Month: June 2010

Private Sector Jobs Disappear…Public Sector Jobs Grow

Since the start of the recession, 8 million private sector jobs have been lost, but there has been job growth of  600,000 in the public sector.  Since the stimulus bill was passed, private sector employment is down more than 2.6 million, but public sector employment is up 400,000. 

The reality- this Administration, like all administrations, can not create PRIVATE sector jobs, but like governments everywhere, it knows how to expand itself.   

Our economy will not recover until there is growth in private sector jobs, and a reduction in public sector jobs.

The Individuality of Man

Barry Goldwater, in 1961, wrote an essay in a conservative journal founded at Tulane University called “The Liberator.”  In this essay he explains his concept of “the whole man”, a phrase he used in his nomination acceptance speech in 1964 and in other talks.

Conservatives are interested in the whole man, while the radical-liberals confine their interest to the material side of his nature. Conservatives believe that man is in part an economic and animal creature, but that he is also a spiritual creature with spiritual needs and spiritual desires.… The conservative respects the individuality of man, realizing that man’s spiritual and material development is not something that can be directed by outside forces. Every man, for his individual good and the good of his society, is responsible for his own development. The choices that govern his life are choices that he, not a super-state, must make. And these are choices that must involve the whole man [emphasis Goldwater’s own], if they are to be the right choices. If life were concerned only with material things, as the Liberal approach indicates, then I suppose the conduct of some men might be justified. The materialistic philosophies of Marx and Engels, which call for the suppression of the individual and glorify the collective, are only acceptable to people who deny the possibility of a more significant explanation for man’s existence….

The Liberals, with their emphasis on collectivism and conformity, and their willingness to use compulsion to achieve their ends, are actually suggesting a course of action which thoughtful men have rejected throughout history. The reason man must be treated as an individual is because he has an individual immortal soul. Thus, his freedom comes from God — as do all of his rights. In the scheme of things, government’s only proper role is in the protection of man’s God-given freedoms and rights. [All emphases again are Goldwater’s own.]

The conservative recognizes that the concentration of power in the hands of the few has always been the undoing of those who aspired to the fruits of freedom. Aware of the overbearing evidence of history as to the truth of this postulate, the conservative is fearful of the concentration of power which accompanies central government.

And then, with high relevance today, this: “I am convinced that most Americans now want to reverse the trend. I think that concern for our vanishing freedoms is genuine. I think that the people’s uneasiness in the stifling omnipresence of government has turned into something approaching alarm….”

Quin Hillyer, whose father was the publisher of The Liberator does some reminiscing over at The American Spectator, from which this Goldwater quote was taken.

America as Texas vs. California: Who’s Moving Where Edition

America as Texas vs. California: Who’s Moving Where Edition

View this map (click on a county) to see whether people are leaving or moving into the specific county.

Texas’s low-cost, liberty-loving atmosphere has become an attractive alternative to California’s oppressive public sector and dysfunctional policy environment. No amount of heart-melting vistas, celebrity sightings, or traipses through wine country can make up for what almost appears a strategic attempt by one of the nation’s largest states to drive businesses and productive people away.

Now let’s look at California. Aside from the appeal of Los Angeles to people living in the high-cost northeast (you might as well have good beaches and sunny weather if you’re paying high taxes for bad services), it appears the city of angels is losing its heavenly radiance in a massive way. San Diego also looks very red. San Francisco (not included here) has a surprisingly black hue to it in defiance of that beautiful city’s high cost of living, but it has a noticeably lower volume than the other great California cities.

When Bad Rabbis Happen to a Good People

When Bad Rabbis Happen to a Good People

Are you ready for Rabbis Gone Wild — Boston Edition? In the latest installment of this tragicomedy, the progressive Jewish leadership of Massachusetts decides to break the arrogance barrier and set new records for dangerous egomania.

First, let’s meet our cast: seventy distinguished rabbis in Greater Boston, including the Past President of Hebrew College. Boy, you could fell an ox with the collective weight of these worthies’ credentials.

 

And now, the bloodcurdling story: On June 10, these seventy men and women publicly condemned and virtually excommunicated one of the finest American Jewish leaders and human rights activist alive today.

 

Why? Because Dr. Charles Jacobs has the chutzpah to present documented facts about the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, Boston’s increasingly infamous, radical-linked, Saudi-funded mega-mosque.
 
Read the whole article.

What is the Greatest Single Threat to our Country? Prager Answers.

What Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza?

There has been an attempt by many organizations around the world over the past year to establish the appearance of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Even US based organizations, like JStreet, have convinced members of Congress that this is true.

It is not true.
The bottom line is that there is no lack of goods going into Gaza. Each week the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes the amount of aid transferred into Gaza.  See a comprehensive report here  and a weekly update here.
Israel agrees that there is a humanitarian crisis, but it is not due to lack of goods entering Gaza, its the fact that Gaza is ruled by a terrorist organization.

Look back to 2005, Israel withdrew completely allowing the Palestinians to decide on their own how to govern.

In 2007 Hamas expelled Fatah moderates in a bloody battle (good reference here.) and began attacking Israeli towns with rocket barrages.
From 2007 to 2009 literally thousands of rockets rained down on civilian territories (see detailed stats here). In response, Israel along with Egypt, imposed a naval blockade. For an interesting perspective from Egypt go here.

The other nations in the area are wary of radicals like Hamas infiltrating and gaining a political foothold in their country and destabilizing the state so in practice they agree with Israel – yet the public rhetoric is always anti-Israel. Though Egypt has since left its border with Gaza open (though I’m not sure what “open” really means) I believe that soon they will resume their own blockade once public attention drifts. 
The bottom line is that Israel, along with Egypt, wants to ensure that Hamas cannot arm itself. Why? Because if Hamas resumes its attacks against Israel, then Israel will retaliate and the Gazans will seek refuge in Egypt – and Egypt does not want to support that population. To see an Arab blogger’s political analysis re: Egypt 2009, go here.  Go here to see where Egypt opens fire against Gazans in 2009.  Go here and here to see how Egypt deals with the Gazans in 2010.  I am curious why the international community makes no criticism of Egypt, only of Israel?  (Not really!)

With the above information and analysis Israel is clearly justified and is acting morally both in defense of its own citizens and in providing aid to the Gazans. But it does beg the question – where is the Arab support of Palestinians? 
They pledge millions but never deliver.

Meanwhile in the West Bank conditions are very different: The West Bank is experiencing a 7% economic growth rate, declining unemployment, growing tourism and a wage increase of 24% this year.  Read Bloomberg’s analysis of the West Bank economy here.  One wonders why the West Bank is prospering and Gaza is not?  The answer lies in who governs Gaza.  There is no Hamas in the West Bank, and the West Bank isn’t firing rockets into Israel or threatening Israel.  See Ambassador Oren’s article about the West Bank here.  For a comprehensive report on both the West Bank and Gaza go here.  The same prosperity could occur in Gaza as well if Hamas agreed to cease hostilities and work with Israel like Fatah is doing.  That is not likely.

The bottom line is that the residents of Gaza do not suffer from a lack of essential goods or medical supplies.  The press has been complicit with Hamas in attempting to present a picture of humanitarian need in Gaza when none, in reality, exists.

Egyptian Foreign Minister: Obama Admits He Is A Muslim

“I am a Muslim,” Obama Tells Egyptian Foreign Minister Gheit Islamic Coup on the White House

Aid to Hamas??

Investors Business Daily writes in an editorial today:

Diplomacy: President Obama sat for a White House photo op with the Palestinian Authority’s leader and then announced a $400 million aid package for the West Bank and Gaza. What’s wrong with this picture?

The president seemed to go out of his way this week to please his latest guest, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, in a way he didn’t when Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, came calling last month.

Why is the White house providing $400 Million in aid to a terrorist regime?

Why the U.S. should be supporting a regime that so far this year has fired 370 lethal rockets into Israel, that still refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist and that has made a cottage industry of teaching children to hate is beyond us.

Extra cash for the same people who danced in the streets on 9/11 will just free up more resources for new terror and mayhem against the Jewish state. Some $10 billion has been spent globally in the last decade on Palestine, and places like Gaza remain as miserably pro-terrorist as ever.

This gift to a terrorist regime that kills its people for singing and dancing at a wedding because it is against sharia law does not deserve aid from the United States.

The editorial concludes:

If the plan is to buy off Gazans so they’ll vote for non-terrorists, it’s hard to see how this would work. Hamas could refuse to let the U.S. build the schools, just as the group refused aid from Israel-inspected ships that ran the Gaza blockade. These aren’t people who help themselves.

Nor can such aid ever help them as long as they remain committed to Israel’s destruction. President Obama’s aid offer was both expensive and naive.

Read the whole article.

An Open Letter to American Jews

AN OPEN LETTER TO AMERICAN JEWS
By Ben Shapiro

Dear American Jews,

I write to you as a charter member of the tribe. I’m not only Jewish, I’m religious. I’m married to an Israeli girl (she’ll receive her citizenship next year and she is a proud soon-to-be American). I go to synagogue regularly, keep kosher, keep the Sabbath.

American Jews, I have one request of you: please pull your heads out of your posteriors.

I mean that in all sincerity. Your continued support for Democrats and an administration that is openly anti-Semitic is a disgrace. Your embrace of a party that seeks to hamstring Israel in the name of a wholly fictitious Middle East peace process is contemptible. Your loyalty to a president who consistently sides with Palestinian and Iranian mass murder-supporters is disgusting.

Your backing of a man who has spent his life surrounding himself with the worst anti-Semites America has to offer — Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khalidi (former Palestinian terrorist spokesman), Louis Farrakhan (“I don’t like the way [Jews] leech on us”), Samantha Power, Robert Malley, to name a few — is nothing short of reprehensible. Rahm Emanuel’s presence in the Obama cabinet doesn’t ameliorate Obama’s anti-Semitism — it just provides it convenient cover. Al Sharpton wrongly called Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell “house negroes”; Emanuel is a kapo.

Even as you continue to buttress a president who seeks the destruction of your co-religionists, you demonstrate your myopia by rejecting the tea party movement and evangelical Christian Israel-supporters.

The tea party movement is your ally for three important reasons. First, it supports capitalism against the forces of socialism — and capitalism keeps America strong enough to provide Israel with a hand against its evil adversaries. Second, American Jews are, by far, the highest-earning religious group in the United States — the tea party fights for your right to keep your money. Third, the tea party stands against government overreach — and in an era when government overreach promotes anti-religious secularism, Jews must stand with the tea party.

Your rejection of evangelical Christians is even more idiotic. Evangelical Christians are the only major voting bloc preventing President Obama from breaking ties with Israel. When Janet Porter, an evangelical Florida talk show host, heard about Obama’s anti-Israel tyranny, she responded by asking her listeners to buy dozens of yellow roses to send to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as a show of support. The price per dozen: $19.48, in honor of the year of Israel’s founding (1948). Over 14,000 flowers were delivered. Meanwhile, Adm. James Jones, Obama’s national security adviser and the man who brought Jew-hater Zbigniew Brzezinski into Obama’s inner circle, was busy telling anti-Semitic jokes before the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“But they want to convert us!” many American Jews shout. Not all Christians do. But for the rest — so what? Would you sacrifice the support of millions of good-hearted Christians because they want to discuss Jesus with you? If your own belief system is so fragile, the weakness is yours, not theirs. While you expend energy whining about Jehovah’s Witnesses who show up at your door with a Bible, Obama supports radical Muslims who would show up at your door with a gun — or, as in the case of Daniel Pearl, a butcher’s knife.

Now, I understand, American Jews, that most of you don’t care about Israel.

I understand that you’re more concerned about a woman’s unconditional right to abort her unborn child (which Judaism rejects) than you are about Israel. Fine. Understand that you have removed yourself from the vast river of Jewish history in favor of a chimerical morality that values libertinism over liberty.

I understand that many of you — all of you above age 70 — still think FDR is alive. He isn’t, but Jimmy Carter is.

I understand that some of you still think that conservatives and Republicans are the same folks they were during the 1950s, when they banned you from country clubs. They aren’t.

The simple fact is this: There is only one mainstream political ideology in this country that asks you to check your principles and cultural history at the door in the name of the greater good — leftism, the same ideology that virtually exterminated Judaism in Russia and Europe. While the left exploits your adherence to bagel-and-lox Judaism by appealing to your watered-down and perverted “tikkun olam” sensibilities, you are enabling your own destruction. The same people who urge you to reach out to terrorists will be the first to sacrifice you to those terrorists’ tender mercies. The same people who urge you to worry about same-sex marriage rather than religious freedom will be the first to take your religious freedoms away.

I love you, my brothers and sisters. That’s why I’m writing to you. Time is running out; the clock is winding down. Pick a side.

The Real Hamas

We have heard from many lately that Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but is a humanitarian, charitable organization. This is another lie spread by the Islamists.

Hamas is a radical Islamist terrorist organization that forces the Palestinian people to comply with Sharia law through threat, intimidation, terror and ultimately death. The following is a video, prepared by an Israeli Arab opposed to Hamas, showing the true face of Hamas.

In this video you will see a wedding in Gaza at which the wedding party is having a good time,dancing and celebrating the joyous occasion. That is forbidden under sharia law. This video shows Hamas arriving at the wedding scene, killing the participants, including the bride and groom because they were playing music and dancing.

There are many scenes in this video of how Hamas treats the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza. This is the leadership that the Gazans elected, and therefore, the leadership they deserve. But don’t let anyone tell you that Hamas is a benign organization, as you can see for yourself.

The Palestinians will have a better life, and possibly peace, if they can get rid of Hamas. I am not sure that is likely.