Honest Debate and the Confederate Flag

Every tragedy does not require a knee-jerk public policy response such as further limitations on gun rights or the demonization and banning of a flag. Honest people should have the ability to engage in honest debate. Unfortunately the political environment in which we currently find ourselves pits us against each other rather than encouraging interaction and the sharing of ideas.

The Confederate flag controversy is yet another example of how advocacy in America is now accomplished. There is little or no tolerance for an intellectually honest debate. There is little or no consideration for the other side of an argument as advocates would rather shut down debate through name-calling, smearing, and insults.

Consider the following:

• If you think the Confederate flag controversy is overblown, you are labeled a racist and pro-slavery.
• If you don’t buy into the global warming propaganda, you are a denier, a dissenter, and/or you are pro-pollution.
• If you believe marriage is defined as between one woman and one man, you are intolerant, a homophobe, and/or a Christian zealot.
• If you believe the life of an unborn baby requires some consideration in the abortion debate, you are waging a war on women, telling women what to do with their own bodies, and/or encouraging back-alley abortions. Note: I never hear pro-lifers claim that pro-choicers are waging a war on the unborn!
• If you oppose throwing more good money after bad in our public school system, you are opposed to educating the children and/or a teacher-hater!
• If you want to repeal Obamacare, you want to deny healthcare to others and/or you are an “evil-monger”.
• If you oppose affirmative action, you are a bigot.
• If you want to reform Social Security, you are depicted in television advertisements as pushing grandma over a cliff in a wheelchair.
• If you are opposed to amnesty for illegal immigrants or you want the border enforced, you are a racist and/or a xenophobe.
• If you believe in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, you are cold-blooded.
• If you are a member of the Tea Party movement, you are an obstructionist, an anarchist, a radical, and/or a racist. According to Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters, you are also damned to eternal damnation as she once eloquently said, “The Tea Party can go straight to hell!”
• If you are opposed to going to war, you are an isolationist.
• If you are an advocate for going to war, you are a war-monger!
• If you oppose raising the debt ceiling, you hate cops, firefighters, and teachers!
• If you oppose raising the minimum wage, you are heartless!
• If you are an advocate for welfare reform, you are callous and cruel!

Back to the Confederate flag: The flag is known as “the rebel flag” NOT “the pro-slavery flag”! It represents the rebellion of the southern states’ against the northern states which was waging war against the South in order to force them to remain in the union!

I will concede that if you asked 100 people, "what is the first thing that comes to mind when they see the confederate flag?", it is likely that “slavery” ends up as the #1 response. However, I am willing to bet that you would likely see “rebel flag” or "rebellion" as a close #2. Other responses might include “Kid Rock”, “Alabama”, “the Civil War”, “the South”, “pick-up truck with a gun rack”, “redneck”, etc. (Click here to read a recent CNN/ORC poll.)

How about we try taking a breath and starting a dialogue with each other rather than resorting to name-calling reminiscent of the fourth grade playground?

See page 65 of my book Pritical Thinking for more.

100% Failure Rate - Part III

Back in 2009, I published my first blog proving 100% failure rate of the federal government. In it I highlighted such things as:

• Social Security
• The United States Post Office
• Amtrak
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
• The War on Poverty
• The Stimulus Bill
• Cash for Clunkers

In 2010, I published 100% Failure Rate - Part II which highlighted the latest news about the insolvency of Social Security. 

Now, with almost six years of the Obama Administration under our belt, I thought it was time to update the federal governments absolutely heinous record of doing anything right. How about these?

• Veteran's Affairs
• Obamacare
• The Secret Service
• Fast and Furious
• The Ebola outbreak
• ISIS
• Benghazi
• The economy
• The national debt
• The IRS scandal
• Welfare
• The Obamacare website
• Enforcing our borders

Much, much more is outlined in my book, Pritical Thinking-The Lost Art of Critical Thinking and Common Sense in Politics and Public Policy.

State Sucession

Short of a Convention of the States that institutes real reform and real limitations on the federal government's power, secession is the only other recourse we, the people, have from the overreaching federal, now national, government.

