Another Environmental Lie Exposed: Bees are Thriving ... Alan Caruba

Another Environmental Lie Exposed: Bees are Thriving

By Alan Caruba

I cannot say it strong enough. Do not believe the lies that environmental groups, particularly those that receive millions from liberal foundations and from members who never question the “science” they claim to justify massive scare campaigns.

One such organization is Friends of the Earth (FOE) and its latest claim is that bees are dying all over the world as the result of the use of pesticides in agriculture and by people protecting their gardens.  It is a lie.

The attack on the use of pesticides began in 1962 with the publication of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” that claimed that their use posed a threat to human life. She said “Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world.”

The problem with her opinion is that humanity cannot alter nature, but can protect itself against the diseases and other problems. Humanity endures nature in the form of climate that currently is cooling much of the Earth. Were it not for science, we would not have put an end to polio and reduced other diseases such as malaria by killing the mosquitoes that spread it. We would not have learned how to create water purification systems that protect the residents of cities worldwide. We would not have learned how to increase crops that feed millions thanks to genetic modification.

Is humanity at risk? There are seven billion of us, more than any previous time on Earth.

Why do I defend pesticides? Because, since the 1980s, I have served pest control trade associations by providing communications programs. In the 1980s I worked for a corporation that produced one of the most extraordinary pesticides invented; one that was applied with water! It so alarmed the Environmental Protection Agency, that it insisted that its multi-million dollar registration be repeated and that company decided to cease making it available in the U.S.

What do pesticides do? They protect us against trillions of insect and rodent pests that spread diseases while some represent millions in property damage—termites—every year. In June 2011, the EPA announced it intended to ban the sale of “the most toxic rat and mouse poisons, as well as most loose bait and pellet products” to residential customers. The only result of such a ban would be millions more rats and mice in their homes!

Rachel Carson’s book predicted the massive loss of bird species due to the use of pesticides. It was a bestseller and is still in print. She was wrong, but she triggered the beginning and growth of environmental groups that have used the same bad “science” to unleash all manner of fears on Americans and worldwide. Friends of the Earth is just one of them.

Recently I received a FOE email from Lisa Archer, its food and technology program director, in which she reported a Valentine’s Day project to stop Home Depot and Lowe’s stores from selling pesticides. The project is based on the totally false claim that all the bees are dying from the use of pesticides; in particular neonicotid pesticides that are widely used in agriculture.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) disputes this while acknowledging that “In the last decade, a massive decline in bee populations was detected. It was given the name of “Bee Colony Collapse Disorder” and “while the problem seems to have abated somewhat after 2010, periodic declines continued, and fears of recurrent major extinctions persisted.” The fears have been fanned by environmental organizations, but the ACSH revealed new research by scientists affiliated with the Department of Agriculture here and in China, reviewed in “The Scientist” that “provides the first evidence that the bee problem in fact, stems from the tobacco ringspot virus (TRSV), not from pesticides.”

Not from pesticides despite the FOE’s claim that “neonicotinoid pesticides are killing bees” noting that Europe is banning them. Europe is a hotbed of environmental fears and, ironically, is reversing its trend toward solar and wind energy after it has driven up the cost of electricity there and harmed its economic growth.

The ACSH reports that “the bees may pick up the virus from the pollen of plants that they feed upon, and that the virus may be spread to other bees by mites that feed on them. Once it has gained a foothold in a bee, the researchers determined that TRVS can replicate itself in the bee’s body.” 

“This process of a virus moving from one species to another is call ‘host shifting’”.

Writing in 2012, Rich Kozlovich, a pest control expert, reported that “it is not true that there has been a mysterious worldwide collapse in honey bee populations. In fact managed bee hives (which contain the bees which do the vast majority of our pollinating) have increased by a remarkable 45 percent over the last five years.”

He also noted that “most staple foods—wheat, rice and corn—do not depend on animal pollination at all. They are wind-pollinated, or self-pollinating.”

These well-established facts mean nothing to FOE or other environmental organizations seeking to demonize pesticides. It means nothing to the EPA that has banned many extraordinarily effective pesticides from use to protect humans and property.

It is the advances of modern science that have protected and extended human life. Banning them just exposes Americans to a range of diseases, some of which kill. Until more Americans understand that the real threat is the EPA and the environmental groups spreading baseless fears, they will continue to be at risk.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 3.2 million page views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.

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The Leftist Assault on American Football ... Douglas V. Gibbs

The Leftist Assault on American Football

By Douglas V. Gibbs

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I love football.  I watched Peyton Manning lead Denver over New England (I was surprised Tom Brady didn't pull it off, to be honest), and enjoyed the NFC Championship Game, where the Seattle Seahawks finished off San Francisco.  I had a few phone calls while watching those games, too.  Two of the callers asked me about television shows and movies, and the political messages intertwined in them.  I told them, "Of course.  The leftists never rest, and they use every tool available to them to silence, and destroy, their opposition.  Nothing is sacred.  Everything is political."

Everything is political.

The battle is the same, no matter the name.

