. As you both know first-hand, our persuasive arguments have been disregarded and met with a stone wall by the White House and the pertinent agencies. This is especially stinging because other stakeholders have repeatedly received successful interpretations for their respective grievances. Most disconcerting of course is last week’s huge accommodation for the employer community—extending the statutorily mandated “December 31, 2013” deadline for the employer mandate and penalties.”

“Time is running out: Congress wrote this law; we voted for you. We have a problem; you need to fix it. The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe. Perverse incentives are already creating nightmare scenarios.”

“First, the law creates an incentive for employers to keep employees’ work hours below 30 hours a week. Numerous employers have begun to cut workers’ hours to avoid this obligation, and many of them are doing so openly. The impact is two-fold: fewer hours means less pay while also losing our current health benefits.”

“Second, millions of Americans are covered by non-profit health insurance plans like the ones in which most of our members participate. These non-profit plans are governed jointly by unions and companies under the Taft-Hartley Act. Our health plans have been built over decades by working men and women. Under the ACA as interpreted by the Administration, our employees will treated differently and not be eligible for subsidies afforded other citizens. As such, many employees will be relegated to second-class status and shut out of the help the law offers to for-profit insurance plans.”

“And finally, even though non-profit plans like ours won’t receive the same subsidies as for-profit plans, they’ll be taxed to pay for those subsidies. Taken together, these restrictions will make non-profit plans like ours unsustainable, and will undermine the health-care market of viable alternatives to the big health insurance companies.”

“On behalf of the millions of working men and women we represent and the families they support, we can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans.”

“We believe that there are common-sense corrections that can be made within the existing statute that will allow our members to continue to keep their current health plans and benefits just as you and the President pledged. Unless changes are made, however, that promise is hollow.”

“We continue to stand behind real health care reform, but the law as it stands will hurt millions of Americans including the members of our respective unions.”

“We are looking to you to make sure these changes are made.”

It’s about trust.

The President is losing his credibility and sense of trustworthiness among his base.

No matter how you spin it, the battle over the Affordable Care Act, (Obamacare), is a battle between those who work and those who don’t.

President Obama will throw anyone under the buss to keep that war of disparity in high gear.

It’s about time the Union workers of the world realize they are the ones, funding those who don’t
.

It is they who are being thrown under the bus as we speak or more appropriately as they work.

Some of the Union leaders are getting the picture.

They are feeling threatened by their working members because the President lied to them about not taxing their benefits to fund Obamacare.

It’s time now for the workers of the world unite, stand up and take their turn to throw Obamacare and all forms of socialism under the bus
.

Most people especially the Union workers are figuring this out, and it’s about time. 

From the letter above, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa I think has realized that President Obama isn’t loyal to those who got him there only loyal to those who will get him to where he is going.

I’m hoping that the working middle class of this great country will finally figure out that important fact about Obama.  In fact I hope all those who are being used by him and treated as a doormat will start to stand up.

He and his policies are a strictly class war between those who get their money from government and those who make it otherwise.

Obama’s class war is between those who work and those who don’t.

President Obama will throw anyone under the buss to keep that war of disparity in high gear.

It’s about time the Union workers of the world realize they are the ones that will be thrown under the bus next.

As Mr. Hoffa intimates, this is a war on the American Dream where a person can support his family through their work, vs. taking money from them so others don’t have to.

Hoffa is sounding like a Reagan Democrat.

I hope it’s catchy.

It is catchy

News Flash 9/1/2013

40,000 longshoremen dissociate themselves from The AFL-CIO over Obamacare.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/09/01/Citing-Obamacare-40-000-Longshoremen-Quit-the-AFL-CIO

Robert McEllrath, head of the ILWU wrote a letter to Richard Trumka AFL-CIO leader.  Below is a snippet. 

"We feel the Federation (AFL-CIO) has done a great disservice to the labor movement and all working people by going along to get along,"

McEllrath the Longshoremen leader was voicing his objections of Trumka’s support of the President’s Obamacare and immigration policies.

Trumpka head of the AFL-CIO a big supporter of Obamacare and the President in the beginning is now sounding reminiscent of Nancy Pelosi as he starts to feel the heat from his members.  Recently he said in answer to the question of how the changes he wanted to be made in  Obamacare would work: “I can’t tell you how it would work until its done”.   I.e. Pelosi “We won’t know what’s in it till we pass it.”

What a chance for Republicans to win a landslide in 2014.

