Tag Archives: Left

The Cost of the War

Posted on October 31, 2009 | 1 comment

I was tooling around the internet this morning and hit upon Ben Hoffman’s site.  He had some really good activity on the War in Iraq.  One of my comments there gave me reason to maybe make a post of my own.

Make no  mistake about it, this war is and always has been about what is good for America.  We may have been wrong, we may have been right.  But the reasons we invaded were reasons that would benefit the good ‘ol US of A.

Some think that we invaded because we thought there were weapons of mass destruction.  Others think that we invaded to give us better leverage in Middle East politics.  Some feel we invaded for oil.  And others yet think that we invaded because Dubya wanted revenge for his Daddy.

Whatever the reason we went in, the fact remains that we did.  And those from the Left are pissed.  Pah-issed. If it ain’t the money we spent it’s the lives that have been lost.  Not only ours, but those of the innocent Iraqi civilians too.  They just scream that we are killing civilians.  Let’s take a look.

Saddam Hussein became President of Iraq in July of 1979.  The United States overthrew him in April of 2003.  During that time, Saddam was responsible for between 600,000 and 1,000,000 civilian death.  When you break down the deaths per month, and only Iraqi civilian deaths–not ALL deaths, you get between 2,105 and 3,509 civilian deaths per month.  These are deaths due to Saddam Hussein being in power.

Now, let’s flash forward to the US invasion.  We removed Saddam from power 78 months ago.  If Saddam remained in power for those 78 months, he would have put to death between 164,190 and 273,702 innocent Iraqi civilians.  Using the numbers provided by this Liberal website we see that between 93,793 and 102,330 people have died due to the invasion.  The difference for the average civilian in Iraq since the US invasion toppled Saddam?

Between 70,397 and 171,372 more of their neighbors, friends and family would have been killed.

Makes you wonder why the Liberal Left hates the average Iraqi so much, doesn’t it?

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Posted in War

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Media Bias: Brad and Britt Have It Wrong

Posted on October 19, 2009 | Leave a comment

This morning on the Brad and Britt show the conversation was concerning the continued attack on Fox News from the White House.  I only was able to catch a small part of the show, but the general gist was that, in fact, Fox News as an organization is slanted to the Right.  I got this impression from the conversation between Brad and Britt regarding the Fox Radio reporters that the show dealt with for the first 3 years of the station’s existence.

Britt commented:

During this time he and Brad often spoke to those reporters and during those conversations, where it was just one on one, the reporters would often come across as genuine and fair, as if they were liberated from the corporate expectations of Fox.

I waited for the comparison to ABC Radio and its reporters.  I would expect that if Fox had certain expectations than ABC must also.  And if the Fox reporters felt liberated in one on one conversations with peers, it would hold that ABC reporters would feel the same way.  I was rewarded with no such point.  So I was left with the feeling that:

  1. Yes.  Fox News does expect a Conservative slant.
  2. Yes.  That expectation is wrong.

So I started to wonder.  Many folks say that America is a “Center Right” nation.  So maybe Fox is just right on the money when they report as a “Center Right” network.  Which in turn got me to thinking, how far “right” is Fox?

So I checked.  And this is what I found:  A report titled:  A Report on Media Bias

It turns out that two researchers conducted a study.  And a rather clever study at that.  The researchers

count the times that a media outlet cites various think tanks and other policy groups.  We compare this with the times that members of Congress cite the same think tanks in their speeches on the floor of the House and Senate.  By comparing the citation patterns we can construct an ADA score for each media outlet.

Then, by ranking these ADA scores, the report was able to rank not only how liberal or conservative a news outlet is, but also how far from “Center” it is.

The results?  Surprising only in the fact that SO many sources are liberal, by how far and even how traditional conservative sources are really liberal:

Media source and ADA Score

Media source and ADA Score

Sources are listed in the order of the distance they are from center.  The lower the number, the more conservative; the higher the more liberal.  Average is 50.06.   So, where does Fox news sit?  5th.  They are the fifth closest to center with a 39.7 ranking.  Every other source from 6th through 20 is further from center than Fox and all of them save 1 has a liberal bias.

The report is informative in 2 other aspects:

  1. Aaron Brown doesn’t host on CNN any longer.  That honor goes to the decidedly more liberal Anderson Cooper.
  2. MSNBC isn’t even on the list.  Yowza.