Talking heads battle over the virtue of one, or the other.  Political parties claim theirs is the ideology that will best serve the nation.  Motivational speakers ask individuals to look inward, psychiatrists ask us to dig deep inward, and progressives tell us to abandon what is inward.  Voices that claim to be conventional wisdom preach that we must do what is best for the common good, while other voices proclaim that it is best to be self-sufficient, and to take care of one's own interests.  Either we must accomplish goals in our lives, or we must be raised by a village.  Either we must compete, or we must be dependents.

Swirling opinions circle our heads to the point that we don't want to talk about religion and politics.  The discussions are too divisive, we utter.  Can't we just come together as a single race of beings?  Then, we go to the game, to compete, to cheer, and to talk smack against the other side.

Which is more important?  Community?  Or our individual selves?  Should we be a collective society?  Or should we be a society of self-reliant individuals?

Individualism creates strong communities, but collectivism destroys individualism.  Individuals compete, and work hard to prosper.  Collectivism downplays competition, proclaiming equity, and allegiance to the ruling elite.  Individualism cries out for freedom, be it the freedom to succeed, or the freedom to fail.  Collectivism calls for peace and safety, which begins with the ruling class attempting to protect you even from yourself.

Competition, therefore, stands in the way of a society seeking progressive paths to utopia.  Therefore, competition cannot be tolerated.

In Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome, sporting events were an important part of the culture.  Olympians and Gladiators performed for the masses, distracting them from the truth, diverting their attention from the crumbling pillars and domes of the once great societies.  Or was it the opposite?  Were those sporting events actually examples of the individuality that reigned in society?  Were they not examples of the competitive nature of the civilization the ordinary citizens battled in?  What happened to the nature of competition as the empires fell, and the statists gained control of the governmental systems?

Sporting events became training grounds.  Children participated in sporting events not only to compete, and be healthy, but because these events served as military training. Ball games, and equestrian events, were common. Many sporting events grew into major entertainments that became both spectacular and bloody.

The fall of the Roman Empire less than 500 years after the birth of Christ led the western civilized world into a thousand year darkness of chaos and barbarity, according to historians.  The time period is called "The Dark Ages," and during this era of disorganization, and lack of prosperity, physical activity, sport, and fitness diminished.

Viewing history, then, the presence of sporting events normally accompany the prosperity of society.  The more prosperous the civilization, the more sporting it becomes.

Everything is political.

According to some political thinkers, prosperity emerges when individuals have the freedom to dream, innovate, and seek their own success.  Less government regulation, and the presence of a free market, enables competition among the individuals seeking to better themselves through a business enterprise.  The success of these endeavors, then, enables an increase of products and services in the market for consumers, while creating employment as the operation grows.

The political thinkers that oppose the free market, and the individualistic point of view, contend that individualism hinders social solidarity and community. The individual cannot become a full adult and a capable person in any sense without becoming also by the same movement social and solid with his fellows.

But how can one become a beneficial part of the community if he does not strive for personal rewards?  How can an individual learn how to exist in, and improve, his community if he hasn't struggled and competed against rivals?

To serve oneself is to serve the community, but to serve the community one denies himself.

The argument should not be an absolute, where you are either an individual, or a collectivist.  The argument should be, "which one best serves both?"

To put the community above the individual is to deny individuality, but to put the individual above community is to populate the community with successful individuals, which in the long run, benefits the community.

The greater the challenge, the greater the effort, and the greater the accomplishments of the individual.

So why, in God's Name, would anybody wish to quell individual accomplishment, and competition?

Which brings us to American professional football.

Progressives place the community, and government, above individuals, individual accomplishment, and above individual competition.  Theirs is a world of social engineering, where only the political ruling elite understands what is best for society.  If their decisions, and their beliefs, are above all else, then why would they tolerate anything that says otherwise?

Sports is completely antithetical to what the leftists are trying to achieve.  Sports allows the individual to be the best he can be, while competing against other individuals.  However, as in the free market, when the individual excels, it is good for the community, be it the team, or the league.  The team prospers by winning, bringing in more fans, and selling more product.  The league wins by cashing in on popular games, and selling more product.  All because of some talented individuals, competing to be the best.

On the surface, many progressives may even love sports, themselves.  But deep down, sports represents the opposite of what the leftists stand for.  It dares to scream in the face of their political ideology, and reveal the truth about individualism.  However, the Left cannot just come out and ban sports.  They cannot come out and say that you little peasant folk aren't allowed to participate in competition, anymore.  That would reveal who they are, and what their true face is.  As with everything else they do, the American liberal left must use the back door, and convince the people to agree with them through a series of attacks against the item in question.

Enter, stage left, the sudden interest in concussions caused by playing football.  Writers, commentators and politicians have decided that the risk is too much to take.  Studies are being done about head injuries, and the long-term health effects, caused by a lifetime of playing football.

My first thought is, "Yeah, fine, but the players are fully aware of what they are getting themselves into."

The concept of liberty includes the freedom to take risks, undertake dangerous activities, and even do stupid things if you are dumb enough to do them.

