"Why Socialism Fails"

Socialism always fails. You know that. I know that. But some people remain unconvinced despite the record of history.

Jennifer Weber has done us all a big favor by going back a few years to dig out a video of the great economist Milton Friedman explaining to talk show host Phil Donahue why Socialism is a system designed for abject failure.

The video is only 2 minutes and well-worth the time.

"Devastating but Accurate"

It is important to note from the start that the struggle between liberty and socialism will never end, at least not in our lifetimes. If by chance it does, it will be because evil has triumphed. As long as people are free to make their own choices, some of those choices will always be for self-destruction or slavery (moral masochism). That is just the nature of human beings. However, once the slavery of socialism is self-imposed through trickery or stealth, there are no more choices. That is the weakness of a free people. The weakness of socialism is that it cannot be revealed for what it truly is until it is too late to stop it. Like all things evil, it cannot stand the light of day.

Read the whole thing here.

FEDS TAKE CONTROL OF BANK OF AMERICA

Ominous news hit the financial world on Friday as the U.S. Government took controlling interest of the embattled Bank of America.

This is nationalization of industry, which fits the definition of 'socialism.' And yes, my dear little dumbed down lame-brains of the public schools, socialism is BAD.

In order to address a crisis of its own making, the U.S. Government has abandoned the capitalism that made this country great and embarked on a failed course of government control of business and industry.

I have had great concern about the Bank of America for quite some time anyway over its policy of providing financial services to illegal aliens and its liberal, haphazard lending practices.

If it can't survive on its own with its own business plan, then it should be allowed to fail.

But the government is so concerned about protecting the necks of the few on the backs of the many (the taxpayers) that it is willing to forsake every sacred principle this country has always stood for.

And, as usual, people blame Bush. But Congressional Democrats created this mess, and the President-elect supports not only a modest bailout Bush has embraced but is proposing to add nearly a trillion more to it, which we are already being told is not enough.

When IS enough really enough?

An Ominous Trend

When Italy nationalized banks in 1933, “the architects who designed the system envisaged it as temporary,” she says. “It was in place until the end of the 1990s.” More recently, the Japanese government injected capital into banks to get them to lend to big corporations, keeping alive “the zombie companies that economists talk about,” she says.

Even as Hank Paulson, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and President Bush assure the public that the trend toward government control of business is 'temporary,' the lesson from history shows the opposite.

An article at Bloomberg entitled, 'Saving Capitalism is No Sure Thing as Statism Undermines the Economy,' presents a sobering, clear-headed perspective on the current trend against free markets in favor of socialistic concepts that form the core of centralized government control.

The problem is that history proves that such government interventionism does nothing to prevent economic distress but prolongs it.

The other lesson from history is that once governments gain such control over free enterprise they are very reluctant to relinquish that control.

Why Richardson is as Bad as Hillary

So, he supports gun rights. I suppose that if one is a single-issue voter, then no matter where Bill Richardson stands on anything else it is perfectly acceptable to support him.

I am not and never have been a single-issue voter. I believe to the depth of my being that such a thing is dangerous. There are too many other critical issues that must be considered.

And when it comes to Billy, there is plenty of reason to oppose him every bit as much as Mrs. Clinton or B. Hussein Obama.

Listen to or read Billy Richardson's stance on the ALL of the issues. It is clear that he is a big-government, European-styled Socialist. Add up the costs of all of his proposals, and we are looking at trillions of dollars of extra taxes to pay for them.

I have yet to understand the support that Billy gets from some gun-rights proponents in light of the fact that outside of the issue of guns the candidate supports socialized medicine, increasing the tax burden on younger working Americans in order to bail out and support Social Security and Medicare rather than look at alternative plans, and this is only for starters.

The candidate is also weak on the immigration issue. He opposes the building of the border fence that Congress has already authorized yet failed to build. His proposals for immigration reform mirrored those of John McCain (before he 'saw the light'), Hillary Clinton, and Lindsey Graham.

Perhaps the most damning of all of Richardson's ideas is the notion that he would 'set government mandates' for U.S. corporations after which he would allow the 'free market to respond.'