The findings of this Reuters/Ipsos poll are not surprising. The growth of Washington's power and wealth is easy to see. It grows regardless of which party is in power. We sit breathlessly each June waiting to hear what 9 lawyers deem constitutional. We allow 20% of our economy to be turned over to the feds despite the fact that socialized medicine produces worse results than our current system. Our national debt is approaching $18 trillion. Bush was "irresponsible and unpatriotic" for taking it from $5 trillion to $9 trillion. Our education system is a disaster. The list of federal failures and corruption is as long as the list of federal agencies: Postal Service, Fannie Mae, Social Security,  Medicare, Medicaid, Freddie Mac, Amtrak, Veteran's Affairs, the IRS, Obamacare, etc.

BEFORE A STATE CAN SERIOUSLY CONSIDER SECESSION, IT MUST WEAN ITSELF FROM DEPENDENCE ON THE FUNDS IT RECEIVES FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT and, of course, its citizens must wake up and demand change. Until then, we will get more of the same and worse.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/19/us-usa-secession-exclusive-idUSKBN0HE19U20140919

How the Liberal Mind Works: Divide, Disparage, and Maintain Dependency on Government

In an op-ed in the Buffalo News, New York Assemblyman Karim Camar was able to demonstrate the destructiveness of the theology of liberalism better in 750 words than Alan Colmes could on one of his three-hour daily radio shows.

Quote: "The major accomplishments of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 are being dismantled today by a dangerous and growing trend of income and wage inequalities."

A Pritical Thinker might pose the questions - What the hell is income and wage inequality? Does that mean it is wrong for some people to make more than others? Should everyone make the same amount of money Mr. Camar?

Perhaps some people make more money because they are deemed more valuable to employers than others due to their education, training, and experience. This may also occur, Mr. Camar, when individuals risk their own money and start businesses, work an ungodly number of hours each week (many times at low or no pay) in order to reap the potential benefits someday if their business is successful. All the while we have an embarrassingly large segment of our citizens being encouraged by the government to sit on their asses for years on end taking money from them with no expectation being set that the benefits are temporary.

Quote: "Aug. 31 marked 50 years since the federal government passed the Food Stamp Act, which established a national food assistance program. Today, the food stamp (SNAP) program is caught up in a political chess game that leaves millions of families to survive on about $70 per week. In a nation where soup kitchens now abound, where food pantries run near empty and where millions of our children rely on school meals, it is clear that this decades-old War on Poverty must be renewed with diligence and conviction."

A Pritical Thinker might ask Mr. Camar, what political chess match are you referring to? The one where the food stamp program has doubled since Barack Obama took office? I'd think you would call that CHECKMATE!

A Pritical Thinker would never allow Mr. Camar to make unsubstantiated claims about the abounding soup kitchens and empty food pantries without requiring some evidence.

Finally, how do you explain the fact that we have pumped some $20 trillion into the War on Poverty and poverty continues to stay the same or grow yet you want to renew the FAILED "decades-old War on Poverty". You sir must be insane because, what you are advocating for is the very definition of insanity.

Quote: "Recently, the International Monetary Fund documented that the richest 100 people on earth have as much wealth as 3.5 billion fellow human beings."

A Pritical Thinker knows that hustlers like Mr. Camar must perpetuate division among the people. Race and income are low-hanging fruit and easy to put forth. The question AGAIN for Mr. Camar, should these 100 richest people divide their wealth among the masses? Do you think that these "rich" people employee the rest of us who make their meals, manufacture their cars, build their houses, work at their businesses?

The shallowness of this type of thinking is truly breathtaking.

Obamacare Citations from Pritical Thinking

Below is a list of citations used in the Obamacare chapter from Pritical Thinking:

• No They Can’t!, John Stoessel
• Why John Roberts is Wrong About Obamacare, Senator Mike Lee

• Cato Institute: Why Healthcare Costs Too Much
• Patient-Centered, Market-Based Healthcare Solution
• Eight Biggest Myths of Obamacare
• The Prescription for Conservative Consumer-FocusedHealth Reform-
• Democratic Congressman John Conyers: “Read the bill?”
• Biggest Myths of Obamacare
• South Carolina’s Efforts to Nullify Obamacare
• Obamacare to Cost Average Family $20,000
• The Use of Reconciliation to Pass Obamacare: Abuse ofPower
• The Young Won’t Buy Obamacare
• Congressional Budget Office – Effects of Tort Reformon Healthcare Costs
• Doctors Going Broke
• How U.S. Healthcare Really Stacks Up
• National Center for Policy Analysis – Healthcare
• Rationing of Care in the U.K.
• BritainPlans to Decentralize Health Care (2010)
• Long Waits Cost Canadians Millions
• U.S. Government Accountability Office: Medicare andMedicaid Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
• Portland Doctor Stops Accepting Insurance; PostsPrices Online
• Family Physician Posts Prices on Website
• Medicare Fraud: A $60 Billion Crime

