Punishing Success

I don’t believe that any company is “too big to fail.” If a company has adhered to risky business practices, and the risks fail, then I think the company should be allowed to fail. I’d far rather have seen our government make it a bit easier for small and mid-sized businesses in this country to stay afloat, rather than shell out tens and hundreds of billions of TARP dollars on the likes of AIG, CitiGroup, Wells Fargo, and the likes.

That said, however, I definitely don’t think the United States government should be meddling in the financial affairs of businesses which have paid off their TARP loans and are no longer under obligation to the government. Sadly, these companies won’t get off that easily:

Did you catch that?

“Don’t spread that around because it’ll be much harder for the punitive taxes we’re going to put on the bonuses, if you actually say they’ve made money–it’s what we want to do because these guys have got to be punished.” [emphasis mine]

In other words, “You are too big to fail, but you’d better not be too successful, or you will be punished.”

“Once you have paid off the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane.”

Stoutcat

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And Now, Here’s Your Host… Jesus Christ?

Since I was a child, I’ve been afflicted with a mind that loves to wander. Like a child, I can’t let it wander off on its own or it may get terribly lost or sidetracked by some off-the-wall idea or concept. The fact that I’m sitting here typing this instead of outside enjoying a beautiful spring day is proof. 

Although I’ve not managed to cure myself of this affliction,  I have managed to harness its creative aspects enough to have some success in writing everything from a cyber-column for a major newspaper’s web site, to scripts for television (and lots of fluff in between). 

So a few months back, when a friend of mine told me about a Sunday morning syndicated radio program called “The Jesus Christ Show,” the creative juices kicked in immediately. 

Having been raised a Christian myself, the word blasphemous immediately came to mind. The first thing I thought was “What kind of cojones must you have to go on the radio claiming to be Jesus Christ?”  I don’t like jumping to conclusions, but the idea for such a show was ripe for mockery, and I intended to do just that. 

Before even listening to the show, I had already determined the idea lent itself well to stand-up: 

• “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that,  if Jesus was to really  come back, given what’s going on in the world today, I don’t think his first priority would be securing a syndication deal with Clearchannel. I’m just sayin’…
• And this begs the question: If Jesus has his own radio show, and the fairness doctrine was restored, will the stations airing the Jesus Christ show have an obligation to give equal time to Beelzebub? Oh wait… I think we have that already. It’s called the Weekly White House Address.

Fully prepared to take no prisoners, I sat by my radio Sunday morning a few months back with pad and pen in hand, prepared to take notes for my very own crucifixion of this holy hoax that was about to be perpetrated. 

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

 

The ever-elusive Zombie, posting at Pajamas Media gives us a lovely little photo essay about two political rallies, held about a week apart, by two differing political groups, for different reasons.

One was on March 27, in Searchlight, NV. The other was a week earlier, in Los Angeles.

To set the scene: “Two households, unalike in dignity…”

Tea Party Rally, Searchlight NV

Anti-war rally, Los Angeles, CA

Be sure to check out Zombie’s entire post, and then go to the links for Ringo and El Marco; it’s clear Zombie didn’t cull the best photos of the Tea Party rally and the worst photos of the anti-war rally.

Also, best comment at Zombie’s, by Bruce:

If your car broke down alongside each of those two events, at which event would you most likely find (a) someone willing to help you, who (b) had the skill set required to repair your car?

And that, my friends, pretty much says it all.

Stoutcat

Real Bipartisanship

 

This is the true definition of bipartisanship: when three quarters of the members of the House of Representatives come together to sign a letter expressing a single strong opinion on a subject.

In this case, the strong opinion expressed was disapproval of the ongoing, damaging, and dangerous denigration of Israel by the Obama administration. You may recall President Obama’s appalling lack of diplomacy toward Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu last week, Joe Biden’s very undiplomatic reaction to the Israeli announcements the week before of new settlements being built, and Hillary Clinton’s public reprimand of Netanyahu as a result of that announcement.

This is simply another foreign policy disaster in a long string of foreign policy disasters for this administration.

Perhaps the letter, addressed to Obama’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and signed by 337 Representatives will have some effect on the clear attitude of disdain this President has toward one of our closest and most important allies.

“We are writing to reaffirm our commitment to the unbreakable bond that exists between our country and the State of Israel and to express to you our deep concern over recent tension,” the letter read. “A strong Israel is an asset to the national security of the United States and brings stability to the Middle East.

