Best energy answer yet: a mirror

Congress fiddles while oil dribbles
So take your standard of living and security and kiss them goodbye

by Craig J. Cantoni

Take the most optimistic estimates of world oil reserves and energy demand, add them to the most pessimistic estimates, divide by two, and you'll probably be close to the truth about future energy supplies and costs. Then take the shortsightedness of our political class to do anything of significance to address the shortfalls. After taking those factors into consideration, take your lifestyle, standard of living, and security from war and kiss them goodbye.

In the decade of the 1950s, there was a sudden and massive exodus to the suburbs from congested cities, due to freeways and cheap gas. From then on, there has been a constant increase in horsepower, in home sizes, and in residential energy use. The symbols of the era are Cadillac Escalades, refrigerators the size of Volkswagens, 45-mile commutes to work, and homes with four bedrooms, three baths, a family room, and a mostly unused gourmet kitchen, living room, and formal dining room--all for only two or three residents.

The 50-year expansion is about to reverse course and turn into a sudden and massive contraction. Due to skyrocketing energy costs, big cars and big homes will quickly become big white elephants. Yet big homes in distant suburbs are still being built, driven in large part by government tax policies, which, because of deductions for mortgage interest and the treatment of capital gains, encourage the buying of larger homes.

As an example, my wife, teenage son and I live in a 3,900 sq. ft. home, only because when we sold our 2,400 sq. ft. home in metro New York and moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, we would have been hit with a capital gains tax if we hadn't bought a home of equal value, which meant a larger home. It also meant a 30,000-gallon swimming pool (aka leaf catcher and chemical dump), because a swimming pool was seen at the time as an essential selling point in Scottsdale.

Given the home's utility and maintenance costs, I'd be happier in a home the size of my boyhood home, which was a 1,300 sq. ft. bungalow in St. Louis. But I'm not like most people: My ego isn't tied to the size of my house--or car or refrigerator.

The sizes of homes, cars, refrigerators, and egos are minor problems compared to the problems the nation faces in running its industrial economy and avoiding a major conflict in the face of tight oil supplies. In this just-in-time world served by 18-wheel trucks, there is only a two- or three-day supply of food, gasoline, and critical materials. It wouldn't take long for a major disruption in oil to have serious repercussions. Nor would it take much of a disruption for missiles to be launched. After all, history shows that as soon as humans started walking upright, they began killing each other over resources.

The golden rule of politics is to not inflict pain on voters. Rather than inflict pain directly in order to fix problems, it's in the self-interest of politicians to let pain happen as a matter of course and then come to the rescue with a phony cure for the pain. That's what Congress and the president are doing about energy. They are lying to the public that ethanol, wind and solar power, recycling, conservation, and technology will be replacements for fossil fuels. That's utter nonsense. Sure, every little bit helps, but only a little bit.

Time is running out. My guess is that we have 20 years at the most to reduce oil consumption dramatically.

The nation needs to buy time by building refineries and squeezing every ounce of oil out of domestic fields, including offshore and in ANWR. Concurrently, the federal government needs to license the construction of nuclear reactors, which can take 10 of the 20 years to approve and build. It also needs to allow the exploitation of the nation's large coal reserves, even in it causes Greens to rent their hair over real or imagined global warming. The alternative is the real possibility of global warming from nuclear missiles and napalm bombs.

Electricity from nuclear energy can be used as a substitute for oil in the powering of cars, in the heating of homes, and in industrial applications. It also can be used in the production of hydrogen as an alternate fuel. However, it can't be a substitute for petrochemicals, which are essential to modern life. Oil should be saved for those essentials.

Now, having said this, let me turn to the real problem. The real problem is Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and the rest of the political class. Have you ever seen such a bunch of small thinkers, liars, and panderers?

