("Hopium" is not original to me. I have borrowed it from John Kass, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.)
Karl Marx once opined: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
Karl Marx was quite wrong. It isn't religion; it is "Hopium."
Hopium is what the Obama administration is selling the masses by the brick and in some cases, where there is financial hardship, giving it away for nothing. Hopium is the new opium of a reborn America.
Like any other drug, hopium is seductively addictive and provides users with feelings of euphoria in the midst of day-to-day drudgery. Hopium provides instant insight into a fantasy world where we arrive at "that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right." (from Rev. Joseph Lowery's inaugural benediction)
Sadly, few care to see or recognize the true results of hopium dependency. However, one does not need a crystal ball or fortune teller or psychic hotline to see where a country addicted to hopium will end up.
Rather we need only to look to history, to the words of the Marquis de Sade in his play "Juliette." He said it much more eloquently that I ever could.
Though nature lavishes much upon your people, their circumstances are strait. But this is not the effect of their laziness; this general paralysis has its source in your policy which, from maintaining the people in dependence, shuts them out from wealth; their ills are thus rendered beyond remedy, and the political state is in a situation no less grave than the civil government, since it must seek its strength in its very weakness. Your apprehension, Ferdinand, lest someone discover the things I have been telling you leads you to exile arts and talents from your realm. You fear the powerful eye of genius, that is why you encourage ignorance. Tis opium you feed your people, so that, drugged, they do not feel their hurts, inflicted by you. And that is why where you reign no establishments are to be found giving great men to the homeland; the rewards due knowledge are unknown here, and as there is neither honor nor profit in being wise, nobody seeks after wisdom.
I have studied your civil laws, they are good, but poorly enforced, and as a result they sink into ever further decay. And the consequences thereof? A man prefers to live amidst their corruption rather than plead for their reform, because he fears, and with reason, that this reform will engender infinitely more abuses than it will do away with; things are left as they are. Nevertheless, everything goes askew and awry and as a career in government has no more attractions than one in the arts, nobody involves himself in public affairs; and for all this compensation is offered in the form of luxury, of frivolity, of entertainments. So it is that among you a taste for trivial things replaces a taste for great ones, that the time which ought to be devoted to the latter is frittered away on futilities, and that you will be subjegated sooner or later and again and again by any foe who bothers to make the effort.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Don't Ask If Government Is Too Big
It's the new patriotism as defined by President Obama in his inaugural speech. "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."
Don't question whether government is too big because that is not patriotic, not appropriate, not right.
We must be willing to allow government to become whatever it needs to be in order to provide for every man, woman and child in America what government believes they need. This is the way America should work, must work and will work. This is the new, rebuilt America.
Such blind faith in government is faith that is not only blind but woefully misplaced. It requires us to cast aside our own beliefs to accept someone else's beliefs. No room for disagreement, debate or disillusionment.
It is time for a new America where an all-powerful, all-compassionate, all-knowing government dispenses economic prosperity for one and all. This is the new popular sentiment as the MSM describes it. It is a message as from almighty God for our weary and war-torn nation.
It is interesting that Obama's speech yet included this line: "To those who cling to power through corruption, to those who cling to power through deceit, to those who cling to power through the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history."
To whom was he referring? I could offer a multitude of names from both sides of the aisle and from all corners and crevices of Washington. What of those who would cling to power through the silencing of dissent? Is that not what President Obama himself is calling for in his speech?
For nearly 8 years I've listened to the liberals and leftists throwing around one of Teddy Roosevelt's famous lines in reference to their dissent and even disrespect of former President Bush.
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
I hope the MSM, the liberals, the Democrats, the Repubicans in name only and leftists are prepared to have this quote tossed back in their faces -- frequently. It will be a pleasure to return the favor.
Don't question whether government is too big because that is not patriotic, not appropriate, not right.
We must be willing to allow government to become whatever it needs to be in order to provide for every man, woman and child in America what government believes they need. This is the way America should work, must work and will work. This is the new, rebuilt America.
Such blind faith in government is faith that is not only blind but woefully misplaced. It requires us to cast aside our own beliefs to accept someone else's beliefs. No room for disagreement, debate or disillusionment.
It is time for a new America where an all-powerful, all-compassionate, all-knowing government dispenses economic prosperity for one and all. This is the new popular sentiment as the MSM describes it. It is a message as from almighty God for our weary and war-torn nation.
It is interesting that Obama's speech yet included this line: "To those who cling to power through corruption, to those who cling to power through deceit, to those who cling to power through the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history."
To whom was he referring? I could offer a multitude of names from both sides of the aisle and from all corners and crevices of Washington. What of those who would cling to power through the silencing of dissent? Is that not what President Obama himself is calling for in his speech?
For nearly 8 years I've listened to the liberals and leftists throwing around one of Teddy Roosevelt's famous lines in reference to their dissent and even disrespect of former President Bush.
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
I hope the MSM, the liberals, the Democrats, the Repubicans in name only and leftists are prepared to have this quote tossed back in their faces -- frequently. It will be a pleasure to return the favor.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Spending Our Way To Prosperity
According to Time, we are now looking at FDR redux. Supposedly, President Obama will now lead our country to a new era of success and prosperity. Rather high expectations if you ask me.
Yet it reflects the standard liberal myth that the government is the primary catalyst for the economy. If the government spends enough money, it will jump-start a sluggish economy back on the road to prosperity for all.
Sadly, too many people believe or rather buy into this myth.
What they fail to realize is that the government is a huge non-profit enterprise that produces nothing of value in goods and services.
It is, for all intents and purposes, just a giantic charity that has been given the right to siphon money from the pockets of hard-working Americans to support its free-spending habits.
Imagine for a moment any other charity with this ability: the Red Cross or Make A Wish or Juvenile Diabetes or American Cancer Society. All of these and many more are certainly worthy charities.
Yet they are supported by free will donations from individuals and companies. They depend, as it were, on the kindness of strangers.
Not so the government. It has the right to take from every working American long before you see the first dime of the money you worked so hard to earn.
Before you even see your paycheck, the government has snatched its hefty cut, leaving you to subsist on the meager remains.
No other charity or non-profit organization in the world operates like that.
And no other one spends as wildly and with reckless abandon as does the government. So much so that we have topped the TRILLION mark for a deficit for the first time in history.
Last year Congress voted to spend trillions of your dollars ... money you worked hard to provide for you and your families' food, shelter and clothing. Much of it was given away to programs that show little if any value or return on investment.
That giant sucking sound you hear is the money being flushed down a toilet... which is basically what happens to 90% of our tax dollars.
Yesterday, President Obama said we shouldn't ask how big government is but whether or not it works.
That's all fine, well and good. As long as when the answer comes back that no it isn't working, they do something to fix it.
The first 100 days have started.
What will be fixed? What will be left alone? How much more money will be wasted before this waste is stopped?
Yet it reflects the standard liberal myth that the government is the primary catalyst for the economy. If the government spends enough money, it will jump-start a sluggish economy back on the road to prosperity for all.
Sadly, too many people believe or rather buy into this myth.
What they fail to realize is that the government is a huge non-profit enterprise that produces nothing of value in goods and services.
It is, for all intents and purposes, just a giantic charity that has been given the right to siphon money from the pockets of hard-working Americans to support its free-spending habits.
Imagine for a moment any other charity with this ability: the Red Cross or Make A Wish or Juvenile Diabetes or American Cancer Society. All of these and many more are certainly worthy charities.
Yet they are supported by free will donations from individuals and companies. They depend, as it were, on the kindness of strangers.
Not so the government. It has the right to take from every working American long before you see the first dime of the money you worked so hard to earn.
Before you even see your paycheck, the government has snatched its hefty cut, leaving you to subsist on the meager remains.
No other charity or non-profit organization in the world operates like that.
And no other one spends as wildly and with reckless abandon as does the government. So much so that we have topped the TRILLION mark for a deficit for the first time in history.
Last year Congress voted to spend trillions of your dollars ... money you worked hard to provide for you and your families' food, shelter and clothing. Much of it was given away to programs that show little if any value or return on investment.
That giant sucking sound you hear is the money being flushed down a toilet... which is basically what happens to 90% of our tax dollars.
Yesterday, President Obama said we shouldn't ask how big government is but whether or not it works.
That's all fine, well and good. As long as when the answer comes back that no it isn't working, they do something to fix it.
The first 100 days have started.
What will be fixed? What will be left alone? How much more money will be wasted before this waste is stopped?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Not Just Another Day in Washington, D.C.
January 20, 2009. A truly historic day in many respects and for many reasons. While most marvel and celebrate what is called an historic occasion, which I do not deny, I would choose to marvel and celebrate something else.
The inauguration of this nation's first black president is truly historic and certainly it was not something I ever expected to see in my lifetime. It is a great moment for our country, but there is something far greater happening today.
I refer to the peaceful and orderly transition of power. After 8 years in office, President Bush will hand over the duties and office of the President of the United States at 12 noon today to his successor, Barack H. Obama. At 12:01 p.m., we will have a new president and the former president will become just that -- another former president.
It is a remarkable event full of pomp and ceremony. Yet, it is remarkable even more so when one considers that in many other countries this would never happen. In some countries, the transition of governments is accomplished via gunfire and bloodshed. The concept of democracy is a sham and government leaders serve as long as they can maintain their stranglehold on power.
Not so in America, despite what a few paranoid people would have us believe. There've been no last-minute presidential orders declaring a state of emergency so that President Bush can remain in power indefinitely. A new Congress was sworn in and nearly all the elected or appointed Senators are serving.
The Bush family has already moved all their personal possessions out of the White House. All that remains are some suitcases of their clothes. President and Mrs. Bush are ready to resume a semi-private life in a suburb of Dallas, TX this afternoon. The Obama family will begin settling in at the White House this evening.
This is a remarkable historic day for us. For the 44th time in our history, we change administrations. Not with bullets and cannons, but with the ballot box.
That's the way democracy works and it is a dream that many countries would love to emulate.
The inauguration of this nation's first black president is truly historic and certainly it was not something I ever expected to see in my lifetime. It is a great moment for our country, but there is something far greater happening today.
I refer to the peaceful and orderly transition of power. After 8 years in office, President Bush will hand over the duties and office of the President of the United States at 12 noon today to his successor, Barack H. Obama. At 12:01 p.m., we will have a new president and the former president will become just that -- another former president.
It is a remarkable event full of pomp and ceremony. Yet, it is remarkable even more so when one considers that in many other countries this would never happen. In some countries, the transition of governments is accomplished via gunfire and bloodshed. The concept of democracy is a sham and government leaders serve as long as they can maintain their stranglehold on power.
Not so in America, despite what a few paranoid people would have us believe. There've been no last-minute presidential orders declaring a state of emergency so that President Bush can remain in power indefinitely. A new Congress was sworn in and nearly all the elected or appointed Senators are serving.
The Bush family has already moved all their personal possessions out of the White House. All that remains are some suitcases of their clothes. President and Mrs. Bush are ready to resume a semi-private life in a suburb of Dallas, TX this afternoon. The Obama family will begin settling in at the White House this evening.
This is a remarkable historic day for us. For the 44th time in our history, we change administrations. Not with bullets and cannons, but with the ballot box.
That's the way democracy works and it is a dream that many countries would love to emulate.
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