Us and Them

The good news is there are more of us than there are of them–in every state of the union.

“Us” being conservatives and “them” being liberals.

The bad news is that nearly all of America’s major institutions have been captured by radical leftists who portray conservatives as whatever pejorative comes to mind, be it tried and true, never fail to shock “racist;” blatant or latent “homophobe;” plain old generic “wing nut;” just your average “moron;” “far right wing;” ultra-conservative;” or most pejorative of all, “evangelical or fundamentalist Christian.”

Republicans and other ordinary conservatives–those who have the temerity to want smaller government, lower taxes, states’ rights, traditional morality, among other things–could add to the list of names they are routinely given by liberals. Many conservatives have become almost used to the invective, and from what they see and hear on television, often believe themselves to be in the minority, sometimes feeling intimidated by the harassment they receive by the Left “majority.”

But conservatives are NOT in the minority, writes Bruce Walker in his article, “Good News for GOP and Great News for Conservatives,” found in American Thinker. Walker writes, "There is a vast gulf between Stalinists who occupy the choke points of education, information, government and entertainment in America and us, the huge conservative majority. This disconnect is so vast that there are two Americas: the ocean of conservatives and the small delusional islands of leftists whose ignorance of America is so profound that they might as well be colonial governors from some European kingdom…Flyover country is ALL [caps mine] of America except for imperial enclaves in Washington, Manhattan, Hollywood and those leftist monasteries called universities.”

Walker bases his assertions on the much respected “Battleground Poll,” which is a joint effort between Democrat and Republican polling institutions. Gallup, he writes, concurs with the results of the “Battleground Polls.”

“In every single one of the last nineteen Battleground Polls over the last decade, about 60% of Americans describe themselves as ‘conservative,’ while about 35% of Americans describe themselves as ‘liberal…’Only 2% of Americans call themselves ‘moderate.’ “

The truth of the matter is that conservatives outnumber liberals in every single state of the union, which means that even if a state like Delaware is called “Blue,” it really isn’t. Delaware, like all the rest of the states, is red. It’s just that the levers of control in the areas Walker mentions have been held by the blues.

The above facts should be inspiring to those who are running as conservative Republicans and Libertarians, for if the conservative base in Delaware remains fired up during the next few days, candidates such as Urquhart and O’Donnell (among others) will indeed win.

That’s a pretty heady but realistic prospect.

Following the wins, the political complexion of Delaware inevitably will change to reflect the true conservative nature of the majority of voters in our little state.

For Mr. Walker’s article in its entirety, please go here:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/10/good_news_for_gop_and_great_ne.html

Paradigm Shift

Paradigm shift is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Kuhn described a change in basic assumptions within the ruling theory of science. The result is a revolution in scientific thinking and practice that challenges prevailing orthodoxies.

An illustration of a radical paradigm shift within the scientific community would be that of the transition from the Ptolemaic view of the universe to the Copernican view. The Ptolemaic view, reinforced in a thousand ways for almost two thousand years throughout ancient, medieval and Renaissance civilizations provided philosophical, theological stability for millennia. It was probably was the longest lasting scientific paradigm in history, the thought patterns of which infused the entirety of societies it permeated.

Critical inquiries about such a long lasting and unquestionably elegant explanation of the universe were usually discarded because of the strength of the explanatory nature of the paradigm, which not only made a great deal of sense from the human experiential viewpoint, but was also conceptually beautiful.

For many years, scientists attempted to explain anomalies within the context of the
Ptolemaic paradigm, adding epicycles and other elaborate explanatory devices, but the unfortunately the system did not quite match scientific observations. Eventually the Copernican system brought down the entire paradigm, creating societal reverberations still felt even today.

In the end, the entire system proved unworkable, and the explanations it provided no longer prevailed in the public imagination. It was discarded, but not until it was defended for centuries long past its overdue expiration date. Explanations by defenders grew ever more convoluted and ridiculous even as evidence of the paradigm’s explanatory insufficiencies mounted.

The paradigm of Left progressive liberalism has followed a trajectory similar to that of the Ptolemaic system. Still established throughout Western institutions, Leftist thought has become increasingly removed from reality. The Left has always been firmly committed to destruction of existing societies in order to bring in revolutionary changes designed to establish an earthly Utopia. Not once has it succeeded in establishing the longed for Utopia.

