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"Karl's
Komments"
National
Debt
August 2010
Consider the bucket problem we all learned in Junior High School. So
much was in the bucket. Rate in, rate out and size of the bucket was
given. The question was, “When would the bucket be empty or
overflowing?”
Our national debt is thirteen plus trillion dollars. We have unfunded
liabilities like government pensions, Medicare, Social Security,
Prescription Drug liabilities. Our unfunded liabilities are around 109
trillion dollars
Servicing the national debt is the third largest item in the budget.
Look at our Gross National Product and tell me how will we ever be able
to service our national debt should interest rates exceed 15%. When the
rate of adding liquid to the bucket is less the rate of flow out,
sooner or later the bucket will be empty. Think of the bucket as the
treasury. Think of the inflow as money coming into the treasury. Think
of the outflow as government spending.
When you can’t service the National debt, that’s like the bucket
becoming empty. We’re already a debtor nation. We’re spending more that
we’re taking in. Government programs are inherently a loosing
proposition. What’s being done? We’re spending money and we haven’t
even passed a budget. The congress had only deemed it passed. What
government program besides the GI Bill has ever returned more to the
treasury than was spent.
When the bucket is empty the system implodes because we cannot possibly
service our debts and there isn’t any one around big enough to save our
failing economy except ourselves. The idea of spending money to save
the economy will become moot. Spending money you don’t have faster only
get’s you to
your doom sooner, not later. (Hmmm, who's looking out for your best
interests?)
During Roosevelt’s depression of the thirty’s, we were still a creditor
nation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the "Emergency Banking Act
of 1933" to forcibly confiscate gold bullion from all citizens at
$20.67/oz. He then immediately reset the price at $35/oz., effectively
robbing private owners of 75% of its value! During the Nixon
administration the dollar was taken off the gold standard and the US
changed from a creditor to a debtor nation. During the Carter
administration, we attempted to inflate our selves out of debt.
Interest rates were 14% and CD’s earned 22%. It's all getting ready to
happen again.
How
can we make our economy viable again?
Most of our legislators are lawyers. Lawyers are big on blame and
punishment and short on real problem solving. Most legislators only
think about static economies. I don’t
believe we have an economist or accountant among them any more. Most
fail to appreciate the consequences of raising taxes in a dynamic free
economy. Especially how new taxes taken from the economy actually
reduces opportunity for private business expansion and job growth. In
addition,
by employing more and more people in government jobs, you can never
return more revenue to the treasury that is spent creating the
government jobs. Unless perhaps the jobs are created to extract more
revenue from private enterprise. But only perhaps. But again the
downside, private enterprise is discouraged from expansion.
I could build a model for our legislators using “feedback and
control
theory” and a few differential equations but I fear I’d loose most
of
them real fast. But surely they could grasp the ideas of the bucket
problem. Simply put, when the input to the treasury (bucket) is less
than the expenditures (outflow) for the foreseeable future, after
while, no one will lend you more money because you can’t service you
debt (the bucket is empty).
What happens when a country tries to provide more entitlements for its
citizens than it can afford? Well, what will the citizens do when the
government begins to curtail the entitlements? The people will rise up
and demand what they think is rightfully theirs. For the government to
survive, they will revert to overt force to control the people that are
protesting over the benefit interruption. Hey, you can’t vote yourself
prosperity without giving up your freedom, you know.
About
jobs.
Taxation removes resources from a free economy that would be used for
business expansion and job creation. Impending tax increases have the
same effect. Business people (like most humans) will not willingly risk
reducing their standard of living in order to create jobs for others
unless there is an expectation of future wealth. Poor people don’t
usually hire other workers. Rich people usually do.
When the government promises to tax and spend to placate the workers
and vilify the rich folks to the point the rich folks move their
businesses elsewhere, you create a diminishing return economy. Why do
you think that frequent visitors to the White House, George Soros, does
his business in the Cayman Islands and Andy Stern, past president of
SEIU, wants to go international? Why do
you suppose General Motors (they still owe $55 billion in TARP money)
is building a new auto plant in Mexico to assemble American Cars? Do
you think it's to fund the United Auto workers sweet-heart retirement
fund or to excape it?
Any community or state that tells you that they don’t have money for
teachers or police or fireman and still have parks and libraries and
street fairs and cushy retirement plans is telling you that, as a
government entity, your safety and the future leader’s preparation
aren’t the main purpose of government. They’re
telling you that their self perpetuation as the government is their top
priority.
