Civics Failure

College students received failing grades on basic civics tests, even from prestigious universities across the United States. Apparently clear is the success of liberal professors to misinterpret history to enable their elected leaders to pertinently destroy the individual liberty.
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Entitlement vs. Gratitude

Thomas Sowell on Welfare (see Milton Friedman in the room?) 


The following article happens to be a nice follow-up to the video and food for thought in both America and one's personal life.

Roger Scruton, writing in the April issue of the American Spectator: 

The proper response to a gift, even a gift of charity, is gratitude. People who feel gratitude also wish to express it. The easiest way is to give in one’s turn. By giving you pass on and amplify the goodwill that you received. Thus it is that, in America, where the tradition of giving is very much alive, and the state has not yet extinguished the desire or need for it, people give to their old school, to their university, to the hospital that cured them, to the local rescue service that saved them, and to the veterans who fought for them. They give without seeking or expecting recognition, but simply because gratitude is expressed through giving.

 However, the state is taking over many of the functions that were previously performed by charities—not least education, health care, and the relief of poverty. And the state deals on impersonal and equal terms with its citizens. It has no favorites, and it is governed by the rules—anything else is received by the citizens as an injustice. Hence charity is replaced by justice as the ruling principle upon which social benefits are distributed. But while charity deals in gifts, justice deals in rights. And when your receive what is yours by right you don’t feel grateful. Hence people who receive their education and health care from the state are less inclined to give to schools and hospitals in their turn—something that is borne out vividly by the figures concerning charitable giving. The spirit of gratitude retreats from social experience, and in countries like France and Germany, where civil society is penetrated at every level by the state, people give little or nothing to charity, and regard gifts with suspicion, as attempts to privatize what should be a matter of public and impartial concern.

 When gifts are replaced by rights, so is gratitude replaced by claims. And claims breed resentment. Since your queuing on equal terms with the competition, you will begin to think of the special conditions that entitle you to a greater, speedier, or a more effective share. You will be always one step from the official complaint, the court action, the press interview, and the snarling reproach against Them, the ones who owed you this right and also withheld it. That is the way European society is going, and American society may one day follow it.  

Disconnection, Income Tax and the Booming 20s

Disconnected from reality?

People may be astonished at this notion, but it took 124 years of American history for the second-handers in politics and society to get their hands, permanently, on income tax. The ratification of the 16th Amendment constituted the first permanent federal income tax in American history. Just to think that prior to 1913, only 2% of the US population owed federal taxes. From 1914 to 1920 the federal revenue coming from income taxes rose from about 10% to 70%, largely to fund the US efforts in WWI. After this uncharacteristic influx of taxes and the economic recession of 1920-21, the US politicians had a tough time maintaining these high income tax rates. At this time, treasury secretary Andrew Mellon, a Pittsburgh entrepreneur, proposed a principle of supply-side economics to dramatically reduce the tax rates to levels of the pre-WWI era. He argued that high surtax rates led to a misallocation of capital, reduced tax collections, and hindered productive economic activity. By reducing taxes on wealthy individuals, who during periods of high tax-rates took extensive steps to avoid federal income taxes (i.e. through tax-exempt securities), Mellon's policy had tremendous impact by diverting capital from tax-exempt practices to investment within the private industry. This promoted extensive growth in the economy and significantly increased the overall average of real wages. Odd enough, and something for the "spread the wealth" leftist ideology to think about, the increase in money supply for all individuals meant the tax burden shifted from the lower-income group toward the upper-income group. Also, the government still received the same amount of money as they did during the significant tax increase years, because of the overwhelming wealth produced in the booming economy.


At the first sign of a troubled economy, a recession no different than seen in 1920-21, Hoover and his congressional supporters implemented a policy to drastically increase the tax burden. By 1935 the tax rate, under FDR, rose to 79% on the upper income individuals and the economy still proved to stagnate. It was not until the significant drop in the tax rate on upper-income families, post WWII, that the US began seeing the type of economy that promotes wealth and productivity. 

Are we to wait this long? The reinstatement of the high tax rate on the upper echelon will only serve to cripple the economy and in effect increase the effective tax burden on the lower-income families. While it would seem that the hike in the percentage of tax increases would serve to induce "equality" so-to-speak, it will only cause a decline in real wages and effectively limit the productive expansion of industry. 

[Main Ideas from the Article "Federal Personal Income Tax Policy in the 1920s" Author(s): Gene Smiley and Richard H. Keehn; Source: The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 5, 1995]

The Flaw of Democracies

 

Summary of Important Passages of the Afghan Constitution: (Note: Articles 22, 30, 34, and 40 weakly uphold the only values of American individualistic ideology. However, these principles become meaningless with the implementation of the first 3 articles): 


This Constitution accepted on the merit of democracy: 

Article 1: Afghan constitution defines the regime as an Islamic Republic

Article 2: Islam is enshrined as the state religion

Article 3: The supreme source of law: “In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam”

Article 20: The national anthem is required by law to mention Allahu Akbar –meaning “God is greatest”

Articles 22, 30, 40: Suggestions that proclaim support to the idea of rights and legal equality before the law.

Article 34: Promise that “freedom of expression is inviolable”

Outcome:

A.)  -Schools “daring to allow girls to attend class” have been bombarded with rocket fire.

B.)  -Five teachers were murdered and dozens of schools shut down because of the suspected teaching of women.

C.)  -2005 Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of Women’s Rights, convicted of blasphemy.

a.     Prosecutor demanded that Nasab receive the death penalty.

b.     Editor spared and sentenced to jail for two years.