So I ask you gentle reader; who is really in the tank for who?

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Posted in Politics: National

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Unalienable Rights

Posted on October 15, 2009 | 5 comments

Or so it is in part:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I posted the other day about a conversation I had with colleagues of mine that are from Europe.  During that conversation I was stunned to learn that they honestly felt that health care was such a right.  Imagine my surprise when I saw this new bit of news:

(CNN) — Finland has become the first country in the world to declare broadband Internet access a legal right.

Starting in July, telecommunication companies in the northern European nation will be required to provide all 5.2 million citizens with Internet connection that runs at speeds of at least 1 megabit per second.

…

“We think it’s something you cannot live without in modern society. Like banking services or water or electricity, you need Internet connection,” Vilkkonen said.

…

It is a view shared by the United Nations, which is making a big push to deem Internet access a human right.

Unbelievable.

America was founded on the concept of Liberty.  Liberty to pursue our own benefits, or not.  The Liberty to claim my life as my own.  In short, these rights would be as true today, tomorrow as when they were written 230 or so years ago.  These rights will protect our citizens and can be spoken to as it pertains to those citizens 10-20 or even 50 years from now.

So tell me, how are these “human rights” being considered by  the UN to be delivered if not by curtailing another’s rights to pursue their own liberty?

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Posted in Economics, Liberty

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Dad Talk to Jeff Latta

Posted on October 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

Okay, so yesterday I posted on the plight of the 53 year old retired man that can’t afford his $1,000 mortgage.

The story reads that his mortgage is 93% of his pension.  I managed to do the math and calculate how much this guy would have left over.  What I didn’t do was calculate what he made per year; $20,640.  And his mortgage?  Well, assuming he has a 7% rate and given a $1,600 payment, that means he borrowed $240,000.  That, ladies and gentlegerms, is a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS!  And brother is making a cool 20k a year.

I hereby make this covenant with you, gentle reader.  I will not, I swear to you, I will NOT raise my son to think that it’s okay to borrow $240,000 and then retire at 53 knowing your fixed income will be $20,000.  And more than that, he will not ever, EVER, consider it someone else’s burden to pay for or bail him out of that dumb ass decision.

I swear to you.

Now, son…about that whole pumpkin farm thing you got goin’ on…..

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Posted in Raising Men

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The Mind of the Leftist

Posted on October 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

I am working on a project at the office with some colleagues that are not from the United States.  During lunch we had some time to chat and so I took the opportunity to ask them what “the world” thought of Obama’s Nobel.  They grinned, a bit more sheepishly than I thought they would, and admitted that it was, indeed, a little early for him to win.  So far so good.

With my toe firmly in the water, I decided to get their take on Universal Health Care.  I felt that their insights would be useful, one being from Italy and the other from Slovakia.  Before I go on, I should say that these guys are some of the most educated people I have worked with in a long time.  And while they have recently been at the Northeast Ivy; Harvard, they have degrees in the sciences as well.  In fact, the Italian has his PhD in physics.

So, imagine my surprise when these two highly educated scientists came down in favor of universal health care.  And more than that, they both felt it is a right as citizens to have this health care provided to them.

I am stunned.

Leftists are everywhere.

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Posted in Health Care, Politics: North Carolina

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Where Brad and Britt Are Wrong

Posted on September 22, 2009 | 1 comment

I’ve been listening to the Brad and Britt show for some years now.  I know what I am getting when I turn ’em on.  I’m getting a couple of guys who think they’re center or neutral, think they’re not talking over folks and think they’re right.  What I get though, are some left leaning talk over guys who think they’re right.  Mostly you can only blame ’em for being leftists.  Everyone thinks they’re right and really, it’s a talk show on the radio; they are supposed to be a little bit “jabby”.  So, I know what I’m getting when I turn ’em on.

This morning though, I just went crazy.  They are talking about health care reform and the proposed system and how it’s being compared to auto insurance etc etc.  And so it starts.

Brad begins by trying to pull the analogy by saying that if you only consider folks who do drive cars, then the auto insurance parallel is accurate; we do mandate that all drivers carry car insurance.  In this he’s right.  But he fails to mention that there are three important distinctions:

  1. If the cost of owning a car becomes to great [payments, insurance and upkeep] you can opt out and the insurance stops.
  2. Really, we are only mandating that you carry insurance to cover THE OTHER GUY.  If you own the car, it is your choice to cover any damage to your actual car itself.  In short, you are allowed the choice to “self insure”.
  3. No one is saying that the car insurance folks would be forced to cover “pre-existing conditions.”

