ACORN = liars and cheats

They attack WalMart, they campaign for minimum wage, but....they don't want to pay it themselves. If their employees try to unionize, they are fired. Wearing the mask of 'common good', groups like ACORN are simply pursuing their own gain by working the system and cheating. They are the real life villains of a Rand novel. Read this excellent column by John Fund...

OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail: "Founded by union organizer Wade Rathke in 1970, Acorn boasts an annual budget of some $40 million and operates everything from 'social justice' radio stations to an affordable-housing arm. Still run after 36 years by Mr. Rathke as 'chief organizer,' it is best known for its campaigns against Wal-Mart, and for leading initiatives in six states to raise the minimum wage. "

Earning the Socialists' praise is not a good thing...

See the quote below from an article about how our enemies and competitors around the world are celebrating the Dems taking congress. When Socialists are going out of their way to praise the direction we are going, it is a sad, sad day for those who love freedom and value the rights of the individual.

BREITBART.COM - World Welcomes Shift in U.S. Politics:

"In an extraordinary joint statement, more than 200 Socialist members of the European Parliament hailed the American election results as 'the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world.' "

The Only Issue This Election Day - Orson Scott Card

This essay sums up so much of what I've been trying to tell my friends and colleagues for the past 3 years, from before the first soldier set foot in Iraq. I won't spoil it with my own analysis tonight...it's too important that everyone read this essay by Orson Scott Card, Democrat, and one helluva novelist.

October 29, 2006 - The Only Issue This Election Day - The Ornery American: "I say this as a Democrat, for whom the Republican domination of government threatens many values that I hold to be important to America's role as a light among nations.
But there are no values that matter to me that will not be gravely endangered if we lose this war. And since the Democratic Party seems hellbent on losing it -- and in the most damaging possible way -- I have no choice but to advocate that my party be kept from getting its hands on the reins of national power, until it proves itself once again to be capable of recognizing our core national interests instead of its own temporary partisan advantages.
To all intents and purposes, when the Democratic Party jettisoned Joseph Lieberman over the issue of his support of this war, they kicked me out as well. The party of Harry Truman and Daniel Patrick Moynihan -- the party I joined back in the 1970s -- is dead. Of suicide. "

Collectivism every school year hammered home

I posted a comment to this article, though I didn't see it show up. Problems with their php I think. Therefore I thought I would go ahead and post a teaser here. The schools teach more and more collectivism every day, and are much more overt about it now. The day will come where they are not only overt, but that push to pass laws to block individualism, such as anti-homeschooling legislation, and more.

The Baltimore Reporter: "Each year as the school year gets underway, I write a column about the mandatory communalism that takes place in numerous schools across the country where unsuspecting students and parents are forced to surrender their supplies to educational authorities, deemed by the state to be of superior enlightenment than those actually acquiring the school supplies, for redistribution as these demagogic pedagogues see fit. "

Religious Terrorism vs. Free Speech by Leonard Peikoff -- Capitalism Magazine

This essay was written in 1997 by Leonard Peikoff, founder of the Ayn Rand Institute --
originally published as an advertisement in the New York Times. The same essential issues underlie the Rushdie debacle and the current uproar over cartoons of Mohammad.

Religious Terrorism vs. Free Speech by Leonard Peikoff -- Capitalism Magazine: "The ultimate target of the Ayatollah, as of all mystics, is not a particular 'blasphemy,' but reason itself, along with its cultural and political expressions: science, the Industrial Revolution, the American Revolution. If the assault succeeds, the result will be an Age of Unreason -- a new Dark Ages. As Ayn Rand wrote in Philosophy: Who Needs It, in her prescient 1960 essay 'Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World':"

Is radical Islam fascist, collectivist or both

This article steps quickly through a 4 point argument that shows how mussolini and hitler's socialism was 'spun' as right wing when Russia was invaded. Russia, also being communist, had to label his attackers thus, even though they were all imperialistic socialists. None valued the individual, just as today's Islamic jihad scorns any individualism that isn't used to further the collectivist "brotherhood".

Family Security Matters: "More particularly, all of these isms are pseudo-religious scams of the Heaven-on-Earth variety -- organized and sustained in keeping with Vladimir Lenin's cynical postulation that 'We will find our greatest success to the extent that we inculcate Marxism as a kind of religion. Religious men and women are easy to convert and win, and will easily accept our thinking if we wrap it up in a kind of religious terminology.'