As always, the Left's main tool in this attempt to punch football in the eye is through the courts.  Lawsuits are emerging.  A current lawsuit pits former National Football League players against the league for health issues that are, they claim, a result of trauma received during their careers. They assert that they were not aware of the risks involved when they played.

The assault is achieving the desired result.  The NFL has put into place new rules to make the sport safer.  Tackling is virtually gone in training camps.  Players are afraid to hit above the mid-torso, because if they get too close to the head, it's a huge penalty.

Progressives are jumping on board, working to pacify the game, and change football into a safe and humane sport.

President Barack Obama said, "I would not let my son play pro-football."

In New York, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto said he will introduce legislation to ban tackle football for children at under age 14, as well as disallowing "heading" in soccer.

In Illinois, the governor has signed into law a requirement for programs to insure student-athletes.  This will decimate smaller sports programs, and will probably kill a number of the larger programs, as well.

We must keep our children safe, we are being told.  Don't let them be individuals, and don't let them play, unless their play is a government approved activity, of course.

And we thought they spent a lot of time on their smart-phones, as it is.

"That's okay," the leftists are probably figuring.  "The kids won't be as fit, they won't be as nimble, and they won't be as agile.  Who are we?  Rome?  Let's not let the children be trained to be good soldiers. . . or individuals."

The violence of sports, especially football, as far as the Left is concerned, must be taken away.  We must spare our children from such barbarity . . . and teach them to serve the government through liberal education, instead.

What's next?  If kids start playing football in the street will they be candidates for the school psychologist?  If the counseling doesn't work, maybe the Ritalin will.

First dodgeball (and God help us if they ever try to call it "Smear the Queer," like we did when we were kids), and now football.  Pretty soon, if the liberal left has its way, the kids will be playing with sticks and hoops without any competition whatsoever allowed, like the Amish...but minus the religion part.

We don't want our kids being aggressive, you know.  It might offend somebody.

Muslim suicide bombers will be exempt, I am sure.

Dumb them down, pacify their activities, and teach them to obey the government.  Sports teaches individual accomplishment way too much for the taste of the liberal left.  The village says no more football, so that is the next goal.

Except, freedom always finds a way.  Individuality always finds a way to emerge, and spread its wings.

They may push us down for a season, but in the end, the human spirit of liberty always finds a way.

As the NFL does more and more to appease the forces against the league, passing new rules to keep the players safe, a new league will emerge.  Perhaps the Arena League, or maybe something like the XFL league that Pro Wrestling Mogul Vince McMahon tried to start.  Believe me, an alternative to return the game to its true self, will emerge.  The NFL may eventually sell out, but that does not mean the end of football, contact sports, or individuality.

"The good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army.  They may be led astray for a moment, but will soon correct themselves."  -- Thomas Jefferson

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Obama: 'I would not let my son play pro football' - The Hill

Limbaugh asks, Will Liberal Media Try to Ban Football? - NewsBusters

Destroying Football: The Left's Endgame - American Thinker

New Rule at NFL Camps: No Tackling. Just Practice - New York Times

NY Democrat Seeks to Ban Youth Tackle Football, Kids from "Heading" the ball in Soccer - Weasel Zippers

Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory ... Again? ... J. D. Longstreet

Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory ... Again?
So Near And Yet So Far
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Please read the following brief article to learn how far the GOP has leaned toward granting AMNESTY for Illegal Aliens in America as of this writing: 
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/immigration-house-republicans-102884.html 
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The Republican Party is set to reap a virtual bumper crop of votes from the "Obamasick" electorate in November increasing their numbers in the US House of Representatives and securing control of the US Senate ... unless ... they push through an Amnesty for Illegal Aliens bill known as Comprehensive Immigration Reform. 

Look.  You can slice it and dice it, twist it and turn it, and it STILL means amnesty.

I have no degree from the ivy covered ivory towers of academia, but I have enough smarts to know that for the GOP to go after the Hispanic vote is a lost cause.  It is wasted time, effort and money ... and conservative voters who will stay home again in November IF the GOP insists on passing an Amnesty for Illegal Aliens bill.

If the GOP passes the immigration bill, it will be the end of the GOP ... period.  All those undocumented aliens are, in fact, undocumented democrats. 

Look.  The democrats are not concerned for those poor immigrants.  No.  They're looking at 12 million-plus democrat voters!  They are looking at enlarging their party and locking up control of the US government as far into the future as the eye can see. 

The democrats have sent armies of “helpers” into the field to register “new” voters from among those whose livelihood depends on the government check they receive the first of each month. And it worked! Now, add to those legions the millions of illegal aliens who will be voting for the democrat/socialists as soon as the Comprehensive Immigration Bill becomes effective  and you and I will be overruled at the ballot box in perpetuity.

Back in 2013 I wrote: We have said all along the problem with illegal immigration across our southern border could be fixed, almost immediately, if the government wanted it fixed.  Now we know for certain that they do not want the southern border sealed.  See, those are democratic voters coming across that invisible line headed north into the land of milk and honey and along side them on their northward trek is cheap labor!

Basically, Americans STILL want the border closed and sealed FIRST!  It is common sense to stop the leak before bailing.  Once the border is closed and sealed then taking care of those aliens here illegally can begin and mass deportations can begin. 