“We are concerned that the highly publicized tensions in the relationship will not advance the interests the US and Israel share. Above all, we must remain focused on the threat posed by the Iranian nuclear weapons program to Middle East peace and stability.”

Or perhaps, as is usual with this president, he will ignore the will of the people, in this case, as voiced by more than 75% of their representatives, and continue to drive wedges between America and Israel until either Israel no longer exists, or until President Obama is finally voted out of office in 2012.

I know which outcome I’m rooting for.

Stoutcat

Slactivism Strikes Again

Once again, the enviro-nuts of the world have made their annual grand useless obeisance to Mother Gaiea in the form of “Earth Hour.” As the AP fawningly reports:

Europe’s best known landmarks — including the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and Rome’s Colosseum — fell dark Saturday, following Sydney’s Opera House and Beijing’s Forbidden City in joining a global climate change protest, as lights were switched off across the world to mark the Earth Hour event.

In the United States, the lights went out at the Empire State Building in New York, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta, among many other sites in the Eastern time zone.

Millions were expected to turn off lights and appliances for an hour from 8:30 p.m. in a gesture to highlight environmental concerns and to call for a binding pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This year’s was the fourth annual Earth Hour, organized by the World Wildlife Fund. (emphasis mine)

Here’s a clue, Einsteins. Turn off lights and appliances when you’re not using them. Period.

Doug Powers (filling in admirably while Michelle Malkin is on vacation) reveals what he and so many of us normal people do on a regular basis, celebrating “Earth Hour” every day:

We don’t leave lights on in rooms that nobody is in. We keep the thermostat fairly low (mostly because I’m usually too hot). We carpool when possible. We don’t waste gas. We pick up trash alongside the road when we’re walking. We volunteer to clean up the riverwalk, and we plant trees because we like trees — not because we’ve fooled ourselves into believing that planting trees is helping make Streisand’s environmentally-unfriendly concert tours carbon-neutral…

After Earth Hour is over, I pledge to turn my lights off for a full eight hours or so, just like we do every night, no doubt while Al Gore’s pool filter is still whirring away and outdoor flood lights protect his property. But during Earth Hour, we’ll have so many lights on that my family will have tan lines by the time the 60 minutes is up. I realize I’ll probably get hit with an Obamacare tanning bed tax, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay.

Meanwhile, Watts Up with That reports that Earth Hour was a wild success in North Korea, with nearly 100% participation–and includes a photo to prove it.

“The WWF sponsored Earth Hour has already come and gone in the Korean time zone, and the North Korean proletariat has claimed a stunning victory over its evil capitalist neighbor, South Korea.

Oh, wait… Seems it is always that way.”

Once again, a useless gesture carries more weight, gets more publicity, and garners more enthusiasm and adulation than the actual daily practicing of what is being preached for an hour. In other words, style over substance.

Stoutcat

Whose Revolution Is It, Anyway?

You say you want a revolution, well, you know…

We all want to change the world.

If you’re having a hard time making heads or tails out of what’s going on in this country, you’re in good company. The basic issue is that Barack Obama has turned things completely upside down. Allow me to explain:

What IS A Revolution?

The dictionary defines revolution as “an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.’ (emphasis mine)

There’s a revolution going on before our eyes. But it’s the people IN the government that are running the revolution:

• Barack Obama has nationalized numerous banks, plus two automobile manufacturers (and seized the stocks from stockholders, issuing them to the government and the auto workers’ union).
• Congress has just grabbed control of the soon-to-die-a-horrible-death health care system that, until now, has been the envy of the world. They’ve done it with a horrendous health care reform bill that the clear majority of we, the governed, have made clear we do not want. With that singular takeover, the federal government has also captured about 1/6th of the nations economy. The government will now force people to buy health insurance or be fined. If we can’t or won’t pay the fine, the IRS can have our property seized or put us in prison. Hint: Take prison, and you’ll get… that’s right… FREE HEALTH CARE.
• In the same bill, Congress has managed to give the federal government ownership of the entire student loan industry (which, when implemented, stands to put tens of thousands of people out of work).
• Emboldened by this success, watch for Obama and Congress team up quickly to pass “Cap and Trade” which will give the government the right to tell you how much energy you are allowed to use in industry before having to pay fines in the form of “Carbon Credits” (purchased, conveniently, through Al Gore’s new business which should make him a billionaire).
• Also look for Obama and Congress to team up on an amnesty program to make the illegal aliens citizens–in effect, buying their votes for the fall (or 2012 Presidential) elections.  The hope is that illegal aliens from Mexico (estimated anywhere from 12 million to 40 million depending on what sources you use) will all vote Democrat in their gratitude for being rewarded for coming here illegally.