New! Ten Small-Scale Reforms For Pre-existing (Chronic)Conditions

Economics 101 Citations from Pritical Thinking

Below is a list of citations used in the Economics 101 section of Pritical Thinking:

A Capitalist Manifesto, Gary Wolfram
Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell
Dr. Ben Carson's Speech - Economics is not Brain Surgery!

Tax Credits 

• Top 40% Paid Over 100% Federal Income Taxes
• TheDistribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2010

You Didn’t Build That

Food Stamps and Unemployment Benefits Stimulate the Economy

• Valerie Jarret – Unemployment Benefits Stimulates Economy 
• Obama Agriculture Secretary Food Stamps Puts People Back to Work
• Nancy Pelosi –Extending Unemployment Benefits One of Best Ways to Stimulate Economy
• Obama - Voting for Unemployment Insurance Helps People and Creates Jobs
• FoodStamps Don’t Stimulate the Economy

Fair Share - IRS Tax Stats - Income Tax Rates and Tax Shares

This Recession is NOT Different

• Why the Mortgage Crisis Happened

Social Security 

• Social Security in the Red
• WhereYour Social Security Taxes Really Goes 
• The Social Security Act of 1935 
• Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Benefits Over a Lifetime

How Much Damage is the Federal Reserve Doing? 

• The Failure of the Federal Reserve

Government Regulations 

• The Year in Regulations 2013
• Phoenix Center Policy Bulletin No. 28 – Regulatory Expenditures, Economic Growth and Jobs: An Empirical Study
• Cutting Federal Regulations Lowers Unemployment
• Obamacare Red Tape Burden
• EPA Admits It Does Not Consider the Impact of Its Regulations on Jobs
• Small Businesses for Sensible Regulation, Open Letter to President Obama
• 20 Tax Facts That Will Make Your Head Explode
• Happy New Year! 141 New Regulations in Only 3 Days 

The Truth About Minimum Wage

As discussed in my book, Pritical Thinking-The Lost Art of Critical Thinking and Common Sense in Politics and Public Policy, if raising the minimum wage is such a great idea, why stop at $10 or $12 an hour? Why not push it to $20 or $50 an hour? How about $100 an hour?

The truth is minimum wage is . . . the MINIMUM! You start at a low wage, gain experience and skills thereby making yourself more valuable and, thus, warranting a higher wage.

The truth is raising the minimum wage hurts the very people that liberal advocates of the wage rate increase claim to be trying to help. Milton Friedman said it this way, "minimum wage laws are about as clear a case as one can find of a measure, the effects of which are precisely the opposite of those intended by men of goodwill who support it."

Below is a list of citations used in the Minimum Wage discussion in Pritical Thinking:

• CBO Report
• Consumers Pay for Minimum Wage Hike 
• Employment Policies Institute, Wage Growth Among Minimum Wage Earners 
• Minimum Wage Hike Will Hurt Jobs and Economy 
• What is Minimum Wage: Its History and Effects on the Economy 
• Who Earns the Minimum Wage? Suburban Teenagers, Not Single Parents 
• Income Inequality, Walter E. Williams
• Majority of Minimum Wage Earners Under 30 Years Old
• Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Matrices 
• Bill Gates on Minimum Wage Harmful Effects 
• Politics and Minimum Wage

Washington Redskins and American Politics

What do the Washington Redskins have to do with American politics and public policy? 

Just like with gay marriage, Obamacare, minimum wage, national debt, welfare reform, social security reform, gun control, balanced budget amendment, abortion, gun control, illegal immigration, energy policy, and voter ID laws, the (silent) majority allows themselves to be drowned out by a loud and often obnoxious, vitriolic minority.

Read the ESPN.com story here. Learn more about the other topics here.