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Texas A&M Commencement Address - The students gave a standing ovation; the faculty were deathly silent! Neal Boortz is a Texan, a lawyer, a Texas Aggie (Texas A&M) graduate, and now a nationally syndicated talk show host from Atlanta . His commencement address to the graduates of a recent Texas A&M class is far different from what either the students or the faculty expected. Whether you agree or disagree, his views are certainly thought provoking. "I am honored by the invitation to address you on this august occasion. It's about time. Be warned, however, that I am not here to...

In campaign mode for months, President Barack Obama is making his quest for a second term official with rallies in Ohio and Virginia while casting Republican rival Mitt Romney as a flip-flopping protector of the rich.

I think you are missing something here. Newt would bring the ever Lurking Calista with him and she was the cause of divorce # 2. He was rubbing it in everybody's face that an old coot like him could get somebody like her. No matter how God awful she looked. He was delusional to think he could get the evangelicals with that approach. Newt is the one that shot himself in the foot not Hume. Hume is just another excuse for Newt in a long line of excuse's. He was rubbing it in everybody's face that an old coot like...

Rick Santorum is likely to win Louisiana’s Saturday primary but a victory there won’t help him much, say Republican strategists. “Winning Louisiana does nothing in the grand scheme of things,” said GOP strategist Tyler Harber. “It won’t give a huge boost of support to Rick Santorum. Winning these contests isn’t as important. It’s now about winning the delegates.”

I noticed how many old ‘friends’ were either pregnant or married. As I stared down my one-bedroom apartment and a life that lacked both a serious relationship and even the glimmer of a baby, I deactivated my profile once more, then proceeded to have the first big breakdown I had had in a long time. I felt completely alone. I felt abandoned by something I couldn’t define. So when I went to see my therapist the following day to be greeted by news of her pregnancy, it just seemed like an additional smack in the face. I stared at my...

"Liberals love to think of themselves as intellectual and nuanced, but liberalism is incredibly simplistic. It's nothing more than ‘childlike emotionalism applied to adult issues.’ Very seldom does any issue that doesn't involve pandering to their supporters boil down at its core level to more than feeling ‘nice’ or ‘mean’ to liberals. This makes liberals ill equipped to deal with complex issues." -- John Hawkins, September 21, 2007   Liberals are actually worse than children, not just because it's so appalling to see adults who view themselves as highly intelligent and sophisticated thinking like little kids, but because in...

CNSNews.com) – Shaun Casey, the religious affairs adviser to presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008, said at a discussion on Tuesday about “God and Politics” that the demise of religious society in the United States is a good thing. “I, frankly, am glad American civil religion is dying,” said Casey, who is an associate professor of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. Casey made the remarks at an event focusing on religion and the 2012 presidential election at the liberal Center for American Progress where he was a panelist along with Gabriel Salguero, president of the National...

Obama, in his State of the Union address and during his initial five-state, multi-million dollar taxpayer funded re-election jaunt has stated repeatedly that his platform and policies are not about class warfare, which means, of course, that his ticket is all about class warfare—or “fairness,” as he likes to call it … or as the Scripture labels it, envy. You don’t hear much about envy anymore, do you? We hear a lot about greed being bad, but in Obamaland envy is no longer a rank vice but a right and a virtue. However, historically speaking, envy has always been seen...

Mitt Romney had a remarkable exchange on NBC this morning that may not be as attention-grabbing about his “fire people” gaffe — but may actually be just as revealing and significant. And I hope it gets some attention. In it, Romney suggested that concerns about Wall Street conduct and inequality are driven by “envy,” and even said we needn’t have a public debate about inequitable wealth distribution in this country.

Fueled by a backlash against the wealthy, Gov. Jerry Brown and left-leaning groups want voters to tax the rich next November.Californians have shown strong support for the idea in polls so far, despite the fact that they haven't passed a statewide tax hike since 2004. Brown said this month "the only tax that's overwhelmingly popular is the tax on wealthier people."Partisans have feuded for years at the federal level over tax rates for the rich. Republicans argue that tax cuts spur investment and economic growth. Democrats say such "supply-side" theories are unfounded and that lower rates are merely a giveaway...

An old Russian joke tells about a poor peasant whose better-off neighbor has just gotten a cow. In his anguish, the peasant cries out to God for relief from his distress. When God replies and asks him what he wants him to do, the peasant replies, "Kill the cow." The joke illustrates an important point about human nature: The line between clamoring for justice and envy can be very thin. The subject came to mind when I read a recent column by Ross Douthat in the New York Times about the issue of income inequality and the redistribution of wealth....