In fact, ever since the French revolution, the varied progeny of the Left, be they communism, fascism or socialism have wreaked havoc within the very societies they purportedly wish to transform into a new Eden. Wherever the Left has prevailed it has created death, destruction and at the very least, in the case of socialism, stagnation and eventual ossification. The very bones of society crumble before the onslaught.

Explications and explanations no longer justify what has become—actually always has been--a destructive paradigm completely unrelated to the realities of human nature and society. The defense of the indefensible merely becomes more and more absurd as the Left searches for yet more societal mores, yet more foundations of Western civilization to destroy.

Here in our own country, even as Europe gives signs of turning away from the societal paralysis brought on by an unsustainable and smothering socialism, the evidence that left progressive liberalism has manifestly failed and can no longer be shored up by rational explanations and arguments mounts daily.

Whether it is the decadence of corrupting children as young as ten by sex “education” programs whose enthusiasts promote allows birth controls pills for ten-year-old girls, condoms for pre-pubescent boys and lectures on adult sexuality to first graders; whether it is wholesale commitment to abortion on demand throughout pregnancy; whether it is the collapse of the Western ideal of marriage; whether it is the ludicrous persecution by the ACLU of churches and people of faith by the infliction of frivolous law suits; whether it is the civilianization of the US military by the intrusion of radical mores designed to vitiate military capacity; whether it is runaway spending in the face of national bankruptcy; whether it is the jettisoning of national sovereignty in favor of globalization--in all the above and more, the absurdities of the Left have reached a point of no return.

The paradigm is not only exhausted, but has reached the point of absolute insanity. No new rationale, no adding of elliptical non-logic, no linguistic slight of hand or trickery can conceal the fact the entire paradigm is collapsing under its own weight of nonsensicality.

Meanwhile, the rumblings of a paradigmatic political revolution are growing day by day. At the very same time the paradigm of the Left has reached its apex in the US political system, in academia, the judiciary, the media, a groundswell of public revulsion is shaking the very foundations of US society.

The whole Leftist paradigm is shaking and about to collapse.

That shaking, evidenced by a spiritual awakening and by a coincident and companionate rise in opposition to the current political thuggery determined to disregard and to wreck the foundations of our nation and to replace free enterprise with a command economy, will not stop at mere tremors. That shaking will turn into an earthquake which will be felt not only at the voting booth during the coming midterm elections, but which will not only collapse the Left, but will continue to produce aftershocks for a very long time.

What will rise in its place will be a restoration of our country, the like of which we’ve never before seen, a restoration that will revive and revitalize American institutions and the American way of life.

Call That Thing a Car? Here's a Real Car...

Ah, those were the days.

Americans still made cars in the grand tradition, including the 1941 Cadillac Imperial Sedan my dad picked up for a song in the 1950′s to ferry us seven kids to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Middletown, DE.

Jet black, heavy as a tank with wide whitewall tires, black leather interior in the front, beige fabric in the back. Automatic transmission, a radio, cigarette lighters and electric windows. Jump seats for the little kids, with the baby wedged in the back seat where the center arm rest came down. She couldn’t budge.

And best of all–for my folks at least, a window behind the driver’s seat that Dad rolled so he and Mom could tune out the incessant bickering in the back.

Intial price: around $2,100, but by the time it was fourteen years old, dad picked it up dirt cheap. Restored models today go for about $60,000.

We kids loved it. We looked like a Mafia family, with the older guys in long grey coats and black fedoras, with Mom all dolled up in her Sunday best looking like a gorgeous moll. Dad with greenblack sun glasses, hat rakishly tilted to the side, looking like a real tough guy.

Got lots of stares wherever we went.

Never did know what the mileage was, but nobody cared.

You could never get off with making such a grand car these days.

Here it is, folks: http://www.schmitt.com/viewimage.asp?ID=4207

The Taxman Cometh

The Taxman Cometh


here’s been a lot of talk about Chris Coons ideological leanings, all of which is important.

His inclination toward liberation theology aside--well, not really, as taxes are one of the main ways to redistribute wealth--there are some very practical economic reasons any New Castle County resident as well as all other Delaware citizens should be concerned, because the truth of the matter is that Chris Coons is THE TAXMAN.