It is in this spirit of spin, scam and deceit that the fascist-Left Communists created the so-called 'Liberation Theology' heresy, condemned as such by the late great Pope John Paul ll in the 1970s and 80s. "

Hirsi Ali - Another individualist finds a home

If you don't know who Ayaan Hirsi Ali is, you should. Keep your eye out for her book to be published, and the dialogue sure to follow. She has a pedigree similar to Rand: bright, personal experience from a collectivist culture and oppression, and a courageous individualist.

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Speaking Back to Islamists:
"...she is a fierce partisan of individualism against collectivism."

"Slender, elegant, stylish and articulate (in English, Dutch and Swahili), she has found an intellectual home here at the American Enterprise Institute, where she is writing a book that imagines Muhammad meeting, in the New York Public Library, three thinkers -- John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Hayek and Karl Popper, each a hero of the unending struggle between (to take the title of Popper's 1945 masterpiece) 'The Open Society and Its Enemies.'' Islamic extremists -- the sort who were unhinged by some Danish cartoons -- will be enraged. She is unperturbed."

Less is More - Sprout

I don't know Verne Harnish from Fern Varnish, but I think he did the math backwards in the below praise of collectivism. His own examples would more likely show that the closer you get to the individual, and away from the federal, we see fiscal responsibility. Additionally, there is plenty of evidence in psychology to show that the loss of a sense of control leads to unhappiness and neuroses, whereas a sense of personal control over your life breeds stability and contentment. So, as we support the individual, we are supporting both a better sense of accountability, and the ability to control outcomes, assuming the collective stays out of the way and doesn't try to enforce it's will on you. You could argue that those who are incompetent and lazy are not as happy in an environment of accountability, to which I would ask: "Why build a societal system based on the needs of the lazy?" Rather, build a system which promotes the lazy to act otherwise, and watch happiness grow. The US, associated with individualism more than any other country, continues to have outrageous immigration numbers, i.e. others seeking the "happiness of individual freedoms".

Less is More - Sprout: "Denmark was named the happiest place in the world. Noted Adrian White, an analytical social psychologist at the University of Leicester in central England, “smaller countries tend to be a little happier because there is a stronger sense of collectivism.'

Rereading Thomas Friedman’s classic From Beirut to Jerusalem, the world would be a lot happier if regional cultures hadn’t been forced to form artificial countries. Let Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon go the way of Yugoslavia, breaking up into more culturally aligned mini-countries. And I don’t think it’s coincidental that 42 of the U.S. states expect to run budget surpluses in 2006 while the Federal Government continues to bleed red. The less people lumped together in nation-states, the more fiscally responsible and happy. "

Head-in-the-Sand Liberals - Los Angeles Times

In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand wrote that John Galt's enemies "did not want to live; they wanted him to die."
She nailed it. The cult of death. The religion at the root of the evil. Go Ayn.

Check out this excellent article by Sam Harris. The current worldwide drive to spread Islam at the blast of a bomb is extreme collectivism. Not only should individuals sacrifice their freedom for the collective, but they should sacrifice their freedom to kill as many other individuals as possible. Go Sam. Tell as many as you can. Readers, that means you too. Time to get very serious about keeping the world from a new Dark Age.

Head-in-the-Sand Liberals - Los Angeles Times: "A cult of death is forming in the Muslim world — for reasons that are perfectly explicable in terms of the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad. The truth is that we are not fighting a 'war on terror.' We are fighting a pestilential theology and a longing for paradise. "

TimesDispatch.com | New college gets state's approval

Encouraging news. A new college being founded with an Objectivist at the helm. May they produce grads who move on to other institutions and share the dangers of collectivism.

TimesDispatch.com | New college gets state's approval: "Gary Hull, director of the Program on Values and Ethics in the Marketplace at Duke University, will be the college's chairman and chief executive and will serve on the faculty. Another planned Founders faculty member is Eric Daniels, a visiting assistant professor in the Duke program. They are followers of the writings of novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand and objectivism, which embraces 'rational individualism' and laissez-faire capitalism and rejects altruism and collectivism."

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Liberalism as Condescension

Good article by George Will. The WalMart attacks are straight off the pages of Atlas Shrugged. Some good reference numbers.

