Forget the Mainstream Media “Business Analysts”: Economics Prof Explains Obamanomics and Conducts Experiment That Proves His Point

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

American Lassie forwarded this little ditty which does what the mainstream media can’t won’t do–explain what extreme government control can do to a country’s get up and go.

Now, I, personally, believe in a strong social safety net, so I’ll NEVER be a Republican.  I’m not far over on the other side of the spectrum which seems to put unfettered business and profit above everything else.  Sadly, we’re in a situation now where pandering to business combined with the autocratic streak of the extreme left, is playing into GOP hands for the future.  When they get back in control on the back of their OWN misinformation and scare tactics, their own autocratic stamp will be put on our lives…the table will have been set for extreme cuts to the social services we need.  The GOP have blocked anything that even tries to help strengthen the social safety net in the past and I think they’re salivating right now at the thought of having a carte blanche in the future to wield a harsh and punitive knife so Medicare, Social Security, etc.  And many workers will suffer, as usual, at the hands of employers, as they have done for eons.

Of course, IF we actually have a sane Democratic Party that fights this in the future, we may survive, but at this point, we don’t have a sane Democratic Party, so all bets are off!

So, here is the current state of affairs explained simply. You may want to pass it around to anybody you know who is confused and needs a basic primer…Of course, things are way more complicated in real life.  After all the big banks are TOO BIG TO FAIL, so that sort of skews the curve…

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

Economics Prof in Action

——————————————–
That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”.
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D!
No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that.

A Giant White Rabbit in Britain Reminds Us How “Logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead”…

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

I did not watch Obama’s gig last night before Congress, but the TV was on in the other room for a few moments and I heard lots of applause coming in waves.  As I walked through the room I caught a glimpse of Biden and Pelosi sitting like self-satisfied fat cats and saw Mr. Hopey Dopey up there orating, sans the stern, serious scowl.  Pundits seem to be saying that Bill Clinton must have convinced The One to stop the gloom and doom and it seemed like Obama was bouncing around and pumping out a sales pitch that one panel member on Hannity’s Great American Panel called “Reaganesque.”

It bugs the hell out of me to see Clinton all over the tube lately coaching the guy who supposedly had all the answers and the “best” campaign evah!

I have to say that the ultimate for me was seeing Jared Osmond, a lesser Osmond singer, opining on Hannity’s Great American Panel.  Where did they dig him up? And Caroline Heldman of Obama’s Occidental College, who seems to be around a lot today on FOX these days, says that all this spending is not a “socialist move” (nobody had even brought that suggestion up, why was she so defensive?).  Later she said that the speech would improve consumer confidence and that she hopes that “people who have good jobs will go out and eat twice a week instead of once a week”—doesn’t that sound like SPEND SPEND SPEND a la George W. Bush??

I’d also like to know why FOX chose to repeat the speech after Hannity and crew got off the air.  Seems so UN-Foxlike, doesn’t it?

And I was pretty peeved when I heard that the pilot who got that plane down safely in the Hudson River,  Chesley B. Sullenburger III, was trotted out.  OK, I know that he’s on the cover of People Magazine and was chatting with a committee on Capitol Hill yesterday.and has been in the spotlight…but, this guy trained for years and was a fighter pilot  and to see Sullenburger  used (and apparently liking it) by Obama the fraud, who has no real accomplishments and a hidden past, really ticked me off (this contrast was discussed in piece at  The Confluence at the time of the incident compared the pilot’s experience to Obama’s “flash to fame” based on zip and not in a nice way).

Frankly, so many people are so blinded by this con artist, courtesy of the media and the Obama PR machine (which Bill Clinton is now part of) that it is mind boggling.  It amazes me, but it shouldn’t since the setup has been so complete and the media has been so complicit.

I happened to find this story from Britain just after listening to this drivel and it got the “association” center of my brain rolling immediately.

Two police officers given run-around by giant white rabbit

Two police officers were given the run-around for 20 minutes in a low-speed pursuit of a giant white rabbit on the loose in a town centre.

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent

Last Updated: 4:07PM GMT 24 Feb 2009

Two police officers were given the run-around for 20 minutes in a low-speed pursuit of a giant white rabbit on the loose in a town centre.

Pcs Matt Jackson and Yasmin Mossadegh, of Kent Police, came across the two-foot long, 20lbs animal – the size of a small dog – hopping along a road in Canterbury at 2.20am on Sunday.

