The 5000 Year Leap - A Miracle That Changed the World

[WhiskeyGirl]

Has anyone read this book?

Preserving our Constitutional freedom

Column: Randy Bright
January 22nd, 2009

...The 5000 Year Leap. I think everyone should read it.  This would not be a popular book for anyone in favor of big government, because it reveals just how much our Founding Fathers realized that for a country to be successful, it must be free, and free of big government.

The American Constitution was, as the book says on its cover, “A Miracle That Changed the World,”...

The Constitution made possible the 5000-year leap because it unleashed the creativity in the citizens of this country that brought us, within 200 years, from essentially the same lifestyle that people lived 5000 years before, to the modern lifestyle that we now enjoy.

When the Constitution was written, it gave Americans a freedom that had never existed in history.  Never before could  individuals enjoy the kinds of freedoms that the Constitution guaranteed, and this was at a time when “enlightened” Europeans were embracing socialism, in particular in France, where the bloody and failed French Revolution was taking place.

The Constitution works because the rights we enjoy are given by God, not our government, and the framers worked diligently to design it so that there would be a balance between two extremes...

The framers knew that there was a place for limited government, but that if the government was tyrannical, it would destroy the spirit of its citizens, making them no better than any other country.

For years, cities in America have been looking for the magic bullet that will bring them business and prosperity, and the overwhelming trend is to do just as Tulsa has done and is doing; building convention centers, going green, and planning their cities to meet the newest version of New Urbanism.

The assumption, of course, is that a city needs these things because that’s what people want, and that if a city provides what people want, it will attract business and jobs, especially for young people.  The question is, what are people really looking for?  Do they want to move to the city that has the most “stuff” for them to do, or will they go where the jobs and the lowest costs of living are? 

Oklahoma, in contrast to the rest of the country, is doing much better economically than the rest of the country.  According to House Speaker Chris Benge, the primary reason is Oklahoma’s conservative values.

(snip)

For as many years as I have lived in Tulsa, city leaders and mayors have been looking for ways to make this city more attractive and to provide more social services.  The result of that has led to high taxes and distrust of local government.

What people really want from their government is, in one word, to be free.  What government thinks people want is for things they want to be free.  How much character can we expect from citizens who come to expect things to be free because they believe they are paying for it with high taxes?

For a city to be truly successful, it seems evident to me that its leaders need to form policies that pass Constitutional muster, encourage families to be functional, promote morality and self-reliance, promote capitalism and discourage socialism.

The fact is, the Constitution never guaranteed anyone happiness or even the basic necessities of life, only the freedom to pursue those things, and for America to remain great, that is as it should be.

©2009 Randy W. Bright

Randy W. Bright, AIA, NCARB, is an architect who specializes in church and church-related projects. You may contact him at 918-664-7957, rwbrightchurcharch@sbcglobal.net or www.churcharchitect.net.

http://www.tulsabeacon.com/?p=1320

When I think of big governments of the past 100 years, only ugliness comes to mind.  Hitler and his new world order, Soviet style big government and control, and other smaller scale examples that seem to feature genocide, extermination, or absolute control over peoples lives.

How long were any of these successful?  How many bodies are buried under these boots?  How many people never had the freedom or opportunity to pursue happiness or the basics of everyday life.

As tough as this country can be, I still read about people crossing it's boarders illegally to enter.  How many are getting on little boats and fleeing to Cuba?  South America?  China?

How many are getting on an airplace and leaving for a place with better promises for the future?   Life has been good in these United States for many years.  We have welfare systems that are the envy of the poor and destitute around the world.  For some, the streets are paved in gold.  With all these material things, how can anyone not be successful?

How indeed.  Why is the nation been weakened by all these bailouts?  The country is bankrupt and borrowing money from loan sharks, imo.  At what cost?  How much will taxes have to rise to pay for all these bailouts?  Where'd all that money go?

Pay as you go?  I read something that suggested that the bailouts were in excess of $20 trillion dollars and rising.  Why weren't these institutions reformed in the early 2000's?  Fraud and mismanagement addressed?  2005?  Why wasn't there support for reform efforts that were being made? 

The same people continue to spend money and have yet to indicate how the nation will pay for all these recovery programs.  If there was good management for the past ten years, would there be such a need for recovery?  What is the recovery really for?  Government asleep at the wheel of the financial system?

Bigger companies and bigger government just seems to lead to bigger failures and longer recovery times.  How people do these bigger countries, nations, and movements enslave every year?

$20 trillion would pay for a lot of healthcare and unemployment and building the workforce from the ground up. 

What the nation gets--more debt, more programs that have no funding, and no plan for repayment.  How will present and future generations have the ability to pursue happiness or even the basic necessities of life under the debt that grows every day on Capitol Hill? 