Like you, I have heard all the arguments from the government that they cannot find all those 12 million, or so, illegal aliens who have integrated into our society in order to deport them.  I don’t buy it, not for one second.  If the government was serious about finding them all they’d have to do is enlist the help of American citizens and you would have convoys of school buses, filled to capacity with illegal aliens, headed south to the border to be deported.  Maybe the government doesn’t know where they are, but you can bet your bottom dollar American citizens know where they are - or can find them - post haste.

Yes, Americans ARE angry with the illegal alien mess and the numerous attempts by our government to offer them amnesty, which would, in time, offer them citizenship. But, as Rasmussen learned when doing their survey, Americans are not mad at the illegal aliens.  No!  They/we are mad at our government for allowing this to happen in the first place!

Those of you who support open borders do not, I repeat, do not try to beat us about the head and shoulders with the old saw that says America is a nation of immigrants.  See, we already know that because our ancestors were immigrants, too.  Mine came into the country, legally, in 1789 through what was then Charleston Harbor and were assigned a place in the 96th precinct of the state of South Carolina.  Notice - they came into this country LEGALLY!  That is all we expect of any who wants to immigrate to America.  Do it legally and we will welcome you with open arms. Do it illegally and we want you caught and deported forthwith!

It is becoming ever more clear, everyday, that America’s biggest problem with illegal immigration is not with those who illegally break into our country and help to bleed it dry, but with our government which refuses to uphold the laws already on the books.  Had those laws been enforced we would not be in the situation we find ourselves today.  Plus, the problem of what to do with these 12-plus million illegal aliens would not be a problem, at all, IF the government would simply follow the laws on the books today.

Those illegal aliens are natural democrats. Even Ann Coulter said recently:  "It's not their position on amnesty that immigrants don't like; it's Republicans' support for small government, gun rights, patriotism, the Constitution and capitalism.

Reading these statistics, does anyone wonder why Democrats think vastly increasing immigration should be the nation's No. 1 priority?

It would be one thing if the people with these views already lived here. Republicans would have no right to say, "You can't vote.

But why on Earth are they bringing in people sworn to their political destruction?"  -- SOURCE:  http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2014-01-29.html  

So, if the democrats are for amnesty, and the republicans are for amnesty -- whose against it?  The people of the country are against it, that's who! 

How is it that Washington cannot feel the anger of the average US citizen toward any relaxing of the immigration laws, especially toward the Hispanics who are flooding our country and bringing our health services, and educational services, and welfare services, to the breaking point? 

Or -- do they just not care?

Sadly, I believe it to be the latter.  They just don't care. The dems are on a power trip and the repubs are running scared, in a panic, that Mainstream Media might say something unflattering about them!  

Do you know the largest political party in America today?  It's Independents.  Well, they're not a party, that's true,  but there ARE more registered Independents in America than there either Democrats or Republicans.  And now you know why.

The GOP is headed for the fringes of American politics.  It's as though they have a self-destruct switch stuck in the "on" position.

Conservatives are near to washing their hands of the GOP.  If that happens, it, too, will spell the doom of the Republican Party.

So near and yet so far. For conservative republicans these days, it sort of like being Tántalos.   If you remember your Greek mythology,  Tántalos was a Greek mythological figure, most famous for his eternal punishment in Tartarus. He was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp, and the water always receding before he could take a drink.  Sound Familiar?

The GOP needs to wake up and get a grip on reality.  And they need to do it quickly.

J. D. Longstreet
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Swine Termination ... J. D. Longstreet

Swine Termination
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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The recent near arctic weather we have been experiencing brought back some fond and not so fond memories of my Carolina country boy heritage.

(Before I delve into this missive, allow me to set the record straight -- in the spirit of full disclosure, don't you know.  

The original title of this piece was:  "Hog Killing Time."  But, since I am a thoroughly modern ole codger, I am aware of the, shall we say, sensitivities of the younger set.  Therefore the change in  the title to a kinder, more gentle, description of the "Slaughter of the Swine."  Just thought you ought to know.) 

As I walked down my concrete driveway to retrieve my morning  newspaper from it's delivery box, in a nine degree temperature, memories came flooding back of cold January mornings like those when I was a lad. It was hog killing weather!

Now, we had a small country place about thirteen miles south of the North Carolina border in South Carolina. We were eight to ten miles out "in the country."  I don't mean suburbs -- no.  I mean in the country.

From the time I was old enough, and strong enough, to heft a 5 gallon paint bucket filled with edible garbage,  referred to as "slop," it was one of my chores to "slop" the hogs and water them before I went to school each morning.  That was my job -- summer, or winter, rain or fair, the animals always came first.

I kept a stick cut from a nearby tree, from which I had stripped the bark  and this I used  to break the ice in the watering trough for the hogs on those frigid winter mornings.

