Head In The Sand or Nose in The Air?

Have you been paying attention, or have you just been watching the establishment media for your information. Well today is your lucky day because for whatever reason you landed here, you have the opportunity to put your nose in the air and take a good waft of the fumes coming off the excrement being touted as the negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff.

What we have going on in Washington is nothing more than political theater. Of course it’s been going on for a century or more, but right now it’s time for some adults to stand up and say “Enough, enough of this grandstanding, political maneuvering and posturing for the next election. All of which may be meaningless unless we find some real leadership on the issue of the fiscal cliff.

Now if you have had your head in the sand … particularly all of those who voted for Obama this time around … you don’t have a clue as to what is about to occur. You no doubt think that he’s going to magically fix things by making those evil rich people pay more in taxes. News flash … he could confiscate every penny of their wealth, and then some for the next decade, and it would only run the federal government for 9 days. So let’s just get off the notion that taxing the rich is going to fix anything.  So, if you do have your head at least partially out of the sand, let me enlighten you as to what is likely to happen even if we solve this so called “fiscal cliff” challenge. 

1. Our currency is going to collapse. It’s already a done deal. It’s no longer a matter of if it will happen, it’s now a matter of when it will happen.  Bruce Porteus, Head of Financial Risk with Standard Life Bank in Edinburgh, Scotland, writes: “The $US has declined 40% against the Euro over the last 2 years, and during this time America's trade deficit has continues to deteriorate. There is now nothing the USA can do to prevent the collapse of its currency, and its economy. It has no reserves to support its value, and has the most indebted country in the world, is dependent of the credit from America's former enemies.”

He’s not the only one raising the flag. “… foreign countries own $5 trillion in U.S. debt (as of December 2011). If China, Japan or other major holders started dumping these holdings of Treasury notes on the secondary market, this could cause a panic leading to collapse. China owns more than $1 trillion in U.S. Treasuries. That's because China pegs its currency, the yuan, to the dollar. This keeps the prices of its exports to the U.S. relatively cheap. Japan owns more than $800 billion in Treasuries, also keeping its currency, the yen, low to stimulate exports to the U.S. Japan is trying to move out of a 15 year deflationary cycle, and the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster hasn't helped.” Kimberly Amadeo, About.com. Time and space will not allow me to list the number of experts and economists that are trying to warn us of the coming crises. Funny … none of them are being invited to tell their story in the establishment media. 

2. We, Americans, have already spent the wealth of the next two generations. It will take another generation to recover from this calamity. Our culture has grown far too dependent upon government.  According to research by Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, Jeff Sessions, the number of Americans on welfare has increased from 97 million to 107 million since President Obama took office,. The number of Americans on food stamps during the president’s term has risen by more than 14 million. The Heritage Foundation found that on average, Americans who depend on federal assistant received $32,748 in annual benefits, which is more than an average American worker makes in a year. In 2011, the median annual paycheck was reported as $26,364. You don’t have to be an economist for those numbers to trouble you. If those numbers don’t trouble you, you do have to be something other than smart.

3. Social Security and Medicare are in serious trouble.  Medicare, which will provide health insurance to more than 50 million elderly and disabled Americans this year, is expected to start operating in the red in its largest fund in 2024, according to the annual assessment by the trustees charged with overseeing the programs.  And the Social Security trust fund, which will provide assistance to more than 45 million people in 2012, will be unable under current trends to fulfill its obligations in 2033, three years earlier than projected last year. My prediction is that if something isn’t done now, SS will  go the way of the dodo bird before this decade ends.

So what does all this have to do with the fiscal cliff?  Well, unless we stop spending more money than we earn, we will go bankrupt.  Specifically for 2011, the projected spending is $10.46 Billion per day. This is based on the projection of Federal Spending of $3.818 Trillion for the year. "Thanks to Washington’s addiction to spending, the federal government now borrows $4 billion a day," We don’t have a revenue problem in America, we have a Federal Government with a spending problem, and it’s going to impact you and your family in ways you cannot imagine. But let me give you some help.

When the dollar collapses:

• Your 401K or IRA will be worthless, unless you’ve converted to hard assets like gold or silver.

• Gas will increase as much as 3000%.

• Grocery store shelves will be empty within 12 hours.

• Electricity may or may not be reliable, I’m guessing not.

• Water and sewer services will eventually have to stop working for lack of energy.

• No one will have a job, and even if they did, they couldn’t get to it for fear of being hijacked or run out of gas.

• Gangs will start systematically looting high-end neighborhoods and then start working down the economic ladder. Your neighborhood will not be immune.

• Police and fire departments will be tasked beyond their capacity to assist.

• Then it will get worse.

Got your head out of the sand far enough to start sniffing yet?  Good. Now, do what you have to do to get ready. 

Click the link below for some other ideas.

http://www.karatbars.com/?s=84064

The Virtues of Conservatism - Part 10

 After several years of frustration in attempting to convert my liberal friends to a more courageous way of thinking, I have determined three things:

1. My efforts have been largely futile.
2. Liberals are converted over time; due to facing critical life circumstances, and/or the recognition that liberal ideology is simply non-enduring.
3. Derision and name calling does nothing to assist in their conversion.