You tell me that it’s evolution. well, you know…
We all wanna change the world.

That gasping, wheezing sound you hear is capitalism and the free-enterprise system as we know them, struggling and dying, followed in their throes by those who will be deemed expendable in a new age of healthcare reform where “government experts” and not your ability to buy your own health insurance will decide who should be given the chance to live. It is the very destruction of everything America has stood for over the past two-plus centuries

But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know that you can count me OUT!

It’s Obama and the Democratic Run Amok Congress tearing down democracy; and it’s We The People trying to save it. Yet those of us dedicated to fighting this “fundamental changing of America” (as Obama refers to it) are labeled racists for wanting to preserve our freedom, the free-enterprise system, capitalism, democracy, and the Constitution.

So just who are the revolutionaries here? Obama and the Democratic Congress or “We The People?”

Perhaps John Lennon can answer that (are you listening Anita Dunn and Ron Bloom?):

But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow…

Ironically, it’s the Obama regime and Congress that have decided to spurn the rules and ignore the Constitution to accomplish much of their damage. But we “racist revolutionaries” (in his supporters eyes) will be the ones to turn things around in the only way a revolution should be done in a democracy: via the ballot box this November.  

 It will be a long road back, but it will show the world that true democracy can overcome tyranny. And eventually, Barack Obama will take his rightful place in the dump heap of failed leaders who dedicated themselves to a failed ideology.  

Gerry Ashley
(If we stand united), don’t you know  it’s gonna be… all right!

Is Anybody There?

 

Oh, Mr. Adams, how we need your spiritual heirs today!

Stoutcat

We Should Have Known…

 

How could we have missed it?

Stoutcat

Warning: This Is What Change REALLY Looks Like

 

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
–  Benjamin Franklin

And they will most likely lose both, as one variation of the above quote suggests.

Not one to miss an opportunity to gloat, President Obama proudly proclaimed, “This Is What Change Looks Like,” upon the passage of the monstrous pile of crap known as HR 3590 (“Healthcare Reform”).

While the bulk of the septic ooze doesn’t actually kick in until 2014, the part that is shoved up the back-side of American workers and  businesses will, unfortunately, kick in soon in the form of higher taxes (both overt and hidden).  But what else can we expect from the crap sandwich foisted on us by the Democrats?

Tragically, there’s far more here than meets the eye.

As David Hogberg pointed out in an excellent piece at Investor.com, we may be about to live the above adage by Ben Frankin. Franklin nails it when you take the time to fully understand just how much of our liberty has been snatched with the passage of this one piece of legislation.

Hogberg provides us with a verified list of “20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedoms.”  Here’s a sample:

You are young and don’t want health insurance? You are starting up a small business and need to minimize expenses, and one way to do that is to forego health insurance? Tough. You have to pay $750 annually for the “privilege.” (Section 1501) [All emphasis mine]

You are young and healthy and want to pay for insurance that reflects that status? Tough. You’ll have to pay for premiums that cover not only you, but also the guy who smokes three packs a day, drink a gallon of whiskey and eats chicken fat off the floor. That’s because insurance companies will no longer be able to underwrite on the basis of a person’s health status. (Section 2701).

Read the whole thing.

The bill also nationalizes the student loan industry, as Stoutcat mentioned in a recent rant. If you haven’t yet read about that little slight-of-hand maneuver, be sure to do so.

It’s happening, folks. Obama’s silent revolution is here. It’s occurring before our very eyes. Freedom, as we know it, is being taken from us, and it’s being done without so much as a shot being fired.

Yet.

Gerry Ashley

The Crisis: 1776 = 2010

December 23, 1776 

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated… 

[P]anics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world… 

Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state: up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but “show your faith by your works,” that God may bless you.

It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to “bind me in all cases whatsoever” to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America… 

By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils — a ravaged country — a depopulated city — habitations without safety, and slavery without hope — our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented…

---

Thomas Paine had it right, and it’s coming around again. Are you a sunshine patriot, or are you willing to put on the line your life, your fortune, and your sacred honor, as did those who bequeathed this country to you?

Let’s roll. 

Stoutcat