Woody's Place

Quote Of The Day: Theodore Roosevelt On Immigration

Glenn Beck Explains Obama

Glenn Beck had a really eye opening segment last night, and I thought it deserved to be posted on YouTube for future reference.

Glenn and his guest Dinesh D'Souza dissect Obama's family history and past associations in an attempt to understand the President's political philosiphy.

PART 2 

Quote Of The Day: Thomas Jefferson On Redistribution Of Wealth

September 11th

BIll Whittle On The Ground Zero Mosque

Class is now in session. 

Hat tip to CMBlake6.

The Mayflower

Wow, I Did It Again!

I survived yet another trip around the sun on this big blue ball of confusion we call planet Earth.  Can you believe it?

The year I was born:

• Richard Nixon was President.
• Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong set a human footprint upon the lunar surface.
• The US unemployment rate was 3.6%
• The entire US national debt was $366 billion.
• A first class stamp cost six cents.
• Mario Puzo's The Godfather novel was released.
• Sesame Street begain airing on PBS.
• Woodstock happened.
• The top song in the Billboard charts was Zager & Evans "In The Year 2525".
• Led Zeppelin released their first album, Led Zeppelin I.
• The Beatles gave their last live performance, a jam session on the roof of Apple Records in London.
• Boeing's new 747 jet made it's maiden flight.
• Canadian left wing socialists bombed the Canadian stock market.
• American left wing socialists (and future friends of Obama) Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn organized the "Days Of Rage" protests riots.
• Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge.

And forty one years later this world is still a big ball of confusion.  Some things never change.  C'est la vie!

Quote Of The Day: Krushchev On Gullible Americans

In 1959 President Eisenhower's Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson hosted Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev for half a day while he was visiting America and according to Benson Krushchev made the following remark:

"You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you’ll fall like overripe fruit into our hands."

If the Soviet Union had survived perhaps he'd be right about us falling into their hands, as it stands it looks like we're just going to fall, period.

Understanding Political Left & Right

I saw Glenn Beck sketch the basics of this on his chalkboard the other day and thought it'd make a good addition to the blog.  So after some additions and improvements, here's my handy little chart explaining the political spectrum of left and right.

On the far right we have absolute liberty, no law, no order... total freedom.  On the far left we have absolute tyranny, total government, total order... no freedom. 

In between these extremes is the modern political spectrum.  From Libertarians, to Conservatives, to Liberals to Socialists, this where the tug-of-war that is American politics lies. 

P.S. Today's political left always tries to portray the Nazi's as a right wing movement, due to Hitler's nationalism, but that ignores the rest of his agenda which was very left wing.  Much more info on this is available at my post FYI: Hitler was a Socialist. 

P.P.S. I put moderate in quotes, because I believe political moderates are a myth., as I've never met a "moderate" who actually knew what they were talking about.  It is my belief that "moderates" and so-called "independents" are just people who are unable or unwilling to search out the facts and form concrete opinions.  These people simply let their opinions be swayed by whatever political breeze is currently blowing the strongest or by whatever the MSM/DNC Cabal tells them to think.

D-Day

Sixty six years ago today America's finest threw themselves against the beaches of Normandy, a tide of humanity striving to wash Hitler's stain from Europe.  They succeeded, but far too many never lived to see it.

I will never forget their sacrifice.  Will you?

Pearl Harbor

Here's some amazing color photos of Pearl Harbor attack via Maritime Quest.

Does that day still live in infamy?  I cetainly hope so. 

We lost over 2,300 of our service members and 57 civilians that day, and we cannot afford to relearn lessons like that.

UPDATE: My friend Fits from Shooting The Messenger posted this about Pearl Harbor:

When the time came, we gave as good as we got. Better. And that's the moral of the story. Even with an illegal alien as the commander in chief, fucking with America is a bad idea because when you get right down to it, we've the best military the world will ever see.

And of course he's mostly right, but here's the comment I left at his site, which I thought was worth tagging onto my own Pearl Harbor post:

We won WW2 because we were the manufacturing giants of the globe. The German tanks ran rings around our Shermans, but for every Tiger or Panzer we sent four or five M4s.

We won WW2 because the entire nation focused on that one goal and turned all it's efforts towards attaining it, no matter the cost.

We won WW2 because we believed our cause was just, that God was on our side, and because we didn't find moral equivalence with our enemies. And we actually had the guts to call them enemies!

Now our manufacturing base has shriveled up and liberals have irrevocably destroyed any sense that we are one people, and that we are a just nation.

We may still have the best military on the globe, but our political leaders, media and apathetic and intentionally uninformed populace makes it possible for groups such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban to simply wait us out.

Our society has the attention span of a five year old and the willpower of Tiger Woods at a Hooters.

Ronald Reagan "A Time For Choosing"

This may be Ronald Reagan at his best. 

Funny how we are still having the same argument forty five years later, and after Reagan's principles proved victorious over the very enemy that he spoke of.  We never learn from history do we?  Perhaps that's because we've put too many liberals in charge of teaching it...

Hat tip to Third World County.

UPDATE: Found another good one over at Cmblake6.

Joe Friday Vs. Hippies

Ahh... the wisdom of late 60's sitcoms.

Hat tip to Dragnet and Where Are My Keys for reminding me of how useless liberal hippies were, still are, and always will be.

September 11th

Quote Of The Day

A wise man once said:

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.  You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.  You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.  You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.  You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.  You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.  You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."

What great Republican leader said this?  Reagan?  Bush?  Gingrich?  Friedman? 

Finally, A Che Product I Would Wear

Available for purchase at Etsy.com.

Memorial Day

The American Descent

This rant was posted on the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler yesterday, and it was too good to pass up so I added a few photos to spruce it up and posted it here on the blog for future reference. 

If you read any objective book about the United States role in World War II you will see that it was our industrial might that most concerned the Axis. We were the manufacturing giants of the world, and we turned all our production towards defeating the Axis of evil. Our companies manufactured jeeps, tanks, LCVPs, trucks’ planes, and other instruments of war…..heck, I have an old WW2 M1 bayonet that was manufactured by Union Fork and Hoe, a farming tool company. It was our production might, and our ability to turn that production over to the winning of the war that turned the tide. We overwhelmed our enemy by sheer production numbers, a good example being how a second rate tank like the M4 sherman prevailed over far superior German armor, we just swamped the Tigers and Panthers with numbers……It was our industrial might, and belief in our nation and it’s cause that won the day.

Fast forward to 1960, and a new president makes a promise that America will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. With our technological and industrial superiority, and our belief in America’s ability to meet this challenge…..we did it in less than 9 years…..and we did it 6 times. We were well on the way to the vision realized in the book and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was a vision that had us leading mankind into the heavens, breaking the restraints of this planet and taking the steps to building new worlds. We were leaders, we were explorers, and we were great.

But something happened to us as a people and a nation, something that restrained us and curbed our boldness as leaders and innovators and liberators. We became timid, and wracked with guilt and self accusation, and we grew uneasy about our role as the shining light of the world. We became obsessed with how the rest of the world perceived us, whether they liked us or not, and we became contrite. Couple that with the stifling of our industry by oppressive unions and government restraints, and the engine of democracy that was America began to slow to a crawl. Exploration and innovation and industrial might withered…..it was too expensive, and we needed that money to prop up a growing dependant class who couldn’t or wouldn’t support themselves. After all, we thought, shouldn’t everyone share in the dream of America?….shouldn’t everyone benefit from the sweat and labor of those who take care of themselves, and work hard to support their families?….and shame on you hard working Americans who want to keep your hard earned money to spend on your children’s education and your house payments….don’t you know we need that money to pay the hotel room rates for the displaced ungrateful Katrina welfare spongers?

Our new collective guilt, and the lust of politicians to enslave the dependant class as a voter base guaranteed that our forward progress and role as a world leader would no longer be a priority. The new priority is the expansion of government into every aspect of American life….from how much of our wages we take home, to what kind of light bulbs we use, to taxing us for using plastic bags at the grocery store….to telling corporations who their CEO is and what kind of products they can produce. We can’t innovate or explore without the approval of this or that bureaucracy…..we can’t wage total war on the enemies of freedom loving people lest we offend them or violate their human rights. We can’t lead the world forward anymore, it’s not our place to do so…..it’s too imperialistic.

So rather than offend anyone with our arrogance. We’ll abandon our role as the world leader, we’ll stop climbing the stairway of progress and freedom, we’ll stop extending our hand back to those struggling behind us….and exhorting them to “follow us!!!” We’ll allow ourselves to be drug back down to the cellar by those who are jealous of our freedoms and goodness. The dream of America is considered a quaint and antiquated notion today. We live in a world that doesn’t require a leader anymore, it doesn’t “require” a guarantor of freedom anymore, it is a world that requires a diaper change….being cowed as it has into perpetual navel gazing and hand wringing.

On the frickin' money.  America started it's long, slow slide into the dustbin of history right about the time all the hippies got the right to vote or went into journalism.  Coincidence?

Hat tip to CmBlake6.

Barack Obama Is Our Salvador Allende

Blogger Sabrepoint has found some amazing parallels between the Chilean Marxist president Salvador Allende and the first Marxist President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.

Back in the 1970's, a Marxist, Salvatore Allende, got himself elected to the presidency of Chile with a minority of the vote (he had more votes than several other candidates, however -- a plurality of 36.2%). Allende than began destroying the economy of Chile, as only a Marxist can do, because they are totally ignorant of even the most basic economics. Allende greatly increased the minimum wage, causing thousands of small businesses to fail and bringing on raging unemployment and inflation. Allende seems like an early version of Barack Obama.

Allende nationalized banking and other industries and socialized the health care system -- sound familiar? Inflation soared, foreign reserves declined and Allende soon announced that Chile would default on its foreign debt. Basic commodities and foodstuffs disappeared from market shelves and waves of strikes began, first by truckers, small businessmen and unions, then by housewives. By September 1973 the military figured it had to act and overthrew Allende in a coup. Good riddance.

Sabrepoint concludes:

Our indigenous Marxists, the Democrats, should take this lesson of history to heart. Socialism destroys an economy and makes the standard of living much worse for everyone, including the poor. It is a thoroughly discredited system; it has never worked and never can work. Expect your standard of living under Obama to get steadily worse. It will, if his agenda is not stopped.

Perhaps this country can survive the next two years until the next round of Congressional elections wherein a Republican majority can be seated; they can then stymie Obama's socialization program until we can kick him out in 2012. Or impeach him. By then I predict the Supreme Court will be a lot more interested in Obama's missing birth certificate than they are now.

Or, like Salvatore Allende, perhaps Barack Obama will awaken one morning to find the White House lawn covered with tanks and soldiers. I hope it never comes to that. But it could.

I couldn't have said it better myself. 

A Brave New World, Or 1984?

Here is a though provoking pice by The Interface that I stumbled across the other day.  He takes up a question posed by author Neil Postman in his book "Amusing Ourselves To Death".  Which apocalyptic vision of the future is more correct, Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" or George Orwell's "1984"?

Postman’s Forward places before us a contrast between the equally chilling prophecies of two of the twentieth century’s earlier writers. George Orwell wrote in his novel, 1984, of a totalitarian society that burned books, of a Big Brother who militantly deprived the people of their autonomy, maturity and history. On the other hand, Aldous Huxley’s vision in his Brave New World foresees the day when “people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” To quote Postman more extensively on this contrast,

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.

As the ramifications of the last election are slowly (or not so slowly, depending on your level of consciousness) dawning on this country, I want to propose an expansion to Postman’s hypothesis that extends his predictions further into the 21st century in which we now find ourselves.

My hypothesis is based on the fact that both dystopias envisioned by Orwell and Huxley share a common denominator: the death of critical thought, indeed, of any thought, where “Orthodoxy means not thinking – not needing to think.” The difference is the executioner and his methods, but the result is the same.

The Interface finds distrubing parallels in recent trends that lead him to believe we are heading toward a Brave New World:

Postman’s thesis that Huxley was right has been born out by history: we have become [...] a culture whose thought processes have been slowly shut down by a shift to the worldview that the visceral is superior to the cerebral, that feelings trump fact, and that the image is more important than the content of the message. All too many train wrecks along the cultural landscape, not the least of which being the most recent election, hinge upon the departure of average American’s neural material as he/she narcissistically gazes ever more longingly into his own navel (pay MY mortgage, Mr. President!).

Click over the The Interface to read the rest, including his chilling conclusion that we may arrive at one of these only in prelude to the other one.

Hat tip to Where Are My Keys.

Now that I'm done railing against the trivialization of our culture I think it's time for another addition to the Babes section of my blog. (-:

Shall We Keep Our Republic?

I found this great educational video over at We Surround Them Houston.  It explains the various forms of government and makes clear why our country is a Republic, not a Democracy as many people erroneously believe.

Democracy is actually a bad thing, as it inevitably degenerates into mob rule.  Democracy is nothing but a transitional state between a Republic and an Oligarchy.

Shall we keep our Republic gentlemen, or let Obama and George Soros continue building their Oligarchy?

Milton Friedman Vs. Phil Donahue On Capitalism

Here's economist / intellectual / guru Milton Friedman appearing on the Phil Donahue show back in 1979 answering Phil's charge that capitalism is bad because it is based on what he calls "greed".  It's a classic.

This is every bit as relevant today, and perhaps even more so, as it was back then.  Times change, the truth does not. 

I was too young to watch Donahue very often, but looking at this makes me want to give him at least a modicum of respect for having guests on who challenged his views, and for actually letting them SPEAK.  Perhaps the classless modern liberal douche bags like Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews could learn from the old master.

Reagan On Socialism

Via The Cassandra Page, here's an amazing clip of Ronald Reagan from 1961 warning us on the dangers of accepting incremental socialism i.e. "universal healthcare" as they are calling it now.

Reagan's final word:

"One of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free."

Well Ronnie, thanks in large part to your leadership we postponed that day a few decades, but that dark day is now upon us.  Where is our new Reagan when we need him most? 

What A Difference 8 Years Makes

INAUGURATION DAY:

2009:  Outgoing President George W. Bush quietly boards his helicopter and leaves for Texas, commenting only "Today is not about me.  Today is a historic day for our nation and people."

2001:  Outgoing President Bill Clinton schedules two separate radio addresses to the nation, and organizes a public farewell speech/rally in downtown Washington, D.C. scheduled to directly conflict with incoming President Bush's inauguration ceremony.

PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS:

2009:  President Bush leaves office without issuing a single Presidential pardon, only granting a commutation of sentence to two former border patrol agents convicted of shooting a convicted drug smuggler.  He does not grant any type of clemency to Scooter Libby or any other former political aide, ally, or business partner.

2001:  President Clinton issues 140 pardons and several commutations of sentence on his final day in office.  Included in these are:  billionaire financier, convicted tax evader, and leading Democratic campaign contributor Marc Rich;  Whitewater scandal figure Susan McDougal; Congressional Post Office scandal figure and former Democratic Congressman Dan Rostenkowski; convicted bank fraud, sexual assault, and child porn perpetrator and former Democratic Congressman Melvin Reynolds; and convicted drug felon Roger Clinton, the President's half-brother.

LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE:

2009:  The Bush daughters leave gift baskets in the White House bedrooms for the Obama daughters, containing flowers, candy, stuffed animals, DVD's and CD's.  They also leave heartfelt notes of encouragement and advice for the young girls on how to prepare for their new lives in the White House.

2001:  Clinton and Gore staffers rip computer wires and electrical outlets from the White House walls, stuff piles of notebook papers into the White House toilets, systematically remove the letter "W" from every computer keypad in the entire White House, and damage several thousand dollars worth of furniture in the White House master bedroom.

And the most telling regarding mainstream media bias:

NEWSPAPER HEADLINES FROM JANUARY, 2005:

"Republicans spending $42 million on inauguration while troops die in unarmored Humvees."

"Bush extravagance exceeds any reason during tough economic times."

"Fat cats get their $42 million inauguration party, ordinary Americans get the shaft."

NEWSPAPER HEADLINES FROM JANUARY, 2009:

"Historic Obama inauguration will cost only $170 million."

"Obama spends $170 million on inauguration - America needs a big party."

"Everyman Obama shows America how to celebrate."

"Citibank executives contribute $8 million to Obama inauguration."

Hat tip to Right Wing View Wisconsin.

FYI: Hitler Was A Socialist

Many people, especially modern liberals, focus only on Hitler's fascism, conveniently ignoring his socialist agenda.  Liberals tend to liken any conservative politician whose polcies they despise to Hitler.  This is a baseless comparison and runs contrary to historical facts.  Hitler was a leftist, socialist, environmentalist who was appeased/accomodated by liberals and opposed by conservatives during his rise to power.

Here are some exceprts from Dr. John J. Ray's fabulous and well documented exploration of the topic:

He had been something of a bohemian in his youth, and always regarded young people and their idealism as the key to progress and the overcoming of outmoded prejudices. And he was widely admired by the young people of his country, many of whom belonged to organizations devoted to practicing and propagating his teachings. He had a lifelong passion for music, art, and architecture, and was even something of a painter. He rejected what he regarded as petty bourgeois moral hang-ups, and he and his girlfriend "lived together" for years. He counted a number of homosexuals as friends and collaborators, and took the view that a man's personal morals were none of his business; some scholars of his life believe that he himself may have been homosexual or bisexual. He was ahead of his time where a number of contemporary progressive causes are concerned: he disliked smoking, regarding it as a serious danger to public health, and took steps to combat it; he was a vegetarian and animal lover; he enacted tough gun control laws; and he advocated euthanasia for the incurably ill.