Which of the Ten Commandments is most pertinent to today’s headlines? A group in Minnesota thinks it is the 10th–thou shalt not covet, for those who haven’t read Exodus for a while. I think they have a point; if the Occupy movement isn’t covetous, what is? Anyway, they put up this billboard here in the Twin Cities:I believe the billboard just went up this morning, but it is already getting considerable notice.

Who Are These Fat-Cat Few at the Top?A successful society neither idolizes nor demonizes its rich. First lady Michelle Obama the other day railed at “the few at the top,� who do all sorts of bad things. A few months ago, we began hearing of the “1 percent� who are responsible for the current economic mess. “They� apparently make all their money at the expense of the other 99 percent. Are they the same as last year’s villains, who had not paid “their fair share� while making over $200,000 in annual income?Do they include the greedy doctors, who, the president...

WASHINGTON - The richest 1 percent of Americans have been getting far richer over the last three decades while the middle class and poor have seen their after-tax household income only crawl up in comparison, according to a government study. After-tax income for the top 1 percent of U.S. households almost tripled, up 275 percent, from 1979 to 2007, the Congressional Budget Office found. For people in the middle of the economic scale, after-tax income grew by just 40 percent. Those at the bottom experienced an 18 percent increase. "The distribution of after-tax income in the United States was substantially...

The Heritage Foundation – Washington, D.C. Remarks as Prepared for Delivery Thank you so much, Ed, for that kind introduction. We’re here today to explore the American Idea, and I can’t think of a better venue for this topic. The mission of the Heritage Foundation is to promote the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. These are the principles that define the American Idea. And this mission has never been timelier, because these principles are very much under threat from policies here in Washington. The American Idea belongs to all...

The major difference between Hitler and the Communist genocidal murderers –Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot –was what groups they chose for extermination. For Hitler, first Jews and ultimately Slavs and other "non-Aryans" were declared the enemy and unworthy of life. For the Communists, the rich –the bourgeoisie, landowners and capitalists –were labeled the enemy and regarded as unworthy of life. Hitler mass-murdered on the basis of race, the Communists on the basis of class. Because the Holocaust was unique in its industrialization of death and in its targeting of every Jew, including babies, for death, the post-World War II world...

Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former National Security Advisor to President Carter and a frequent guest on his daughter Mika’s MSNBC program, made a series of strange statements during his segment on “Morning Joe” earlier today. Talking with the MSNBC crew about the concentration of wealth in America as motivation for “Occupy Wall Street,” Dr. Brzezinski seems to believe that publishing the names of people who make a lot of money would be helpful in redistributing wealth: Brzezinski wants anyone making a lot of money to be pointed out, but a short time later he says he does not want Wall...

- “I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets…” - From Sarah Palin’s statement announcing her decision not to run for president. Um, probably not. Sarah Palin’s political voice had dwindled well before she announced her decision not to run. Now it will sink altogether into inaudibility. She will be no kind of force in future national discussions. She will have no sway over party debates. She will retain some starpower for a little while longer. She may for another cycle or two be able to help certain candidates for certain political offices raise some money. Even...

Today the president will unveil a multi-trillion-dollar deficit reduction package, which reportedly includes hundreds of billions of dollars in tax increases.  These tax hikes could top $1.2 Trillion -- a figure that includes the $800 Billion in tax increases the president's plan will propose, plus the price tag for his unpaid-for $450 Billion "jobs plan."  Careful -- these numbers should not be confused with the additional record-shattering $800 Billion across-the-board tax increases scheduled to take effect in 2013, when the current Bush rates expire.  Two daunting tax cliffs; so little time.  For a solid overview of why the president's deficit...

Ultra-rich people come in a variety of shapes, sizes and ages. But they can generally be divided into two distinct groups when it comes to what they do with their money - there are those who made it and those who inherited it. " Inheritors are far less hungry than the ones who worked for it - Raymond Goss Raymond Goss, investment specialist at Investec, says the first generation with serious money is usually inherently entrepreneurial and entirely focused on wealth creation - they are always on the alert for a great deal and are shrewd and incisive about the...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Envy A Capital Sin When we Catholics begin our instruction in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we learn about and are given warning to be on guard against the Seven Deadly Sins, which are pride, avarice, lust, anger, envy, sloth, and gluttony. I am going to discuss the capital sin known as “envy”. Let me begin, by giving a definition of the word “envy”: wanting what somebody else has; the resentful or unhappy feeling of wanting somebody else’s success, good fortune, qualities, or possessions. Also, here are a few synonyms for envy as well as...