In light of these revelations, I’ve decided that my efforts might be better invested in discussing the virtues of conservative thought, as opposed to pointing out the blatant fallacies of liberal thinking. Now, this does not mean that I will refrain from comparison and contrast, it simply means that I will attempt to couch my words and observations in non-demeaning ways. Perhaps my words will capture the attention of a young liberal ideologue in his or her journey to a more courageous way of thinking. My discussion will be delivered in 10 parts. This is the last in the series.
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PART 10

The thinking conservative understands that permanence and change must be recognized and reconciled in a vigorous society.  As Russell Kirk writes:  "The Permanence of a society is formed by those enduring interests and convictions that gives us stability and continuity; without that Permanence, the fountains of the great deep are broken up, society slipping into anarchy. The Progression in a society is that spirit and that body of talents which urge us on to prudent reform and improvement; without that Progression, a people stagnate."  

Conservatives, therefore are not hostile toward progression, but instead hostile to progression that would ultimately destroy stability and continuity. May I mention just two here? Marriage and family. Conservatives come by their label for a good reason ... they seek to conserve certain ideas, institutions and practices, not for the sake of simply conserving them, but for the sake of the stability and continuity they provide the individual and society.  During my life-time I have witnessed the liberal left's assault on everything virtuous about the United States; The Boy Scouts, The Traditional Family, The Church,  Unborn Children, Rights Guaranteed by the Constitution, The Free Market System, Private Education, Stay at Home Mothers, Successful Businesses, and indeed Men. Reform?  Progress? ... I'm all for it, as long as prudence and wisdom prevails. Now tell me ... what government program or liberal idea can you name that fits that formula? 

The virtues of the conservative are far superior to any affability the left can drag to the arena of ideas, and it is simple to understand why. The left has no principled position, and without principles their ideas are empty shells. A few examples if I might: Social Security was a failed program from the day it was written into law. The liberals knew it was unsustainable, but strapped future generations with the massive amount of debt it would incur. The war on poverty rages on after 40 years and trillions of redistributed dollars. Guess what? We still have poverty in America, and it's not because we haven't spent enough money on it. It's because some people just wont' work if not required to do so. Medicare and other entitlements have driven our national debt into unforgivable and unsustainable heights. Legalized abortion has now taken the lives of 50 million babies. In a population that big, we surely snuffed the lives of some really remarkable people that never got a chance to demonstrate it.  No one can tell me that conservatives were responsible for these things. I'm old enough to know that these problems were born out of "Progressive" periods in our history...particularly the 60's and 70's, where anything new was superior to anything old. Prudence and wisdom were considered over-rated and decidedly in the way of the leftist concepts of compassion, and political correctness. So excuse my vomiting when I hear how conservatives are responsible for all the ills of the world.

Kirk writes: "The conservative favors reasoned and temperate progress; he is opposed to the cult of Progress, whose minions believe that everything new necessarily is superior to everything old. Change is essential to the body social, the conservative reasons, just as it is essential to the human body ...The great line of demarcation in modern politics, Eric Voegelin used to point out, is not a division between liberals on one side and totalitarians on the other. No, on one side of that line are all those men and women who fancy that the temporal order is the only order, and that material needs are their only needs, and that they may do as they like with the human patrimony. On the other side of that line are all those people who recognize an enduring moral order in the universe, a constant human nature, and high duties toward the order spiritual and the order temporal."  Those who fit the latter description are those I call CONSERVATIVES!

The outline for this treatment is credited to Russell Kirk and the web site at: 
http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/detail/ten-conservative-principles/

The Blame Game

Today, I heard a  party strategist for the current politburo defend the President's position on the debt crisis. Funny that in the 5 minutes of discussion the only specific idea he attributed to the President was "tax those who make above $250K."  The rest of his comments amounted to a list of who to blame. He blamed the Bush tax cuts. Steee-rike one.  He blamed the Republicans in the House. Stee-rike two. Then he had the audacity to indict the Tea Party as being responsible if congress and the President can't resolve the impasse. I hear a Steee-rike three!"

I think most of us are tired of the blame game, and looking for some answers to the crisis, and believe me, we are facing a real financial crisis.  Don't take my word for it. Do some homework. Here are some keywords to assist you: Obama Debt Crisis, S&P downgrades US debt outlook, Moody's Investors Service.

If we don't do something about the current level of spending in D.C. WE WILL suffer immediate as well as long-term consequences. We can very well expect hyper-inflation, higher interest rates, higher taxes, much higher gas prices, fewer public services, the bankruptcy of Social Security, Mediare, and Medicade ... not to mention unemployment to rival the Great Depression. So back to the President's plan to get our economy back on the road to recovery.  Find me an economist that believes that our crisis can be solved by taxing those who make  more than $250K, and repealing the Bush Tax cuts, and I'll show you an economist that is on the payroll of the DNC.