Rarely did we have any breed of hogs other than Hampshires.  The Hampshire hog is a domestic swine breed characterized by erect ears and a black body with a whitish band around the middle, covering the front legs -- and a quite unpleasant disposition.  They could, with the slightest provocation, or none, become violent -- with no notice -- and attempt to take a massive bite from the human limb nearest and most exposed to them.  Having virtually no neck, the irritated swine would, turn his head as much as he could and upon grabbing said limb in his mouth, in one smooth action, snap his head back to the normal position, thereby breaking said limb of the unfortunate human who had been so careless as to get too near and drop his guard for an instant.  It was a constant danger when dealing with those Hampshires.

The could also climb -- (Hogs usually prefer to go under a fence rather than over it.  They are, after all "rooting" animals.)  and DID more often than I care to remember, leading me on a several day's long chase tracking them through the woods and muddy bogs and the many hardwood thickets on our little country place.

Dad's hog pens always seemed to have the tallest sides.  Once he was asked if he was penning up a hog -- or a gorilla.  I am happy to report that we tracked each one of the swine escapees down and returned them to their place of confinement. 

As killing time approached we'd build a wooden floor in a section of the pen.  The hogs to be butchered were moved to the floored area and from then until their demise they were fed the choicest food, such as corn, and store bought hog feed that contained some of the sweetest smelling molasses I have ever, to this day, smelled.  

The near-by neighbors and relatives would begin gathering at our house before dawn.  (They would receive generous and  choice portions of fresh pork at the close of the day's proceedings.) Fires were built around huge black cast iron wash pots.  A frame for suspending the carcass was erected -- usually in the form of a tripod. 

I won't walk you through the entire process, but allow me to say that we ate very well.  Nothing went to waist that could be eaten, in some form, from that animal.

It was a daylong process and by nightfall everyone was exhausted and nearly frozen from the near frigid temperatures.  And it was messy ... very messy.  Slaughtering always is. But as is the case with making omelets, well, you know the expression.  But all that hard work was rewarded with some of the finest, tastiest, dinner table fare to ever grace the palate of man.

So why am I writing a piece about something that is totally off the "narrative" of the conservative commentariat today?  Simply because it IS off the narrative.  

Then there is, I suppose, a bit of me that hopes you begin to see that when I speak of self sufficiency, of responsibility for one's self, of dependance on no one but yourself, I really do know what I'm talking about -- first hand.

I proudly hail from a background of red necks and blue collars, of moonshiners and smugglers, of rakes, rogues, rebels, rascals, and reverends.  We even have a long, and colorful,  history in local law enforcement. In other words, the salt of the earth -- all off-spring of the family that sailed into the Charleston Harbor in 1789 (just five years after the British and Tories were kicked out and the name changed from Charles Town to Charleston) and settled in the ninety-sixth precinct of South Carolina.  

You will note that I said nothing above of the family being, at any time, involved with politics.  While my ancestors did not shy from, shall we say, shadowy activities, some less than circumspect, ahem, politics was considered just too, uh, distasteful.     

They were proud, tough, independent, thoroughly southern and thoroughly American.

So why am I telling  you this?  Well, I suppose it's a part of my bona fides.  When I write of individual freedom and liberty,  it's because I grew up enjoying both. I know both the cost AND the value of each.  It is a part of who I am.  And I am not alone. 

See, when my generation observes the current crop of citizens who seem to be oblivious as they micturate away their individual freedom,  we are frequently dumbfounded.  I must tell you I have been more dumbfounded in the past five years than ever before in my life!

So.  I have come full circle, back to the conservative narrative. 

So many of my generation, are approaching, or have past, that point in our lives when we had hoped to hand off the mantle of  "apologist" for our representative republic to a younger, more zestful, more zealous, more healthful generation ... only to find so many have no clue what they have lost and are totally incapable of defending those freedoms that still remain but are tentative, at best. 

Do not mistake anger for bitterness.  I am not bitter.  I am angry.  The ravages of time and ill health have made it so that I can do little more, these days, than climb aboard my cyber soapbox and shake my verbal fist in the face of the spineless leaders in Washington who have taken advantage of a dumbed-down electorate to trash our constitution and steal our liberty.  I find very little in the way of redemption for any from either side of the aisle.

They remind me often of the hogs I described above, except -- they are slurping from the public trough.  At least the Hampshires wound up on our dinner table where THEY actually did some good.

J. D. Longstreet
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I Am Afraid of My Government ... Alan Caruba

I Am Afraid of My Government

By Alan Caruba

I came into this world when Franklin D. Roosevelt was President and I have never been afraid of my government until now.

I am not alone. A consistent and growing theme of commentaries on the conservative news sites and blogs that I read every day is the fear of the Obama administration that has been cracking down on those who criticize it. They get audited by the IRS. They are refused the same status as non-profit entitles engaging in public education as Left-leaning organizations. They are accused of being racists, homophobes, anti-immigration, and anti-women.

This goes beyond the ordinary disagreements between individuals and groups that express opposition to the Obama administration. It has the look of a deliberate campaign and we have three more years of Obama as President in which to endure it.

In a speech to the leftist nonprofit Center for American Progress, Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-BY) recently urged the IRS to “redouble” its intimidation tactics against the Tea Party. He represents a State whose governor recently said that conservatives were not welcome to live and do business. Its largest city, New York, just elected a Marxist as its mayor.

Jim Lakely, the director of communications of The Heartland Institute, a free market think tank that has led the effort to debunk the global warming hoax, recently posted a commentary, “The Unceasing Political Thuggery of Obama’s Gangster Government.” He noted Michael Barone’s description of the Obama administration as a “gangster government.”

Lakely cited the growing list of actions taken against who have expressed criticism. It includes Dinesh D’Souza who produced a documentary about Obama’s life, “Obama’s America” and who arrested on felony charges for violating campaign finance law. “This is beyond absurd—especially in light of what the FBI and IRS have found not worthy of any investigation, let alone indictment” in the past. A Hollywood group of conservatives, the only one there, received an IRS demand for its complete donor list; this is a repeat of similar demands of Tea Party groups seeking non-profit status. James O’Keefe whose Project Veritas exposed the nonprofit status of the leftist ACORN is being audited as was Frank VanderSloot, a big Republican donor as was conservative journalist Wayne Allen Root—twice. The list keeps growing.

The Heartland Institute was subjected to the stealing of its confidential budget and planning documents by global warming activist Peter Gleick “for the purpose of harassing” its donors, but no action has been taken against him by law enforcement authorities.

“Never in the history of this country have we seen such a broad and coordinated abuse of the government’s power to threaten criminal prosecution and ruin the lives and livelihoods of people the President and his party see as political ‘enemies’”, says Lakely.

“This should be the political scandal of the century—if only we had an honorable and competent MSM (mainstream media) press corps in this country.”

Ordinary Americans have cause to share my fear as they discover the wreckage that Obamacare is inflicting on our healthcare system, losing their insurance plans, and now we are hearing that the insurance industry may have to be bailed out as it is subjected to major losses. The government’s website is not only a disaster, but it subjects anyone using it to the threat of identity theft as experts testify it can be hacked with ease.

The economy of a nation with enormous energy reserves, enough to make us energy sufficient for decades, is being undermined by a deliberate campaign to shut down coal-fired plants and make the construction of new ones impossible. The Keystone XL pipeline from Canada has been delayed for five years despite the jobs it represents and access to oil at the same time the government has slowed the provision of leases to oil companies seeking to explore and extract our own reserves.

And millions of Americans are out of work or have ceased looking for work as the result of the worst economic “recovery” in the history of the nation. This is occurring at a time when the Obama administration has added $6 trillion to the nation’s debt, causing a leading credit agency to downgrade the nation’s credit rating for the first time in its history.

The scandals attributed to the Obama administration keep mounting from “Fast and Furious” that transmitted weapons to Mexican drug cartels, to the failure to provide security to our Libyan consulate despite many requests, leading to the Benghazi killing of a U.S. ambassador and three brave security personnel who went to his aid. The list keeps growing.

There is ample reason for Americans to fear their government these days and the mood of the nation is growing worse as they realize that they have a President who lies all the time and pursues “climate change” policies that have no basis in known science and a campaign of class war based on “income inequality” as the incomes of Middle Class Americans have suffered a decline. The solution to income inequality has always been an increase in the national economy.

The nation’s military is being undermined by budget cuts and policies that encourage open homosexual participation and the introduction of women into its combat forces. A growing list of generals and admirals have been forced to retire.

It has taken only five years to bring the nation to this point and none of the scandals has resulted in anyone in the Obama administration being held accountable.

They have good reason. When they can no longer depend on the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and other elements of the government to act lawfully, this nation—a nation of laws—we are all in jeopardy.

For these and other reasons I and many Americans are growing fearful. We have good reason.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 3.2 million page views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.

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Is America Now A Fascist State? ... J. D. Longstreet

Is America Now A Fascist State?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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When the news broke that movie maker Dinesh D'Souza's had been indicted by Obama's so-called Justice Department, I had cold chills run up and down my spine.  I thought:  "Well, it has finally happened.  The US is now a fascist state."     

How long are Americans going to allow their freedom and liberty to be crushed under the jackboots of the Obama Administration?  How long?  Huh?

So you think Fascist is too harsh a term, do you?  Well, let's take a closer look.

OK -- so what is a fascist?  According to The Urban Dictionary a fascist is "someone who believes in a totalitarian state rule by a supreme leader (dictator) who controls everything possible and treats people harshly -- to gain the leader's own success...."

Sound familiar?  In a piece by John Griffing, published at American Thinker, Mr. Griffing says the following: "At its core, fascism is really just a system where government, through agreements with the private sector, controls virtually all property and income indirectly and Obama has embraced this template." 

Mr. Griffing goes on to say: "Fascism is correctly associated with tyranny since nations that employ the tenets of fascism almost always transition from a republican or parliamentary form of government to some sort of personality cult usually centered on an economic "savior."  Fascism requires extensive state control, and if this control is not centralized in a singular personality, the results will be muddied and plagued with excessive overlap.  All of Obama's actions have highly fascist overtones."  Read the entire article here:  http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/american_jeopardy_what_is_fasc.html

It is gratifying, to say the least, to find someone who agrees with our viewpoint of Obama and his regime.  It is truly frightening to see America being fundamentally changed from a constitutional republic into a fascist dictatorship under Obama.  But, that is what we have in America today.