Of all the characteristics of human beings that are bad, envy is the worst. It is the most unredeeming and wicked of the negative characteristics of human beings. Envy has at its root a gross and inordinate self-concept either on the side of gross inferiority or gross arrogance. A proper self-concept is vitally necessary to have a balanced and peaceful mind with contentment. However, when one has low self-esteem this self-concept breeds friction and trouble. For example, if someone comes along doing that which we believe we were the only ones qualified to do, our self-concept is threatened. This produces...

Whether in the fights over the U.S. debt limit or the rioting in Athens, the common global theme is not poverty in absolute terms, but more often fairness — as in having about the same amount of things as others do. Here in America, the months-long impasse over the national-debt ceiling continues. President Bush borrowed nearly $5 trillion in eight years. But President Obama easily trumped even that staggering figure with his plan to borrow over $6 trillion in his first four years in office. The architects of his economic policy — Austan Goolsbee, Peter Orszag, Christina Romer, and Larry...

As a woman who has spent much of her adult life lobbying for and writing about equal rights and opportunities for women, I am distressed that some candidates for the upcoming national elections make me sick to my feminist stomach. I am talking about people like Michele Bachmann and the omnipresent Sarah Palin. I want to see women in the highest offices in the country, I really do. But I feel obligated to evaluate female presidential candidates by the same standards I use to evaluate male candidates. They should be experienced, appropriate, articulate, and knowledgeable in domestic and foreign policy...

Well we know that they met... © worldfamousart.com All pictures in this series are copyright 2011 WorldFamousArt.They may not be printed without permission.They may not be posted anywhere EXCEPT FreeRepublic.Com with out permission.

By the time I finished reading this lengthy, plaintive missive by Richard Esko at the Huffington Post, I will confess that I’d actually begun feeling sorry for him. Observing the conclusion of the recent budget battles and viewing them as a disastrous loss for the progressive movement, Mr. Esko casts about for an answer to what seems to be the question of the day: How does the evil Tea Party keep kicking our butts when our ideas are so wildly popular and clearly superior? And he thinks he’s found some answers. Once again the unpopular views of a minority have...

three Cornell researchers [looked at] whether we can determine who is a criminal by looking at his face. Their finding: We can. The researchers gathered head shots of Caucasian males, ages 20 to 29, put them all against a white background and controlled for attractiveness and display of facial emotion. Half were photos of convicts. The criminals were on their first conviction, had short hair and little to no facial hair. About half the criminals had been convicted of violent crimes (forcible rapes, murder, assault) and half for nonviolent crimes (forgery, theft, arson and drug dealing). On a scale of...

Could Andrea Mitchell possibly be more snide and condescending toward Sarah Palin? On her MSNBC show today, here's how Mitchell introduced her interview with Jeanne Cummings of Politico concerning Sarah Palin's current trip to India and Israel: "Well. Heh-heh. Where do you start?" Dismissive as was the language, only the video does justice to the derision in Mitchell's tone. View clip here.

This past Saturday in Baton Rouge, La. a MoveOn union rally was thrown together to protest Gov. Scott Walkers union legislation in Wisconsin. After the rally was held, a MoveOn coordinator was caught on tape saying the Tea Party is fueled by “class envy” and “racism.” The following is a partial transcript. We’ll call the person who wished to remain anonymous ‘Condor‘ for transcript reasons: MoveOn: My opinion is that, first of all, Tea Partiers tend to be in a wealthier category so even if you don’t currently benefit from it, people don’t want to tax millionaires because everyone believes,...

Mob Robbers And Rampant Looting: Is This The Future Of America?Feburary 26,2011 Have you ever heard of mob robberies? What happens is that dozens of young people storm a store at the same time, take whatever they want, and then storm out as powerless store clerks watch helplessly. Most of the time these "mob robbers" end up getting caught, but unfortunately "group crime" is a trend that is rising. Is it a sign of the times that large groups of people are starting to recklessly invade retail establishments? Is this the future of America? As I have written about...

Wednesday Sarah Palin responded to the vicious blood libel leveled against her and millions of right-thinking Americans by the army of destroyers. The ferocious, relentless attacks on Sarah Palin are a testament to her greatness, proof of how deathly afraid of her they are, like Dracula to the silver cross. It’s envy. Ayn Rand said it: “Envy is regarded by most people as a petty, superficial emotion and, therefore, it serves as a semihuman cover for so inhuman an emotion that those who feel it seldom dare admit it even to themselves….That emotion is: hatred of the good for being...

