Posted on 05/07/2008 8:21:06 AM PDT by NewMediaJournal
For more than 200 years, America reigned as the worlds most productive, prosperous, powerful and generous nation on earth. Like all nations, America is nothing more or less than the sum of its people and their belief system.
In the case of America, they were once a people who had risked all to gain national independence and sovereignty, individual liberty and personal freedom for every man, woman and child. Generation after generation volunteered the blood of its best citizens to protect individual rights from all who would attack them in the name of some greater common good.
The brave who demanded to be free, understood that there is no good on earth greater than that of individual freedom and thousands of good men have died preserving those freedoms for others.
Today, these ideas are capturing the imaginations of people around the world who have never known freedom, thanks to the American spirit still alive and well in the American soldier, who still offers his life to provide freedom for complete strangers all over the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at newmediajournal.us ...
I hate to be a pessimist, but America is heading down the socialist path. It’s only after Americans decide they want gov’t to take care of them, that they’ll realize what they lost....and it will be too late.
All people are created equal, then they go downhill from there............
America's reign continues, and it has not yet been two hundred years since that description began to apply.
It’s interesting how the left decries “mmaterialism” on the one hand and carps about “economic equality” on the other.
Wealth is CREATED by a system that rewards work, investment, risk-taking, innovation, etc.
The socialist system kills incentive, makeing the pie smaller for all.
America’s reign does indeed continue, but its not been for 200 years, and there are definite signs of faltering.
makeing = making
While I’m correcting myself, I’d say that the “redistribution of wealth” idea is like, say, mandating that people can only ask popular people out on a date if they agree that their next invitation is to a “wallflower.” My prediction is that the total number of dates would go down, not that people would all share the existing number of dates.
Whatever. If it sounds silly, then I have illustrated how ridiculous this whole “income inequality” discussion is.
let’s take the extra m off of materialism as well
:)
I agree 100%. Once we have socialist health care system, the party’s over folks.
Socialism is insidious. When government fails, they always press for more of it, saying “if only we had more control, more oversight and more programs!”. And people continue to buy it.
And then once a system is in place, it always needs more funding!
No one ever questions the fundamental, “should government even be involved?”
It is always a given, and then the fear mongering begins.
Evil Conservatives don’t want your children to have healthcare!
Evil Conservatives don’t want your children to have an education!
We’ve created a fearful society, who has no belief in their own abilities — and requires the government to take care of them.
And Clinton, Obama and McCain all approve.
And yet somehow the socialists are never heard expressing any concern over “output inequality”.
We're there. Nearly half of healthcare spending is being billed to government at one level or another already. Medicare and Medicaid are running 600 billion a year and climbing like NASDAQ in 1997.
A system that lets tax recipients vote on the handouts they will be given cannot lead anywhere but socialism.
Ah, but we now have the extreme diversity we didn’t have before. We have become a micro-UN, complete with anti-American sentiment, and are just as effective as the people that occupy that tall building in New York with the many flags in front.
i would venture to say that with obama vs mccain or clinton vs mccain the partys over folks....the ride has been bumpy but hang on it is going to get worse...
It’s faltering is assured, and it all started with the undermining of the eudcation system. Unless and until such time as the Teachers Unions can be eliminated, this slide into socialism will never be stopped.
All too true and what hath this building of a tower of Babel wrought? The debasement of the entire culture; the reduction of the values system to the lowest common denominator and the steady erosion of civilization as it’s been previously known. The culture which had produced high art and literature has been thrown over for the culture of the ghetto. Look around you and you’ll note something all to telling about the decline in American culture. Look at the “Architecture” of the buildings American culture produces. It’s all squared off. It’s hideous! Advanced cubism which inspires suicide far more than high thought born of contemplation. Wherever and whenever a society abandons the Arch and the Columnar form of Architecture, it’s adopted and embraced decline into a Dark Age of barbarism, violence, and decay.
Socialists have long known that a prosperous people will NEVER accept socialism.
Therefore they MUST have more people living in poverty and misery than are prosperous before they can get enough support to take over.
And once they take over, the productive people inevitably stop producing because there is no longer any incentive to work harder. As production suffers, so does the government’s revenues. As revenues drop, the government MUST cut back on the services they promised, usually by rationing healthcare and cutting back on goods and services available to the people.
Capitalism is the unequal distribution of wealth. Socialism is the equal distribution of misery. Except to the elite that will be enforcing it on the rest of us, of course.
Exactly. Under the socialist system you have the “right” to food, housing, shelter, health care, and numerous other material things. If you get to the core of it, the socialists believe that OTHER PEOPLE have a right to YOUR EARNINGS. In other words, you must work to provide health care, food, medicine, shelter to people who have done nothing to earn it.
We used to have a system like that in this country but we got rid of it. We called it slavery. And now socialists want you to be slaves to the government.
Hey brother, you aren’t being a pessimist, you are being a realist. It is true we have been heading down the socialist path for a long time now, and you realize it just like me. And like me I’m sure you hate it.
And then the “Re-Education Camps” come, along with the more vocal (and violent) dissenters being committed to “Mental Health Clinics” where they can be quietly disposed of through overmedication.
Been done before. See “Republics, Union of Soviet Socialist...”
Do NOT go gently...
Teachers Unions, like any other Unions, are perfectly valid organisations, and very useful ones, IF they confine their activities to representing their members, training and support, and similar professional issues. They start to go wrong when they stray beyond that remit, to endorsements of candidates, donations to political parties, and most perniciously of all - determining the syllabus.
In other words, they should stick to HOW to teach, not WHAT to teach.
However, the WEA union could not come to an agreement with the foundation that a portion of the teachers salaries would be based on merit depending on the student's grades. This would be “unfair” to teachers that were not AP teachers or something. So the foundation said “no deal”.
In other states with a similar set-up, the unions and the foundation were able to work something out. But - for the sake of “Economic Equality”, kids in 7 poor Washington State schools don't get the opportunity to learn at an advanced level. They will probably have to settle for learning in a classroom where 40% of the teacher's time is spent with behavior problems. But that's okay. The teachers will get paid “fairly”, and Microsoft can just hire smart kids from Asia.
It was ironic that in the opinion page of the paper that same day (Seattle Times), some guy was bemoaning how great Singapore was and how America has lost its drive. But - Obama will turn it around and our kids will learn again, etc. Not if the WEA teachers union has anything to say about it.
Oh - the Teacher's Union also felt a bit odd accepting grant money from the likes of Exxon/Mobil.
“However, the WEA union could not come to an agreement with the foundation that a portion of the teachers salaries would be based on merit depending on the student’s grades.”
I can see that would be an incentive, but I can also see the teachers point. After all, teachers don’t have exact control over student’s grades, especially at higher levels. It doesn’t matter how good a teacher you are, if the kids can’t (or more importantly won’t) learn, then you are not going to get very good results, and if your pay is partly based on results, that means you are going to take a financial hit.
“Oh - the Teacher’s Union also felt a bit odd accepting grant money from the likes of Exxon/Mobil.”
Now you see, that’s my original point. Why should they feel “odd”? The only answer I can think of is that they regard big business as “the enemy”. But that is nonsense. Of course they are entitled to their political viewpoints as individuals, but it’s not for teachers as a group to make judgements like that. Their interest should be solely in teaching kids well, and money helps to do that. Its source is immaterial (unless it was illegally obtained) After all, no matter where it comes from it still spends just as well.
Good point!!!
Yup.
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