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A number of Civil War & History bloggers, academics, and "me too, me too" types have jumped on the "enemy of American Exceptionalism" bandwagon. Why? It's chic, hip, cool, sophisticated. You know, it's rad man. It's also the current ruling political philosophy in that cesspool we call Washington D.C. It gets you better gigs, it makes one look better (so they think) in the eyes of the world (like I care), and it also gets you noticed - an important thing for the insecure and self-absorbed (most politicians). And, of course, its also misguided and embarrassingly non-thinking. But anti-American Exceptionalism...

With Obama ruling against the Keystone XL pipeline, he continues a direction which he has maintained from the very beginning, and will only accelerate should he win again in November. Think about some of the major actions of this administration: 1. A huge “stimulus” bill, most of which went to his supporters. If you look at where most of the money from the bill went, it went to businesses which supported his campaign, it went to businesses with union employees, it went to businesses which were ideologically aligned to his vision – during the auto bailouts, there were underreported reports...

Global investment in clean energy reached a new high of $260 billion (€203 billion) last year, despite the financial crisis and the anti-environment agenda of Republicans in the US Congress, a United Nations investors' summit was told on Thursday (12 January). Data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which tracks clean energy investment, showed a 5% increase compared with 2010, driven largely by a surge of money going to the solar industry. Investment in solar power rose 36% last year to $136.6 billion. And while the US domestic political scene was riven by the furore over a $535-million government loan to...

Binge drinking rates in the U.S. are at a much higher rate than previously thought, according to a report released Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC found that more than 38 million Americans binge drink four times a month—consuming an average of eight drinks each time. And it’s not just young adults. Although it is more common between the ages of 18-34, those 65 and older reportedly binge drink more often—five to six times a month. The frequency of binge drinking is higher in households with an income of $75,000 or more. But the disturbing...

At 15, Jarvis Nelson should be in high school and even thinking about college. Yet Jarvis is in seventh grade, and doesn’t know where he’ll go to high school — or even where he will be living — when he graduates from junior high, hopefully next year. That’s because Jarvis has attended three different schools in the past four months. He’s lived in three different places on the North and South Sides of the city — including his most recent home, a temporary shelter in Lake View. Jarvis, like thousands of other students in Chicago Public Schools, is homeless. He...

China REQUIRES all foreign investors to give up their technology to them for the "right" to build goods there. Obama-seized GM can deny it till the cows come home, but it's still a lie. Dismantling America, chunk by chunk, piece by piece. Anybody see the tyrant-in-chief's body language, facial expressions and hand gestures, not to mention his words, at his Ohio press conference today? He simply can't hide his hatred for America. The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America -- read it. GM deal moves electric car development to China -- a 'shakedown'? USA Today (hat tip Van)...

Last week the 2009-2010 Planned Parenthood annual report was released and it shows that the leading abortion group had suffered a significant decline in private contributions. In 2009 they reported 308 million in private donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations yet in 2010 they saw that number fall to 223.8 million. The chart below illustrates the drop-off:

A prevailing headline from Iowa has been the decline of Newt Gingrich, who attributes the fall in his standing to a barrage of negative advertisements from his Republican rivals and their allies. The criticism on television is pointed, but the attacks arriving by mail are even sharper and carry a far longer shelf life than a fleeting 30-second commercial. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” says a brochure that hit mailboxes this week. If the message wasn’t clear, another postcard declared, “Old Dog, Newt Tricks.” For all the talk about the confidence of Mitt Romney in the days...

"This bankrupt belief has taken complete control of our government, educational system, medical industry, and our corporations. And unless we demand better from each other and our political leaders, our society is doomed to collapse under the crushing weight of the Corruption of America. It's time we got back to our traditions as Americans and started doing more to take care of our families, communities, and ourselves." This is a small outtake of a very long article. If you have 15 minutes go and read this as the author raises some very good points about things that are leading to...

According to the official numbers just put out today by the United States Department of the Treasury, the U.S. government yesterday reached the dubious milestone of being a total combined fifteen trillion dollars in debt: Date                   Debt Held by the Public         Intragovernmental Holdings   Total Public Debt Outstanding 11/15/2011        10,314,468,105,168.02        4,719,139,150,752.30         15,033,607,255,920.32 Since Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States, the total combined national debt has increased by approximately 4.4 trillion dollars, a staggering rate...