Ah, the prodigal son of the Bible passage Luke 15. He was tired of being around the house. He wanted his inheritance right now. He got it, he spent it, and he regretted it. Embracing humility, he went home hoping he could at least be a hired hand. Instead, he was welcomed by his father, embraced, returned to a place of honor, and a party was thrown for him. Big brother wasn’t too pleased about the situation. He had been doing all the right things. He had served without disobedience for years. Yet, he never got a party.Recently, a 53...

What is the reason why the ruling class, including the GOP establishment, hates Sara Palin so passionately? The left and its propaganda machine have always looked down on conservatives, but the attacks on Sarah Palin are unprecedented for sheer malice, scope, and decibel level. Everything about her incenses the left -- her bubbly personality, her high-pitched voice, her lively manner of speech and facial expressions, her colorful biography and way of life, her large family, her unabashed loyalty to Christian and conservative values. She is ridiculed mercilessly by hordes of comedians who, plumbing new depths of vulgarity, make a nice...

New York Congressman Anthony Weiner is making a name for himself. He wants taxes raised on wealthy Americans and is one of the more vocal opponents to the deal that would retain current tax rates for everyone. “An estate tax cut for millionaires adds exactly zero jobs. A tax cut for billionaires – virtually none,” says the congressman. But what does Weiner know about job creation, about work, about being an entrepreneur? Looking over his resume, you see he’s never held a private sector job. Right out of college, he went to work on the staff of then-Congressmen Chuck Schumer,...

ehudgins@atlassociety.org The first great post-election policy decision facing the lame-duck, Democrat-dominated Congress is whether or not to allow taxes to skyrocket. Usually referred to as the “Bush tax cuts,” the rates that have been operative for most of this decade will expire at the end of 2010, reverting to much higher levels. Even President Obama and his Congressional allies agree that a return to the past rates would harm most Americans, forcing them to pay $150 billion or more annually in taxes as they struggle in a depressed economy. The debate is whether to allow higher rates to hit households...

It’s a very subtle ploy, that statement, ”already making more money than most will earn in a lifetime.” Does it make you feel good? Glad for those billionaires, and proud of their enterprenurial spirit? Or does it make you feel slightly envious that these young kids will make more than you’ll ever see in your life? Yeah, me too. The ongoing repetition (only slightly unpalatable in single instances) permeates society these days. It’s in the press, on television, online… all the time. Captialism is evil; tax the rich; make the rich pay their fair share; they’ll make more than you’ll...

... What is it, after all, that makes so many people feel like failures? On a superficial level the simple assumption is that we are depressed because we are deprived. The truth is that it is not so. Our obsession for acquiring wealth has far less to do with our personal wants than with our refusal to have less than others. We have to face up to the fact that, as Frank Ross put it, “It is not so much what we haven’t, but what others have that makes for unhappiness.” A fascinating psychological study recently done by researchers at...

Click here to find out more! Perhaps the most telling of the recent revelations of the liberal/left Journolist, a list consisting of about 400 major liberal/left journalists, is the depth of their hatred of conservatives. That they would consult with one another in order to protect candidate and then President Obama and in order to hurt Republicans is unfortunate and ugly. But what is jolting is the hatred of conservatives, as exemplified by the e-mail from an NPR reporter expressing her wish to personally see Rush Limbaugh die a painful death -- and the apparent absence of any objection from...

Utopia! It's the holy grail of egalitarian busybodies far and wide. If only outcomes were equal, as defined by the egalitarians themselves, the world would become a place of balanced chi and seamless harmony. These societal engineers have long believed in their unique intellects and superlative abilities, which qualify them to distribute wealth and contentment to a longing world. Sadly, there's no shortage of these do-gooders. A New York State Assemblyman envisions an increased millionaire tax. If passed, high income earners -- who already bear a disproportionate share of New York's tax burden -- will pitch in an additional 11...

It's funny how trivial events somehow get seared into your brain. This one is from years ago, when I was enjoying a yogurt on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Suddenly, a large exotic bug appeared and started dancing around. Its iridescent colors caught the sun and glistened like a rainbow. A crowd formed to watch its antics in shared delight. Out of nowhere, a lunatic pushed through the crowd. I'd seen this guy before -- paranoid, menacing. His rage toward the bug slit me like a knife. The insect was getting attention, people were happy, and he was out for revenge....