How? Who?

Who do the Republicans have that can unite these Reagan Democrats with their base?

Who do the Republicans have that can unite the Republicans?

I fear for the Republicans, if they cannot take the lead in this.  If they cannot why would people expect they could take leadership across the board.

Americans now have a leader who cannot lead, who is afraid of making a decision that may tarnish his image.  He changes his mind on a whim, he seems all image, all rhetoric; from his swaggering to the podium, to his “jaunty” salute at the bottom of the steps of air force one, to his feet up on the White House furniture.  As people get tired of his bling and look for leadership they are finding none.

An empty suit.  A Cocky Smile.

What is the alternative?

Give me a Tea Party candidate? One without rhetoric?  Haven’t found many.

Why?  Because they are drowned out by and quickly pick up their own rhetoric.

Catch 22?  No just tell the truth and be willing to support those who do.  Not those who will give you the most.  Beware, it is the oldest of survival instincts.  It has been the foundation of support for tyranny since records have been kept.

It is Greed, or “self-interest” for the squeamish.

Civilizations are measured by how they control that.

Not their Governments but they the people that chose leaders and allow them to keep power.

Our civilization - we will be judged by who we allow to lead.

Elections matter.

On the Edge

On the Edge

What if, as Thomas Sowell in his recent article, “Mindset of the Left” said; “…. institutions and government policy -- are not the most important factors in the world's problems,… What if things like the family, the culture and the traditions that make a more positive difference than the bright new government "solutions…"?

-----link-----
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/07/02/the-mindset-of-the-left-n1631804
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Mr. Sowell’s article asks questions such as what if locking up criminals works better than understanding motives and the rest? What improvement in teenage pregnancy have we had since we started teaching sex in elementary school?

We are at a tipping point in history. Many people have made that statement, and while we all on both sides seem to understand that; we don’t quite know what to do about it.

So why don’t we change our country’s path?

What we need to understand at this point are two things. The first thing is the tremendous effort which is needed to reverse the momentum. Secondly we must also understand that at the point where we are spending our greatest effort is the point of least direct reward. In other words, slowing something down which is moving one way gives us nothing to point to as progress along the path in which we want it to go. Even though the most effort is needed at this juncture, because of the lack of progress there is little to point to as progress for our side.

It is at this point that faith is our only measure that can keep us striving.

It is at this point that those without faith will point to our lack of progress and the terrible cost our “stubbornness” is charging. Without faith there can be no dreams except nightmares.

Throughout history we see that it is when we lose the faith in our dreams that we lose the battle. Look at America and the Vietnam war, when we lost the faith in what and why we were fighting, we lost the war. So too in our culture, when we lose faith in the American Dream we will lose it and the exceptionalism that dream has inspired.

As we think back upon our Independence it behooves us to remember that when all was against American Independence, when the papers and world opinion called us down for the count; it is then that the Individual who called him/herself an American fell back on faith to see them through. When all they had was Faith in a Dream they put their all on the line and won the day for little reward but for the chance at the American Dream for their children. Can we expect of ourselves any less?

It is Faith that founded and made this Country and only Faith that can keep it.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative

Watching the Dollars, the Millions take care of Themselves

I recently blogged about a Peggy Noonan article, “the Presidential Wheel is Turning”.  I blogged about all the evidence that is becoming clearer to people that the promises of Hope and Change made by President Barack Obama was a sham.  Although the President has made drastic Change, that change was not in line with the hopes of the public who voted for him.  Up and down the line people are beginning to understand that the person whom they voted for because he offered Hope and Change, provided none of the later and they are running out of Hope he ever will.  They voted for him in the first place because their hope was that he could change government and make it work.  He hasn't, Americans are still angry with government and want something done and they are still looking for someone who will.

I have seen how hope and change can really happen.  I've seen it come from the bottom up.  I have seen how a small group of people can make a change not befitting their size.  In our state of Michigan I have seen what used to be a minority overtake the majority by doing the simple things; those things they learned from their friends and family.  I have helped local candidates win elections and go to the state capital where they followed through and practiced what they preached.  They made a difference and I’m not too humble to say from the bottom up I had a part, albeit a small part.

The acts were small but consistent to start with and they all shared the common goal of doing more with less, of actually rolling up their sleeves and doing the work themselves when possible instead of looking to spend more money to do less.  It is called living within your means.  Americans outside of politics practice that every day when we decide to eat meatloaf instead of borrowing money to buy standing rib.  The smartest of us learn from this kind of experience.  We learn that we grow as individuals by the doing, (there are ways to make a great tasting meatloaf), not to mention how wonderful that standing rib tastes when you have a month or more to look forward to it.