The Obama administration is in a mad rush to establish socialism here
in America. F. A. Hayak in
his book, “the
Road
to
Serfdom” dismisses socialism, not on the perceived benefits
but on the methodology of implimation. In order for socialism to work,
everyone must be fully compliant. Everyone must give up their freedom
of choice. Look what happened to the Kulaks in the
Soviet Union. However, in a free market society (which propelled a rise
in
the American standard of living to the worlds highest) you must have
all of the following:
Freedom
to
try
Freedom to buy
Freedom to sell
Freedom to fail
The road that returns us to fiscal responsibility it full of pitfalls
and pain. Weaning ourselves away from spending money we don’t have on
entitlements that the government can’t afford will be disappointing and
painful. Imagine the realization that government isn’t the all knowing,
all caring and all powerful entity that could guarantee a comfortable
life for you from the cradle to the grave.
What
to do now.
1. Insist on a balanced national, state and community
budget. If you don’t expect to have the income to cover the
expenditures, don’t spend it. If you haven't saved some back in good
times to cover hard times, you're foolish to expect to survive the hard
times comfortably or at all. Make sure your representative understands
priorities that benefit the represented. Freedom first, safety second
and constitutional always. We will become a thriving economy only when
be become a creditor nation again.
2. Insist that the same laws apply to both the
legislatures and the governed. That’s the essence of “equal
before the
law”.
3. Insist that national government laws apply to all
the people in all the states, equally. Again, that’s “equal before the
law”. The unfunded liabilities the federal government inflicts on
states are bankrupting more than several states. Insist that federal
mandates must be funded by federal treasury money. Just because the
federal government likes something, doesn’t mean you, personally,
should be obliged to buy it. (Like Medicaid or Obamacare) Especially if
you can’t afford it.
4. Insist that your senators and representative
support what’s good for all the people they represent, rather than
what’s good for the party. Representing the interests of all their
constituents is what the Founders intended.
5. If you are going to allow earmarks,
then
insist on
a line item veto over any part of a bill that isn’t the main reason for
the bill with a 2/3 majority vote override of the line item veto. You
can save a lot of money and get back to some fiscal sanity much sooner.
6. The housing market crisis isn't over. Forclosure
are occurring at a third of a million a month. More than half the
housing loans on the books are greater than the appraised value of the
property. And our federal government is still encouraging people
who can't pay it back to get new housing loans. Fannie
May and Freddie
Mack and federal low interest rates are to this nation’s economy as
gangrene is to the human body. Isolate it, neutralize it, eliminate it
very quickly or die!!! This is the nexus of the next financial plague.
Do it now while the economy is still alive!
7. Insist that entitlements are modified to be
fiscally viable for the entire foreseeable future. (Medicare, Social
Security, Prescription Drug liabilities) Passing this debt to our
children and grandchildren is criminal. It started with FDR and has
continued without abatement. Fixing the problem will cause real pain
and disappointment. Our economic survival is at stake. Pain now or
death to the economy. It won’t go away by itself. It’s like cancer, do
something positive or watch yourself die! Should the economy collapse,
our children would have no future.
8. Insist that your state claim the right to develop
the resources on federal public land to fund state expenditures,
especially unfunded federal mandates. This is about fiscal
responsibility. This is about caring for human beings, not about owls
and tadpoles.
9. Insist that the federal government, which is
mandated by the US
Constitution (article 4, section 4) to control the arrival and
departure of
all the people across our borders, do just that, immediately. Once the
entire border is secured and controlled (that’s a lot of jobs), then
we’ll have plenty of time to thoughtfully decide what to do about the
13 to 30 million illegal aliens residing here. (What ever happened to
the connotation
of the word “Illegal” that permits folks to flaunt the laws of the
United States? How is it that illegals, who flaunt the law to bear
children within the United States, be allowed to benefit from breaking
the law?) Control the borders and you substantially reduce the welfare
rolls and save a ton of money. No doubt that would considerably reduce
the expense of both healthcare and prison care. Hey, there is a
shooting war going on at our southern border whether the federal
government is interested in it or not. Afghanistan isn’t a big deal
compared to the incursions and casualties at our southern border. Drugs
are involved in both places.