Come to think of it, they are not the real problem. The real problem is the people who vote for these clowns.
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Mr. Cantoni is an author and columnist. He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

A one-act play you will never see on MSNBC

Gay marriage, Newt Gingrich, and a drive with a 17-year-old

by Craig J. Cantoni

Scene: In the car driving home yesterday with my 17-year-old son after picking him up from his Catholic high school. The radio is tuned to a local talk-radio show. Newt Gingrich is being interviewed about his address the next day at the Arizona Biltmore Resort, which is twenty minutes from our house. The interview is interrupted with news announcement about the California Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of gay marriage.

My son asks, "What do you think about the court's decision?" I respond, "I don't think that marriage is any business of the state, other than to enforce contracts and to protect children from neglect and abuse."

Chris then says, "Gays have been denied 1,236 rights." "Oh, really?" I say in disbelief while wondering to myself whether he's being propagandized at school. "Could you give me an example?"

"They are denied family medical leaves," Chris responds.

"That's one way to look at it," I say. "Another way is that the government has forcibly injected itself in the middle of voluntary contracts and free association."

I go on to explain that prior to the Family Medical Leave Act and other employment laws, employers and employees were free to enter into voluntary employment arrangements, under terms and conditions mutually acceptable to both parties. Prior to the FMLA, I was involved in hundreds of such arrangements over my corporate career and would grant family medical leaves to employees regardless of sexual orientation, often with full pay, depending on their job performance. It was in the best interest of my employer to engender employee loyalty and motivation by doing so. But once the government injected itself, there was a marked increase in litigation and paperwork, and a marked decrease in trust, common sense, and flexibility.

Chris nods his head in understanding and changes the subject: "Who is Newt Gingrich?"

"He's the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a history professor, and a central planner who has the fatal conceit of all central planners."

Continuing, I use as an example Gingrich's latest loony idea for the government to give students a financial reward if they study and get good grades. The first problem with the idea, I explain, is that it will have unintended consequences. Teachers will be even more reluctant to give students poor grades if they know that money is at stake, and parents will become even more litigious if their kids don't get the money, which will become another "right."

The second problem with the idea, I go on, is that it punishes responsible parents who make their kids study, because it takes money from them and gives it to irresponsible parents.

The third problem with Gingrich's idea, I say, is that it is just one more government Band-Aid that doesn't address the root causes of kids getting poor grades. The root causes are the government control of K-12 education, failed social-welfare policies, a failed War on Drugs, and an immigration policy that favors the uneducated over the educated. Financial rewards for good grades won't bring dads back into children's lives and won't stop young men from dealing drugs and being incarcerated in numbers only exceeded by totalitarian regimes.

After listening with full attention, Chris responds tongue in cheek: "I take it that you don't like Gingrich and won't be going to the Biltmore to listen to him."

"Funny you say that," I say. "I'm invited, because I give money to the Goldwater Institute, which is sponsoring his address."

"What's the Goldwater Institute?" Chris asks. I answer, "It's a free-market, limited-government think tank." "It's beyond me why it has asked a central planner like Gingrich to speak to its members. Frankly, I wouldn't walk across the street to listen to Gingrich."

Chris smiles and returns to his I-Pod.

Someday, based on the statist trajectory of the country, such conversations between dad and son will be outlawed.
______________

Mr. Cantoni is an author and columnist. He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

Sweet land of liberty or land of taken liberties?

I'm as unpatriotic as the Obamas and Reverend Wright

by Craig J. Cantoni

Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and their minister, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, have something in common with me: They are not patriots. However, there is one big difference between them and me: They have never been patriots.

Judging by their words and friends, they have always disliked the nation's founding ideals, especially the ideals of limited government, individualism, and economic freedom. By contrast, those were the ideals that made me a patriot at one time.

The Obamas and their minister embrace a different set of ideals: statism, collectivism, and rights based on group affiliation and majority rule instead of rights based on pluralism, natural law, and the Constitution. Unfortunately, the nation's political center has shifted so far to the left that most Americans now embrace the Obama set, which is similar to the McCain set, minus his imperialism.