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Liberalism as Condescension: "Liberals think their campaign against Wal-Mart is a way of introducing the subject of class into America's political argument, and they are more correct than they understand. Their campaign is liberalism as condescension. It is a philosophic repugnance toward markets because consumer sovereignty results in the masses making messes. Liberals, aghast, see the choices Americans make with their dollars and their ballots, and announce -- yes, announce -- that Americans are sorely in need of more supervision by ... liberals. "

Reforming America's Secret Collectivism: The ...[Mackinac Center for Public Policy]

Point of frustration in the battle between Collectivism and Individualism: the Individualists don't try to force you to join them. They don't use the power of the state to prevent you from joining a collective either. But the Collectivists want to prevent you from being an individual. They "know better than you", and you must conform to their ideology or your existence is an obstacle to their goals.

Here's a small bit from a good article on this issue:

Reforming America's Secret Collectivism: The ...[Mackinac Center for Public Policy]: "Reforming America's Secret Collectivism: The System of Compelled Union Representation
A young teacher reads about a job opening at a local school. She applies, completes an interview and is told she will be hired. But there is a catch. In order to have the job, she must pay a certain percentage of her wages to an organization that promotes views different from her own - many of which are on issues entirely removed from those affecting her job. Nearly half of the people working at the school share her opinion of the organization, but the law states that the tribute must be paid by everyone who works there. To make matters worse, every public school in the district is affiliated with this organization.
Consider another scenario: A long-time employee of a manufacturer discovers that just over half of his coworkers have decided to support a new organization. Individual dues to this group are several hundred dollars per year, and its agenda runs counter to his own beliefs. To make matters worse, he likes his employer and has always been treated fairly. He is not alone. But that's too bad; the law compels him to pay the fees and allow the organization to represent him. He must pay the fees or find another job, forgoing years of accumulated goodwill and benefits."

Edge; DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism By Jaron Lanier

Interesting essay about the praise being reaped upon "online collectivism". It seems there will always be those who are eagerly looking for proof that a bunch of "common men" have more wisdom than, say a bunch of exceptional men, or even a few brilliant men or women. I'm fascinated and troubled by how quickly people are accepting it. It reminds me of the overt efforts to make news "balanced". What the hell good is balanced news, if you are balancing between a correct interpretation and an incorrect one? I want the truth, as the reporter/org sees it and is willing to support it. I don't want them mixing equal doses of two sides of an argument, to give me a tidy little debate. Give me your honest assessment, and I'll supply my own analysis and debate. Anyway, checkout Jaron's thoughts:

Edge; DIGITAL MAOISM: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism By Jaron Lanier: "In 'Digital Maosim', an original essay written for Edge, computer scientist and digital visionary Jaron Lanier finds fault with what he terms the new online collectivism. He cites as an example the Wikipedia, noting that 'reading a Wikipedia entry is like reading the bible closely. There are faint traces of the voices of various anonymous authors and editors, though it is impossible to be sure'. "

It's not Wal-Mart, stupid; how about important issues? | IndyStar.com

Collectivism's tactics and targets even a five-year-old could figure out. Just watch the most successful companies grow, regardless of industry, and without knowing anything about their practices, and you can predict whom the collectivists will start going after. The largest, most profitable companies. Oh yes, they are all non-union too, but you can guess that from the 'most profitable' attribute. Microsoft, WalMart, Standard Oil, on and on. The collectivists will say, "all that profit and growth is at the expense of some part of society".

Of course, they don't focus on the fact that you get profit and growth by offering many people a product or service that improves their lives, thus the most most successful companies offer the most to the most. However, it's all moot, as the collectivists don't even care about any bad behavior to begin with. They are a powerplay, as they've always been. They care about transferring some of the well-earned clout and power of the successful companies to themselves. Oh, they say it is for the workers, all for the workers, who, uh, just might be inclined to pay hundreds of dollars each in union dues every year. Asked why the labor unions are going after Walmart rather than Kmart...."Walmart's bigger". Cha-ching!

It's not Wal-Mart, stupid; how about important issues? IndyStar.com:

"It's not Wal-Mart, stupid; how about important issues?

We might hope that candidates for Congress this year would present us with ideas to solve the major problems we face in this country. On the economic side, we could really use some creative thinking on, among other subjects, taxes, Medicare, and Social Security.


So what is emerging as one of the big issues for the Democrats?