10. Insist that “English”
be declared the official
government language of the United States. Some twenty states have
already done just that. Consider the reduction of
government expense of multi-language voting ballots and government paid
translators for official documents. Consider the benefit of
immigrants wanting to learn the official language of the country they
are entering to do business. We strive to be a melting pot
for immigrants. We should do things that encourages blending into the
American society. We should discourage isolation. We don’t need any
ghettos in this country. If immigrants don’t want to blend, it’s really
easy
for them to leave this country. If private enterprise wanted to
advertize in
some other language to appeal to a particular group, it wouldn’t be a
tax payer expense.
11. Insist that this is a country of laws and that
law starts with the Constitution
of
the Unites States. Many of us have
sworn to protect this country and the Constitution from all enemies
both foreign and domestic. We are a republic, not a democracy. We, as
individuals, have rights endowed upon us by our creator, not the
government. It is the Government’s job to protect those rights, not to
provide those rights. No one is above the law. No one. And any one,
native born, immigrant or visitor, who doesn’t want to abide by the
law, is invited to leave or experience the full weight of Unites States
law upon their head.
I’m Karl Kinkel
PS: God bless America!
Open letter to Congressman
and Senators
March 2010
http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Six Reasons to Stop Government Health Care
Madness
- National debt is
growing by leaps and bounds. Collecting ten years of new taxes to pay
for six years of services is fools math. Only a charlatan or a fool
would try to sell such an idea. Redistribution of wealth by the
government is un-American. Freedom and property rights are part of our
constitution. You all promised to preserve and protect the Constitution
of the United States
same as me. Do it!
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
The
Chinese have reduced their
share of funding our national debt and are pressuring us about the
Dalai
Lama
and Taiwan.
Will
the
Japanese
and
the Middle Eastern Oil States be the next to make
overt
comments about our foreign policy?
Take some time. Ponder
carefully the
ramifications of the information in the US Dept Clock above. Then
please, think
like a loyal American, not like international union organizer, Andy
Stern of
SEIU!
- Fifty-two percent of
Americans don’t want this bill to become law! Most working Americans
(about 85%) are satisfied with their current health insurance. To dummy
down the finest health care system in the world so that one size fits
all is similar to the trend in education that all children learn the
same way, at the same time, and at the same rate. Get real.
- We’re in a recession
and current government policy isn’t helping. Increasing the tax on the
rich encourages the rich to move themselves and their businesses to a
tax safe haven. Those that can’t move will hire fewer people because of
the decline in their bottom line. If the trade off comes to whether to
maintain their standard of living or raising other peoples wages, guess
which will win? Increasing taxes on the rich is a cycle of diminishing
return. That’s not how you stimulate the economy. Read history and
learn!
- The calculations of
the health care costs are flawed. Should you add 13 to 30 million new
people to the number of people demanding health care to the existing
population of health care patients, where would you get the personal
and facilities to handle the additional work load?
If you insist that all the currently
insured be in the same pool as the uninsured with pre-existing
conditions, what do you think will happen to everyone’s insurance
rates? What insurance company would stay in business very long if they
were expected to raise a bet against another hand with four aces
showing in a poker game? Price controls will just kill every health
care insurer in the country. If the government becomes the health care
insurer, it will break the treasury just as it did in every other
country that tried it. Yes, every other country that tried it. Read
history and learn!
- The current Senate
Health care bill has over 2400 pages and nobody knows all that’s in it.
Everyone knows that the devil is in the details. If you were to
separate the bill into small bites and make sure each bite was cost
effective, you’d have a useful outcome. Any one that tells you that the
whole thing together is better that the sum of only the good cost
effective stuff separately is kidding you and himself. Get real!
- History tells us
that government program costs are always vastly under estimated just to
make them palatable to the unsuspecting public. Entitlements are good
for votes but very bad for the health and well being of the economic
welfare of this country. Just take a look at the Post Office, Social
Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Prescription Drugs, and the Military. Did
I forget to mention Freddie Mac and Fanny May? Read history and learn!
Killing
this
bill
and
not doing anything is better for the
whole country than ramming through the health care bill and killing the
American dream of freedom and prosperity for those who will work and
take risks
to earn that dream. Taking proven steps to lower health care cost and
making it
available to more people is better than passing the current secret
health care
bill that will surely spin out of control for long term cost and dampen
the
recovery from this recession.