I watched CSpann today and someone said there was no silver bullet for the economy.  Where's the magic bullet?  Magic wand?  Money to pay for all this?

just my humble opinions

[WhiskeyGirl]

‘Fleeced’ vows to pull the wool off taxpayers’ eyes

Authors Morris and McGann call for politicians to be held accountable

Here’s a good example of how credit card companies are fleecing consumers. Twenty or thirty years ago, every state had laws prohibiting usury. Only Mafia loan sharks collected interest rates of 20 or 30 percent. But Supreme Court decisions stripped the states of their power to regulate credit card interest — and the political clout of the companies has stymied congressional attempts at regulation. So while the six credit card companies that monopolize the industry post annual profits of $30 billion, tens of millions of us are chasing our tails, trying in vain to repay our credit card debt. It’s not that we owe too much: The average balance is only $13,000. It’s that we can’t repay the principal while we’re trying to keep current with the 20 to 30 percent interest. In the meantime, the credit card companies use the slightest pretext to impose penalty charges, which have tripled in the past decade.

There was a time when states determined interest rates.  How many Americans had multiple credit cards charged to the limit?  How many of these credit card companies/banks  failed?

Has federal regulation been a success?  Maybe they can do better in the future?  Any chance the "Real ID Act of 2005" will be implemented?

Are Americans better off today with credit and banking regulation by the Fed? 

Will education for EVERYONE be better when it's managed by the Fed?  Or, like other programs will it just cost more for everyone and still not be an improvement?

Things are getting worse as they do nothing. There were 45 percent more foreclosures — at stages from the dispatch of the first foreclosure notice to bank seizure of property — in January 2008 than a year earlier. Three states led in the mortgage mess: Texas, with 14,669 foreclosures; Florida, with 10,334; and California, with 9,354.

Where did most of the TARP money go?

There will always be enough gullible and foolishly optimistic borrowers who borrow money they can’t afford to repay. The federal government will always subsidize bad loans, either inadvertently or because of corrupt indifference. But unless those who knowingly induce consumers to sign on the dotted line face financial and criminal penalties, they’ll just keep on doing it.

Who will continue to pay for all these people who can't afford to repay?

We are not a nation that thrives on class warfare. Class consciousness just isn’t the American way. When a rich capitalist drives his Rolls-Royce past a factory gate in Britain, the workers think, “That’s not right.“ An American worker, on the other hand, would be more likely to think, “My boy will have a Rolls like that someday.“ But the obscene gluttony we’ve seen in CEOs’ pay and bonuses could light the fires of class warfare within our borders if this kind of thing isn’t stopped.

I think the dream that anyone can climb the ladder and drive a Rolls is over.  The perks will go to the new political class and those on the list of inclusion - not that they want to exclude anyone, there are just so many spaces on the inclusion list available...

Hedge fund managers, for example, are among the richest people in our country. George Soros made more than $3 billion last year. The hedge fund managers defend their salaries by pointing to the risks they took, the smart investments they made, and how hard they worked. But, even so, their income is taxed at only 15 percent because they dress up their earnings as capital gains, while everyone else has to pay up to 35 percent in taxes. That’s what Wilentz means by artificial inequality — and it has to end.

How much did George Soros donate to the historic Obama campaign last year?

And what of the young men and women who risk their lives to capture or kill terrorists before they can strike us? The heroism of these young men and women has led to the capture of 765 terrorists who have been sent to Guantánamo Naval Base to be locked up until the war on terror is over. But courts, liberal lawyers, and a cowed administration have released 425 of these anti-American militants. And now we’re having to go out and recapture many of them —or kill them — because, thanks to our leniency, they’re back in the field fighting us again!

Any review of the 425 that have been released?  What are they up to today?  Deciples of peace?

Does the 'system' get any credit for the ones that were already let go?  Who pays the ultimate price?

Daycare for terrorists?  Criminals?  How long before the prisons in the US are purged of the most serious offenders?  Surely a nation as great as this one can reform these folks to? 

What is the value of any human life?  Maybe some lives are more valuable than others?

History is filled with good people who believed that 'if we don't fire at them (or back at them) they won't fire at us' - any evidence of long term peaceful societies still around?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25265340/

The administration already has suspended trials for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.

A task force must report in 30 days on where the Guantanamo detainees should go, as well as a destination for future terror suspects.

Meanwhile, the discovery of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee as deputy leader of al Qaeda's Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications of closing the detention center, New York Times reports.

The militant, Said Ali al-Shihri, is suspected of involvement in the deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen's capital, Sana, in September. He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation programme for former jihadists before resurfacing with al Qaeda in Yemen.

His status was announced in an internet statement by the militant group and was confirmed by an American counter-terrorism official, who insisted on remaining anonymous, the US paper writes.

http://euobserver.com/9/27462

Is it open season on Americans?  Will America end up with regular reports of bombings in our cities and countryside?  Buses bombed?  Stories like in Europe and other places?

Do these same terrorists bomb places in South America?  Asia?

I think the US has been lucky and guarded from most terrorist acts during the Bush administration.  America has been very blessed.

How will the US fair during the Obama administration?   Will the blessing continue?  

