Yeah About Cliven Bundy's Feelings on Welfare

I have always felt there is a danger into turning a person you have never met into a folk hero.  Cliven Bundy being exhibit A of that belief.  To start this off, I want to say very clearly that the government overreach and the excessive use of force used by the BLM should be the main issue and anyone with a brain should be scared that our government is willing to do such a thing to a private citizen for a measly million dollars.  In terms of our government spending a million dollars in fees is nothing in the grand scheme of things.  That said, that doesn't make Mr. Bundy a hero.  He is standing by what he believes is right.  Which is something that every person should do.  

Instead of having a knee jerk reaction to the story that was unfolding in Nevada, we should have taken a step back and talked about the government overreach instead of the personalities involved.  For all we know Mr. Bundy is a serial killer who has bodies buried all over his ranch.  We don't know.  We have no way of knowing because the man is a virtual stranger.  

Now, I do believe that somewhere along the line people knew that Bundy was a good person to go after because of his views and personality he could easily be discredited.  The fact is that Bundy has no idea to talk to the gotcha media.  There is no reason in the world for him to be talking about welfare, it has nothing to do with the issues at hand.  The only thing we should be hearing about is grazing fees, grazing rights, and the land that is owned by the federal government.  A very excessive amount out in the western part of the country.  What are they doing with all that land?  Is it constitutional for them to own that much?  Do the states involved want to take the land back and the federal government refusing to cede the land to them?  Those are real questions that all Americans should have answered.  Instead we are now talking about cotton picking, "negroes", and welfare recipients.  

I have always felt that slavery and Nazi comparisons are ludicrous.  We cannot compare the poverty we have in this country today to what happened during slavery or what happened to the Jews during World War II under Hitler.  

His comments:

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

Yes, I am offended by these comments.  This shows a complete and utter lack of historical knowledge of what slavery was.  Does he believe that the "negro" should be whipped into submission as often happened during slavery?  Should the women be raped as again often happened during times of slavery?  

What about the large number of whites and Hispanics that collect welfare?  Should they learn how to pick cotton too?  After all aren't they having less freedom as well?  

As expected the people on the left exploded and started calling the word raaaaacist.  Now, these statements alone don't mean that Bundy is a racist.  A racist is a person who thinks that they are inherently better than others due to skin color.  Stereotyping isn't a racist make, it may be stupid and ignorant, but not racist.  Most people are guilty of stereotyping.  Lets take a look at this comment:

“As a general rule, individuals will sell out the interests of their groups in return for personal benefit…It isn’t just a black thing. Jews collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, helping them to round up their own people in the hopes they’d be the last to go.”

This is from an article that appeared in the Chicago Sun Times written about the black republican candidate for Governor.  This article was retweeted by Gov. Quinn, not just once but several times, out to his twitter followers.  Does he approve of that statement?  Apparently not after some Jewish groups complained, his twitter account deleted the retweets.  Erasing away the evidence, or attempting to in any event.  Apparently he approves of the notion that black people can only think in one way or they are a traitor to their race.  It isn't possible that a person who happens to be black believes in small and limited government.  Nope, not even one across this country.  They are only about the profit motive or possibly some Sambo who is trying to make nice with white republicans so they will like them.  It has never been explained why they would care if white republicans liked them or not if they truly believed that the only way to solve the problems of the black community is more government intervention.  After all it has worked so well in places like Detroit and the south side of Chicago.  But that matters none.  Traitors one and all, there are no other options for the black man.  

We are bombarded in this country by politicians and politics pundits with comparisons to Nazi's and slavery.  The Nazi's murdered six million people by putting them into gas chambers and ovens.  There is nothing even remotely close to happening like that in this country.  Slavery was inhumane and brutal.  It treated a group of people as nothing more than a piece of property to be done with as the "owner" pleased with zero regard to their humanity.  They were somehow less than human and as such could be whipped, beaten, and raped at the whim of the slave owner and his employees.  There is nothing about our welfare system that compares to that.  

Make no mistake, I am no fan of the  welfare system as it is currently set up.  I do believe as Bundy does that it can foster dependency and create more problems than it solves.  But, that isn't slavery.  Slaves had no options.  Slaves couldn't find a better job, get more education, go to trade school to better themselves.  Welfare recipients can do these things.  We can save the argument if they do them for another time, but the reality is that the options are there if they are willing to take advantage of them.  

I think it is well past time that both sides of the political aisle stop with the slavery and Nazi comparisons.  They are over the top, unwarranted, and simply a way to garner an emotional reaction that stops critical thinking on very important issues.  It stops speech.  That is what these comparisons are designed to do, regardless of your motivation behind them.  

My advice to Mr. Bundy is to stop talking to the media until he hires a seasoned PR person who knows how to handle the gotcha media.  He is in no way equipped to handle this on his own.  

Sadly all people now are going to remember is the label of racist.  All the good he did to bring the attention to the important issue of federal land holdings has been all but washed away.  Exactly what The New York Times had in mind. 

It is also time that people stop calling a perfect stranger a hero until you know a little something about their character.  Both extremes of the political aisle are far too willing to make a perfect stranger into the poster boy/girl for a cause they care about.  It has backfired over and over again as history shows.  We would all be better off to take a step back, look at the facts, research things on our own, and not have a knee jerk emotional reaction about a person who will eventually have human failings, because we all do.  

Stick to the issues and don't get sidetracked.  Bundy has done exactly that and what ends up being lost are the issues of excessive government force, land ownership, and the rights of the states.  Now we all lose.  Now we, as a nation, won't ask the critical question of why the feds thought it was necessary to send in helicopters and snipers over a financial dispute that could have been handled through a lien on his property.  If they believe that they are right in their fees, it could have been handled in a more civilized manner.  It could have been, but it wasn't.  Now the why of that will likely never get answered.  

Mr. Bundy keep your opinions about welfare to yourself.  No one cares about them, unless they are trying to discredit you and labeled you a racist.  You are entitled to your opinion, but that doesn't mean you need to share it with the world.  

Disturbing Poll Numbers - 44% Feel that Government Should Spend Money on Programs for Younger Adults

Wow.  I am blown away by this.  What is the most disturbing is the fact that 46% of those that describe themselves as Republican feel this way as well.  Now it didn't go into what those programs should be, but still I am sitting here shaking my head.

There are government programs that I feel are good ones.  I think the Small Business Administration backing loans for businesses is a good use of public funds.  It helps promote economic growth as well as improving employment for people around the country.  Now, I do feel that if people don't pay back the loans, the assets should be seized so the tax payers are not on the hook.  Although I do find some of the ways that grants are given out is suspect at best.  It seems that if you are a white man, you need not apply.  Shocker.  But the loan program is a good government program.  But that program isn't based on age.  While it is unlikely that seniors are going to be applying for these, it isn't based on age.

I also believe that as a country the majority of us agree that we need to make investments in educating our young.  The disagreement comes from what level of government should be doing it, but virtually all feel that we need an education system.  Now I personally believe that it is  in major disrepair and needs serious overhaul, but I certainly don't feel that it isn't a good use of public funds.

While this should come as no surprise, the majority of people who feel that young should get more public funds are between the ages of  18-29.  This of course is the group that put the least amount into the system, yet feels it should be the group that takes advantage of what is there, and to be honest the way we spend money in this country it isn't even using what is there, it is borrowed money.  I guess the reality that they are the ones going forward are going to pay the highest price for all this borrowing.  But it will hit them eventually.

I am not a huge fan of Social Security.  I would like to see a plan that is partially privatized and allow people to make a choice about how to invest their money for their futures.  Lets be honest here, it is difficult, at best, to live solely on that income and it is costing tax payers a fortune.  While that is due to mismanagement by our government officials (Thanks, LBJ), it doesn't change the fact that we all are going to pay higher and higher taxes to pay out what was promised.  We still have a generation of people who were not able to take advantage of retirement plans from day one of their adult work lives, they absolutely should be given the benefits that they have paid in to.  But today virtually any worker can take advantage of retirement savings plan.  I even had one as a part-time retail worker.

I honestly don't know what it is going to take to make people see that our government is too big, too intrusive and way too expensive.  Paying a great deal of money in taxes due to reckless spending is why people don't have money to do the things that they want to do.

Oh, The Ignorance Amongst Us

I was reading a post over on Pundit and Pundette the other day about "Julia" in part she wrote:

 Reality-based arguments can't break through the kind of barriers some people have erected in their minds. Facts, reason, and even one's own deteriorating personal circumstances will barely make a dent.

The day before I read this, I was talking to man who told me that there was no national debt when President Bush took office.  That is not a typo.  No national debt, there was a "surplus".  When he first mentioned the surplus I said it was all smoke and mirrors.  He couldn't understand what I meant.  So I asked him how do you have a surplus when you had a $5T debt?  That is when he told me that there was no debt.  For the record, the day President Bush was sworn into office in 2001 our debt stood at $5.727 Trillion.  You want to toot the horn that President Clinton says he left office with a "surplus"?  Personally I think it is rather immoral that they didn't pay down the debt with "extra money".  I also mentioned to him that the government doesn't produce anything of value, so all the money belongs to the tax payers not the government.  Where's my rebate?  The federal government should never have a surplus.  

  If you want to see the truth about Bush's economic record, go here.  It isn't what President Obama and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz would have you believe that it is.  This man also believes that asking for an ID is racist, and there is no voter fraud.  He happened to be a black man.  We live in a state where they have ID laws for voting.  I asked him if he has problems voting.  Of course he doesn't because he has an ID.  I also told him if there was no voter fraud how come Newt Gingrich wasn't on our primary ballot?

Look, the guy is a Obama fan.  That is fine.  That is his choice as American.  The problem isn't that he likes Obama, the problem is the man is completely ignorant of the facts he spouts off.  It was less than five months ago that the story of ballot fraud was all over the news in Virginia.  The company Gingrich hired to help with signature collection committed fraud.  It happened.  This isn't something being made up.  Does this man think that this same company has never done that before?  Did the white kid getting the ballot for Eric Holder in DC not happen?  Because it is on video.  There was almost $6T in debt when Bush took office.  The surplus that the democrats like to point to is all smoke and mirrors.  That is like me saying I have $10K in my checking account when I owe the credit card company $20K.  What I really have is $10K of debts; in fact more than that once you figure in compounding interest that I will be paying until the additional $10K is paid off.

We have so many people in this country that are so ignorant of the facts.  I am not saying this only happens to people on the left.  We see it on the right as well.  Virtually every major news source in this country has some sort of bias.  They report the news with a slant.  It is up to the individual to go out and do independent research on the facts that they hear on TV or read in the newspapers.  Fox News does the same thing.  Do I think that they lie as much as the left says they do?  No.  But they report news without giving context to things.  One example being is the lawsuit that was filed against Catholic University about there not being places to pray for Muslim students that didn't have a crucifix in the room.  The way Fox reported this story led you to believe that people responsible for the lawsuit were the Muslim students, when in fact it was some idiot guy who files lawsuits about religion all the time.  The very few Muslim students who attend this school thought the lawsuit was ridiculous.

I see things in my travels around the net that just make me shake my head.  I can't believe how dishonest some of the things are that are out there.   We will never fix things in this country if don't understand the problems.  How can we understand the problems when we have so much ignorance?

We still have not gotten to the point in this country that we can have an honest debate about which things we are going to cut from the national budget.  We still have people out there that don't understand that we are quickly reaching the tipping point.  We cannot keep spending our money in the same fashion that we have been.  I am sick to death of hearing "what about your two wars".  I didn't start any war.  Congress voted and gave authorization.  73 senators approved the use of force in Iraq.  This was a bi-partisan decision.  I have always been on the fence about Iraq.  Am I sorry that a sociopath is no longer a head of state?  No, I am not. Call me crazy, but I think being a sociopath is a sure tell-tale sign that someone shouldn't be leading a country.  But the other side to that is that Saddam was a counterweight to Iran, which has grown stronger and more menacing since our entrance into Iraq.  That shouldn't have been too hard to see and it certainly doesn't seem that was thought out in any way that makes sense.

Instead of talking about the real issues we are discussing imaginary wars on women, color form depictions of a life dependent on government, throwing granny off the cliff, and other such nonsense.  Some of which can very entertaining at moments, but it doesn't address our real issues.  There is no problem to access of birth control in this country; especially at Georgetown University.  There are four, count them four, planned parenthoods within 10 miles of campus, which gives you pills based on your income.  There are stores that you can purchase your pills within 3 blocks of campus for under $10.  Those are facts.

I am sick to death of hearing, well Bush spent a great deal of money.  Yes he did.  More than half of which was done under a democratically controlled congress.  We have people who don't even understand that President has very little power to spend money on his own.  Spending is a function of congress.  If anyone thinks that I was happy about TARP, No Child Left Behind, and many other debacles of the Bush administration, then they don't know me very well.  I didn't like the spending then, nor do I like it today.

We need remedial training on how the government is supposed to function and how it is functioning today.  We need people to understand that if you want to truly understand an issue, you need to do a little digging on your own.  Read accounts from several different sources.  Listen to opposing points of view.  No one is right or wrong 100% of the time.

But what really scared me about this man is that he votes.  People with his level of ignorance help decide who run this country.  No wonder we are in such a mess.  I really would like it if someone would track down Miss. Peggy and let me know how that Obama Cash is working out for her.  With gas heading up and up she is going to need someone to pay for it.  

Finally, Some Truth from Bob Beckel - Liberals Created Dependent Society with Well Meaning Social Programs

Well, bless his heart for finally admitting it.  I have never said that there wasn't a certain amount of sincerity in the creation of these programs, but that doesn't change the fact that overall, they are a failure.  They don't help the people.  It just keeps them in or near poverty.  For instance, the reason that people who have been on food stamps for a long period of time have difficulty getting off is the fact that if you make even $5 more than the very low amount it takes to qualify they cut you off completely.  That $5 extra isn't going to make you able to afford to buy your own food on a permanent basis, but you become disqualified.  So what is the answer?  Don't make that $5.  It keeps people living off the taxpayer's dime instead of giving them a helping hand.  It isn't easy to get out poverty, but it can be done.  The government must stop putting people in the position that welfare programs are the only alternative.  

Ignorance and Government Dependency

Several small studies have been completed by The University of Waterloo, Ontario and Duke University, the finding show that more ignorant a person is on a complicated issue the more likely they are to allow the government handle it. I would think that Global Warming would be one of these issues, as trying to read some of the scientific data on it is a mind numbing experience.

But, I have to wonder would the results be similar if they studied less complicated issues?  We live in a society where government dependency is becoming more and more commonplace. One has to look no further on the record numbers on food stamps at the moment. While there is an economic reason why so many have found themselves in a position to take help from the government at this point in time in our history, can we say that this is not going to lead to more government dependency as time goes on? I don't think that will be clear for quite some time, but it should be a growing concern in this country.

We are seeing Europe going through austerity measures and in Greece the people are not reacting well to having to retire later and getting fewer benefits.  Isn't this sort of the same type of thing?  Is the average person living in Greece looking at the numbers and looking at the not so healthy world economy?  One would think that if they were paying even the least little bit of attention they would realize that the changes are quite literally vital to their country's economic well-being.  

Uncertainty brings anxiety, Shepherd and Kay explain, and one way to deal with that anxiety is to “simply outsource personal responsibility to supposed qualified others.”

Do we really have "qualified others" in our government at present?  I am sure that some are, but just take a look at the failure of the "Super Committee", a committee that was formed that never had a chance of anything but failure.  These are the people we should be looking at as qualified?  


But here is the money item:

 “Being actively critical of something one is dependent on is thought to be psychologically uncomfortable, and therefore avoided in favor of increased perceptions of legitimacy, trust, and desirability. System justification theory posits that people are motivated to justify and legitimize the status quo and the system in which one lives.”

Once you have turned over the control to the government you are basically giving them unlimited power to do whatever they want to your life.  You become complacent and no longer feel the need or the desire to pay close attention to what is going on around you.  You become almost slave like to the whims of people who you have never met, who don't understand your real needs or desires, nor do they care to know.  You have given them unbridled power to behave as they so choose.  They then become addicted to the power and will say and do anything to hold onto that power.  


I have been saying for years that we have no one to blame but ourselves for the mess that we are currently facing.  We have the government that we deserve.  We expected it work just fine on auto-pilot.  Clearly, with trillions of dollars worth of debt, public schools that are failing our children, and public officials that are out of control, we were wrong.  


The one bright spot of the research was the following on the Tea Party:

“Generally I think of those movements as representing instances where people are not following our model, possibly because these are people who feel a) a sense of personal control/efficacy, and b) feel like their behavior can create change. This sense of personal control and ability to create change may make people feel less dependent on the government, or change how they respond to perceived dependence. Either way, it means that the individual may be less inclined to truth authority and avoid the issues.”

It is clear that we must become more involved in our government and the issues facing this country or we face a life of dependency and outsourcing any sort of control over our own lives.