They admitted that at first it seemed like “something out of Alice in Wonderland”. But detaining the albino rabbit before it caused an accident proved to be more of a handful than they first thought.

MORE

The sight of that huge white rabbit and the reference to “Alice in Wonderland” lead me to the inevitable:

White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall
Tell ’em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Recall Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving slow
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “off with her head!”
Remember what the dormouse said;
“FEED YOUR HEAD”

“Logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead”…

Can’t say it any better…

It’s Time to Decide, Folks

~~A Guest Post by American Lassie

It’s time to decide, folks.

The debates are over and we’re coming down to the wire. For those who have been on the fence, it’s decision time. With just under two weeks to go we are facing the most important election of our lifetime. (Mine, anyway.) We will be deciding, by our votes, which way this country will go in the future. Will we remain true to the wishes of our Founding Fathers or will we take a decided turn to the far left that could take us to socialism, Marxism, or worse?

Many of us are still mourning the loss of our favorite candidate who had the nomination stolen from her. We’ve got to put that aside now and go on. For some it will be a tough decision to make but we must do it.

We have two candidates:

Candidate #1 is a man we know nothing about, who refuses to produce a legal birth certificate, hospital records, etc. to prove where he was born. He would rather tie us up in a law suit hoping to be elected before the documentation can be demanded by the court. A man who numbers among his mentors a known terrorist (Bill Ayers), a known communist (Frank Davis) and who is part of a group (although he denies it) that is now being investigated for voter fraud (ACORN). A case that has now been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, because the Ohio Secretary of State (Jennifer Brunner) is so determined to let the fraudulent registrations by ACORN stand. This candidate has a messianic hold on his followers that frightens me. In his follower’s eyes he can do no wrong. This in itself is scary, but when he vows to change our country and then the world it’s time to beware. What does his “change” mean? He campaigned in Kenya with his cousin Odinga under the banner of “change” and you know what happened there. Christians, men, women, and children alike were locked in a church where they had gone for sanctuary and then the church was burned to the ground with the people inside.

His background is so sketchy as to be almost invisible. He produces no college records, no past writings, no record of achievement in either the Illinois State Senate or the short time he has been in the U.S. Senate. Just voting “Present” does not tell us what he really stands for. He spent his formative years in another country (Indonesia). We do not know what demands of loyalty might be placed upon him from his relatives in Africa or his relatives in Indonesia. Our Founding Fathers tried to protect us in the Constitution from a situation such as this. Even back then, they realized that you can only have allegiance to one country if you desire to be our president. That country is the United States of America. As long as he refuses to produce a birth certificate I do not consider him a Natural Born Citizen, which is what the Constitution demands.

Candidate #2 is a man we know inside out. He is a war hero who has spent his entire adult life(since age 17) in the service of the United States. Besides his military service, which is an open book, he has an established record in the U.S. Senate that shows he is amenable to both sides of the aisle. His loyalty to America is unquestionable. His love of the Constitution is obvious and we know he will not try to change it. He has no ties to foreign countries that might sway his decisions.

For me, the choice was easy to make and I spend half my time relaying my opinion (whether it is wanted or not) to my family and friends – and to strangers when the opportunity arises.

This is a troubled time for the whole world, not just America. With the global economy in crisis, the war, and the need to keep an ongoing vigilance against terrorism, both domestic and foreign, our vote counts this year more than many people realize.

So folks, get out there and practice the three T’s – typing, telephoning, and talking.
And pray a lot.
God Bless.

Announcing the End of the "PC" ERA

~~Posted by Grail Guardian

No, This isn’t an ad for Macintosh computers. I’m talking about the obnoxiously tepid concept of Political Correctness (being “PC”). Let me explain. Wikipedia defines the phrase as follows:

Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term applied to language, ideas, policies, or behavior seen as seeking to minimize offense to gender, racial, cultural, disabled, aged or other identity groups. Conversely, the term “politically incorrect” is used to refer to language or ideas that may cause offense or that are unconstrained by orthodoxy.