[WhiskeyGirl]

I wasn't out to look but found another camp likened to Guantánamo, along with other facilities worldwide -

The List: The World's Most Notorious Prisons
 
By Greg Shtraks Page 1 of 1
 
Posted January 2009 

Camp 1391

Country: Israel

Conditions: Officially, Camp 1391 does not exist, but descriptions of its conditions have filtered out to the media. The Red Cross is not allowed to visit, and prisoners have no idea where they are being kept or when they might be released. 1391 is often called "Israel's Guantánamo," but unlike the American facility, it's not on a remote overseas military base. It's less than an hour's drive from Tel Aviv.

1391 was created by the British as a detention center for Jews and Arabs plotting against the colonial government, but it wasn't until 2004 that an Israeli historian studying old maps for a journal article discovered that it still existed. The discovery of the secret facility for interrogating suspected terrorists set off a media firestorm in Israel. Like the U.S. facility at Abu Ghraib, sexual humiliation and even rape are reportedly used as interrogation techniques on the mostly Muslim prisoners at 1391. But former inmates say that isolation and uncertainty are the worst tortures of all. "You begin to feel like the jail exists only for you, that no one else is there," one told Newsweek.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4641

I wonder if those the US supports will be expected to dismantle their own facilities? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_1391
http://israelblog.com/facility-1391-israels-secret-prison/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/14/israel2

This one has a picture and goes into greater detail -
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=331637&contrassID=2&subContrassID=14&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

Maybe these other facilities and detention centers will be a focus of the Obama administration? 

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1232643727590&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Will the future of the U.S. include increased terror attacks within our nation?  Future 9/11 events?  'Bringing terror home' as done by terrorists of the past?  I'm not sure where the olive branch is going to come from, but I don't think it's Washington.

jmho

[WhiskeyGirl]

A boycott of Israel produce due to the Gaza situation ~

If you're not in the habit of checking the country of origin on fruit and vegetables to minimise food miles, you may not have noticed just how much Israeli produce is in our shops and supermarkets. At the moment, there are piles of new potatoes (though it's hard to see why anyone with a scrap of environmental awareness would buy these when our indigenous main crop spuds are still firm and abundant), and that's just for starters.

If you go out today and buy avocadoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, Medjoul dates, sharon fruit (persimmons), chillies, oranges, pomegranates, grapefruit or fresh herbs, it's extremely likely that they will be Israeli. Most of this produce carries country of origin labelling or is branded as Carmel, Bio-Top or Jaffa. In the herb category, there's room - intentional or otherwise - for confusion. Increasingly your dill, tarragon or basil may be labelled as 'West Bank'. This is not a Palestinian alternative to the Israeli option; it comes from Israeli settlements in Palestine's occupied territories.

We can use the same tactic against Israel that was so effective in showing up South Africa as the apartheid state it once was. The parallels with South Africa are striking. Writing in the Guardian, Naomi Klein recently reminded us of the words of Ronnie Kasrils, a prominent South African politician, who said in 2007 that the segregation he saw in the West Bank and Gaza was "infinitely worse than apartheid".

Left to develop its agricultural economy, Palestine could be a fertile and productive land. Olive oil used to be a profitable export crop but according to the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem, over 500,000 ancient olive trees have been bulldozed and cut down since 2000 (see zaytoun.org) to make way for the construction of Israeli settlements, settler-only roads and the Separation Wall.

I did see something about the destruction of the olive groves on a TV special some time ago. 

With intractable political conflicts, sometimes it's hard to see how individual action can make even the slightest difference. But fruit and vegetable exports to Europe are crucial to the Israeli economy, representing 80% of that country's total exports. The UK is its largest market, eating up a 60% share. Carmel Agrexco itself is 50% owned by the Israeli state, so a consumer boycott of agricultural produce exerts direct economic pressure where it matters.

In the US, the banks are increasingly owned by the government.  Since they own the banks, they also own the land and possibly will influence the ability of rural people to continue with the way of life they have enjoyed for generations. 

By refusing to buy Israeli produce, ethically-minded consumers can be part of the wider Boycott Israeli Goods campaign (BIG) and add to the international condemnation of Israel's tactics in Palestine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/jan/23/israel-food-boycott-palestinians-gaza

Will the U.S. be cut off in the future?  IIRC, China has taken over oil in Iraq and Darfur and has a strong presence in Darfur.  Will they take over Iraq as well?

After Iraq, will the U.S. invade Iran and Pakistan?  Maybe China will takeover those countries after a few years too?

Freetrade with just a few nations, and exclude the rest of the globe? 

America's future devoted to a selfserving agenda that will not bring prosperity?  No dreams for individuals that don't fit in the program?

Healthcare is cheaper and more available in countries like Thailand.  Does Thailand have universal access or coverage for it's people?  Does China? 

An interesting site to visit is the State of Israel web site.  The healthcare and social welfare programs sound a lot like the Obama plan for America.

Despite all these programs, the clockwork bombings and destruction continue one generation after the next.  Is there peace in the Middle East?   Or, just a new generation of fighting? 

Instead of being a cool neutral country that no one bothers, what is the future of the U.S.?  Isolation? 

Maybe isloation is the Obama silver bullet?  Work so the rest of the world likes us and we go along with the global government?  Or maybe just Israel and China?

jmho[/b]