 

Well excuse my getting carried away about food, it’s way past lunch time.

We in Michigan are starting to turn this state around.  The people we have helped get elected are taking those lessens to the state capital and putting them into practice.  This was done not in the best of times but the Budget has been balanced and on time for 3 years now during the worst of times.  Not three plentiful years, but three years that have seen shrinking population and income with high unemployment.  Because of this and other belt tightening measures our state’s credit rating has been upgraded, Detroit’s mayor is in jail, we have an actual rainy day fund and people have started to move back to Michigan along with business.  Our population which had been dwindling for the past decade has finally started to show a net increase. Unemployment has started to go down.

Regulations are being reigned in.  Individuals on all fronts are starting to gain back their rights to do and decide things on their own, freer of the encumbrances of government.  We again are getting the chance to make our own mistakes and learn from them.  The government better beware, that freedom is addictive.  We may have a long way to go but as we learn to enjoy the journey in our personal lives, but we are learning to enjoy that sense of contentment I think we could all use more of.

This type of talk used to be laughed at by the bureaucrats but read the following link.

-----link-----
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/04/24/boehner-millions-house-savings-budget/2106435/
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Although this is led by Speaker John Boehner in the House, I take pride that it is a Republican from Michigan, Candice Miller that is taking the lead.  I give credit to them both.  Republicans seem to be willing to practice what they preach and do the work themselves when they can.  Below is a quote from the article.

-----Quote-----
"Believe me, I am totally aware that there is no sympathy for members of Congress. However, I think we should lead by example," said Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., a Detroit-area congresswoman who chairs the committee that oversees internal budget cuts.”
------------------

The next quote seems to point out the disdain Democrats have for such things.  They seem to think that it is for their staff to do the thinking and working and not themselves.  Think about it, if they don't trust themselves to make decisions what chance do you think they will give the ordinary people that chance?

-----quote-----
{Leading Democrats have chafed at the belt tightening, arguing it undermines adequate personnel resources for research and oversight. "We are past the point of cutting what we want, and we are now into cutting what we need — our ability to attract and retain expert staff," said Rep. Robert Brady, D-Pa., in opposition to further committee cuts approved in March.}
----------------

I just read an article that says Michigan is having a hard time recruiting a strong Republican Candidate for the US Senate seat that will be vacated by the retiring Carl Levin.  What about Candice Miller?  From the article linked above the Senate could use a dose of Michigan Wisdom.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be a Conservative

Ever the Optimist

Ever the Optimist.

I just read Peggy Noonan’s article from the Wall Street Journal, I pulled it from the Drudge Report.

-----link------------------http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323789704578445232153839720.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_opinion
--------------

I’ve always loved the way she writes, and the common sense she weaves through her pieces.  Her ability to show how the “The Presidential wheel turns” and is turning on President Barack Obama was clear and to the point.  So is most of her writing.

Amid the recent backdrop of 5 living Presidents together on one stage for President George W’s Presidential Library, there was one who stood out.  While the rest evoked positive passions for, as Peggy said “the way we were”, like I said one didn’t.  Instead that one stood out as he likes to do but from the wrong emotions.  Those emotions were the ones we feel when we are being used cheaply and taken for granted by someone who is manipulative and self-serving.  Again better said by Noonan.
-----quote-----

“President Obama was more formal than the other speakers and less confident than usual, as if he knew he was surrounded by people who have something he doesn't. "No matter how much you think you're ready to assume the office of the president, it's impossible to understand the nature of the job until it's yours." This is a way of seeming to laud others when you're lauding yourself. He veered into current policy disputes, using Mr. Bush's failed comprehensive immigration reform to buttress his own effort. That was manipulative, graceless and typical.”
----------------

The wheel does seem to be turning when noted and respected journalist Tom Brokow turns down an invite to the White House Correspondents dinner because of the way the expense and foppery of the event must appear to outsiders, those not in the Beltway.  As he said the televised affair must look to the average person as if ‘We’re Versailles. The rest of you eat cake.’” Not to mention how as I try to write with Peggy’s style, the old look of two competing sides trying to be civil to one another from the past has changed to one of obvious suck-uppyness.  This article about Brokow came from Politico which normally has a slight left slant.  Again some “Wheel” turnage?