Ruth Perry traces the term back to Mao‘s Little Red Book. According to Perry, the term was later adopted by the radical left in the 1960s, initially seriously and later ironically, as a self-criticism of dogmatic attitudes. In the 1990s, because of the term’s association with radical politics and communist censorship, it was used by the political right in the United States to try to discredit the Old and New Left.^[1]

The term itself and its usage are controversial. The term “political correctness” is used almost exclusively in a pejorative sense,^[2][1] while “politically incorrect” is commonly used as an implicitly positive self-description, as in the series of “Politically Incorrect Guides“, produced by conservative publisher Regnery^[3] and the talk show Politically Incorrect.

Some commentators have argued that the term “political correctness” is a straw man used by conservatives in the 1990s in order to challenge leftist social change, especially with respect to issues of race, religion and gender.

Although I appreciate the tip of the hat to Socialism in defining the term, I prefer these definitions in the Urban Dictionary:

1. politically correct : A way that we speak in America so we don’t offend whining pussies.

Only pathetically weak people that don’t have the balls to say what they feel and mean are politically correct pussies.

by Superior Intellect Oct 5, 2004

2. Politically Correct: 1. The laws of moral and ethical relativism; all systems of cultures and thought are equal in value, steming from a perceived guilt from white liberals who believe that the Western Civilization is the root of all evil to the exclusion of all else.
2. A powerful form of censorship.
abbr: PC

Political correctness has a basic flaw. If all views are equal, why do some who embrace this view feel the need to push this agenda as the “correct” one at the same time demonizing other views as “incorrect”?

by tradesman Mar 31, 2003

So here’s the deal. Somewhere back in the infamous “Me” decade, the far Left decided it was no longer proper to offend anyone in any way when exercising our Constitution right to Free Speech. So we all spent the last 20 years +/- trying to call people “African Americans” instead of Negroes or Blacks, and “Latinos” instead of Mexicans or Cubans or Puerto Ricans (a semantic difference I’m sure people within those ethnic groups would prefer be out in the open), and gender-neutralizing every position (Chairperson or Chair instead of Chairman, and of course the eternal conundrum of what exactly to call the person that makes your postal deliveries since Mailperson doesn’t really quite work). We corrected each other ad nauseum, and parsed our words carefully lest we offend some genteel minority that has less opportunity than we (due, of course, to our highly advantaged positions gained by the hard work and determination of our parents and grandparents to ignore the outright torment they received upon arrival in this country, simply because they thought it was worth it to be able to live free in the USA).

In short, there was no law passed, no national initiative launched by Executive decree, no movement with a spokesperson speaking to us as a nation. Just some Liberals who thought it was a good idea and began shushing us and correcting us publicly (with no regard to our own personal embarrassment). They used our own rules to change how we spoke (Hmmm, now doesn’t that sound familiar?).

Now here we are in 2008, and I have been called a racist, bitter, a typical white woman, and countless much less flattering phrases by the extreme Left. I was discussing this topic yesterday with my Dad, and I asked him a question that he couldn’t answer: “Why isn’t anyone ever worried about offending me?” He laughed it off, but we both knew that my question had some real gravitas. So I’ve been mulling it over in my head and came to the following conclusion: no one ever had any official sanction to start Political Correctness, so I guess I have as much authority as anyone to declare it over! So there you have it: no more parsing, no more creating neutral words that make you sound like a doofus, no more worrying about how some minority or disadvantaged person might interpret what you had to say through their filter of hatred and anti-white bias. You have been granted permission to stop by someone with as much authority as anyone else.

So what do I propose instead? How about this: let’s follow a written law that has been part of every major civilization and religion since before humans started recording history. It’s simple, elegant, covers all the bases, and is approved by some of the largest historical figures ever: Moses, Yeshua/Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Anu, Queztalcoatl, Viracocha, Confucius, the Great Spirit, Zeus, Dagda, Freyr, Mohandas Ghandi, the Dali Lama, Martin Luther King Jr, Albert Schweitzer, the list goes on and on. It’s got impeccable creds, universal backing in almost all printed religious doctrines, and it’s a basic tenet of life that would preclude virtually any other law or rule being enacted if only we would follow it. Guessed what it is yet?