Today I took a look at some of my old invoices for county and city services.
A cursory look at my water bill reveals Coons tax policies at work. In 2005, my average quarterly water bill was about $50. Since then, sewage taxes have raised the bill to around $75.00 per quarter.

Now, I don’t want to put matters indelicately,but I have lived here alone for the last five years and have not dumped (pun intended) any more sewage down the toilet in 2010 than in 2005. Yet there’s been a 50% increase in taxes on sewage.

Why? Inquiring minds want to know.

Looking at my mortgage escrow fund, I note an increase in New Castle county taxes of about 48% since 2005. About one third of my monthly payment to the bank now consists of insurance payments AND more county taxes. The increase in taxes has nearly canceled out any reduction in interest. Meanwhile, since 2004, when I bought the property, the value of my home has depreciated about 25-35%. Yet my taxes on my modest town house have increased exponentially.

Why? Inquiring minds want to know.

After all, it’s not as if services from the county government have increased. On the contrary, my neighborhood, though officially an historic district, has received very little notice or help from the county. So where, specifically, are my tax dollars being allocated? Not to my neighborhood, that’s for sure. Pensions, perhpas?

I won’t even speak of what will happen to my electric bill if Coons is elected and supports the Obama agenda of “Cap and Trade.” Obama himself has said the rates will “necessarily skyrocket.” Chris Coons supports the Obama agenda, so I can expect my electric bills to skyrocket even further?

As if they haven’t already? When I first moved to Delaware, my monthly electric bills amounted to about $50-65. My last bill was $143.00. On average, my electric bills already have increased 110-120% from when I first moved back to Delaware in fall of 2004. What will the electric bill amount to if Coons is elected?

Inquiring minds want to know.

In the meantime…Help! Please help me! I’m asphyxiating from the increased weight of taxes!

But wait! Don’t call 911. Coons want to tax my calls for help.

Arrrrgggghhhh. Gasp, gasp. Gurgle, gurgle.

Miss Biddle

My second grade teacher, Miss Biddle of Chesapeake City Elementary School, was an absolute dictator.

She had rules, and God help her trembling charges who broke them. Students even had to pee on schedule, a stipulation that got Timmy Walston into a deep puddle of trouble when he wet his pants while sitting at his desk. He got punished by having his chair moved into a corner. The ancient upright piano—it was never played– was shoved catty-corner in front of the chair so he couldn’t get out. All the children then filed by him on the way to recess. He was sobbing his eyes out, but to no avail.

One of her favorite tactics was to stand an offending child on a stool in front of the class and encourage the rest of the class to ridicule the kid as a “cry baby.” “Look at her cry, class,” she would say. And, of course, the child would oblige by turning on the water works, crying her heart out.

Yes, Miss Biddle had rules.

Lots of rules.

One day she handed out a picture for us to color. It was of a robin sitting in a nest. By now, having experienced Miss Biddle’s wrath on more than one occasion, having spent time on the “fool’s stool” and having had my head thumped against the blackboard, I had learned to follow the rules exactly. I colored the robin orange and brown exactly within the lines as precisely instructed by our beloved teacher; and so did just about every other kid in the class. Heaven help the budding Jackson Pollack who dared to do anything free form–likewise anyone who wanted to color a Miro-like fantastical bird with rainbow wings and a purple tail.

Needless to say, Miss Biddle’s rules suffocated initiative and creativity.

But that’s what too many suffocating rules, regulations and punishments do to children. They stifle their spirits and dumb down their creativity.

Welcome to Miss Biddle’s world writ large, American “children.”

Our state and federal governments are having the same stifling effect as my second grade teacher’s plethora of rules and punishments—suffocation.

Few put the consequences of too many laws and punishments as eloquently as Philip K. Howard, who in a recent article in the NY Daily News, sums up the results of too many laws, rules and regulations: “Government is broken and the economy is gasping.”

Did you know that a new governor of most states, including Delaware, will come to office and find that about 90% of the state budget is “pre-committed to entitlements and mandates enacted by politicians long dead;” and that, among other things, in stark contrast to Miss Biddle’s cruel authoritarianism (but equally a pox on creativity and learning), “Teachers no longer have authority to maintain order in the classroom?” Heck, they can’t even hug a crying student without fear of a law suit claiming they are pedophiles.