We are in a fresh round of declinism — understandably, after borrowing nearly $5 trillion in less than three years and having very little to show for it. Pundit strives with op-ed writer to find the latest angle on America’s descent: We are broke; we are poorly educated; we are uncompetitive; we have gone soft; our political institutions are broken; and on and on. The Obama administration does its part, with sloganeering like “reset,” “lead from behind,” “post-American world,” and America as exceptional only to the degree that all nations feel exceptional. This is not new. In the late 1930s,...

Last year, Wisconsin led the nation in mink farming, producing 833,430 pelts. Texas was the undisputed king of pansies, growing 1.8 million flats of the flowers. And no state harvested more hops than Washington, with 24,336 acres. This year? Who knows? The government has stopped counting. Forced to cut its budget, the Agriculture Department has decided to eliminate dozens of reports, including the annual goat census (current population: three million), and the number of catfish on the nation’s fish farms (177 million, not counting the small fry). The statistics service said it was forced to reduce the frequency of some...

The Obama administration lived up to its legal obligations today by withholding the first payment of U.S. funds to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since it voted to recognize “Palestine” as a member state. The State Department​ said a scheduled $60 million payment would not be in the mail to the world body and warned that the same treatment would be given to any other UN agency that pulls the same trick. But Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also said the U.S. would maintain its membership in the organization and continue to participate despite the group’s decision to...

"The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs — a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima — is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War. The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down Tuesday at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, and aligns with President Barack Obama's goal...

More than two-thirds of voters say the United States is declining, and a clear majority think the next generation will be worse off than this one, according to the results of a new poll commissioned by The Hill. A resounding 69 percent of respondents said the country is “in decline,” the survey found, while 57 percent predict today’s kids won’t live better lives than their parents. Additionally, 83 percent of voters indicated they’re either very or somewhat worried about the future of the nation, with 49 percent saying they’re “very worried.” The results suggest that Americans don’t view the country’s...

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c73f10e-f8aa-11e0-ad8f-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1b6DTpeKa Recently I met a retired British diplomat who claimed with some pride that he was the man who had invented the phrase, “the management of decline”, to describe the central task of British foreign policy after 1945. “I got criticised,” he said, “but I think it was an accurate description of our task and I think we did it pretty well.”...

Drowning in red ink, Greece has nowhere to turn to revive the economic growth that might put its debt on a sustainable trajectory, reassure angry foreign creditors and offer hope to its recession-weary citizens. Instead, the country finds itself in a vicious circle—a death spiral, some would say—in which it is borrowing ever more to keep up on its existing debts, crushing growth in the process and thereby worsening its all-important ratio of debt-to-gross domestic product. Springing the debt trap would not be a miracle cure either: a manageable level of borrowing is a necessary but not a sufficient condition...

Prophets Of Doom: 12 Shocking Quotes From Insiders About The Horrific Economic Crisis That Is Almost HereOctober 1, 2011 We are getting so close to a financial collapse in Europe that you can almost hear the debt bubbles popping. All across the western world, governments and major banks are rapidly becoming insolvent. So far, the powers that be are keeping all of the balls in the air by throwing around lots of bailout money. But now the political will for more bailouts is drying up and the number of troubled entities seems to grow by the day. Right now the...

<p>BURNSVILLE, Minn. (AP) — Burnsville police say a Northfield man who had just lost his job committed suicide in front of former colleagues by locking himself in his car and shooting himself in the head.</p> <p>Fifty-one-year-old Patrick Joseph Graves was still alive Thursday morning when officers arrived. He died about an hour later at a hospital.</p>

Last Modified: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 5:45 p.m. Police said a feud at the Meadowcrest apartment community late Tuesday involved a stun gun, machete, baseball bat and a witness seven-months pregnant who apparently began hyperventilating while the drama played out in front of her and later was rushed to a hospital. When it was over, Henry Earl Byrne, 43, of 3413 NE 183rd Lane, was charged with aggravated battery and aggravated assault and booked into the Alachua County jail by the Gainesville Police Department. Police spokeswoman Cpl. Andelina Valuri said the motive for the incident was an argument between...