Do unto others as you would have them do unto yourself

So here’s what I would have other do unto me, in no particular order:

1. Respect me. I have as much right as you to have opinions and ideas, and it’s ok if they differ from yours. That’s what makes the world such a diverse place. I will always start out offering you respect. It’s up to you to keep it. Once you lose it, it’s not easy to get back. I expect to be treated the same way, despite any differences we may have culturally, ethnically, spiritually, or ideologically. This doesn’t mean I expect you to accept every idea I have or statement I make; I just want you to listen to them and give them a chance. If you disagree, make a thoughtful and reasoned response. Please don’t shoot from the hip or go off me in an angry manner. I don’t like acting that way, but this election season has brought that out in me (all of us) and we need to stop.
2. Give me equal rights. I am fundamentally no different in anyone else when considering my physical body. It does not matter what color my skin is, what reproductive organs I have or don’t have, what family I was born into, what nation I come from, what disabilities or deformities I may have, whether or not I fit into some narrow definition of “beauty” (whatever that is), what I do behind closed doors with another consenting adult, how many chronological years have passed since I reached maturity, or what my beliefs are regarding the existence or lack of a higher power. What matters is what’s inside, how I choose to behave, and the efforts I make to be a contributing member to the tribe of planet Earth. No one was born a better human being than anyone else; all that counts is what you choose to do with what you were given to work with. Some of the most wonderful individuals I have ever met are what some among us would call “challenged”. They were born with a different path of synapses than most of us, and cannot master the idiotic things we consider important like spouting memorized passages or performing complex mathematical equations, but have the ability to look at life with a basic level of truth and innocence that we could all benefit from. Our pathetic competition and need to feel superior is consistently the downfall of humans. Stop for a moment and think how you felt about Americans on September 12, 2001. None of cared about any of this crap; we were Americans, we had been attacked, and we stood together against a horrendous event that changed us all. People of other nations around the globe stood behind the US in indignation and shock that such a thing could happen in this age. No one cared about national, racial, or religious lines except those that caused the atrocity and their supporters. The brotherhood that encircled the globe those next few days personified what we all deserve every single day of our lives.
3. Help me when I need it. I’m talking hand up, not hand out. Our nation has a rich history of reaching out to assist those that are suffering from tragedy and hard times, whether they be Americans devastated by hurricanes, South Pacific residents beleaguered by tsunamis, Asians left injured and homeless by earthquakes, Europeans battling tyranny and oppression by fascist regimes, Africans plagued by disease and famine, South Americans escaping mudslides, or children left orphaned by wars and disease throughout the world. This is a country that was founded on neighbors helping neighbors, families helping families, and strangers helping others not as fortunate as they are. I want that back! I am sick to death of this country being split into Haves and Have Nots. Circumstances can find anyone in dire straits, but we need to be there for each other. Look at the simplicity of the Amish or Mennonites to see what it is we have forgotten. Not the lack of technology, but the lack of envy and selfishness; these people help each other build their houses, farm their crops, cook meals for each other when people are ill – all the things our grandparents did and we forgot about. That being said, it’s time to end the handouts. And bailouts. No one should be left on public assistance for life unless there is absolutely no alternative. Yep, I said it. Time limits on welfare. Private foundations, family and friends could help even the most destitute among us once we get back on our feet initially. The system has been abused (as has Social Security) by people who don’t actually need it, and now those that do need it cannot get the help they deserve because others took government checks to line their own pockets when their pockets were already flush. I help my family and friends whenever I can. I want the same type of help when I need it, but I don’t ever want to stop contributing in order to keep on the dole. I have seen it first hand, and I don’t like the effect it has on people. They become less than they could be, merely because they are afraid of losing their support. It weakens individuals and weakens society. If people are willing to go back to work when they are able, let them continue to receive supplements until they are steady on their feet, but then it’s time to help someone else. The system needs to be totally revamped; it is broken beyond repair by those that would destroy America.
4. Inform me. The world is a big place, and the only way I can appreciate its grandeur is to be informed about what is really going on in it. We need an independent press that is responsible to no one; not the governments it reports on, not corporate owners, not political causes or organizations, and especially not groupthink. The media needs to be responsible to those who use it for information – namely us! There needs to be someplace everyone can turn to find out the events that transpire without the personal bias of the reporter or news organization attached as fact. Want commentators? Fine. Label them as such, and offer opposing viewpoints. And more than one. They typical 00:00:30 Democratic viewpoint followed by the 00:00:30 Republican viewpoint is BS! Truth is, most of us aren’t hardcore Democrats or Republicans, especially after this election cycle. We have 24-hour news channels, but all we get is 15 minutes worth of actual news regurgitated for 23:45. Perhaps non-for-profits are the answer; every government and every commercial media outlet should contribute to a fund that pays the salaries of real reporters that are accessible by all the media (similar to AP and Reuters, but with public funding and no scoops – all media have access to the same research and stories).
5. Give me a chance. I have no problem with Capitalism, as long as I have the same opportunities as anyone else to work for my piece of the proverbial pie. No nepotism, no affirmative action, no legacies, no special commissions, no favoritism, no golden parachutes, no bonuses based on contract negotiations rather than performance. Every position, public and private, must be justified by accomplishment and aptitude. Promotions and raises must be earned and justifiable. Bonuses may be based on contribution, and need not be handed out equally regardless of accomplishment. No one automatically gets more than me, and I don’t automatically get more than anyone else. If I get ahead, it’s because I earned it. If I fall behind the group, I am not rewarded with the rest. That’s real Capitalism. Let’s try it – we’ve never really done it before, no matter what people would have you believe (and you know I’m right). Oh, and by the way, that includes not getting ahead by destroying things for everyone else (like the environment). If I use a public resource, I must pay for it. If I destroy a public resource, same concept applies.