-----link------------------
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/tom-brokaw-white-house-correspondents-dinner-90427_Page2.html#ixzz2Rbm5shlq
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Then I ran across this “wheel turning” article again in Politico, by Keith Koffler, titled “Obama’s hubris problem”.

-----link-------------------
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/obamas-hubris-problem-90650.html?hp=l13

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Koffler’s critique of Obama’s seemingly reckless race to turn Noonan’s “wheel” faster is well stated.  Koffler chronicles a few examples of the President’s “high handedness and self-absorption”.  By the time the reader has read the few it seems more like many and by the time the second page is read the many have become a picture of a manipulative, self-aggrandizing leader much more worried about the word I than We.

Further into the article Koffler brings up the idea of  and that Obama is giving off that vibe more and more by legislating from the Executive through executive order and picking which laws he and his justice department will enforce and which ones they won’t.  The saying “L’etat, c’est moi” is attributed to Napoleon and means “I am the State”.  Is it just me or doesn't it seem ironic that the sayings above "Let them eat cake" and  “L’etat, c’est moi” are French words describing an American President?

The “Presidential wheel turns” indeed and it is becoming so blatant that even what talk show host Rush Limbaugh calls the “Low information voter” is picking up on it.

The list of evidence for the turning wheel is all around us and it is coming in ever increasing cascades as an avalanche gathers coming down a mountain -- well ever an optimist I hope and work for change instead of morning about loss.  One thing seems certain, from all of the above to the arrogance and Nixonian style cover up of Ben Gazzi, to the petulance of recent press conferences when he hasn’t gotten his way, to homeland security trying to get the corner on the ammunition market to stifle gun sales without legislation, Obama is coming off the rails.  Speaking of which is the coming "train wreck" that is coming with the costs of Obama Care.  The list of his growing abuses of executive power is long and much too obvious and denials are too often and wordy to be believed anymore by most, except the most entranced.

The proof is becoming clear to more and more people, the proof indeed will be in the pudding or the "cake" as it were.

This “Obama Fatigue” that Peggy Noonan talks about let us hope not be replaced by the ”Hillary Clinton fatigue”, we all remember.  If it is, then we will have forgotten.  Forgotten about the fatigue we had with her that nearly cost her husband the election. Forgotten about her Hillary Care, and about her peevishness and pettiness.  I'm hopeful however that once she starts talking, even with Bill by her side we will remember the emotions she evoked in us, while different than those of the current President they are just as “emotionless” with that same lack of conscience or empathy that in others of lesser personage we describe as psychopathic.

Ever the optimist I think the people are saying they want more from their leaders than $500,000 hotel bills from the Vice President.  They want more than to be allowed to eat the left over cake crumbs.  They want to be exempted from Obama Care just like everyone within the Beltway seems to be doing.  They are starting to demand that laws be applied equally to Congress and Presidents and then themselves.  That our leaders should lead by example not by "do as I say not as I do".  That even a President who won two elections and is a “Lame Duck Wearing a Crown” isn’t above the law.

The final proof of the wheel turning is that Donna Brazile just wrote an article for CNN saying that Bush came through on Katrina.  The upshot of which was that beyond the talk that all politicians use to assuage the masses, the Bushes (W. and his wife) actually followed through and made more trips to the Katrina site than the Obamas and Biden’s took vacation trips and that is saying a lot.  Donna if you remember was Gore-Lieberman’s campaign manager. 

-----link-----
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/25/opinion/brazile-katrina-bush
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To her credit she gave credit where credit was due and some of us on the other side should also practice that a little more, and a little less preaching or the “Wheel” will quit turning.

Regards Live Dangerously be a Conservative

 

Who is This Guy ???

What is bottom up politics? (Please take note of the quotes – although I would love to claim the quoted material as mine - it is not)  Here's a hint the smoke is clearing.

Who is the guy who said the following ??? What right wing Waco is he ???

Was it J.S. Mill, or F.A. Hayek, or Edmund Burke, or Milton Friedman or George Will or Ronald Reagan or Maggie Thatcher?

None of the above.

“You asked and now you will listen, my son. The social assistance state leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic thinking than by real concern for helping people. Needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them who act as neighbors and parish members to those in need. It should be added that certain kinds of demands often call for a response which is not simply material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need. This is not to mention the welfare states excesses and abuses.”

Who is this guy ???