No matter what the polls say, no matter how many elections fellow Democrats lose, no matter what his opposition says, or his allies for that matter, President Obama is committed to America's decline. From his recycled speeches on jobs, to failed and suspect green energy policies, the man is committed to his ideology. The schizophrenic once stated that the voices in his head told him he was sane and everyone else in the world is crazy. Obama is not schizophrenic, but he has the same delusional beliefs. America needs to be the next banana republic. He is convinced of his...

How to Reverse the West's Decline Pioneer of sociology: In his philosophy of history, Ibn Khaldun recognised the value of "Asabiyah" (social cohesion) It is not clear that the West has successfully met the challenge of 9/11. Worse: it is not clear that the West yet fully understands what the challenge is. To understand 2001 we have to go back to 1989, the year of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was an historic moment that few had expected. What did it mean? It was then...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--It is time for the Southern Baptist Convention to move from denial to decision. It has happened again. The SBC reported membership has declined, again. And, baptisms are at their lowest level in 60 years. I remember the first time the membership declined, just a few years ago. I pointed out (based on data from LifeWay's now-retired statistician Cliff Tharp) that it was not an aberration, but a pattern. The 50-year membership trend was moving into negative territory. "Put simply," I wrote in light of 2007 data, "membership may go up next year, but the trend points to...

was on a very long flight the other day and, to get me through it, I had two books: the new bestseller Of Thee I Zing by Laura Ingraham, and a book I last read twenty years ago, The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth. The former is the latest hit from one of America’s most popular talk radio hosts; the latter is an Austrian novel from 1932 by a fellow who drank himself to death just before the Second World War, which, if you’re planning on drinking yourself to death, is a better pretext than most. Don’t worry, I’ll save...

So this is a taste of what it will be like when the American superpower starts shrinking. Enjoying it yet? After the humiliation of the United States losing its AAA credit rating; after watching the American stock market descend into chaos; after living for two years in a $15 trillion economy unable to grow beyond 2%, with unemployment rates rarely experienced in the U.S., Americans have their first whiff of inhabiting an empire in decline.

As the U.S. bond rating falls and the stock market plunges, the American Century looks to be well and truly over. While this has provoked no small amount of hand-wringing, Americans may soon come to enjoy no longer bearing the responsibility for running the world's indispensable nation. The signs of decline are everywhere. Illegal immigrants are heading back home in search of a better life. China already leads the world in green technology and is about to become the world's biggest economy in terms of purchasing power. Two U.S.-led wars are dragging toward an end charitably described as: mission not...

"He's a good dad to our kids, but was always criticizing me," Terry complained. "I couldn't do anything right, in his mind at least. Thirteen years was enough. I figured it would only get worse, so I left." Like most marriages that end in divorce, Terry's marriage began happily enough. And it ended not because of a serious transgression like adultery, abuse, or substance use, but because the couple's personal relationship deteriorated and they gave up. They gave in to two marriage-killing habits: criticism and pessimism. A number of years ago, marriage expert John Gottman identified four relationship patterns that...

Despite concerns about illegal immigrants in the California labor market, a new report shows that their number has declined in the most heavily populated areas in California during the last decade. The population of illegal immigrants in Los Angeles County fell by 8,000 between 2001 and 2008, according to a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California, which uses the term "unauthorized immigrants." In Orange County, the population of illegal immigrants fell by 60,000. And in Santa Clara County, it fell by 61,000. "After many years of increases, the number of California's unauthorized immigrants has remained stable or...

Asked why President Barack Obama was making a primetime address on the debt crisis last night, a White House official said, "I guarantee you that 80% of the audience tonight has never seen more than a 10 second clip of the president talking about this." Need proof? A new poll out today shows 46% of Americans have more faith in the president to handle the debt issue while just 34% trust Congressional Republicans more, but of those same Americans surveyed, 45% don't want the debt ceiling raised at all fearing that would lead to higher government spending and make the...

California's higher education system is in decline, with fewer students able to afford college, falling college participation rates and dwindling state support, according to a study released Wednesday. The report suggests that the state, once celebrated nationally for its three-tiered system of public colleges, has lost status as a leader in such areas as affordability, preparation of high school graduates, college-going rates and investment in higher education. The analysis was by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Cal State Sacramento. "This report demonstrates the consequences of resting on reputations and policies of yesteryear," the study concludes. "California...