I could go on, but I think if we followed these 5 points we’d all have to agree the world would be a much nicer place. And we’d all have less to fight about. Who knows, we might even reduce or eliminate stress and actually be happy for a change; what a concept! As a footnote, for those of you who have been thinking “yeah, that’s all nice but what’s it got to do with the election?” I want you to take a few minutes and think about these 5 concepts (and the Golden Rule) and what a difference they would have made over the past 23 months. This is about as radical as politics gets; suggesting we eliminate the very idea of politics and return to dealing with each other as people rather than opposing tribes.

It’s just a thought…

Why Obama Doesn’t Want Clinton Democrats

~~By Grail Guardian

It’s 44 days until the General Election as I write this and after a long and hard fought primary season the Democratic Party, and the Obama campaign specifically, are still unable to get over their terminal case of CDS. I can’t help but ask “Why”? For the uninitiated, CDS stands for Clinton Derangement Syndrome, usually defined as the uncontrollable impulse to rail against all things Clinton (Hillary, Bill, Chelsea, Hillary’s supporters, and basically anything connected to centrist positions).

Team Obama not only masterminded the overthrow of the Democratic Party to form the “New Democrats” (remember the May 31, 2008 coup when all semblance of the rules were overthrown at a behind-closed-doors meeting of the Rules and Bylaws Committee), they literally declared the nomination belonged to Obama despite the fact that:

• Hillary Clinton won more of the popular vote than Obama (when the Florida and Michigan primaries are included as originally voted)
• Automatic (also called Super) Delegates are unable to actually cast a vote until the national Convention
• Obama did not actually have enough Super Delegates “locked in” to declare himself the winner when he did
• Hillary Clinton didn’t contest the illegal theft of earned delegates in Michigan, despite her legal right to do so

Clinton suspended her own campaign, as she had promised during the primaries she began to campaign for Obama, she asked her fundraisers to jump to Team Obama, and eventually Clinton herself served as the conduit to end her historic campaign by interrupting a roll call vote at the convention to ask for Obama’s nomination by acclaim. Yet still the Oborg continues to harass Clinton supporters. Team O bloggers continue to infiltrate web sites that had been pro-Clinton. Commenters continue to compare John McCain and Sarah Plain to Clinton, who they now conveniently claim as one of their own. Web sites continue to be hijacked and crashed. The Main Stream Media continues to fawn over Obama as messiah, ignore every negative story posted about him on the Internet, and call anyone disagreeing with their views a racist. And Middle Class voters continue to be insulted, marginalized, and discounted.

So at this late juncture, one must ask why it is that so many of the Oborg continue to fight dirty against the moderate, centrist voters that refuse to support Obama, rather than to sensibly go after them? After all, Obama went after the right wing and evangelical voters with his votes on FISA and promises to continue funding George W. Bush’s Faith Based Initiative, so why not court the center? It only makes good political sense that once the cries of “you have no where else to go” and “you’ll fall in line eventually” were obviously falling on deaf ears that the next move would be to go after this significant voting bloc with gusto and speed. But with just over 6 weeks left, the taunting and harassment continues unabated.

So let’s look at the possibilities: