Undifferentiated Schizophrenia: Politics Today

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) states that to be diagnosed with Schizophrenia two or more of the following symptoms must be present for more than one month:

Delusions, Hallucinations, Disorganized Speech, Thought Disorder (Disorganized and unusual thinking), Grossly disorganized behavior, Catatonic Behavior (Maybe in some cases), Social Dysfunction, Occupational Dysfunction, Impaired Social Cognition, Avolition (A lack of drive, desire, or motivation to pursue meaningful goals), Anhedonia (the inability to experience pleasure).

Damn... sure sounds like congress to me!

Congress has reached an all time low: A 9 percent approval rating. Don't kid yourselves, it's not an approval rating, it's a 91 percent DISAPPROVAL rating.

According to the LA Times 72% of Americans believe members of congress are more interested in furthering there own careers than doing public good.

Here is where the Schizophrenia comes on the strongest: The Democrat controlled congress blames the Republican minority for their approval rating and things will be better when they have a stronger majority. Don't like milk? Here have some more... don't worry it'll grow on you.

I am ROFLMAO at the blog posts like:

"Once the Democratic Party obtains a much larger majority in the next election cycle, they will be in a much better situation to ward-off the failed Republican policies, and bring our country back to greatness, once again."

Or this one:

"Barack will lead the party to victory in Nov. With a greater Dem najority, more legislation will be passed to allow more government control over policy. This desirable shift to the left is what we the people want. The Sierra Club will play a key role in establishing ground rules for decreased pollution through conservation and reduced driving. 55 mph speed limits should be passed on Day One. SUVs and non-commercial trucks should be reduced as much as possible. This is a new era. Animal rights will be respected."

HELLO? ANYBODY IN THERE? WOW...THAT POKE IN THE EYE HURT...DO IT AGAIN, MAYBE IT'LL FEEL BETTER THE 26th TIME. OW! NOPE! AGAIN! OW!

WOO HOO! look at Congress go! National Watermelon Month! (Hmmmmm......watermelon). Potato Month (Hmmmm, potatoes!) Congratulations Iowa Hawkeyes! Way to Wrestle! GO HAWKEYES GO! Recognized Soil as a natural resource (Hmmmmm.... Soil!)

13% of Democrats give congress a good rating, 8% of Republicans, and only 3% of Independents

I have a proposal... let's tie congressional salary to approval ratings!

Currently rank and file members earn $169,300, at a 9% approval rating, that would be $15237 Sounds like some organization owes the American public $67,017, 405

Tomorrow, the Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis, and Counterintelligence Subcommittee meets to discuss Human Intelligence in the Intelligence Community...

HOW BOUT SOME HEARINGS ON HUMAN INTELLIGENCE IN CONGRESS?

Lets take a look at some of the acts of Congress and see if we can figure out why their approval rate is so low:

House Resolution (HR) 437 To name the post office in Rio Grande City TX "Lino Perez Jr."

HCON RES 44: Honoring and Praising the NAACP on it's 98th anniversary

H Res 120: Recognizing the African American Spiritual as a national treasure (And they said congress could never agree on anything, passed 426-0)

H.CON.RES.34 Title: Honoring the life of Percy Lavon Julian

H.RES.59 Title: Supporting the goals and ideals of National Engineers Week

H.RES.90 Title: Congratulating Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears and Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts on becoming the first African-American head coaches of National Football League teams to qualify for the Super Bowl

H.RES.58 Title: To honor Muhammad Ali, global humanitarian

H.RES.43 Title: Commending the Boise State University Broncos football team for winning the 2007 Fiesta Bowl

H.R.759 Title: To redesignate the Ellis Island Library "The Bob Hope Library"

H.RES.89 Title: a day should be established as Dutch-American Friendship Day

H.CON.RES.112 Title: Supporting the goals and ideas of a National Child Care Worthy Wage Day

H.RES.233 Title: Recognizing over 200 years of sovereignty of the Principality of Liechtenstein

H.RES.467 Title: Condemning the decision by the leadership of the University and College Union of the United Kingdom to support a boycott of Israeli academia.

Flake of Arizona Amendment: I got news for you, you're all flakes!

This is just a smattering of some of the silly things accomplished. Not to demean the accomplishments of any of the aforementioned people, groups, etc... BUT IS THIS WHAT WE ARE PAYING 169K A YEAR FOR?

Can't naming post offices be delegated down to some GS-5 somewhere?

Did we send you to Washington to congratulate football teams?