(ME) - Yup bureaucracy is a self fulfilling evil by definition. It is put in place initially to take care of an evil such as poverty, or mental health, and then it quickly starts to expand the definition of poverty or mental health to include those things we used to think as normal that are not evil. In effect their efforts broaden the number of people included (or stigmatized) in its base. The whole concept of helping people becomes a concept of helping the bureaucracy first and then the people. The energy and wealth of the people is therefore wasted on the bureaucracy and not on actually helping people. As the quote above alluded to, helping people is best done one on one from the bottom up. From the top down the idea of helping people gets lost, and it becomes the government’s job and not their neighbors. Now back to the burning question,

Who is this guy ??? 

“In Europe first and now in America, elected men have taken it upon themselves to indebt their people to create an atmosphere of dependency.And why? For their own selfish need to increase their own personal power. I’ve been a keen observer of the effect this has on the people, especially the poor. They are very good at creating poverty where there is no reason to explain it. My job is try to alleviate poverty….”

Who is this guy ??? (The quoted material is all from an interview conducted by Chris Matthews, who is he interviewing?)

Reporter’s question: “But you refuse to blame corporations for their role?”

Answer. “Okay, they also told me you have a degree in economics. No buyer, or seller either, enters into any exchange against his will. It is the nature of the economy. Man is frail, and he makes mistakes and sometimes is greedy and they enter into exchanges that don’t help them. Sometimes they become poor, but they made choices. There is nothing the Church can do except try to educate people to become good consumers. Chiefly, for me, it is an education solution on that side. And the Church has more schools around the globe than any other faith. I say teach the people to save their souls, and also teach them how not to become poor. And how not to allow the government to trick them into poverty.”

REPORTER: “ And you blame government?

Answer: “No, I blame the self-serving politicians!

REPORTER: “So your solution to poverty is to change the nature of politics?

Answer: “Please feel free to broadcast this; I don’t want to be pope. Friend, you are a socialist and your friends are socialists. And you are the reason for 70 years of misery in Russia and Europe now is seizing in pain from your policies. You believe in the redistribution of wealth and it makes entire populations poor. You want to nationalize everything and bring every human endeavor under your control. You destroy a man's incentive to take care of his very own family, a crime against nature and nature’s God. You want social control over populations and incrementally you are making everything against the law. Together this ideology creates more poverty today than all the corporations you vilify have in the history of man.”

REPORTER: “I’ve never heard such from a Cardinal. I’m not sure if you are here to help yourself or disqualify yourself?”

Answer: “Please air this interview. People being dominated by socialists need to know we don’t all have to be poor. Some poverty is part of our being cast out of the Garden of Eden. But look at the empire of dependency created by Hugo Chavez. Promising them, tricking them into worship of government and his very own person. Giving them fish but not allowing them to fish. If a fisherman does develop a talent today in Latin America; he is castigated and his catch stolen by the socialists. He stops?”

REPORTER: “Feedom isn’t punished anywhere, is it?”

Answer: “Certainly it is!”

REPORTER: “In Latin America?”

Answer: “I’m afraid Latin America is lost. The people of the entire area are controlled by a bloc of militant socialist regimes in the region, most prominently Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua. They have a gun pointed at their head. So their heart is now captured. Who will save them at this point?”

REPORTER: So the game is over. Checkmate?”

Answer: “Friend, I’ve been studying America this month before the Pope chose to resign. You must not have fear at speaking the truth. It is for the salvation of souls and the recovery of Thomas Jefferson’s people. America must not fall to the new painted communism. Even the low information voters don’t want America to be sold into slavery. I pray they cast out the money changers in their government! What manner of government is there that condones sin? Abomination upon abomination--giving monies for the murder of children, giving monies for the murder of the elderly! You are an American. Your government, My child, has been infiltrated by men of sin.”

Who is this Guy?

Was the interview ever published?

Do you think Chris Matthews “…felt a thrill going up his leg” on this interview?

REPORTER: “I think we are done?”

Answer: “Wait. If I speak on the ordination of women, on celibacy, on divorce, will you air this interview and my message?”

REPORTER: “No, we are done.”

Answer: “Partially what irritates me to the core is the media’s inability to look at anything without looking into the cause of the various problems. People are made poor so they will vote for the very candidates that made them poor.”

REPORTER: “Have a nice day and thanks for your time.”

CAMERA OFF / END TRANSCRIPT

Wow. Who is this guy ???  He is the new Pope.

No, this interview wasn’t published.

