Archive for category economy

Socialism

The word socialism is being thrown around in conservative circles quite a bit lately since the recent bailouts and, of course, the passage of the much-debated American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 . If you haven’t taken the time to teach your kids about socialism in your studies of government and economics, now may be a good time to instruct them in the basic concepts. I hope that some of the links below will be helpful to that end and will also help you increase your understanding of the topic.

Before you leave this site to view the links, check out this great YouTube hosted video which provides a short, but excellent, general overview of governmental systems.

This page from historyguy.com provides a handy guide to types of government that could be helpful in your homeschooling lessons.

These articles provide some wise perspectives on the implications of our government’s recent tendency to move toward socialism.

Back on Uncle Sam’s Plantation by Star Parker

Spurgeon On Socialism by Joel McDurmon

Beating Back Obamanomics by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , , ,

Using Saturday Night Live to Gauge the Campaign

If you watched the mid-week edition of Saturday Night Live (SNL) last evening, you saw a different type of episode than those that aired previously.  Not only was it far less funny this time around, but I thought the critical humor was very imbalanced and not as well executed as in previous episodes (i.e. Seth Meyers couldn’t seem to spit out his “Weekend Update” lines without stumbling).

Now we all know that many of the comedians on SNL are no fans of Republicans or Mr. McCain (I can’t even say that I am either lately), but they were so heavy handed in their criticisms of Senator John McCain (using “Joe the Plumber” and “Crazy Lady” references ad nauseam) and so light with their “jabs” at Barrack Obama that it smacked of complete bias and utter desperation.  What better way to smear a candidate during prime time than with laughter mixed with a truckload of derision?  

Could this mean that McCain’s more aggressive stance in the third and last debate (Dick Morris says McCain finally “drew blood“) may have actually ruffled some feathers with liberals and caused a scare in the Obama camp?  I suspect so. Some recent polls seem to point that way today.  Time will tell as we move towards a very important upcoming Election Day.

UPDATE:  Isn’t it an incredible irony that tonight’s episode of SNL (hosted by Josh Brolin of “W.” fame) will likely get a huge ratings bump with the appearance of their most-mocked political figure, Sarah Palin?

UPDATE 2:  Yup, SNL received a huge ratings bump.  In fact, it was their best since 1994.  Well, ain’t that interesting.

———-

On a completely separate note, I just read  this article by Joel McDurmon at American Vision and I think it is absolutely a “must read” for all concerned Americans.  Part 2 of this article, named  ”Planks We Walk to Our Doom“, is scheduled to be released tomorrow (Saturday) and I’ll post a link to it here once it is available.

UPDATE:  As promised, a link to part 2 of the article  ”Planks We Walk to Our Doom” can be found here.  Have a great week.

Vehix.com

Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

To Bail Or Not To Bail, That Is The Question

UPDATE:  Well, the House passed the Wall Street bill after all.  I’m very disappointed and a little angry.  Apparently, I’m in good company.  The world market isn’t reacting as many had hoped.  At the end of trading today (10/09/08), the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 8,579.19.  Iceland is a mess.  Which country is next?

___________________________________

I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this, but part of me was glad to hear that the House of Representatives voted down the Wall Street bailout plan earlier this week.  The whole plan smelled bad from the start and I applaud both the Republican and Democrat Representatives that had the courage to vote against it.  There may be hope for this country yet (assuming their motives were for the good of the country and not their own re-election).

We would be wise as a nation to slow down and think this whole thing through – painful as it might become.   Simple common sense would seem to dictate that we cannot just throw (taxpayer) money at failed companies and expect the problem to just go away.  I liken it to putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.  Yes, you cover it up for a time, but neither the wound nor the imminent death of the gunshot victim are going to go away without proper care.  

The question then becomes:  Is the bailout of these organizations our only option? Should we be giving this plan our support?  President Bush seems to be telling us we should.  McCain and Obama are too. Not that my opinion matters much, but I cannot agree with them.  I think that by doing so we are rushing headlong into socialism or worse. Anyone else concerned about that?


Thankfully, smarter people than I have weighed in on this topic with some great recent articles that present some interesting alternative views of the situation.  Their opinions are not what you’d normally find on the the big news outlets (which is refreshing), so I thought I’d share some with you.  Enjoy!

As always, feel free to sound off in our comments section or vote in the poll found above.

You Heard It Here First

by Dr. Richard A. Jones at American Vision

Bailout marks Karl Marx’s comeback 

by Jeff White at NationalPost.com

Now That the Bailout Is Dead, What Next?

by Gary North at Specific Answers

The Great Train Robbery of 2008 

by Robert P. Murphy at the Ludwig von Mises Institute

Bush and the Bubble Bungle

by Dr. Richard A. Jones at American Vision

Bankruptcy, not bailout, is the right answer 

by Jeffrey A. Mironat at CNN

The (Near) Death of the State

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. at the Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Common Sense Fix

by Dave Ramsey

No More Help, Please

by Stephen Fairfax at LewRockwell.com

Bookmark and Share

Tags: , , , , , , , ,