D.)  -2006: Afghan convert to Christianity, Abdul Rahman, denounced as an apostate (a person who forsakes his religion).

a.     Threatened with execution. Again, his life spared, and he was excommunicated to Europe.

E.)  -2008: Persecution of Parwiz Kambakhsh (24 year old Afghan student), who was accused of circulating an article with regard to the rights of women in Islam and for starting un-Islamic discussions in class.

a.     Council of clerics decreed capital punishment

b.     Afghanistan’s upper house of parliament endorsed the sentence.

c.      Crowds took to street to support the sentence, with one cleric declaring “He should be punished so that others learn from him.”

d.     It was from heavy pressure from the West that the sentence was reduced on appeal-to twenty years in prison.

F.)   -Hamid Karzai, the allegedly pro-freedom, pro-Western president of Afghanistan, downplayed the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, proclaiming them to be “an insult to more than a billion Muslims.” (So much for the 34th Article). [Details from Winning the Unwinnable War by Elan Journo.]   
           

       This democratic establishment is to procure a safer environment for America? Let us be reminded that Socrates was sacrificed in the name of a democracy, in civilized Athens, because he raised objections against the will of the majority. A democracy subjects an individual's rights to the discretion of the majority. To me, doesn't appear like the correct form of government to establish in a country that has based its public philosophy on submission of the individual to authority for the last 1000 years. 

Continued Diplomacy in the Face of Terror

This week, Iran obtained critical valves and vacuum gauges, both specialized hardware for enriching uranium. Meanwhile, United States authorities work toward diplomacy and powerless sanctions against Iran. This action issynonymous with European concessions with Hitler in the 1930s. The result: World War II.

Where is the Underground Railroad for Doctors?

Dr. Cassell deserves high praise as he upholds his first amendment right by placing a slogan: "If you voted for Obama, seek urologic care elsewhere" on the window of his office doorway. While Dr. Cassell clearly noted that he still would treat all customers, he finds, as he should, that he still deserves the right to formulate his own opinion and deter patients that idolize a philosophy that subjects his profession to the whims of Washington. As expected, outrage poured in from the district representative, Alan Grayson-D, as he commented: “I think it’s disgusting...I know that most people go into health care because they want to help sick people. They don’t have some political agenda. I think it’s outrageous that someone would try to press his political agenda.”He added, “I think the sore losers are out in force.”
Translation: "All doctors need to shut-up and get to work...I will formulate your opinion for you!" 

I beg to differ Mr. Grayson, but doctors are not puppets to society. They offer a trade. Their trade is to fix people. Are they to do this without compensation? Are they to not even express a complaint in the matter? Let me ask Mr. Grayson, "Is a mechanic to fix a car for every person that comes to him because he went into the profession to fix cars? Is this same mechanic to not raise any objection if politicians demand that all people need functional cars, even if they can't afford it?" The answer is absolutely not. Yet, the scum politicians like Mr. Grayson demand doctors to work on every patient that comes to them. They do not think that doctors offer a trade, but are mere servants to public demand. What's even worse, doctors are not even able to raise any complaints. Under their rationale, Washington will take care of it.

Good for you Dr. Cassell. I hope more doctors follow suit.

Russians Will Lose as they Continue to Seek Compromise

Attack number two hit Russia on Wednesday as the Chechnya Islamic terrorists killed a dozen people in southern Russia.  At this moment Russian leaders should be emboldened by their enemy and declare a state of war against Islamic Totalitarianism. The Chechen civilians, who seek to create an "Islamic state spanning all the Muslim republics of Russia's north Caucasus", are emboldened as Russian officials take a passive approach toward the ruthless attacks against its countrymen. Russian officials concede that "widespread poverty, corruption and human rights abuses by security forces in the region create a rich soil for extremists" (WSJ-April 1, 2010).  By minimizing the attacks through excuses, Russia continues to legitimize these acts of war. Even worse, Russian leaders turn the blame against themselves, as if they are deserving of these attacks because they failed in their "humane" acts. Do they not realize that this religious movement seeks to encompass the world with an ideology of submission to Allah...which is ultimately the selfless submission of ones mind to authority. While Russia is free to suffer its own fate, let us ensure that the United States does not respond in a similar fashion. Let us be reminded that Islamic states as a whole seek to spread their selfless ideology and will not stop until a.) they are convinced their goal is impossible to attain or b.) they succeed.

Just War Theory

Obama continues the neoconservative "Just War Theory" that places citizens of foreign counties at a higher moral standing than our troops. The message holds that America is in the Middle East not for its own own self-interest to eliminate Islamic Totalitarianism, but to help others in some "higher" good that reflects our charity to enable them to achieve democracy. By establishing the mob-rule system that is known as democracy we enable our enemy to establish whichever government they wish, even if it is anti-American. The Just War Theory doctrine is the predominate policy guiding our leaders and military action ever since World War II, and has only weakened America, not strengthened it. This doctrine has given our weak enemy hope of victory by enabling them to carrying out a long, extended war. It is a non-win scenario as US replaces complete victory with appeasement. It places citizens of other countries higher than our own troops. The death of our soldier is acceptable, whereas the death of a citizen of a foreign nation is unacceptable. This selfless policy is reflected in the Speech Obama delivered to our troops this past 24 hours, "You are bringing hope and opportunity to people who know a lot of pain and suffering." The message to our troops should be of one basis only, to protect American lives. That is, the lives of themselves. It should then be followed that we must give them hell, so they may never even think twice about attacking a free-nation again.