Health care is neither a God given nor
constitutional right.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is. Entitlements are the
bane of
what made this country great. Nothing’s free. Personal initiatives and
risk
taking, while uncomfortable for some, is what has propelled us to
become the
greatest nation on earth and the envy of most everyone else in our
world. Don’t
kill the American dream with the burden of entitlements that are
counter-productive to innovation and business expansion. Kill this
health care
bill, now!
I’ve observed the procedures and tricks that
are being
thrust upon our Representatives in Congress. I’m reminded of the
fanatical suicide
pacts of the Branch Davidians and Jim Jones in Guyana.
Why
are
Nancy
and Harry and the Obama administration
so desperately trying to drag you down to political suicide with this
monster.
Kill this health care bill before it kills you. These are death throws,
don’t
get carried away by the desperate fervor of the times. It’s not too
late to
save the Republic. Please, kill this health care bill, now!
God
Bless
America,
Karl Kinkel, DMD, MSE, BSEE
longsgap@hughes.net
========== + ============= + =========== + ==============
Inconvenient
truths September 2009
1.
You
cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
3. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
5. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
6. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's
initiative and
independence.
7. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could
and should
do for themselves.
If
you need verifiable proof, ask the circa 1930's Germans...
Unknown Author
Dear Mr. Obama,
Where is the "change we can believe in"? If you believe in a regular
universe, how can you possibly expect a different outcome from your
current programs which repeat mistakes of past programs? Check the
credentials of your advisor's carefully and try not to repeat the
failures of the past. Please. You cannot spend your way into
prosperity. Stimulus money won't correct the housing bubble and Cap'n
Trade is a hidden tax that will stifle business.
All
of
the
'Government
Health Care Plans' I've read are an
impending disaster in both financial viability, and adequate and
equal health care delivery. After all, those who fail to learn the
lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
I'm Karl Kinkel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Open
Letter
to the
President August
2009
Dear Mr. Obama
I have the
distinct impression that the Congress of the United States
is birthing a monster
in the form of so called Health Care Reform. It appears to me that all
of our
representatives are protecting their patrons rather than seeking to
solve a
problem. No one seems remotely interested in stating specifics about
what the
problems are nor are they getting at the root causes of the problems.
-
Problem -- rising cost of
liability insurance for the provider. Solution -- Tort reform. When I
started practicing dentistry my liability insurance was only $265 a
year. Now you can’t find a dentist who pays less than $10,000 a year.
Tort reform man, tort reform. Trial lawyers are killing the American
Dream.
- Problem – large number of
uninsured. Who are they? Are they
uninsured by choice? Are they illegal aliens?
Solution – send illegal aliens
home
(somewhere between 12 and 30 million of them). Now you have far less than 10% uninsured and
not seeking insurance. Mexico has been exporting their social problems to the United
States
for decades. It’s got
to stop. Beef up the Boarder Patrol! Place an Immigration Service Agent
in
every emergency room.
Second, if people
want to spend
their money on alcohol, tobacco and recreational drugs rather than
health care
then that’s their choice. Nobody is falling all over themselves trying
to save
me from myself. Why the hell should my tax dollars interfere with
someone else’s
choices?
- Problem – ever rising cost of
health care insurance.
Solution – competition. Make your
health care insurance portable. Don’t limit insurance customer to just
one state’s source. Don’t let insurance be terminated just because you
retire or change jobs. Competition and choice of private health
insurance will limit the cost to the user. Freedom of choice is the
linchpin of a free society. Look at the system of government provided
health
care. Medicare is going broke. Medicaid is going broke. Social Security
is
going broke. What makes you think that the current plans are wiser than
the
earlier ones? Isn’t the stability of the dollar and limiting the
national debt
more important than making health care entitlements an opiate to our
free
society? Regulation of insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies
is the
answer that insures real competition is the market place. Government
getting
into the
health care business for the general population just exacerbates the
problem.
- Problem – giving priority for
health care services to the
young by discriminating against age and probable length of productive
life. This is a government activity isn’t it? I take it you do want
health care reform. You are a civil rights lawyer aren’t you? How can
you possibly support such a procedure? Doesn’t the founder’s idea of
“equal before the law” mean any thing to you as president? Would you
push for quotas for seniors to redress the inequality of the proposed
law or regulations? Explain your reasoning to me should such a law or
regulation come to your desk. Solution – keep all life extending
decisions between the doctor and the patient. Get rid of the idea that
government should be in the business of providing health care to the
general population. Continue to provide tax credits to employers and
individuals for their health care.