And what about small businesses, the engines of our economy?

There is so much legal sludge to slog through that it is impossible for small businesses and entrepreneurs to wade through the legalities. Innovation has been stifled by impossibly complex laws and an incomprehensible tax code.

To make things worse, “Hardly any social interaction is free of legal risk”—and consequent punishment. Legalities are so pervasive that any given American at any given time is automatically guilty of breaking the law and thus open to persecution from governmental entities armed with platoons of lawyers anxious to put an offender on the equivalent of Miss Biddle’s “fool’s stool.”

What is the answer to the “Biddleization” of our country?

As Howard points out, “Changing leaders or parties will not solve [the] problem…What’s required to revive America is a major structural overhaul. This is a task of historic proportions—not unlike the simplification of law by Justinian in ancient Rome. Our founding fathers never imagined that democracy would become a one-way ratchet—always adding laws but never repealing them. Nor did they intend law to be a form of central planning. The Constitution sets forth our governing goals and principles in only 16 pages.”

Yet despite the need to simplify, the new healthcare bill—as one example—adds 2,700 pages of new regulations, agencies and requirements. This is to say nothing of what would happen if “Cap and Trade” were to be enacted. Imagine what small businesses would groan under if yet another 2,000 or more page monstrosity was to be enacted?

The truth of the matter is that there will be no going forward until America gets free of the Miss Biddle authoritarian mentality. The “color between the lines” mentality has meant a legal straight jacket that paralyzes the American spirit, suffocates the entrepreneurial spirit and vitiates the body politic.

Those we send to Washington or to the Delaware State House must be committed to radical reform of the law of the land.

We need Justinians.

Miss Biddle has got to go.

Food Fight

Approximately two out of every eight denizens of New York city--plus some forty million Americans across the nation-- are buying groceries with the assistance of government issued food stamps.

Prohibitions against using food stamps to buy alcohol, cigarettes, pet food, vitamins or household goods already exist. But in the interest of restraining the epidemic of childhood obesity and encouraging delinquent parents to supervise their children’s diets more closely, NYC Mayor Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson have issued a fatwa against sugared drinks for the impoverished masses receiving the food stamps.

Bloomberg, who has already been responsible for outlawing trans-fat in restaurant foods and for restaurants posting calorie content on their menus, has joined an anti-salt campaign as well. He is quoted as saying: “This initiative will give New York families more money to spend on food and drinks that provide real nourishment.”

Right.

Maybe New York families living on the edge of poverty will suddenly become avid nutritionists, but probably not. It seems anxieties over economic survival, rampant crime, lack of employment and the disintegration of the family are some of the prime reasons for worries among inner city residents, trumping anxiety over the excess consumption of Coca-Cola. They just don’t seem all that worried over sugar.

More pressing anxieties aside, do any but the most dedicated health food advocates really think food stamp recipients are going to stop buying sugary drinks—much less cigarettes and alcohol--just because of new regulations?

Of course not.

For those already offended because their idea of a enforced health food utopia has been sullied; yes, excess consumption of sugar is not healthy.]

And by the way, does anyone really think Mayor Bloomberg is going to serve guests invited to NYC’s galas club soda and carrots instead of alcohol, sweets and other forbidden goodies—goodies also paid for by tax payers’ money?

Of course not.

But as usual, austerity measures are applicable to the lower classes, not to the ruling class. Carrots for thee, but caviar for me. But isn’t this the usual bifurcated standard for the virtuous ruling class, whose motives are, of course, impeccable but whose actual behavior is not expected to be held to the standards they apply to those on the government handout list?

Regardless of whether the anticipated virtuous outcome will match the sterling motives of the originators of the new regulations, Mr. Bloomberg’s push for new rules dictating what the recipients of food stamps may and may not eat are clearly illustrative of a larger issue than children swilling Coke and Dr. Pepper.

The fact of the matter is that whenever government doles out largess, for whatever sacrosanct reasons—in this case supposedly the health of youngsters—that largess always comes with the big, fat price tag of government control and intrusion into family life and individual choices. It also will come with a new bureaucracies complete with employees whose nanny state mentalities compel them to look into every suspected unhealthy purchase. If the USDA approves Bloomberg’s new regulations, many “well meaning” US citizens will be involved in making sure those regulations are enforced against their comrade citizens.