No, Chris didn’t get that tingle up his leg.

This new Pope’s name is Pope Francis I.

The white smoke has cleared, this guy is indeed a "God Send".

The whole interview is really great.  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3000243/posts

Simple Truths

Simple Truths

 

The common saying we hear is that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Well -- Government is broke and needs fixing.

The Republican Party for the most part is simply happy to proclaim that far and wide. They simply forget to say how they’ll fix it or make any substantial effort to fix what broke it.

In 2007 at a Republican Congressional District Roundup to Rally the troops for our Congressman at the time in which he asked the assembled faithful why people were not behind the Republicans as evidenced by the sweeping Democrat victories in the 2006 off year elections. He seemed genuinely perplexed. I rose and said something to this effect.

“If you had a car whose transmission was broke and took it to a garage and they gave it back to you after claiming to fix it and -- it didn’t work, it cost twice what it should have as if it was fixed and they continued to claim it did work and that their charge was reasonable, and then because you were unwilling to pay you were somehow unfaithful to the cause; would you seriously take your car back to that same garage to get it running?”

I told him that I wouldn’t nor would any sane person. I then said the Republicans were given all the reigns of power and didn’t do what they claimed they would. What did they expect the voters to do.

Well history tells us the Republicans didn’t change much and a Democrat promising change won the Presidency to match the House with a filibuster proof Senate in the 2008 elections. The only redeeming occurrence for Republicans that history tells us is that the Democrats also charged twice as much to fix it, claimed it was fixed and like Republicans left it worse off than they found it.

So again the voters picked the only option there was in the two party system in the 2010 off year election and gave the House back to the Republicans and took away the filibuster Senate from the Democrats.

This article is supposed to be about “simple truths” so the simple truth I’ve seen in all of this is that the voters when faced with incompetence voted for anyone promising change. The other “simple truth” is that once elected the party promising change didn’t come through. The car remained broke.

The other truth was that the Tea Party provided the face of change for the Republican Party in the 2010 election. The truth was that the Republican Party didn’t change their message until pushed by the Tea Party. Whether the change offered by the New Republicans will be substantive remains to be seen. Whether the Tea Party offers “concrete” change as Peggy Noonan in the article by her refers to below remains also to be seen.

I think Demagoguery, is just an excuse for lazy minds, provides something to say for those incapable of thinking for themselves on the right and left.

The other “simple truth” that is above all the others; voters want their government to work. For all the money and power we as voters convey upon our legislators and the $trillions we pay in taxes, we expect solutions to our problems. What we get is unbridled bureaucracy which instead of fixing the problems convinces us that what they need is an ever-increasing budget to help them fix an ever-expanding group of newly defined problems.

It has been often quoted that the “War on Poverty” has been lost. We still however, continue to spend an ever-increasing amount fighting it.

Peggy Noonan in her Blog article, “Two Thoughts and a Question Answered” states another “simple truth” -- “nobody trusts Congress”. Rather than trying to paraphrase her thoughts, here is the full quote.

-----link-----
http://blogs.wsj.com/peggynoonan/2013/03/27/two-thoughts-and-a-question-answered/
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“Nobody trusts Congress. We all know this. Approval of Congress is at 13% in the polls. Part of this is the general decline in respect that Americans feel for their institutions. But part of it also is that Congress the past few years has taken to passing 1,000- or 2,000-page bills that nobody has read, and nobody knows what’s in them, and, as Nancy Pelosi famously said, we have to pass it to find out what’s in it. Administrators and bureaucrats get to define the meaning of page 873, paragraph 8, subsection 5, line 12. Their definitions often agitate the public. Everyone winds up feeling jerked around.”

The classic Noonan expression that “Everyone winds up feeling jerked around” is really the driving force today between the voters and all politicians and the government they are supposed to be running. That feeling is what formed the Tea Party, and has defined the word “Change” in a political setting. It has become apparent that it is now the bureaucrats and administrators running Congress not the other way around. The purpose of elected officials should be to guard the public’s interests from the bureaucracy’s and not to give free license to the bureaucracy fulfilling their interests over the public’s.

The other simple truth is that if our elected officials cannot do that, then they are redundant and we could have a less costly more simple bureaucratic despotism. For make no mistake it is a Bureaucratic Despotism that we are saddled with. Too pay all we do for the Congress just to give us the appearance of freedom without the substance is a waste of our money.

AND

The Car Remains Broken

.

Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative