Posted on 06/08/2009 4:19:51 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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 10 - 15 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 whom we know 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 $700 billion 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, and 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 times 10. 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 own 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.
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, with 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 Commons 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, close my eyes, have another latte and ignore 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.
Yes, but did it have “Must Read” in the title???
Ping for later.
“Don’t forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe.”
Oh, hogwash. Germany attracted all manner of kooks prior to Hitler, including communists, eugenicists, socialists, nature worshippers, anti-semitics, Teutonic madmen and barking moonbats.
Hitler sorted them out and eliminated the nuts he didn’t want.
Fortunately for us, the American leftist is a coward who couldn’t be pursuaded to ring a doorbell and sell cherry-flavored obuma stickers, let alone get fitted for a pack and fight.
Lest we forget the hilarious panic around here at FR: How many bed-wetting college liberals and fat welfare mommas volunteered to knock on doors three months ago and demand Americans pledge fealty to obuma?
Nobody showed up.
We need to focus on real threats, organize and fight, not imagine that Hitler has been reincarnated as a big-eared ghetto thug. obuma hates the military and vice-versa. Not a good start for a Fourth Reich fuhrer.
look again,, I didn’t post it
Those too lazy to read can rent the movie Winds of War with Robert Mitchum. It's a Reader's Digest version.
My apologies. It was meant for the dingbat who originally posted it.
Best REgards. May God follow and accompany us all.
Rip.
I keep thinking whenever someone says they respect the office not the man, I wonder if the Germans said that when Hitler was crushing his own and his enemies. I pray Americans will wake up and keep the O out of office and stop more socialist/fascist takeovers from happening.
Well it’s the first time I’ve seen it and I come here ALL THE TIME!
I’m glad it got posted today because I’m gonna email it around.
Is FreepShop1 offended or tired of the truth being reposted?
Either way, is the reason our country has been taken away.
Not written by Geller.
Earliest appearance I’m aware of is on Pat Dollard’s blog, written by someone calling themself “TPS”:
http://patdollard.com/2009/02/i-am-a-student-of-history/
Really...wow. That’s not good.
Latest results on Yahoo Poll re 0b0z0’s handling of our economy:
Q. The president’s progress with the battered economy has been both praised and criticized. How well are his efforts measuring up with you?
Extremely well. We are undoubtedly moving in the right direction. 18%
Fairly well. There’s still a long way to go. 15%
Not well at all. His plans are hurting more than helping. 65%
Not sure/No opinion. 2%
17456 votes
A current and ongoing poll on Yahoo doesn’t support the left wing lying mediots that our recession is over.
Please take a minute to go vote:
http://js.polls.yahoo.com/quiz/quiziframe.php?poll_id=46067
Thank you for posting this. I have not seen it before, and it is very worthwhile reading and taking the time to consider.
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