QUIT WASTING OUR TIME AND MONEY

and you wonder why you have only a 9% approval rating

Okay, National Defense Budget GOOD.... Recognizing Liechtenstein BAD. You should have learned to recognize Liechtenstein in 9th grade geography class!

You could write a book on this: Stupid Congress Tricks!

~Finntann~

McCain or McLeft?

John McCain is at serious risk of alienating the conservative base of the Republican Party if he has not already done so.

Both John McCain and Barrack Obama pitched comprehensive immigration reform to the "League of United Latin American Citizens"

Might I inquire as to which Latin American country they are campaigning for President of?

According to the Associated Press: It's a poignant message for the audience, an organization that advocates social and economic policies benefiting Hispanics.

What ever happened to social and economic policies benefiting Americans?

Both candidates are also slated to address the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) later this month.

NCLR unabashedly defends its contributions to a chapter of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) stating that while they 'disavow' their separatist rhetoric, they will continue to support programs that help Hispanics enter and finish college. Check out both websites:

http://www.nclr.org/section/separatist/
http://www.nationalmecha.org/about.html

Do tell me, precisely what does "MEChA was founded on the principles of self-determination for the liberation of our people" mean in the context of Hispanics in America?

How about: "the affirmation that we are Indigenous people to this land by placing our movement in Aztlan, the homeland of all peoples from Anahuak."

Google "Aztlan" if you really want a shock!!!

NCLR's statement is the equivalent of a German-American organization vowing to continue to support a chapter of the Nazi party, despite their political philosophy, because they help German-Americans enter and finish college.

I'm having trouble figuring out which candidate is the far-left liberal candidate! If Barack Obama continues to move towards the center and John McCain towards the left, we might eventually have to swap candidates between the parties.

JOHN McCAIN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

I urge all readers, Democrat or Republican, to voice your opinions on this issue to their respective candidate. I for one, as an American, in vehement disagreement with the philosophy of NCLR and MEChA, am appalled at this shameless pandering for votes.

I am beginning to wonder if (hope?) a viable independent candidate will emerge.

Alan Keyes is even beginning to look viable. http://www.alankeyes.com

http://www.selfgovernment.us/aip/

Questioning the wisdom of a two-party system.

~Finntann~

G8 - Aid: Might as well burn the money.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick calls for bio-fuel reforms, blaming the US and EU on rising food prices. Mr Zoellick also called on the G8 to increase aid and reduce tariffs. Campaigners want aid to Africa doubled by 2010, and the EU is pledging 1.6 Billion (US) in subsidies.

While it is difficult not to feel compassion towards the hungry, the question is really will more money make a difference. It seems logical, more money equals more food, but in the corrupt world of third world politics this is not necessarily the case.

The Africa Progress Panel (Kofi Anann, Bob Geldof, and Bono) want more aid, with the admirable goal of "eradicating extreme hunger and poverty", halving the number of those suffering by 2015. The problem with this admirable goal is that money is not the problem, governments are the problem.

World food production has exceeded population growth by 50% over the past 40 years, while 1/3 of African children suffer from malnutrition. In the nineties malnutrition in east Asia fell by 60%, in Latin America 50%... while in Africa it increased by 20%. Leading many to the logical conclusion that Africa needs more aid, when in reality it needs better government.

The World Bank calls for the G8 to reduce tariffs, while in sub-Saharan Africa agricultural tariffs sit at 33.6%, the highest of any region in the world. Taxes and tariffs make fertilizer six times more expensive in Africa than anywhere else. The UN itself estimates that 20% of African budgets go towards "military hardware and other unnecessary luxuries".

Interesting term "unnecessary luxuries". Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso is a vocal advocate for increased aid and debt cancellation while racking up $300,000 hotel bills and blowing another $7,000,000 for luxury homes in Paris for his wife and son. After 2.3 trillion in aid to African nations since the sixties, Africa is much worse off than Asian countries that got little or no aid.

Imagine if you would, giving a neighbor fallen on hard times $1000 for groceries, what would be your response upon finding out that they were still hungry and had spent most of the money on something else? Would you give more money?

The Carnegie-Mellon Gailliot Center for Public Policy study looked at corruption in African nations Based on World Bank governance indicator ratings, the best were rated at
'below average', the worst as 'very bad'. This rating is based on a mean score, the Transparency indicator rating (based on the worst country having a score of 1.3) changes the assessment to simply 'bad' and 'very bad'.

The report is an interesting read: http://www.house.gov/jec/publications/109/12-09-05galliotcorruption.pdf

There idea? Give performance based grants, not money. Meet certain political and economic requirements...get aid, fail to comply, well, you don't, might seem kind of harsh but what other choice is there really?

"Performance based grants block the spoils system in the developing world that, for years, has annexed aid money for personal gain and entrenched political power".


"Rich donors cannot be more desperate to give than the regimes of needy nations are desperate to receive."

Are you giving money to assuage your guilt? Or are you giving money to help people to fix the circumstance that they find themselves trapped in? Free money is not the answer.

~Finntann~

Cowards in Canada

Cowards in Canada; American deserters seeking refuge north of the border were recently given a reprieve when Canadian justice Robert Barnes recently ruled that the Immigration and Refugee Board was wrong when it decided that an American deserter couldn't claim refugee status in Canada because the military transgressions he was evading weren't severe enough to be war crimes or crimes against humanity. The largest stumbling block yet to be overcome is proving that they would face undue hardship if returned to the United States.

Cowards? Some of you might take offense at applying this appellation to those who claim refuge based on principle or conscientious objector status. Yet the question remains, what are they fleeing? The American military is an all volunteer force and has been for many years and makes little effort to catch deserters aside from establishing a deserter warrant in the national criminal database.

Cowards! I call them cowards not because of their refusal to serve or fight in Iraq, I call them cowards because they lack the principals to stand up for their beliefs, choosing to flee rather than to fight for them. One need look no further than Gandhi to see the respectable principal of non-violent civil disobedience. What are they fleeing? Do they really believe that they will be drawn and quartered in the public square when no American deserter of the Iraq war has received more than eighteen months as punishment?

A Florida National Guard deserter, Camilo Mejia, received one year in jail, a bad conduct discharge, and a reduction in pay by two-thirds to $795 a month. I wonder how much time he had left on his enlistment contract, more than a year?. Rick Clousing of the 82nd Airborne deserted in 2005, leaving a note in his barracks explaining his actions, he fully expected the police to be waiting with handcuffs when he returned home... no one was there. He turned himself in in Seattle, hoping to make an anti-war statement and be hauled off in chains; He was given a bus ticket to Fort Bragg and told to report on his own. "I really though I would be more of a priority" said Clousing. Sorry, Rick, we really don't care! He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of absent without leave (he returned of his own accord...desertion requires the intent not to return) was given a bad conduct discharge and 3 months confinement. Most deserters are simply discharged in non-criminal proceedings under "other than honorable" conditions.

Other than honorable: That is an apt description for the actions of these people, they are not heroes (other than of the anti-war movement), nor are they despicable fiends. Is Ryan Johnson the best that the anti-war movement has to offer? Johnson was tired of living in the agricultural wasteland of Visalia, California, tired of dead-end jobs, the military was a chance at a college education. "I enlisted as supply because there was a war going on, and at the time of my enlistment they said, ‘this is a job where [you would] be working in a warehouse,’ and I had no interest in participating in direct combat." Hello moron! You joined the freaking ARMY, not the peace corp. Have you ever cracked a dictionary? Try looking up "Army". Take Cory Glass for example "I joined the National Guard in 2002 believing it was a humanitarian organization". What? The little guy on their emblem holding a rifle wasn't a clue?

Other than intelligent: There is no way, unless you spent your formative years chained to the basement wall, that anyone can put forth the argument that they had no idea that the basic mission of any military organization involved the application of violence in the furtherance of political ends. The vast quantity of information out there in movies, TV shows, video games, novels (okay, maybe they don't read), hell, even comic books, is overwhelming. What? You managed to grow up never having seen a single episode of M*A*S*H ? Never played "Call of Duty"?

Fraud: We shouldn't be prosecuting these idiots for desertion, we ought to be prosecuting them for contract fraud. Since they all seem to have joined the military for it's benefits never intending to fulfill their end of the contract. What? Did you think it was some kind of lottery? Hey maybe I'll get lucky and get that $30000 for college and we won't go to war and I won't get shot. Maybe we ought to print the odds at the bottom of the enlistment contract: Odds of getting killed in the US Military over the past five years of operation in Iraq 1:3646 (This is a really crude estimate based on number of people on active and reserve/guard service and the average number of US KIA's in Iraq per year between 2003 and 2007). These are mercenaries of the worst sort... joining the military for the money as opposed to the principal.

Cowards! I would have significantly more respect for you had you simply sat on the ground at the entrance your post and refused to get up. Was your unit going to carry you into combat? I think not. You fled to Canada not out of principal, being opposed to the war, you fled to Canada because you were unwilling to accept the repercussions of your refusal to comply with the terms of your contract. You are a coward because you were afraid to face the opinions of your supposed comrades in arms. You are a coward because while you claim in principle to oppose the war, you are afraid to accept the consequences for refusal to obey orders you believed to be wrong. You are a coward because instead of staying and standing up for what you claim you believe in, you chose instead to flee, to accept being used as a propaganda tool against your country, and you are no more than that; a tool. You are a coward because you would sacrifice your principals for your comfort... unwilling to sacrifice the time or suffer the personal embarrassment of sticking around. Where would India be today if Gandhi had simply fled to the U.S and requested asylum? I have much more respect for Camilo Mejia and Rick Clousing than I have for you.

Where would America and the world be today if Patrick Henry, John Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and all the other 'Patriots' had simply fled to Spanish or French territory and simply requested asylum.

Where would America be if Martin Luther King had fled to Canada and requested asylum based on racial discrimination and the threat of death?

What I can't figure out, outside of the possible propaganda benefits to the Canadian left, is why the Canadians would even want you.

Canada, give them asylum... Please! Because honestly, I'd rather they be called Canadians than Americans (nothing personal).

~Finntann~

The Rough Draft: Declaration of Independence

There are two versions of the Declaration of Independence, the official version and what is known as "the rough draft". Below, you will find a rough draft version with deleted text in red italics and changed/inserted text in bold green. None of the changes significantly changed the meaning of the original draft, with the exception of a paragraph completely deleted (the paragraph in yellow bold font) voicing somewhat of an anti-slavery position. Overall the original draft was shortened by several paragraphs.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among powers of the earth the equal and independent , separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the change separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident,; that all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among which these are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;. — That to secure these ends rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;. — That whenever any form of government shall becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such principles and organizing it's power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, and pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them to arbitrary power under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for future security. Such has been the patient sufferings of the these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to expunge alter their former systems of government. The history of his present majesty the present King of Great Britain is a history of unremitting repeated injuries and usurpations, among which no one fact stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, all of which have all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good:

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has neglected utterly to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only:

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representatives houses repeatedly and continually, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people:

He has refused for a long space of time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise, the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within:

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization for foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither; and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands:

He has suffered obstructed the administration of justice totally to cease in some of these colonies, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers:

He has made our judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and amount of their salaries:

He has erected a multitude of new offices by a self-assumed power, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance:

He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies and ships of war without the Consent of our legislatures.:

He has affected to render the military, independent of and superior to the civil power:

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their pretended acts of legislation, :

for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;

For protecting them by a mock-trial from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states;

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;

For imposing taxes on us without our consent;

For depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury;

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses;

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;

For suspending our own legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever:

He has abdicated government here, withdrawing his governors, and by declaring us out of his allegiance and protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people:

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilize nation:

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands

He has excited domestic insurrections among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions of existence:

He has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation of our property:

He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidels powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. He has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce determining to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold: and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people who mean to be free. Future ages will scarce believe that the hardiness of one man, adventured within the short compass of twelve years only, on so many acts of tyranny without a mask, over a people fostered and fixed in principles of liberty.

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend a an unwarrantable jurisdiction over these our states us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here, no one of which could warrant so strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expense of our own blood and treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain: that in constituting indeed our several forms of government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a foundation for perpetual league and amity with them: but that submission to their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history may be credited: and we have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, as well as to the ties of our and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which were likely to would inevitably interrupt our correspondence and connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity, and when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have by their free election re-established them in power. At this very time too they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch and foreign mercenaries to invade and deluge us in blood. These facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever these unfeeling brethren. We must endeavor to forget our former love for them, and to hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We might have been a free and a great people together; but a communication of grandeur and of freedom it seems is below their dignity. Be it so, since they will have it; the road to happiness and to glory is open to all of us too; we will climb it apart from them, and We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our eternal separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled do, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by authority of the good people of these states colonies, reject and renounce all allegiance and subjection to the kings of Great Britain and all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under them; we utterly dissolve and break off all political connection which may have heretofore subsisted between us and the people or parliament of Great Britain; and finally we do assert solemnly publish and declare , that these united colonies to be are, and of right ought to be free and independent states that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they shall hereafter have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.

What does it mean to be an American?