I mean really, enough with this car insurance parallel.  Serious, can you imagine how expensive car insurance would be if insurance companies were forced to cover pre-existing conditions on a car?  That they would, for example, be forced to fix a car AFTER it had been in an accident?  Silly.  SImply silly.

But there was more.  The Brad and Britt show had a guest on who claimed that as a 52-year-old man he could get very nice insurance individually that was not outrageously priced.  Let’s check.  When I do this, I like to go here: eHealthInsurance

I am looking for plans in Greensboro for a single 52-year-old man who does not smoke.

Ah, here’s one.  $5000 deductible, Office visits are free after the deductible.  0% coinsurance.  149 a month.  Oh yeah, and you can have an HSA.

Another:  $5000 deductible, $15 office visits and 0% coinsurance.  $229 a month.

One more:  $1250 deductible, office visits are not covered and the coinsurance is 20%.  $253 a month.

Net/net, I don’t know why people think that coverage isn’t affordable.  It is.  It may not be free.  It may not cover every single thing in the whole medical world.  But the whole argument for this reform bill is that “if you get sick or hurt you should not go bankrupt.”  Here ya go.  Buy this policy and you won’t.

Last, Brad and Britt spoke about the fact that people miss allocate their money.  In other words, they aren’t spending wisely.  This resonates with me; I don’t think people budget well.  We spoke about this in a post just a few days ago:  Health Care Lottery.

In short, of people who make less than 10k a year, 46% of them play the lottery.  And they play about $600 a year.  Which, by the way, is the cost of a health insurance plan for a 25-year-old man.

I know what I get when I tune in Brad and Britt.  Today was just too much of it.

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Posted in Health Care, Politics: North Carolina

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You Know They Are Desperate When

Posted on August 12, 2009 | Leave a comment

Check this post out over at alan.com.  In it, a commenter is responding to Alan’s post that a woman on Medicare is opposing Obamacare, or Universal Health Care.

In the post, Alan is quoting an article in The Washington Monthly, which in turn is speaking about an article in the Wall Street Journal.  In that article is a story of a woman whose mother is on Medicare and whose sister is also on Medicare.  The family is attending Town Hall meetings to express their opinion on Medicare.  Alan and Co are just shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you that someone on the government dime would protest anything the government suggested.

The reporter from the Washington Monthly saeth thusly:

Government-run, taxpayer-financed health care has kept her mother alive. Government-run, taxpayer-financed health care provides treatment and care to her sister. Based on the descriptions, it’s safe to assume the costs associated with treatments for Campbell’s mother and sister are enormous, but taxpayers and a socialized health care system pick up the tab. What’s wrong with that? Not a thing.

Except, of course, that Diane Campbell is now trying to convince people that health care reform is both radical and dangerous.

So, once a person is on government assistance, they are no longer able to, or at least shouldn’t, offer objection to further plans made by the government.  “Shut up citizen, listen and obey” is the message here.  There may be a whole host of reasons that these women don’t want this program pushed through.  Lord knows there are enough of those reason to fill a book.  But we couldn’t be bothered with those details.

But it gets even better.  See, Alan and The Washington Monthly go even further and bring up images of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

No offense to Diane Campbell, who must be suffering greatly.  But she has bought the right-wing meme that Obama is akin to Hitler and that health care reform will liken America to Nazi Germany.

So, now, not only is the Left offended that a sick grandmother would object to Obamacare, they bring up Hitler and the Nazi’s.

But the best is saved for last.  In the comments, in fact, the first one, we have a reader who claims that this woman MUST be a racist.

The only conclusion I can reach here is she’s a racist.

Awesome.  The bad news is that we have to continue to manage our way through this kind of nonsense.  The good news, when the Left resorts to this, you know we have won the hearts and minds.

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Posted in Health Care

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Minimum Wage Increase

Posted on July 26, 2009 | Leave a comment

Well, we’ve done it again.  Though this time, to be fair, we knew it was coming.  The minimum wage increased another $0.70 and is now at $7.25.