Why China Wants South China Sea East Asia | Security | China July 18, 2011By Tetsuo Kotani Beijing is interested in more than just energy and fishery resources. The area is also integral to its nuclear submarine strategy. In an effort to underscore its importance to Asia, geostrategist Nicholas Spykman once described it as the ‘Asiatic Mediterranean.’ More recently, it has been dubbed the ‘Chinese Caribbean.’ And, just as Rome and the United States have sought control over the Mediterranean and Caribbean, China now seeks dominance over the South China Sea. It’s clear that China’s claims and recent assertiveness have...

There is something surreal and unnerving about the so-called "debt ceiling" negotiations staggering on in Washington. In the real world, negotiations on an increase in one's debt limit are conducted between the borrower and the lender. Only in Washington is a debt increase negotiated between two groups of borrowers. Actually, it's more accurate to call them two groups of spenders. On the one side are Obama and the Democrats, who in a negotiation supposedly intended to reduce American indebtedness are (surprise!) proposing massive increasing in spending (an extra $33 billion for Pell Grants, for example). The Democrat position is: You...

Where are the jobs? Not the stimulus signs, rhetoric about "shovel-ready" economic voodoo or propping-up of an anemic manufacturing sector, but the real jobs? Polls at the beginning of July showed President Obama in an increasingly hazardous position with voters on jobs and the economy. A McClatchy-Marist poll put his economic approval rating at just 37 percent among registered voters. A Gallup poll found U.S. economic confidence had plummeted by 7 percent since June. Last year, Obama used Pennsylvania's Allentown Metal Works as a backdrop to tout his stimulus and job-creation success. A couple of months later, the plant closed....

Ron Paul's recent idea on how to ease the national debt is hardly original but none the less worthy of consideration. He has proposed what leftist critics of the status quo monetary system have been proposing for decades: that money printing should be used to fund the government. To give Ron due credit, he is not proposing exactly that. More precisely, he is proposing that the Fed should tear up a bundle of its Treasury securities, which would lower our overall debt total bringing us below the current debt ceiling. Still, the mechanics are identical, if not in reverse order....

Xun Wang, a former Managing Director of PPG Paints Trading, has been indicted on a charge of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Export Administration Regulations.She is accused of exporting and reexporting high-performance epoxy coatings to the Chashma 2 Nuclear Power Plant in Pakistan.She is a Chinese national and lawful permanent resident of the United States.In 2006, PPG sought an export license for the shipments of coatings to Chashma II. The Department of Commerce denied that license application. Following that denial, Wang and her co-conspirators agreed upon a scheme to export and reexport the high-performance...

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, and talent. --- We destroyed the Chosen People, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world. --- The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. --- These are the people we burned. --- And under the pretense of tolerance, and...

I am a successful small businessman and a patriot who loves America and always sees its greatness. I am also an optimistic, positive thinker who always sees the glass half full. But not this time. I predicted doom if Obama was elected. Sadly the results are far worse than imagined. The economy is in shambles. America is staring at economic disaster — Armageddon. Even me, the eternal optimist is scared at what the future holds. We are the Titanic, headed straight for the iceberg. America has always been a land of boom and bust. It’s just part of business cycle....

Michigan patriot's Op-Ed letter asks: What has America become? Has America become the land of the special interest and the home of the double standard...? Let's see: if we lie to the Congress, it's a felony- and if the Congress lies to us, it's just politics; If we dislike a black person, we're racist- and if a black dislikes whites, it's their 1st Amendment right; The government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and they do almost nothing for the victims; In the public schools you can teach that homosexuality is OK, but you better not use the word 'God' in...

A study by the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund found that 47 percent of adults in the city are ‘functionally illiterate’.‘Functionally illiterate’ means they struggle with day-to-day tasks, like reading job applications, following a bus schedule or understanding product labels. Those deemed illiterate however have been educated. The report indicated that the same group found to be ‘functionally illiterate’ had completed element education, where reading is taught and half of the group had either a high school diploma or a GED. Nearly half of the city’s population lacks the necessary skills to work in even the most entry level and remedial...

n March 15, ABC News, in cooperation with the Washington Post, released the results of a new survey done by Langer Research Associates. One of the questions asked about the level of confidence that US citizens have in our system of government today.