What?  You say it can't happen in America?  Well, I hate to disagree with your assessment, but dear reader, it already has happened.  The task of freedom loving Americans now -- IS TO CHANGE IT BACK!   That goal is becoming ever more difficult, with every passing day, as the line between the private sector and the public sector is being systematically and intentionally blurred by the Obama Regime. You may not wish to admit it, even to yourself, but, as Mr. Griffing says in his article at American Thinker,   "individual liberty can often be conditioned on complicity with state aims, as manifested in the private sector sphere."  He is spot on!

Look, we Americans are being "conditioned" by the Obama Regime to jump through any hoop Obama should hold up in front of us. 

Many weeks ago we warned of an avalanche of taxes on the horizon for America.  That avalanche is about to come rumbling down to crush the last remnant of resistance to the Obama fascist agenda.  There are twenty-plus NEW TAXES about to be levied on Americans -- all associated, in some way, to Obamacare.  And it will get worse... count on it!

Obama and the democrats have bankrupted America. We are broke.  There is no more money available within the government budget to stave of the insolvency of America. 

So what must happen?  Huge tax increases. As Charles Krauthammer has warned us: "There just isn't enough to cut elsewhere to prevent national insolvency.  That will require massive tax increases, most likely a European-style value-added tax."  Read the entire article here (SOURCE)  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/15/AR2010071504593.html?

Americans who have already been mentally "conditioned" will simply lie down and allow the Obama taxes, such as a VAT tax, to wash over them.  Those of us who are not "conditioned" will fight it every step of the way. Even the Vat tax is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. It cannot cover the shortfall of funds America faces in the future.

Only a strong fascist leader could "condition" Americans to accept what is coming next -- the looting of the individual American.  Obama is setting the stage with his campaign on income inequality. What he's talking about, dear reader, is socialism, plain and simple.  

In an article at the American thinker written by Kyle Anne Shiver and entitled: "Barack Obama, the Quintessential liberal fascist" Shiver says:  "Neither did Barack Obama invent the political "ideology of change," nor design its carefully crafted propaganda.  While media folks talked of the tingles up their legs and the brilliant rhetoric of Barack Obama, they were heralding the speaker only, not the creator of the movement and its slogans.  That would have been Saul Alinsky, the man who took fascism and cunningly made it appear to casual observers every bit as American as apple pie.

Barack Obama is merely the movement's closer, the quintessential liberal fascist with a teleprompter."  Read the entire article here: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html

As much as I dislike admitting it, we HAVE become conditioned  “not to see the forest for the trees.”  We inhabit Obama’s fascist America, yet we don’t seem able to see it for what it is. 

Today we Americans seem to lack what the military refers to as “situational awareness.” Just as on the battlefield where lack of situational awareness can easily lead to the demise of the individual, it can also lead the people of a country into placidly standing by as their nation is hi-jacked and “fundamentally changed,” from a nation where the government serves the people -- to a nation where the people serve the government. 

That has already happened. The question now is -- can we change it back to its rightful condition.   We have a chance this coming November to say to the would-be Leftist dictators of the world, including those-who-would-be-king right here in America ... NO!  We will now allow you to steal our liberty, our freedom, our COUNTRY from us.   We cannot allow the chance to save America pass us by.  It MAY be our last chance.

Are WE to be the generation that lost America?  Think about that.  We have just over ten months to save America.  The Right side of the political spectrum must come together as a unified force to defeat the denizens of the Left.  We must cleanse our garden of the evil Leviathan.

J. D. Longstreet
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Destroy the Family -- Destroy the Country ... J. D. Longstreet

Destroy the Family -- Destroy the Country 
By J. D. Longstreet
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We have all heard it said that the basic building block of society is the family. It's true, and has been true since the Garden of Eden. Until now, that is.

America's hedonist lifestyle has prevailed and we have made a remarkable decision.  We have decided that our wishes and desires, our lusting after, and coveting after well, everything, is far more important than a family.  As a result the American family, except for rare instances, doesn't exist anymore. Oh, we have groups of people we refer to as "family," often times living beneath the same roof, but it’s not a family… not in the true sense of the word.

There has been a movement underway in America -- since at least the early 1900's -- to tear this country down to its bare elements and rebuild it in the mold of a socialist/communist state.  To do that successfully, the American family must be destroyed. 

The easiest way -- and the bloodless way -- to do that is to redefine what a family actually is.

And we have.

America has redefined Family until we have practically defined it out of existence. I think that was intentional. Our socialist brothers and sisters, on the left, want to control this country and to do that they must destroy the basic building blocks of this republic and reassemble those blocks to suit themselves. As we noted above, the single most important building block of any nation is her families. If you destroy that, you can easily lay claim to a nation’s soul. And that is exactly what has happened.

It has been reported recently that families with unmarried parents now out number families with married parents in America. This, in itself, is more leftist propaganda. 