I have several personal stories from friends of mine explaining how hard it is for their teen child to find a job.  I suspect that it’s only going to get harder.  Employers are already struggling to make ends meet and now they’re forced to make due with a 10% higher labor force.  If this were any other commodity, experts would understand that somewhere the employer would have to cut.  For example, if the price of electricity went up by 10%, the businessman would be forced to make up for that cost somewhere else.  Or, if the price of milk went up by 10%, again, he would make up for it in other places.

I’ve been awfully hard on the minimum wage proponents and have done some thinking.  As one of the core pillars of my argument, raising the minimum wage may actually impact only a very few.  Only a very small percentage of Americans actually make the minimum wage.  Next, the employer may react not be cutting workers, but by reducing hours.  If done perfectly, that is each worker would see a 10% decrease in hours worked, he comes out ahead; he gets the same pay as before, but does so at a 10% discount in his time.  And last, labor may only be a small part of an individual employers expenses.  For those businesses with small labor costs, the increase will be negligible.

Last, before I walk away from this for a bit, is my favorite question for the pro-minimum wage folks.  If raising the wage 70 cents is a good idea, why not raise it to 20 bucks?

The Michigan Democratic Party is considering asking voters to raise the state’s minimum wage from the current $7.40 an hour to a national high of $10 an hour, increase unemployment benefits and require all employers to provide health coverage.

Unbelievable.

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Posted in Economics, Economy

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Disheartening Change of Ideals

Posted on January 23, 2009 | Leave a comment

So, I was talking to a friend yesterday regarding the new administration; Obama’s plans and goals.  Now, in the past, this friend of mine has been consistently further left than me, but only barely.  However, in several cases, namely that of the ability of the government to take money from us, he was slightly to the right.  Yesterday he shared with me that, yes, in fact, it is the “right thing to do” when we were discussing the transfer of money from those that have to those that simply have less.  When I prodded him further, he claimed “It’s the right thing to do.”

I couldn’t talk.

I shook my head, looked down for a second and then lifted my eyes back up to meet his, hoping, really really hoping that I would see the beginnings of a smile.  See the familiar wrinkle in the eyes that would signal the beginning of the joke.

Nothing.  He looked at me dead in the eye.  And just blinked.

As a friend, of course, I couldn’t lambaste him, but I did gently bring up old discussions, debates that we shared over coffee, bourbon and beer.  He admitted that, in fact, he does remember saying and feeling those things and yes, doesn’t deny, that he has now changed his mind.

I got the feeling as a walked away, that he may be on the fence.  That somehow,even he himself knew that he wasn’t sure if he was saying these things because they were the result of bedrock principles well thought out or, if, perhaps, it’s because he somehow wanted to feel that way.  That somehow, society has lost it’s way and we have forgotten those less fortunate.  And in so doing, we have perhaps ceded our rights, certain rights, to the government in regard to the tending of the poor.

Of course, before I left I recounted how this country’s poor are not really so poor, as a whole.  That in fact, not only are the bottom 25% much much better off than even 30 years ago, they are living in conditions that would be considered very well off with respect to the rest of the world.  I insisted that I find it hard to classify someone as poor when they had a satellite TV and PlayStation, but couldn’t afford health care for their kids.

I almost saw a tear as he nodded in agreement, but then shrugged it off, as if to say “I can’t explain it, but I am at peace with my newfound place.”

At least for now.

So the question is this.  How did the paradigm get changed?  How did we lose what was once a rock solid foundation of right and wrong [or at least right and not right]?  And then, how do we communicate that in such a way so as to win the hearts and minds of those lost converts, and, perhaps, even win back some from the other side to boot?

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Posted in Politics: North Carolina

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Moral Exemption

Posted on January 16, 2009 | 1 comment

Seven states have sued the Federal Government because of an expansion of a rule that allows medical professionals to not perform or assist in an abortion.

Now, my position on abortion is a bit complicated, but can be summed up in this way:

I am pro-choice.

With that said, I absolutely love the irony in the above lawsuit.  On the one hand, we have a group of people that acknowledge that the issue of abortion is an intesely personal and and equally difficult.  But they firmly feel that the issue should be one of choice, choice for the mother.  And then, when that choice is extended to the person actually doing the procedure, they are all of a sudden against choice.

I love the left!

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Posted in Liberty, National

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