Walk Like an Egyptian...or European...or Greek...or Teacher?
Walk Like an Egyptian?
A poll of Egyptians by MEMRI is rather depressing, showing a majority aligning with the overall philosophies of the Muslim Brotherhood – sharia, elimination of Israel, etc.(see/hear Prager’s Feb. 7 hour 1). And Obama says that there are “strains of ideology” in the Muslim Brotherhood that are radical/jihadi? The definition of “strain” is a trace or narrow streak – both implying minute – not the case here. It is basically one and the same as Hamas.
The Egyptian revolution was a failure of U.S. intelligence. And the intelligence agency apparently was getting its information on events there from the news networks. On top of that, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said before Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.” He apparently hasn’t read recent (this month) statements by their leader praising their model, Iran, jihad against the US & Israel, etc. Now the Tunisian & Egyptian governments have fallen, Libya appears about to, and several other countries are seeing the possibility. That certainly would remove barriers to the formation of a pan-Arab Muslim caliphate, a stated goal of key Islamists.
The socialist Left and radical Islam have an alliance of convenience – both want to tear down the status quo and replace it with their own ideologies. They’ll sort out later who wins after it’s torn down, but they clearly are not compatible with one another. The secular Left is trying to hijack Christianity for their purposes – to forcefully share wealth (“charity”), just as the theocrats in Islam. Both want to take our free agency – again, a familiar theme from the war in heaven. Interesting that Saul Alinsky – Obama’s mentor – said in his book he takes his hat off to the first revolutionary – Lucifer.
Maybe if we follow the Middle East uprisings example, and take to the streets, Obama will either announce he’s not seeking a 2nd term, or better yet, abdicate (well, the VP, as well, leaving Boehner in power).
Walk Like a European?
The leaders of UK, France & Germany have each recently acknowledged that their experiments with multiculturalism were utter failures (and are each reversing their socialist trends, implicitly acknowledging that failure, as well). But the U.S. under Obama & Reid & the Left don’t want to learn any lessons – they’re still 2 steps behind in following them down the same path. Again, quoting Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Multiculturalism (& ethnic, class warfare) appeals to the Democrat base, and perpetuates their power, but tears down America. And Europe is about 20 years behind in learning the same lessons from the failed Soviet Union.
And the U.S. had it right from the very beginning, as Prager points out, evidenced by the 3 mottos on our coins: e pluribus unum, liberty & in God we trust. E pluribus unum is the opposite of multiculturalism. Liberty is the opposite of socialism and big government. And in God we trust is the opposite of secularism, which is also failing in Europe – in part providing nothing to counter the Islamic juggernaut.
Walk Like a Greek...or Teacher? Or Which Union Shall we Save?
Obama’s budget proposal doesn’t reduce the deficit – the few token cuts are overwhelmed by the expenditures. Republicans have offered some fairly significant proposed cuts in discretionary spending, but both parties are hesitant to go first on which entitlements (the bulk of the budget), and how much to cut. If no one wants to get specific, seems like the surest and fairest way to cut (without picking on anyone specifically) is an across-the-board flat cut. If that’s too painful or unacceptable, they need to identify priorities. There simply have to be cuts unless we want to go down the road to Greece.
Speaking of Greece, the teacher union strikes/protests in Wisconsin sure look a lot like the Greek riots, and with similar motivations. The minority Democrats in the state legislature have fled the state so as not to be forced to debate or vote on the governor’s & Republican majority’s bill for an austere, emergency budget, including some cuts to the teachers retirement benefits (making them contribute a bit more to their retirement funds like most of the rest of us). The teachers have broken their contracts by walking out to strike (calling in “sick”, and even having doctors fraudulently give them a note), and dragging many of their students along to support their self-interests. What great examples!
President Obama, capitalizing on his community organizing experience, has given verbal support, and his administration has provided other support. Nancy Pelosi proclaimed it “Democracy in action” – right, the Democrat legislators are not participating in the democratic process or negotiations after a legitimate election put a Republican majority in office, the teachers are breaking the law, the union doesn’t want to remove the mandatory dues, or secret union ballot, etc. Democracy in action was when the majority of Wisconsonians spoke in the election for fiscal responsibility, and as one Tea Party counter-protester said, “elections have consequences.” Of course their protests are perfectly legitimate, as opposed to the mean-spirited, violent, bigoted, selfish Tea Party protesters demanding fiscal responsibility.
But the teachers & other union sympathizers fancy themselves in the spirit of the popular uprisings in the Arab world, and maybe think they can topple or intimidate the elected governor and legislative majority. In the same spirit, perhaps if we got a big enough protest in Washington, we could force Obama to step down or agree not to run in 2012? And now Jesse Jackson has stepped in, applying the civil rights slogan, “we shall overcome,” to the union cause.
And as much as the protesters say it’s not about the money, you know it is. Obama says that everyone must tighten their belts in the current economic crisis, but the privileged unions of course feel that doesn’t apply to them. FDR himself rejected the idea of public service employee unions, for good reason. Public servants are employed by the public taxpayer, and are paid what the taxpayers are willing and can afford – not what their union bosses can conveniently “negotiate” with Democrat cronies who are in bed with them. In the private sector, about 10% of employees are unionized, but in the public sector 40%. And over 99% of mandatory union public sector dues go to elect Democrats to Congress. It’s a self-perpetuating (and growing) symbiosis that if left on its own to continue unabated will result in exactly what we see in Greece. We see the same thing in California, and in various other states. The public service pensions (unfunded liability) are the prime cause of most states’ current financial crises.
The unions only care about themselves, and not about the survival of the economy or general welfare, and are not willing to tighten their belts anywhere near where the rest of us must. And the teachers unions might have more of a case if they actually produced a quality product, but when they get paid more than the vast majority of states and produce some of the worst student performance in the country and in the world (as does California), why on earth should they get a pass? Which union are we to save – the public service unions, or the Unites States? The Democrats should go with FDR's advice and dissolve the public service unions before they kill us. And on entitlements, they should go with Kennedy's -- "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
A poll of Egyptians by MEMRI is rather depressing, showing a majority aligning with the overall philosophies of the Muslim Brotherhood – sharia, elimination of Israel, etc.(see/hear Prager’s Feb. 7 hour 1). And Obama says that there are “strains of ideology” in the Muslim Brotherhood that are radical/jihadi? The definition of “strain” is a trace or narrow streak – both implying minute – not the case here. It is basically one and the same as Hamas.
The Egyptian revolution was a failure of U.S. intelligence. And the intelligence agency apparently was getting its information on events there from the news networks. On top of that, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said before Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.” He apparently hasn’t read recent (this month) statements by their leader praising their model, Iran, jihad against the US & Israel, etc. Now the Tunisian & Egyptian governments have fallen, Libya appears about to, and several other countries are seeing the possibility. That certainly would remove barriers to the formation of a pan-Arab Muslim caliphate, a stated goal of key Islamists.
The socialist Left and radical Islam have an alliance of convenience – both want to tear down the status quo and replace it with their own ideologies. They’ll sort out later who wins after it’s torn down, but they clearly are not compatible with one another. The secular Left is trying to hijack Christianity for their purposes – to forcefully share wealth (“charity”), just as the theocrats in Islam. Both want to take our free agency – again, a familiar theme from the war in heaven. Interesting that Saul Alinsky – Obama’s mentor – said in his book he takes his hat off to the first revolutionary – Lucifer.
Maybe if we follow the Middle East uprisings example, and take to the streets, Obama will either announce he’s not seeking a 2nd term, or better yet, abdicate (well, the VP, as well, leaving Boehner in power).
Walk Like a European?
The leaders of UK, France & Germany have each recently acknowledged that their experiments with multiculturalism were utter failures (and are each reversing their socialist trends, implicitly acknowledging that failure, as well). But the U.S. under Obama & Reid & the Left don’t want to learn any lessons – they’re still 2 steps behind in following them down the same path. Again, quoting Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. Multiculturalism (& ethnic, class warfare) appeals to the Democrat base, and perpetuates their power, but tears down America. And Europe is about 20 years behind in learning the same lessons from the failed Soviet Union.
And the U.S. had it right from the very beginning, as Prager points out, evidenced by the 3 mottos on our coins: e pluribus unum, liberty & in God we trust. E pluribus unum is the opposite of multiculturalism. Liberty is the opposite of socialism and big government. And in God we trust is the opposite of secularism, which is also failing in Europe – in part providing nothing to counter the Islamic juggernaut.
Walk Like a Greek...or Teacher? Or Which Union Shall we Save?
Obama’s budget proposal doesn’t reduce the deficit – the few token cuts are overwhelmed by the expenditures. Republicans have offered some fairly significant proposed cuts in discretionary spending, but both parties are hesitant to go first on which entitlements (the bulk of the budget), and how much to cut. If no one wants to get specific, seems like the surest and fairest way to cut (without picking on anyone specifically) is an across-the-board flat cut. If that’s too painful or unacceptable, they need to identify priorities. There simply have to be cuts unless we want to go down the road to Greece.
Speaking of Greece, the teacher union strikes/protests in Wisconsin sure look a lot like the Greek riots, and with similar motivations. The minority Democrats in the state legislature have fled the state so as not to be forced to debate or vote on the governor’s & Republican majority’s bill for an austere, emergency budget, including some cuts to the teachers retirement benefits (making them contribute a bit more to their retirement funds like most of the rest of us). The teachers have broken their contracts by walking out to strike (calling in “sick”, and even having doctors fraudulently give them a note), and dragging many of their students along to support their self-interests. What great examples!
President Obama, capitalizing on his community organizing experience, has given verbal support, and his administration has provided other support. Nancy Pelosi proclaimed it “Democracy in action” – right, the Democrat legislators are not participating in the democratic process or negotiations after a legitimate election put a Republican majority in office, the teachers are breaking the law, the union doesn’t want to remove the mandatory dues, or secret union ballot, etc. Democracy in action was when the majority of Wisconsonians spoke in the election for fiscal responsibility, and as one Tea Party counter-protester said, “elections have consequences.” Of course their protests are perfectly legitimate, as opposed to the mean-spirited, violent, bigoted, selfish Tea Party protesters demanding fiscal responsibility.
But the teachers & other union sympathizers fancy themselves in the spirit of the popular uprisings in the Arab world, and maybe think they can topple or intimidate the elected governor and legislative majority. In the same spirit, perhaps if we got a big enough protest in Washington, we could force Obama to step down or agree not to run in 2012? And now Jesse Jackson has stepped in, applying the civil rights slogan, “we shall overcome,” to the union cause.
And as much as the protesters say it’s not about the money, you know it is. Obama says that everyone must tighten their belts in the current economic crisis, but the privileged unions of course feel that doesn’t apply to them. FDR himself rejected the idea of public service employee unions, for good reason. Public servants are employed by the public taxpayer, and are paid what the taxpayers are willing and can afford – not what their union bosses can conveniently “negotiate” with Democrat cronies who are in bed with them. In the private sector, about 10% of employees are unionized, but in the public sector 40%. And over 99% of mandatory union public sector dues go to elect Democrats to Congress. It’s a self-perpetuating (and growing) symbiosis that if left on its own to continue unabated will result in exactly what we see in Greece. We see the same thing in California, and in various other states. The public service pensions (unfunded liability) are the prime cause of most states’ current financial crises.
The unions only care about themselves, and not about the survival of the economy or general welfare, and are not willing to tighten their belts anywhere near where the rest of us must. And the teachers unions might have more of a case if they actually produced a quality product, but when they get paid more than the vast majority of states and produce some of the worst student performance in the country and in the world (as does California), why on earth should they get a pass? Which union are we to save – the public service unions, or the Unites States? The Democrats should go with FDR's advice and dissolve the public service unions before they kill us. And on entitlements, they should go with Kennedy's -- "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
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