Doublespeak. The market is not free if the government sets mandates. And the market will respond, alright. When government puts the squeeze on American free enterprise the markets typically respond by taking a plunge.

And this is precisely what America would do if Billy Richardson is elected to the U.S. Presidency.

The REAL Story of Thanksgiving

First I want to wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. With all the problems we face in America at home and abroad, this is still the greatest nation on earth. We truly have much for which to be thankful.

My Thanksgiving tribute this year centers on our forebears at Plymouth. Most of us are very familiar with the story of the first Thanksgiving, when the Pilgrims gathered with their new-found Indian friends to give thanks to God for not only sparing their lives but giving them the blessing of abundance after nearly failing to survive their first winter in New England.

What you might NOT know, however, is the story behind the story. Thanksgiving is a testament to the triumph of capitalism over socialism, and this is one of the reasons collectivists in politics, the news media, and Hollywood all but ignore the holiday, referring to it instead as 'Turkey Day,' a name which, by the way, I loathe.

Not only do the collectivists hate the purely religious significance of the holiday, but they hate the story behind it and had just as soon keep you from knowing it.

When the Pilgrims first landed at Plymouth they embarked on an experiment the world had never seen. The brave new world that they forged was laden with mistakes early on that were later corrected. Had they not been corrected, they probably would not have survived.

The society that the first band of Pilgrims forged was collectivist in nature. They lived commune style, sharing everything with each other. Property was held in common. It is understandable that they would do such a thing, being alone in a strange land with strange natives. They felt they had to be collectivist to survive and to foster a sense of inter-dependence on each other.

The result, however, was less than desirable. There was no incentive to prosper, no personal pride in private ownership of property, no real motivation to excel and to do the things necessary not only to survive but thrive. Thus, when winter came they were ill-prepared to face the harsh realities of the climate. Over half of them died that winter alone.

All of these factors taught the Puritans a valuable lesson. What they were doing was not working. And, being the resilient lot that they were, they adjusted course. First of all, they ditched the socialistic model of living that nearly brought them to extinction. A capitalistic system was introduced that stressed individual responsibility and initiative, personal freedom, free trade, and private property. They made friends with their Indian neighbors who taught them how to plant corn. In turn, the Pilgrims helped the Indians, thus initiating that hallmark practice of capitalism--free trade. Goods were traded between the Pilgrims and the Indians. The colony began to thrive. Children were born. Plymouth grew. Prosperity began to replace abject poverty and illness.

By the following Autumn, the colony had flourished so much that they wanted to express their thanks to God for the bountiful plenty. They invited their Indian friends and trade partners to join them in sharing a meal during which they remembered that all blessings flow from the One above who loves His children.

However, God did not simply send a smile their way down from heaven and then swoop down to do all this for them. These hearty souls had sense enough to know that faith does not mean God does everything for us, but gives us the strength to do what WE must do. The Pilgrims discovered the path to prosperity and survival, and it was NOT socialism. When they implemented the capitalistic model of free trade and private ownership, their lot changed drastically for the better.

And THAT is the story behind the story of Thanksgiving.

You will not hear this story in our government-run schools nor in most of the hallowed halls of higher learning in America, which have succumbed to the scourge of socialism. You actually have to go back to the early part of the 20th century to find textbooks that tell this entire story, the whole truth. The 2nd half of the 20th century marked the beginning of the real censorship, and it was perpetrated by the Left. These facts as I just presented them have been banned from schools, ripped out of textbooks, and buried--tucked away on the back shelves of some historical library. The socialistic system of education in this country for the past 50 years has brainwashed generations of students into believing something entirely different about Thanksgiving than the truth.

But the truth is still the truth.

I truly hope that all of you reading this today will have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you gather with friends or family, or both, to share a meal. I hope you will give thanks to God for your blessings. And I hope you will take time to pause to remember what our forebears had in mind when they came to this land.

May their vision of liberty never vanish from the earth!
(Hat tip to Rush Limbaugh for inspiring the writing of this Thanksgiving Tribute).