Defining the Abstract

We spend a great deal of time in our country (way too much in my opinion) in arguing over what things mean.  How exactly do you define the abstract?  What does it mean when people say "they just want freedom" when talking about people from other nations?  Do they define freedom the same way you do?

We can't agree on what freedom means in this country, yet people want to define it for someone who has no concept for government like ours.  They have never lived in a "free" society.  President Bush famously (or infamously depending on how you look at it)

"And my deepest conviction, the guiding principle of the administration, is that the United States of America must drive to expand the reach of freedom.”

Go and talk to the average person who lives in Europe and ask them if they are "free" and have "freedom".  The answer you are very likely to get is yes.  Yet, you ask a person who is on the right in this country if they do the answer is very likely to be no.  Most European countries are set up as Socialist Democracies.  A very ugly concept to the view of many in this country.

The Arab spring didn't happen because of the overwhelming desire for freedom.  It started over the price of bread.  In Egypt and Palestine they have gone to the polls and voted in the likes of Hamas and The Muslim Brotherhood.  While you do have to take into account that many of these elections are likely rigged, but sorry to burst your bubble, many people willingly voted these people into office.

While that sometimes is mind-boggling, one has to remember that both of these terrorist organizations also have an arm to them that aren't at all terrorist, but work as a charitable organization.  They help the unemployed feed their families, they help with goods and services that many of the poor in those areas simply cannot afford to get on their own.  When you have close to 70% unemployment in the Palestinian Territories, you are going have a great deal of need.  These organizations go in and fill those needs.  It allows them to do their terrorist activities with a wink and nod from the population, they aren't going to bite the hand that feeds them.  For many, this isn't just a saying, but a literal thing for them.  They are dependent on these people for their livelihoods and for those of their children.  It is far more complicated than many in this country dare to even try to understand.

The world is a very complicated place.  It is very easy to sit in the cheap seats, which believe me the U.S. are the cheap seats, and make statements about what others want and need.   When you live in the U.S. you have safety nets in place (we can argue the right and wrong of these at another time).  No matter how poor you are in this country, you are still richer than approximately 70% of the rest of the world.  This isn't about bashing poor people in this country, but just about perspective.

I saw this posted by Kira Davis on her Facebook page yesterday:

I make it a general rule not to argue about the Constitution or the principles of freedom with non-Americans. Not because of anything biased or personal, but just because being an immigrant myself I know that the way the rest of the world views freedom is far, far different than how Americans view freedom - yes, even the lefties. You can't debate someone who has a fundamentally different understanding of what it means to be a free citizen and what a "right" is.

Decades ago we saw people in the streets in China demanding more "freedoms".  The government crackdown was harsh and immediate.  But, in those preceding decades, the government of China has loosened some of the restrictions.  The citizens are getting more freedom over their lives from an economic perspective.  There are more jobs.  There is more autonomy.  They are allowing more and more people to drive cars.  I look at that country and am horrified at how little freedom those people have, yet they are feeling more comfortable with the changes the government is making.  It is about perspective.  I don't get to define what freedom means to the average Chinese citizen. I wouldn't want to live there, but that doesn't mean that many of the people who do aren't satisfied with their lives.

Emerging markets growth will also dramatically redistribute the bourgeois around the world. For instance, as our Rapid-Growth Markets Forecast explores, the number of households in Mexico with annual disposable incomes over US$50,000 is expected to reach 7.1 million by 2020, and 9.4 million in Brazil. For both countries this is an increase of over 50%.

Nevertheless, China’s and India’s contributions will be substantial.

Today, China has around 150 million people earning between US$10 and US$100 per day. As long as China continues to grow, and necessary economic reforms are made, we expect as many as 500 million Chinese could enter the global middle class over the next decade.

By 2030 around one billion people in China could be middle class — as much as 70% of its projected population.

To them, this may mean "freedom".  You can't say that it does or it does not.  But many have said over the years the reasons that the communist government of China made economic reforms to help its citizens, is because it wanted to keep mass unrest from happening.  This likely will allow them to control the country for a longer period of time.  Are the people stupid for going along with it?  Some will say yes, others will say no.  That will depend on your perspective.  Many in this country look at this a model of how government should work.  The heavy hand of government to guide economic policies that help all.  That is their idea of freedom.

We can talk all we want about what people in foreign lands want and or need.  We are doing so from our perspective, not from theirs.  We have not lived their lives in those places.  We don't get to define what their lives should be, what their hopes and desires should be.  We also can do the same about people in this country.  We have plenty of people in this country who define freedom in ways that I don't.

When you make broad statements about what abstract concepts mean, just remember that just because you define it a certain way that doesn't mean that others do the same way.  When you talk about how everyone just wants freedom, just remember what they view as freedom won't necessarily match up with you think it means.

Tony Blair believes in "freedom" heck President Bush even gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and he is a socialist.

"We are a left of centre party, pursuing economic prosperity and social justice as partners and not as opposites"

Quote of the Day - Andrea Mitchell Edition

alienated our “ally” in Iran and paved the way for rocky relations even to this day.

MSNBC reporter/political pundit Andrea Mitchell on the most impactful State of the Union addresses when President Bush identified Iran as part of the axis of evil.  

I could be wrong here, but I think there a whole bunch of hostages that would disagree with this statement.  

To think that people actually listen to this, more horrifying is that she actually gets paid to say this crap.  

President Bush Celebrates his First Halloween as a Grandpa

Too cute.

President Bush on Shaving his head in Solidarity of Young Leukemia Patient - Video

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President Bush & The Wounded Warrior Bike Ride

There are many things that I wasn't happy about during President Bush's tenure, but his love and sheer admiration for our troops always makes my heart go pitty pat.  

You can see more photos here.  

Some Mid Day Humor - President Bush Getting the Last Laugh

Too funny.

President and Mrs Bush with Dianne Sawyer

President Bush is making the rounds with the media this week as his library is officially opening tomorrow.

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President and Mrs. Bush Welcome First Grandchild, Baby Mila

Former President Bush's daughter Jenna and her husband Henry welcomed their first child into the world Saturday night.  She was named after her grandmothers Margaret Laura and they will be calling her Mila.  What a cutie.

Congrats to them.  President Bush has finally gotten the grandchild he has been waiting for.   

Quote of the Day - Deputy Director of The C.I.A Michael Morrell Edition

“If we had a human source who had told us directly that bin Laden was living in that compound, I still wouldn’t be above 60 percent. And I’m telling you, the case for W.M.D. wasn’t just stronger—it was much stronger.”

The Deputy Director of the C.I.A. on the raid that killed Usama bin Laden

Can we finally stop with the "Bush lied us into war" meme now?  

Quote of the Day - President Bush Edition

“You're always the former president but I wanted to come here as a laborer...I do want to say that on this particular trip that myself and friends have left behind a clinic and hope to inspire others to come and refurbish clinics as well,”

President Bush on his institute's work in Africa.  This week he and his wife are in Zambia building a clinic to help diagnosis and treat cervical cancer.  He didn't send a check, he went out and help build the clinic.  

As usual his service is done with little news coverage. As a side note, I guess this further proof that Laura Bush has never done anything for women, huh?  

President and Mrs Bush Celebrate The People Struggling for Freedom Worldwide

At the Bush Center today at 10 AM EST the former president and first lady will be paying tribute to those around the world are struggling for and working towards freedom.

You can watch the live stream here.

Regardless of how you may feel about the policies he enacted during his eight years in office, the man believes in freedom and will continue to work for all people across the world to experience that.

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.  

Stat of the Day - National Debt Edition

$4.89 Trillion in Debt under President Bush in 8 years

$4.93 Trillion in Debt under President Obama in 3.15 years

Stats from Treasury Department

I am sick to death of hearing from liberals that our debt is Bush's fault.  What Bush did in 8 years was bad enough, but this is inexcusable.  It is also noteworthy that a great deal of the debt under Bush came after 2006 when the democrats had control of both houses of congress.  

Book Review - Never Allow a Crisis Go To Waste - Bart DePalma

I was contacted by the author, Bart DePalma, and asked to be part of a virtual book tour.  Since I love to read, I said sure no problem.  

Never Allow a Crisis to Go to Waste.  Barack Obama and The Evolution of American Socialism is an in depth look at the tactics that President Obama has used to drive this country closer and closer to socialism.  But he does more than that.  He shows in detail the origins of where the ideas for these policies came from; Gorz, Alinsky, Dreier, and Cloward & Piven to name just a few.  

Much of what is in the book will be familiar to those who are paying attention; the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, forcing banks to take TARP money, green energy jobs and more.  But there is more detail on how exactly these things were accomplished.  He goes back to describe the well-meaning legislation passed by President Carter, The Community Re-investment Act.  While this piece of legislation was originally supposed to help people who were credit worthy obtain a home in neighborhoods that banks didn't want to invest in due to crime and poverty rates, it quickly went out of control and led to the deep recession we find ourselves in today.  He details how every president since Carter used this act to increase the level of home ownership.  It also details how  far left wealth redistribution devotees such as ACORN used this to give mortgages to people who never would have qualified and were at very high risk of foreclosure.  

He also goes into some detail regarding how some of President Bush's policies opened the door to Obama pushing his will onto the car companies and to the banks.  A truth that as a party and as a society we need to own up to.  Luckily for all of us, the banks pushed back, while the car companies just submitted to the overpowering control of the government.  

It gives a glimpse into the rise of The Tea Party and the underhanded and illegal means that were used to pass Obamacare.  The story of the effect of the Tea Party has yet to be known.  But the good news is how it did slow down the march towards socialism that President Obama believes in down to his core.  

I found this book to be very interesting and insightful.  A very good tool to use to show to those who are still drinking the President Obama Kool-Aid.  I also just finished reading Ameritopia by Mark Levin and found this to be a good companion for the information that Levin brings out about the history of statism across the ages; how it has failed and exactly what it would take to have the "vision" of their Utopia; Tyranny.  

The book is available on Amazon $11.99 in the paperback version, and for $3.99 for the kindle version.  It is something that I think you find yourself referring back to time and again.   Feel free to purchase through my  Amazon store by hitting the link on the right.  

President Bush's Speech to Dedicate Memorial to Flight 93

He really hit the right tone here. 

President Obama's Bush I Redux?

We can go over and over this thousands of times and liberals still don't get it. Going after the "rich" just doesn't work to solve the problems that we are in. President Obama's latest foree into class warfare includes corporate jets. That is how he thinks we are going to get out of the financial mess we are in.


Not so fast there buddy. Let's go back to the early 90's when Bush I was president. The combo of Ted Kennedy and George Mitchell included a luxury tax on items such jets, yacht's, and expensive cars. This was going to raise $31 million per year in additional revenue and soak the 'rich' all at the same time. What a deal. The liberal wet dream. More money to waste and hit the rich all in one fell swoop.

Shall we take a look at what happened? I say we do.

The largest yacht manufacturor in the United States at the time closed one plant and laid off all but 260 of it's 1,400 workforce within eight months of the law being signed by President Bush. One third of all U.S. manufacturing companies stopped production and the industry lost 7,600 jobs in the first year.

The tax was in place for close to three years before being repealed. But before the repeal took effect 25,000 yacht builders were out of work, 75,000 more workers who worked in fields related to the building of those yacht's, such as parts and materials needed to build those yacht's, Ocean Yacht's filed for bankruptcy, and instead of the U.S. being the leader in exporting yatch's we become the leader in importing them. Another 1,800 jobs were lost in the jewelery and aircraft industries due to the tax.

The Joint Economic Committee estimated that the job losses in the first six months was a value of $159.6 million that was taken out of our economy. The job losses cost $24.2 million in unemployment benefits and lost income tax revenue. The federal government is said to have lost $7.6 million instead of the $31 million promised to be raised. They were only off by $38 million. A million here, a million there, what is the difference? Just some pesky little details.

Obama wants to try this luxury tax yet again? Does he think it will work better this time? Or this just yet another attempt at the new democratic fall back position of class warfare?

You decide.

Um, About those Bush Tax Cuts - The Real Math

I get so sick and tired of listening to liberals talk about the Bush tax cuts. Lets take a look at the real numbers, shall we?



During the first two years of the Bush administration the revenues fell. This was due to tax cuts and the tech bust. Over the next five years the revenues increased by 44%. The last year of his administration the revenues fell again due to the financial crisis. The overall increase in revenue during the Bush administration was 21%. The tax cuts increased the revenue. They more than paid for themselves.


Now, lets move on to the deficit:


The deficit increased in the years 01-04 to a total of $4.13B in 04. With the increased revenues coming in the deficit began to shrink. It went back down to $161B in 07. That is a full 1/10 of what it is today. In 08 the deficit began to rise again. Hmm, wasn't that the year that the democrats had control over both the House and the Senate, why yes it was.


Ok, next is the National Debt:


The day Bush took office in 01 the debt stood at $5.7T. The day Bush was sworn into office for his second term the debt stood at $7.6T. The day Obama took office it stood at $10.6T. Bush doubled the debt during his two terms. Almost half of that came under a democratically controlled Congress.


Today the debt stands at $14.4T. An increase of almost $4T in two and one half years. Staying on the same fiscal path that we are on Obama will have increased the debt by more than $1T in one term than what Bush did in two.


These numbers come The Treasury Department and The Office of Management and Budget.


The Bush tax cuts increased revenues and decreased the debt until the housing bubble broke.


The mess we are in is Bush's fault how? Look he wasn't perfect, he made mistakes. He spent too much money. But this country was far better off under his leadership than we are today.

History Will be Kinder to President Bush

I have always maintained that history would be much kinder to President Bush then the press and country was during his presidency. One of the most pointed thing in his legacy is the fact that President Obama has kept much of the apparatus on the war on terror in place after taking office, much to the chagrin of his left base and totally against the then candidate Obama. Candidate Obama thought it would be easy to try KSM in New York. Candidate Obama thought he could close Gitmo in a matter of months. Candidate Obama never would have admitted to keeping rendition in place. Candidate Obama would never have admitted to increasing the drone program into Pakistan. Candidate Obama never would have added more troops to Afghanistan. President Obama has done all of these things. Many of them were done kicking and screaming, but some have been done because once president he realizes that the responsibility is different. Once president he had access to security information that had been denied to him previously. Once president he was forced to realize that the American people are not as far left as he is. They had some say in terms of bringing KSM to U.S. soil for a show trial.



Since the death of UBL we have seen a great deal of media attention put back on the tragedies of 9/11. Time Magazine actually went back and looked up the kids who were being read to when Andy Card leaned over and whispered to President that America was under terrorist attack. Remember the uproar the left had when President Bush didn’t leap out of his chair and run out of the room? Remember the jokes and the ridicule? Remember the left dismissing the claims of President Bush that he was worried about upsetting the children? Turns out he was right, at least according to the kids present in that room. The kids are all teenagers now, and they tell a very different story of that morning and of a president who tried to remain calm. They say that him staying in the room was the right thing to do, as they could see from his expression something had upset him. Being small children they of course wondered if they had done something wrong and know that if he had run out of the room it would have been more upsetting to them, as at that age the carnage of that day was nothing something that they were not prepared for and could not comprehend.


It is well worth the read. History will be kinder to President Bush.

Thank You President Bush

People gathered outside of the house of President Bush last night after the news of bin Laden's death to say "Thank You". 

President Bush put the apparatus in place that allowed it to happen. 

I dare the left to say otherwise.

Usama bin Laden is Dead - DC Celebrates Outside The White House

I heard the news that people were gathering outside of The White House to celebrate the news that the day our country has been waiting almost 10 long years for, Usama bin Laden is dead.  I decided to head down and check it out. 

It was sheer craziness.  After midnight on Sunday it took me more than half hour to find a parking space, not a normal thing at this time of the morning. 

The vast majority of people were college students, but a few of us older people showed up. 





I was pleasantly surprised to see this:

It was a young woman who brought this down and I had made a comment to her that I was very surprised to someone supporting Bush down here.  She told me that she is an Obama supporter, but understands that both men are responsible for getting bin Laden. 

I did meet some fellow conservatives while I was down there:

It was pandemonium, people all over the place; including the trees:

I ran into some Paul fans:

Of course the Code Pink side of the loony left was also there.  Several people were walking thru the crowd yelling at people that they were celebrating someone's death.  While normally I agree that cheering someone's death is ghoulish, I am willing to make an exception this time.  Good Riddens.  Personally I would have much rather that he surrendered and had to spend the rest of his days being guarded by some female guards and forced to watch home movies of the people he killed on a round clock feed, but that was not meant to be.  The reports say that he was given the opportunity to surrender and refused.  Ironically he died on the anniversary of the death of Hitler.  I guess May Day is a day to rid the world of the scum. 

I was also very happy to see the patriotic side of the younger crowd be so present.  It did my heart good to hear them singing the national anthem and waving the American flags.  It isn't always a side that we see of the young crowd in this country.  It is nice to know that actually does exist. 

God Bless our Navy Seals, the reports are saying they are the ones who carried out the mission. 

For those on the right, and you know who you are, turning this into something political; shame on you.  We should be all Americans for a few hours.  This is a happy day.