All for the greater good, of course.

What can the unhappy beneficiaries expect? Is it outside the realm of possibility that every checkout clerk in every grocery store will be required to supervise what food stamp recipients buy, acting as a quasi Stasi citizen food police looking out for food transgressions?

Is it difficult to envision an extension of the rationing, controlling, supervisory mentality to include benefits given—or denied--to recipients of health care? But of course, we already have such a health care system in place, complete with the 159 or so new bureaucracies and agencies “needed” to run it.

In the meantime, we are learning there’s not only no such thing as a free lunch, but apparently, there’s also no such thing as an unregulated lunch--at least not for food stamp recipients. Who knows who is next? Maybe those nefarious three martini business lunches could be brought under state control by requiring everyone to submit his/her lunch selections to a supervisory health board concentrating on business executives. Then again, with the current anti-corporation mentality, it might be better to let the greedy capitalist pigs have their rib roast and booze, the better to hasten the demise of the evil profit mongers.

Bottom line, it just won’t work.

Fact of the matter is, that for every heath food devotee, like Jerome Rodale, who died on live TV-- doubtless from eating too many roots and berries coupled with asparagus boiled in urine—somewhere in Japan there’s a little 112 year old man who will attribute his longevity to drinking twelve bottles of sake per diem.

Plus, recipients of food stamps are just as bright as the next guy, and will be busy subverting regulations every way they wish to.

So why continue pushing nightmarish and ultimately unenforceable regulatory complexities?

How much simpler it would be to encourage the education of parents (and children) about basic rules of nutrition and health in order they begin by their own free will to make sound choices for themselves and their children. The basics of the food pyramid are not all that hard to learn and implement.

But I guess that would be just too easy.

Now or Never

At different times during its history, a nation inevitably experiences “now or never” moments, turning points irrevocably leading to its restoration or to unmitigated disaster. At times, a yawning precipice opens up revealing a danger so wide, deep and threatening that if one more step is taken, the entire national enterprise falls off a cliff.

We can see such moments in retropsect: The expiration of the Weimar republic; the rise of the Bolshevik Revolution; the grand experiments of the Great Leap Forward. All signaled the absolute terminal point of national constructs.

The United States is at a "now or never" moment.

During the last decade, the annihilation of federalism proceeded apace as increasingly, big government trampled the constitutional principles of limited government and abandoned the commandments of fiscal common sense.

Since the elections of 2008, the accelerants poured on the bonfires ignited by the last administration have resulted in a raging inferno whose wildfire flames are devouring what little remained of our national structures.

Among the many foundational building blocks of our nation that have been consumed by the Obama arsonists, who consider the incineration of our nation’s traditions a mere bonfire of vanities: State sovereignty, as witnessed by the egregious attacks of the administration on the state of Arizona; equal justice before the law, as demonstrated by the failure to prosecute the Black Panther voter intimidation case; the free market economy, as evidenced by the government takeover of big banks, the auto industry and health care; the corruption of the governmental process by bribes and handouts; the great good of genuine civil rights, now being consumed by the inflammatory class and racial warfare; and the integrity of the economy, as shown by the volcanic eruption of federal spending and debt.

Stunned citizens, seeing the rapidity with which our country is being consumed, have reacted with shock—and with resistance. Suddenly, the conservative American center, alarmed by the prospect of a bonfire of personal liberties, the burning of the Constitution and cremation of true federalism, has risen to stop the country from falling off the cliff into an inferno. Suddenly, Americans realize that if they do not act, the inferno will, if allowed to spread, melt the Statue of Liberty herself; and in her place would rise, like Phoenix from the ashes, the terrible Medusa-like Leviathan of an iron fisted, all powerful State.

The great American conservative center has awakened. They know the election of 2010 is like none other in their nation’s history. They see the “now or never” moment for their beloved country is upon them. They agree the nation must be rescued and dragged back from the precipice and the pit of fire that lies beneath.

Conservative Americans realize nothing must divert their strength from the task of rescue before them. And nothing must prevent their turning out in droves to effectuate a devastating defeat to the powers that fiddle, play and tinker with the country's destiny while our nation burns.

Americans must erect a political firewall "now or never."

2012 might be too late.