Wal-Mart."

USATODAY.com

I've never read Karen Hughes before, but she does a good job of summing up perhaps the one sure path for the world to win the war on terrorism. It's depressing, because the path has no obvious recipe for the 'regular guy', but there are people that know. There are grassroots specialists, and historians, and most importantly, there are passionate, decent people. That was the driving sentiment when protests against slavery were heard before our constitution was even written. That was the driving force for MADD. Some times in history people across civilizations look in their mirror and recognize that they've been lying to themselves.

They realize that there is only one decent and logical thing to do for a species that wants to survive it's flaws, and it stands up in groups, then masses, then societies at large, and says 'enough is enough'. No, we don't need to kill every terrorist, but we need enough honest people to physically, or politically, shut down the education and propaganda machines that are educating children to be next generation's terrorist. Millions of Americans grew up with parents that were prejudiced against blacks, indians, irish, etc., but by breaking the education cycle, as a society we began graduating larger and larger classes that shed the failing ideologies of their parents.

"Five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, one essential ingredient is still lacking in our international response to terrorism: the concerted moral outrage of everyday citizens of every faith and country.

The names of the people murdered that morning read like a roll call of the world's family: Ahmed, Alonso, Chung, Fazio, Fitzgerald, Goldstein, Gonzalez, Jablonski, Mbaya, McSweeney, Mohammed, Rizzo, Wallendorf and Zukelman. The victims, citizens of more than 90 countries, included a young Muslim woman, seven months pregnant, on her way to attend a friend's wedding; an Iranian grandmother who had overcome her fear of flying to visit her grandsons in Boston; a German businessman in New York to attend a meeting. His son, 4 at the time, said, “If the terrorists knew how much we love Papa, they wouldn't have flown the plane into the tower.”

USATODAY.com

TCS Daily - Why Isn't Socialism Dead?

TCS Daily - Why Isn't Socialism Dead?: "The Peruvian economist, Hernando de Soto, has argued in his book, The Mystery of Capital, that the failure of the various socialist experiments of the twentieth century has left mankind with only one rational choice about which economic system to go with, namely, capitalism. Socialism, he maintained, has been so discredited that any further attempt to revive it would be sheer irrationality. But if this is the case, which I personally think it is, then why are we witnessing what certainly appears to be a revival of socialist rhetoric and even socialist pseudo-solutions, such as the nationalization of foreign companies?"

RealClearPolitics - Articles - The French Illusion

RealClearPolitics - Articles - The French Illusion

French Roulette - a game born of giving mobs the power to commit societal suicide.

Immigrants' firing leads to protest

Immigrants' firing leads to protest

How quickly the image of latino immigrants as accountable and hard working is being replaced by the very vocal and visual culture of entitlement we are seeing across the nation. (that's what happens when you let unions and leftist activist ride your cause for all it's worth, to them)

Just note a few quotes from the linked story:
"If the workers knew they would have been fired for attending the March 27 rally in Detroit, they never would have skipped the morning shift..." Why would any adult think you can "skip" work and not risk being fired, for any reason, much less to show support for illegal activity.

"Herrada and about 20 union officials went Monday to Wolverine Packing Co" - Isn't it wonderful that not only do over a dozen of the employees have such a luxurious lifestyle they can afford to take a day off work without approval, but here's 20 union officials with no productive function other than to be professional harassers.

"They were fired "for standing up for their rights," Herrada said." - No, they were fired for skipping work. Silly activist.

"Most have children and are worried about supporting their families, Herrada said." - Then maybe they shouldn't have left work then, you think? I have kids, and I'm of latin immigrant heritage, but I'm also a responsible parent who appreciates keeping my job.

"It was not fair,'" said Mercedes, a 31-year-old Detroit woman who attended the rally and was fired. "We went to fight for our rights." - bully for you! I've marched in the 60's, but that was my decision, and this was yours. If your boss was okay with it, he would have said "go march, I love the idea". Tenga su torta y cómala también.

There are laws for citizenship, and there are rules in the work place. Ignoring either has consequences for civil societies.

Telegraph | Opinion | How a flock of French dodos could drag down Europe

Telegraph Opinion How a flock of French dodos could drag down Europe

The French - so arrogantly bullish in their pursuit of mediocrity. I'm beginning to think they indeed excel in their collective leveraging of stupidity.