He championed the rights of workers, regarded capitalist society as brutal and unjust, and sought a third way between communism and the free market. In this regard, he and his associates greatly admired the strong steps taken by President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to take large-scale economic decision-making out of private hands and put it into those of government planning agencies. His aim was to institute a brand of socialism that avoided the inefficiencies that plagued the Soviet variety, and many former communists found his program highly congenial. He deplored the selfish individualism he took to be endemic to modern Western society, and wanted to replace it with an ethic of self-sacrifice: "As Christ proclaimed 'love one another'," he said, "so our call -- 'people's community,' 'public need before private greed,' 'communally-minded social consciousness' -- rings out.! This call will echo throughout the world!"

The reference to Christ notwithstanding, he was not personally a Christian, regarding the Catholicism he was baptized into as an irrational superstition. In fact he admired Islam more than Christianity, and he and his policies were highly respected by many of the Muslims of his day. He and his associates had a special distaste for the Catholic Church and, given a choice, preferred modern liberalized Protestantism, taking the view that the best form of Christianity would be one that forsook the traditional other-worldly focus on personal salvation and accommodated itself to the requirements of a program for social justice to be implemented by the state. They also considered the possibility that Christianity might eventually have to be abandoned altogether in favor of a return to paganism, a worldview many of them saw as more humane and truer to the heritage of their people. For he and his associates believed strongly that a people's ethnic and racial heritage was what mattered most. Some endorsed a kind of cultural relativism according to which what is true or false and right or wrong in some sense depends on one's ethnic worldview, and especially on what best promotes the well-being of one's ethnic group

As Dr. Ray points out this sounds like any modern candidate for the Democratic party.  Hitler, were he alive today, would be one of them...  Here's part of a manifesto he produced for the National Socialist German Workers Party in 1925:

Therefore we demand:

11. That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished.

12. Since every war imposes on the people fearful sacrifices in life and property, all personal profit arising from the war must be regarded as a crime against the people. We therefore demand the total confiscation of all war profits whether in assets or material.

13. We demand the nationalization of businesses which have been organized into cartels.

14. We demand that all the profits from wholesale trade shall be shared out.

15. We demand extensive development of provision for old age.

16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a healthy middle-class, the immediate communalization of department stores which will be rented cheaply to small businessmen, and that preference shall be given to small businessmen for provision of supplies needed by the State, the provinces and municipalities.

17. We demand a land reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to confiscate from the owners without compensation any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land.

Who can argue that this is not a page right out of any modern US Democrat's secret dream book?  Abolish all investment income?  Check.  Confiscate war profits, i.e. Halliburton?  Check.  Demand nationalization of large businesses like "big oil", "big pharmaceutical" and "big banks"?  Check.  Free ride for old folks since you took away all their businesses and investments?  Check.  Push class warfare and pander to the middle class?  Check.  Attack department stores (the Wal Mart's of their day)?  Check.  No more private property rights?  Check.  I can truly imagine Barack Obama signing all of this into law.

The United States of America is currently rushing towards socialism.  Can fascism be far behind?  I believe they go hand in hand, especially during times of unrest and economic uncertainty.  The rise of socialism in the US timed with our current economic difficulties is no accident.  People in fear will reach out to anything for salvation, and leftists like Obama advisor Rahm Emmanuel have publicly vowed to use this crisis as an opportunity to get things done they normally could not.  Nationalized banks, nationalized auto companies, nationalized health care... those are only the beginnings.

Check out the rest of Dr. Ray's work and you'll see many many more correlations between Hitler and modern liberals.  It's a terrifying read, and puts to lie their use of his name as a slur against their political opponents when in fact it would more aptly apply to their own leadership.

Hat tip to Gonzo for the link to Dr. Ray.

UPDATE: Here's an Interesting and timely Michelle Malkin post on lefties and their Hitler complex.

UPDATE II: I'm getting a lot of Google searches for "Hitler nationalized banks", evidently from people worried about our President's current policy trajectory.  Here's a direct quote on the matter from Adolf himself:

"We don't have to nationalize the banks and factories. Instead we nationalized the people".

He didn't need to officially nationalize the bank, he just had to place some Nazi's in emplyment there and have the SS drop by every once in awhile to make sure the bank did exactly as he ordered them to.  If the banker steps out of line he's no longer the banker, and may no longer be a free (or even living) man.  Liberals keep clinging to this as some kind of defense, saying "Hitler was a capitalist!", but all industry and private enterprise existed only to serve the Third Reich, which is clearly not a free market by any stretch of the imagination... unless you're a demented left winger I suppose.  

UPDATE: Third World County points us towards a great piece at Spartacus Educational on the Nazi party's socialist characteristics.