- Problem -- hard to come to an agreement. Solution – put
yourself and your family under the plan you approve. Insist that the
House and the Senate do the same. But that just destroys cost
effectiveness and fiscal restraint, wouldn’t it?
Well
there you
have it. God, I truly hope you’re really for “change I can believe in”
or me the rest of this nation are screwed. The
devil’s in the details, you know. Fix it or Kill it.
Thanks for
listening.
Best
regards,
Karl Kinkel
5262
Elk
Creek
Pkwy
Independence,
VA 24348-4614
longsgap@embarqmail.com
www.longsgap.com
Misdirection
July
2009
My Federal Government appears to be using
every
opportunity to keep me from analyzing what they are up too. Perhaps
it's my naturally suspicious mind or just a mild case of paranoia.
The credit crisis resulted in the rushed
passage of stimulus legislation that no one had time to read let alone
debate and discuss it. The fine print revealed that something like only
20%
was actually used to help with the shortage of credit in the market
place. The rest was used to social engineer us toward a socialist
society. Because every thoughtful American knows that a person with any
gumption at all wouldn't want to trade in the opportunities of
capitalism for the disincentives of socialism unless they wanted to be
the powerful few who controlled the system.
When Michael Jackson died, the media
went 24/7 extolling what a great talent he was and gushed on and
on infinite item about his ups and down in life. That was the
weekend that our house of representatives voted for the Cap'n Trade
bill that will significantly tax the use of fossil fuels for energy. I
have no idea what percentage of our congressmen really took the time to
read and analyze the effect on the economy as a whole of this
legislation.
Every one in the United States who uses
electricity generated from fossil fuel turbines will see a significant
increase their electric bill. Fossil fuel -- that's coal, oil and
natural gas. I've heard increases like $1500 to $3000 per family. Any
one who travels by bus, air plane or automobile will see a significant
increase in their travel expenses.
What do you suppose will happen to
US business competitiveness in the world economy when this hidden
carbon tax takes effect? China, India and Mexico aren't buying into
this idea of reducing carbon gas emissions because it will reduce their
business competitiveness and cost them jobs. Do you think it's OK for
folks in the United States to be out of work because we (the current
administration) choose to put ourselves in an unfair disadvantage?
My background in system engineering and
feed-back and control systems gives me the very disquieting feeling
that
my cost of living will be increasing, the cost of business will be
increasing, and the buying power of the dollar will be decreasing.
Any stimulus that was included in the $750
billion will surely be significantly diminished by the Cap'n Trade
legislation. Resulting in extending the recession and perhaps a real
honest to goodness depression.
I read that the current administration is
looking at the FDR administration to model their approach to the
current recession. It doesn't take much research into the legislative
and economic history of those times to realize that FDR's program was
to keep the electorate pacified and voting to reelect him even though
his economic plan didn't work well enough to get us out of that
depression. Social Security and Medicare is still a ticking time bomb.
And no one seem to care about that in either party.
Responsibility for outcomes doesn't seem to be
part of our society any more. Is getting reelected more important that
doing what's truly beneficial for the whole country? Is fiscal
responsibility a joke? Who's minding the store?
California, if it were a separate country,
would be the seventh largest economy in the world. And they're going
broke in a big way. The State of California can't print money so
they're handing out
IOU's. Should the Federal Government bail them out of the mess they
made for themselves, how long will the line of fiscally irresponsible
states become for Federal bailout funds? Is this how you encourage our
legislators to be fiscally responsible?
And now these bailouts will stimulate
inflation
and the devaluation of our currency? How could we individually control
these outcomes? It all starts with individual
fiscal responsibility for an economy to remain stable. Don't place
blame; accept responsibility. You here that Barney; own the outcome.
Are there really so few true patriots that
their voices are continually being drowned out by the power seekers and
opportunists who would rather be on the reelection band wagon that do
the right thing? Are we succumbing to the opiate of entitlements
and
surrendering our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Dear God, save us from ourselves. And
help us to keep from giving up and burying our head in the sand. Amen.
I'm Karl Kinkel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Something to think long and hard
about.
May
2009
by Pam
Geller
"Something of Historic Proportion
is Happening"
"I am a student of history. Professionally. I
have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied it all my
life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and
I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or
a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on
a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.
