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2009 was a year that saw false hope and un-american change, but our nation has overcome greater challenges. Our people have an heritage that goes deeper than the undercurrents that seek to destroy our traditions and our foundations. I believe that 2010 will be a great year in which the American Spirit will make a resurgence throughout the nation and in the hearts of our people.
Have a safe and happy New Year and God Bless America!
There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.- Sam Walton
The free market is made up of every single person on the earth, including you. Any "failure" of the free market is largely and almost exclusively due to one fact: government constantly interferes with and manipulates the markets. When this happens, even to the slightest degree, markets are unable to function properly. It is like trying to have a successful marriage when both sets of in-laws are constantly harassing a young, newly wed couple - problems are sure to abound. (Instead of big brother, the nanny state, or Uncle Sam, the government is often the intrusive mother in-law — the mother of all mother-in-laws!)
And so when you restrict the freedom of the market place it ceases to be a free market, and this is precisely at the heart of our current economic woes. Sam Walton was correct in his observation — the customer is boss. We don't need government regulations, oversight, and other anti-capitalist intrusions, which attempt to tell people what to do and not to do regarding their business.
The markets work because every day millions of people make free choices on how they wish to use their resources, and businesses and entrepreneurs constantly try to create the best goods and services to meet the needs of those same people. This drives progress, innovation, invention, and prosperity for everyone — largely in proportion to how much they participate in the process. Every dollar we spend is a vote for or against how a business runs and operates, and across every person in the nation and the world we create an economy that works better than ANYTHING anyone or any group — no matter how supposedly intelligent — could ever wish to create.
The Business and Media Institute just published its list of the Media's Top 2009 Economic Myths:
10. CBS, NY Times Support Ecuadorian Shakedown of U.S. oil company
9. Media Fail to Scrutinize Obama’s Job Claims
8. Government Stimulus is the Answer to Our Economic Problems
7. No Tax Increases for the Middle Class
6. The Recession was Over … by July.
5. Cash for Clunkers was a ‘Success’
4. Reagan vs. Obama on Jobs: Same Rate, Different Story
3. Health Care Reform will be ‘Deficit Neutral’
2. Tea Parties aren’t made up of grassroots protestors; they’re just ‘Astroturf.’
1. ClimateGate
I find it quite disturbing that so many people buy into these stories, and I find it even more disturbing that our national media runs with them. Obviously when a story fits their ideology they go with it — no matter how false the accusation or how untrue the claims may be.
The battle over language is an important one, and the manipulation of public perception is a trick that the Statist has perfected. Unfortunately, opposition to Statism frequently falls short in the linguistic counter offensive.
One man in recent history was successful at manning this resistance. President Reagan was so effective that he drove his opposition crazy by beating them at their own game. He won many battles in the war of words, not by resorting to their tactics of flattery and inaccurate words, but instead he spoke with plainness to the people — he was not a man of many words, just a man of honest words.
This conflict over language and ideas is captured extremely well in the following passage:
"Reagan dissected the Statist’s language and recast the morality of the message. Americans are not at war with each other over money and class. And when Americans keep the fruits of their labor, it is a good thing. This is both seminal and fundamental. The Statist’s vocabulary provides the Conservative with opportunities to highlight the Statist’s duplicity and the bankruptcy of his ideas by stripping the rhetorical veneer from his message and contrasting it with the wisdom of the Conservative’s principles. The battle over language, like the battle over ideas, is one that conservatives should relish." [Mark R. Levin, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, pg. 143]
The constant battle over public opinion is rather dirty most of the time, but Reagan stayed above the fray by painting accurate pictures of his opponents and critics, thus exposing their lies for all to see. The left hated Reagan because of this, and while he was around they could not get away with their distortions and deceptions. Reagan was a great spokesman for conservatism because he was honest with the people. (Don't bring up national security issues as being dishonest either, every president has to make certain decisions while keeping large amounts of information from the public view.)
This term is almost always misused, but I think its proper place is this: not ignoring facts, not denying truth, not dismissing real history and good traditions, accepting the role of faith in discourse, trying to see the argument from both sides, and abstaining from the misuse of language for the purposes of sensationalism and reckless reporting.
Conservatism is the only political philosophy that can truthfully outline its fundamental principles and values for all to see with nothing to hide. The ideas and policies embraced by conservatives will withstand the harshest scrutiny because they work and they have been proven by all of human history. Some people are not intellectually honest in how they portray and defend conservatism because they are either ignorant, uneducated, or inarticulate; but also even the best spokesman will fall prey to the allurement of being slightly dishonest in his language because those who fight against him are relentless in their use of intellectual dishonesty.
The ends do not justify the means; however, and most often reason will not condone fighting fire with fire. But in this world the defenders of truth are imperfect and sometimes feel justified in garnering support and winning debates with inaccurate language. Both sides of the political spectrum and everyone in between are all guilty of verbal sabotage to one degree or another. No matter who is right and who is wrong, the use and misuse of language is at the heart of most debates. Having a working knowledge and exercising a great deal of discernment are necessary to arrive at the truth of most issues.
We must proceed with caution so as not to be deceived by those people and ideas that are not what they seem to be, but we cannot dismiss a position merely because someone is trying to be clever with their words. So instead we must be careful what we believe and who we listen to. When someone comes along who talks constantly and seems to say just the right thing, as if his words were parsed, screened, and scripted, who rarely speaks an unprepared word, be extremely wary, for such is the way of a deceiver.
Now public speaking is a skill that most of us can learn, and I am not saying we should oppose having refined orators in elected office. What I am saying is that true leaders, real statesman, stand on principle and know how to speak from the heart — when they do it you know it. Thus you can measure the character of the man by what is in his heart.
Others who are false prophets and charismatic demagogues will play the tune of the pied piper and sing the sweet song of the siren, and before people know it they're marching off the cliff to their own destruction. If someone is blatantly lying we can generally tell, but the meticulous twisting and distorting of truth with carefully chosen words can oft times go unnoticed even by very astute individuals. Most brutal dictators had a way of charming or hypnotizing the masses, and many malevolent individuals who seek to fundamentally change our society and remake it in their own image will employ the same tactics.
The war of words is over how we use and perceive language, over who claims ownership to what terms, and over how the fundamental institutions and traditions of our society are described and defined. We cannot allow people to call welfare a "tax cut" and sound business practices "unfair." The war has many fronts and is waged all around us. Listen carefully and pay close attention to what is going on around you, and above all make sure you are fighting the war of the words on the right side. If all those who believe in liberty and believe in freedom and believe in the rights of the individual over the state will stand up and pay attention, then the America that God and the Founders created will prosper and be protected.
CBO estimated the effective rates for four federal taxes--individual and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, and excise taxes--under current law for each year from 2001 through 2014.The rates reflect the three tax cuts of 2001-2003, which are set to expire by 2011 starting next year.