There are over 300,000 evangelical Christian churches in America. That equates to tens of millions of professing Christians and hundreds of thousands of Christian ministers. Think of the church sanctuaries, educational facilities, schools, camps, radio broadcasts, television programs, colleges, seminaries, preschools, youth retreats, etc., that grace America. In some communities there is a church building on just about every corner. In spite of this massive exposure to the modern Church, however, the nation has been left virtually unaffected, uninfluenced, and unimpressed. In fact, one could make the argument that while America’s churches have experienced unprecedented growth in membership and wealth...

CDC: Abortions Declined in 2007, Black Women Have Highest Rate Washington, DC -- A new report the Centers for Disease Control issued today indicates abortions fell in 2007 to their second lowest level in the last 10 years. However, as has been the case for some time, the CDC report is incomplete as it leaves out some states. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/02/24/cdc-abortions-declined-in-2007-black-women-have-highest-rate/

Members of the largest Presbyterian denomination in the country are currently aflutter with talks of a desperate need for change for the aging and shrinking body. A group of them – 175 to be exact – believes the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is "deathly ill" and will not survive without "drastic intervention." "Is it time to acknowledge that traditional denominations like the PC(USA) have served in their day but now must be radically transformed?" the group of pastors, lay leaders and elders pose. Leading the group are John Crosby of Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minn., and Jim Singleton of First...

MUMBAI: Implicitly acknowledging the decline of American dominance, Barack Obama on Sunday said the US was no longer in a position to "meet the rest of the world economically on our terms". Speaking at a town hall meeting in Mumbai, he said, "I do think that one of the challenges that we are going face in the US, at a time when we are still recovering from the financial crisis is, how do we respond to some of the challenges of globalisation? The fact of the matter is that for most of my lifetime and I'll turn 50 next year...

OUR FAILURE IS GUARANTEED (9 stages of Civilization)

Over the last few years, with an economy in decline and the rise of certain developing nations, there have been murmurs of the end of American exceptionalism throughout the media. Don’t believe a word of it, says syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer. On the Christmas Eve edition of Fox News Channel’s “Happening Now,” Krauthammer was asked to reflect on the last two years. He explained there was similar rhetoric about the nation’s decline at the end of the 1970s. “Well, I think this is mostly a reflection of the recession,” Krauthammer said. “The mood of the country...

Hooray, we have a presidential cheerleader for American Decline. I capitalize those words A.D. the way I capitalize a lot of the fantasy slogans of the Left. Capitalizing their absurdities is a way of punctuating their empty heads and empty lives. In Obama's Übermensch Amplified Voice, "American Decline" is another way of saying, "Na Nana Na Na!" You think you won the midterms? Well, here's my big middle finger to you! That bony digit is growing like Pinocchio's nose, and for the same reason. Watch it grow bigger and bigger for the next two years as this White House drifts...

MUMBAI: Implicitly acknowledging the decline of American dominance, Barack Obama on Sunday said the US was no longer in a position to "meet the rest of the world economically on our terms".Speaking at a town hall meeting in Mumbai, he said, "I do think that one of the challenges that we are going face in the US, at a time when we are still recovering from the financial crisis is, how do we respond to some of the challenges of globalisation? The fact of the matter is that for most of my lifetime and I'll turn 50 next year -...

A major topic of conversation within the corridors of power in Europe and Asia is the decline and potential end of the United States as a major global economic power. This is in part a reaction to the desperate and foolhardy monetary policies of the Federal Reserve, trying as they are to mitigate the effect of enormous national debt and a restructured economy bequeathed to the American people by the "progressives" in the governing class over the past fifty years. But it is also a realization of what will happen to the global economic structure if the United States does...

CAMPAIGN COUNTDOWN: IT STARTS WITH THE MONEY Print E-mail Steyn on America Monday, 25 October 2010 All this week at SteynOnline, we're looking at what I regard as the key issues in this year's big vote. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so drop us a line at Mark's Mailbox. We're starting today with the most basic issue of all: We're broke. I’ve spent much of this election season overseas, a long way from internal polls for this or that House district, so I’m not too focused on the fortunes of particular Republican candidates or particular Democrat incumbents. But nor...