When slavery is implemented by force, it is certainly a despicable institution. But is it any less despicable when the slaves are there by choice? The interesting point about slavery is that whether it's forced or voluntary, the master is responsible for the slaves. The master feeds, clothes, and cares for his slaves, some masters better than others. But masters also manipulate their slaves. Eventually, all slaves start to notice the dichotomy between their lives and the lives of their masters. There is an urban legend of a slave owner named Willie Lynch who recognized that slaves needed to be...

Via Newsbusters — Over the weekend, a Reuters photographer took this picture of Sarah and Todd Palin at the Belmont Stakes in New York: I’d seen the picture, because somebody on Twitter posted a link to it, and I believe his exact words were “Wowee-wow-woweeeee” or something like that, but he was in no position to make an official call because his glasses were fogged up. For me, discussion about that picture pretty much ended there, but not for others. The liberal blog Wonkette asked if Palin had purchased herself a couple of “luxury items,” and of course HuffPo ran...

Happy Now?What’s at stake in America’s battle over free enterprise.  On May 13, 2009, at Arizona State University, Barack Obama delivered his first commencement address as President of the United States. At one of the most frightening economic moments in America’s history, it was a chance to be a mentor, a teacher, and the nation’s inspirer-in-chief. Did the president urge the graduates to get out there and create the growth and jobs our country needs? Did he inspire them to be the next generation of great American innovators and entrepreneurs? No; instead, he told the graduates that people who “chase...

Recent stories out of both Philadelphia and San Francisco tell of black students’ beating up Asian-American students. This is especially painful for those who expected that the election of Barack Obama would mark the beginning of a post-racial America. While Obama’s winning majorities in overwhelmingly white states suggests that many Americans are ready to move beyond race, it is painfully clear that others are not. Those who explain racial antagonisms on rational bases will have a hard time demonstrating how Asian Americans have made blacks worse off. Certainly none of the historic wrongs done to blacks was done by the...

The gorgeous and lovley Ivanka Trump is interviewed on Fox News: She's asked: How do think this President is doing? "I'm fearful for my grandchildren.....America wants to hear about jobs, not anti-business rhetoric"

The Problem With Palin By Quin Hillyer "I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience." - Patrick Henry, 1775 "I told reporters what I still believe today: government experience doesn't necessarily count for much." -Sarah Palin, Going Rogue, p. 84 Sarah Palin, 55 percent unfavorable poll ratings notwithstanding, is a political phenomenon the likes of which American public life rarely has seen. There's something distinctive, something deeply personal, about the way her legions of strong supporters rush not just to defend her but to counter-attack any and all of her...

Sarah Palin, 55 percent unfavorable poll ratings notwithstanding, is a political phenomenon the likes of which American public life rarely has seen. There's something distinctive, something deeply personal, about the way her legions of strong supporters rush not just to defend her but to counter-attack any and all of her critics. Palin has a way of establishing a sense of connectedness with her backers -- such a strong, attitudinal sense that she is not just like them but one of them -- that she has created what amounts to a one-woman, conservative "identity politics" writ very, very large. Yet if...

As a Republican congressman from Colorado, Tom Tancredo became well-known for his hard-line opposition to illegal immigration. Last year, the 65-year-old retired from the House of Representatives after a decade. Meanwhile, the country shifted to the left during his prospectless bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Moderate John McCain won the primaries, Barack Obama became president and there seemed to be no place left for Tancredo in national politics. But now he has made his way back into the limelight as one of the faces of the Tea Party movement. In the course of last year, anti-tax protestors took hold...

The Obama administration is launching a rabble-rousing assault on big banks. Thus we see on display in Washington another example of how ideas have an impetus of their own that drives those who hold them to predictable deeds. These acts need not be destructive, but in this case they definitely are. Failing healthThe attempt by the Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration to take over America’s health care system was derailed when the election of Republican Scott Brown as Massachusetts senator deprived the Democrats of a filibuster-proof majority. One reason for Brown’s victory was voters’ fears that the bloated,...

The bank bonus season, that annual rite of big money and bigger egos, begins in earnest this week, and it looks as if it will be one of the largest and most controversial blowouts the industry has ever seen. Bank executives are grappling with a question that exasperates, even infuriates, many recession-weary Americans: Just how big should their paydays be? Despite calls for restraint from Washington and a chafed public, resurgent banks are preparing to pay out bonuses that rival those of the boom years. The haul, in cash and stock, will run into many billions of dollars. .