Understand: The group of people with unmarried parents, at its head, is NOT a family... in the true sense of the word. So the entire report was based upon the flawed assumption that a family is a group of people with the authority figure, either married or unmarried. That is not the classic family. That is a mob.

American society, today, is rotten at its core.  The core of any civilization is the family and when that core does not exist, or is mortally wounded, as ours in America is, then a country’s entire society is in peril. If there is any doubt that America’s society is in danger, pick up any newspaper, turn on any TV news channel, or just stand still for a moment and look around you.

Can there be any doubt that we have failed, as a people, to protect our families.

We have, through social programs, and such, made it much easier to dissolve the family and to create something acceptable to the progressive/socialists, working behind the scenes in America, in order to provide the necessities for that group, without them actually working for it, and no guidance is provided for the creation and sustainability of a nuclear family.  The issue (the children) of such a "mock-up" of a family have no way of knowing that their experience was/is anything less than normal and they create their own… and in so doing… perpetuate the rot at our core.

Here in America we have an entire underclass, and entire segment of American society, who are wards of the US government.

We have so many children, and grown young people, now, who were “raised by a village”, and not a family, that they lack those “familial ties” that anchor all humanity to the core of a family and that core is… love for one another. It isn’t there... and they are empty. Their souls are just barely attached to their bodies.

We look around us in awe, and wonder, when some child, or young adult, armed to the teeth, walks into a school and begins to pump round after round into innocent children. We gaze at the vivid stories on TV news of heinous murders committed by a young person who looks just like the boy, or girl, living down the street from us. And… we still don’t get it.

We gasp in horror when a young person ambushes another fellow human being completely unknown to him, and attempts to knock that person unconscious with a single blow ... as a game! 

The truth is:  We have produced a generation, or two, of psychopaths.  Too harsh a term?  I think not.  The dictionary defines psychopath as:  "A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse."   -- SOURCE: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/psychopath

It’s OUR fault. We destroyed the American family. Why? Because it was expedient. A tight nit family is nearly impossible to manipulate. But as with any organization, break it apart… and you can destroy it, piece by piece, and THAT is what we have done.

Our children are sent to nurseries, as sucklings, because the mother must report for work at the end of the allotted family leave period. The children don’t see their parents, save for short periods in the morning, as they are prepared for daycare, in the evenings as they are prepared for bed, and on the weekend when parents are worn out from their daily jobs and have no time to spend with them.

Then those same children are sent off, at the age of six, to the public school system run by a government intent on molding their minds in the way it would have them go… and they spend 12 years in that system. The tie with their parents remains about the same, but becomes even more tenuous as the years speed by. Then… there is college. And there the finished product is rolled out. The liberalities of the college instructors and professors further mold those young minds into automatons of the socialist agenda.

The process is now complete and the product is a near heartless, soulless, individual who believes his upbringing was NORMAL!!!

We have at least two generations of these automatons and psychopaths walking among us. They are now in positions of power in our government, in our universities, in our public schools, and in our churches… and America is the worse for it.  We live our lives in a constant state of danger ... from our own offspring.

That shinning city on a hill has been corrupted and has become dull and its luster has faded. No longer does it stand as a shining beacon to the remainder of mankind as the promise of a nation, which seeks after God and liberty for its people.

Philosophers have for centuries told us that all great nations die at their own hands.  Consider the Greeks and the Romans, from which America drew so much in founding this republic. Those great civilizations have been tossed into the dustbin of history. Soon, it woild seem,  America will join them.

When we define our families, we define our nation. The American family has been ruled, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant. We no longer even understand what a family is.

We have forgotten the family is the bedrock upon which the pillars of this great society stand. That bedrock has crumbled and our society is showing the effects.

It is said that change is inevitable. That may be, but change can be guided and channeled in the direction a society wants to travel. In America’s case, we channeled change in the wrong direction. We replaced America’s reliance upon God with reliance upon the Federal Government. We replaced the Ten Commandments with a code of laws developed by man and loosely based on the Ten Commandments, but… we deny even that. We replaced God in our public schools with school counselors, and policemen, and metal detectors… and murder. Our religion has gone weak in the knees with many of America’s mainline churches, saying openly, that the scriptures, which have served us for well over 2000 years, are no longer relevant, that God doesn’t actually matter anymore.

The plain truth is, dear reader, we have condemned ourselves.

The question now is -- can we turn it around?  That is difficult to answer. America is racing toward the apocalypse, the final hour when all will be irrelevant. Nothing will matter any longer. “The End” will have been writ large across the pages of history and America will be but a footnote.

America has grown fat and arrogant and, like the builders of the tower of Babel, we have taken it upon ourselves to “be like God”. And, frankly… we’re not big enough.


Man’s instructions were simply enough. A man and woman should cling to one another and be fruitful and multiply... and create families. Children were admonished to honor their fathers and mothers. The parents, likewise, were admonished to not provoke their children to anger. In other words… love one another. Love was the basic building block of the family and the family was the basic building block of man’s society.

Now, here in America, we have destroyed the family. Our foundation is gone, our anchor is gone, and we are adrift, soon to slip beneath the waves… as history sails on… without America.

© J. D. Longstreet
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