"Something of historic proportions is
happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it
looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm
may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country
that has been evolving for about ten - fifteen years. The pace has
dramatically quickened in the past two.
"We demand and then codify into law the
requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they
can never pay back? Why?
"We learn just days ago that the Federal
Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has “loaned”
two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few
months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That
is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the 700B we all
argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this
money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who
asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of “we
the people,” who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently
not.
"We have spent two or more decades intentionally
de-industrializing our economy. Why?
"We have intentionally dumbed down our
schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding
documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving.
Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or
articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing,
school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?
"We have now established the precedent
of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a
proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain
between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible
just a decade ago?). We have corrupted our sacred political process by
allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way
of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to
turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
"Now our mortgage industry is
collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are
failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social
security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government,
our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know
precisely what I am talking about)–the list is staggering in its
length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x ten. And we are at
war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the
same religion, who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if
they have the opportunity to do so.
"And now we have elected a man no one
knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let
alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and
alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment,
and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not
downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to
create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our
military for use inside our borders? No? Oh of course. The media would
never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it.
Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more
important.)
"Mr. Obama’s winning platform can be boiled down
to one word: change.
Why?
"I have
never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.
"This man campaigned on bringing people
together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life.
In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push
us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different
power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes,
you will never see the same nation again.
"And that is only the beginning.
"And I thought I would never be able to
experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In
those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking
rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next
to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups
that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they
disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great
oratory and promises. Economic times were tough, people were
losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot.
And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his
“brown shirts” would bully them into submission. And then, he was duly
elected to office, a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great
Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of
government power, department by department, person by person,
bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement
in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the
people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to
the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did
it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care
for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride
once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world.
"He did it with a compliant media–did you know
that? And he did this all in the name of justice and . . . change. And
the people surely got what they voted for.
"(Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.)
"Read your history books. Many people
objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and
made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in
the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was
not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy
troublemaker. He was right, though.
"Don’t forget that Germany was the most
educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music,
art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And
in less than six years–a shorter time span than just two terms of
the U. S. presidency–it was rounding up its own
citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against
parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of
intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.
"As a practical thinker, one not overly
prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe
what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me
cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from
across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing
my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around
me.
"Some people scoff at me, others laugh, or think
I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been
afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I
believe–and why I believe it.
"I pray I am wrong. I do not think I am."
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/11/something-of-hi.html
About the author via Google...
Pamela
"Atlas"
Geller
began
her publishing career at The New York Daily
News and subsequently took over operation of The New York Observer as Associate Publisher. She left The
Observer after the birth of her fourth child but remained involved in
various projects including American Associates, Ben Gurion University
and being Senior Vice-President Strategic Planning and Performance
Evaluation at The Brandeis School.
==============================================================
May
2007
Last Friday, May 18th, I read an article in
the
Tampa Tribune,first section page 12, about the development
of the human brain. It concluded that the last stage
of that development was the final wiring of a moral
code. As a teenager the brain hasn't, for the most part,
learned to make independent decisions about what is
acceptable behavior and what is not. The article said,
"Indeed, the region responsible for things such as impulse
control and moral judgment is the last to mature,
sometimes in the early 20s."
Today, Monday May 23, Russ and Mary Throckmorton came
to visit me with what appears to be a solution for helping
young people developer that moral compass which will make our
world a better place to live in. Russ was a football safety
at the University of Kentucky and Mary was a soccer forward
at the University of North Carolina. After college, they met
at an AIA training camp and later married. They are now
involved with a program that reaches out to college athletes
and even some pros which steers these athletes in the direction
of being a Christian moral example to those who hold them in high
esteem.
I know you're thinking, "What's that to me?" So here
are
some religious nuts who want to save the world. It's more
than that. Russ and Mary's effort is to help make our hero-
athletes better and more constructive models who your children
will emulate,.thus making your children better citizens and
your world a better place to live.
Do you fear that your children and/or grandchildren
may stray into untoward situations
when they escape to college
and out of your immediate supervision? If so, you might
wish to support an organization like "Athletes in Action".
AIA does indeed guide and support the developing moral code
of young people and perhaps your children while their character
is still being hard wired into their brain. Check out AIA.
Http://www.aia.com
Or talk to Russ and Mary
russ.throckmorton@aia.com
mary.throckmorton@aia.com
Think about it.
Regards,
Karl Kinkel
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