On this Fourth of July, sit back while the burgers are grilling and take a moment to ponder what it means to be a citizen.

Below is a link to an INS sample 100 questions that can be used to administer the citizenship test to potential candidates (Hey, wouldn't it be fun to administer this test to the presidential candidates?). Generally 10 questions are asked, 7 of which must be answered correctly.

I took the whole test and scored a 98, missing "what INS form do you use to apply to become a naturalized citizen" (N-400), and "name the two senators from your state", I missed one, but then again I've only been a resident for seventeen days.

Some of the questions are looking for the INS's 'right answer' as they are opinion type questions such as "What is the most important right?" The INS answer is "The Right to Vote".

Most of the questions are factoids, testing your memory more than your understanding of what it means to be an American, such as how many amendments to the Constitution, or in what year was it written. Which tests your knowledge of history more than it tests your understanding of principles.

http://cltr.co.douglas.nv.us/Elections/100QuestionTest.htm

One question that I answered correctly while wondering why it was even on the test was:

Name one purpose of the United Nations

Which is undoubtedly a relevant historical question has nothing to do with being an American.

Strangely enough there is no "official test" It is up to each of the 33 INS district offices and the individual interviewers to decide what a citizen needs to know. Most district offices develop a list of suggested questions (which is where the test above came from), but I suppose, If the interviewer didn't like the candidate, he could always ask: "Who was the Postmaster General under John Tyler Jr." Well, at least it was a cabinet position back then... and it was Charles A. Wickliffe. You can undoubtedly see my point... we leave an awful lot of power in the hands of an anonymous INS bureaucrat.

So, ask yourself... What does it really mean to be an American? Think about what questions you would ask a potential candidate, and why.

Does one need to know the principles upon which our government is founded? Does one need to know the principles of capitalism? Does one even need to know English? Does one need to know history? Or just the basic concepts of our Constitution?

~Finntann~

Why Patriotism, Why Not?

Well it is almost the Fourth of July and the 'America is the root of all evil' crowd is crawling out of the wood work. Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive and Chris Satullo of the Philadelphia Inquirer blather on that we all ought to hang our heads in shame.

http://www.progressive.org/mag/wx070208

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080701_Chris_Satullo__A_not-so-glorious_Fourth.html

Personally, I think they ought to heed their own advice.

America is the best thing going. Sure there are other democracies, democracies with better health care, democracies that are greener, perhaps you might even prefer a socialist state. But doing a simple cost/benefit analysis proves out that America is the best bang for your buck.

For those of you who want our government to be your mommy, to take care of you when you are sick, to guarantee you housing and a job. You often point to Europe as your ideal. Let's take a quick look at some simple facts.

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK all have personal tax rates approaching or over 50%, add in the VAT and you get numbers closer to 70%... that's 50% of all you have coming in, and 20% of all you have going out. Socialized medicine and a welfare state still sound great to you?

I've lived in Europe and while it's a great place to visit I wouldn't want to live there... actually, that's not completely true... I wouldn't want to pay taxes there.

I've lived in Asia, and while having a policeman standing on the street corner twenty-four hours a day never bothered me, I'm sure it would make at least a few of you very uncomfortable.

Where else can one enjoy the same freedoms that we enjoy? Dutch Cartoonists in jail, Bridget Bardot convicted and fined for voicing her opinion, Scottish police apologising for puppy pictures...

You may not agree with the policies of our government, but hey! You can voice those opinions without any fear of retribution. Want to tell everyone that the World Trade Center collapse was not the result of airplane collisions but a secret plot by the CIA and shadow government... no one will come knocking at your door at three o'clock in the morning to escort you off to a reeducation camp.

So this Fourth of July, sit back, enjoy your barbecue, watch some fireworks, and give thanks that you either live in the greatest country on earth or that you can express your vitriolic opinion without fear of getting shot in the head and buried behind the barn.

Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan... you are free to practice the religion of your choice with no repercussions, no witch hunts (sorry Wiccans).

Want a gun? want ten? Stock up, be it for hunting or self-defense... hell you can even bury ammunition in your own backyard if you want to.

Sure we have our flaws, but there are no Utopias... compare what you have and what others offer, stay if you like, leave if you like (and if they will take you in)... heck! You're Free! Enjoy it.

Democrat, Republican, Independent... Socialist, Communist, Fascist...if you really want to be. No one is coming after you because of your political affiliation, as long as you operate under the constraints of the law and constitution.

Because, despite all of your incessant whining, you really aren't all that bad off.

Cheers!

~Finntann~