The nation is no longer the nation of my father, who is buried in a Veteran's cemetery. Nor is it the nation of my youth, when I was proud of my two silver captain's bars, my cross-cannon insignia representing my chosen combat branch of artillery, and my college award for being a "Distinguished Military Graduate." Back then, it was a nation that often fell short of its ideals but was always striving to achieve them. Today, it is a nation that is striving to replicate the economic policies of modern-day France through Obama-ism, and the foreign policy of colonial France through McCain-ism.

Sorry, but I can't get patriotic about a country that wants to become another France.

Sure, I still like such quintessential American traditions as hot dogs, apple pie, and baseball--as long as it isn't subsidized baseball.

Speaking of which, once a year my wife drags me to an Arizona Diamondbacks game, where I sit in a subsidized stadium and stew over the fact that our Republican president made millions from subsidized baseball, that the beer distributorship of Cindy McCain sells a lot of beer in subsidized stadiums, and that many Republicans see nothing wrong with local government expropriating money from non-fans so that fans can sit in air-conditioned comfort at other people's expense.

These dwarf elephants don't understand that once they concede that it is okay for government to take people's money for something as unessential as baseball, they lose their moral authority to stop the government from taking people's money for more serious-sounding endeavors, such as achieving perfect fairness, eliminating the income gap, stopping smoking, mandating helmets, leaving no child behind, bailing out foolish borrowers and lenders, saving the planet from imagined destruction, giving everyone free health care, doling out subsidies to farmers and ethanol producers, and anything else that creeps into the minds of busybodies, leftists, and phony conservatives.

When 30,000 fans stand for the National Anthem, I look around the stadium and know that 15,000 of them pay little or no federal income tax and that 18,000 of them either work for the government, are dependent on government handouts, or work in private-sector jobs that depend on government regulations. In other words, at any given baseball game, over half of the fans have a vested interest in statism and collectivism.

Chances are, that half includes the obese couple and their obese children who invariably sit in front of me at games and gorge for nine innings on nachos covered in processed cheese, on pizza covered with greasy pepperoni and mozzarella, on multiple helpings of popcorn and cotton candy, and on five-dollar sodas and eight-dollar beers. No doubt, Mr. and Mrs. Porker want nationalized medicine. After all, according to many health experts, 80 percent of serious illnesses and the corresponding expensive medical treatments are due to overeating and a lack of exercise. Under the Obama set of values, the Porker family can shift the cost of their gluttony and sloth to their fellow Americans who eat healthfully and exercise.

Mind you, I would get my Army uniform out of mothballs and defend the right of the Porkers to gorge themselves to an early death, but not if they want to stick me with the cost.

Sadly, we've become a nation of greedy, gluttonous, slothful porkers. I can no longer feel patriotic about such a nation.
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Mr. Cantoni is an author and columnist. He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

Ron Paul: The High Tide

Source

Maintaining the fiction

by Mark Yannone

It's what governments do. And so it is in the United States of America today. The United States federal government is in a perpetual state of war with the entire world, including itself. No individual, no life form is safe.

Stealing a Nation, a special report by John Pilger

MTV's Aimee Allen sings Ron Paul's theme song

"Start a Revolution"






This beautiful, historic poster is 16 x 20 inches, very high resolution, and suitable for framing. Professionally printed on a reverse image of the Constitution, this could easily become a collector's item.

Watch: V Goes to Washington DC

The most popular video in its class

The most popular "World and Business" Digg post in the last 365 days:



It was posted, removed, and posted again, so you have to add both Digg totals, 9535 plus 8123, as of this minute.



Two more from the top 12: [1] [2]

It's all Bush's fault, right?

The price of ignoring the Constitution for the United States

by Mark Yannone

How exciting! Keith Olbermann takes some very powerful shots at George W. Bush. But where are the shots at the members of the United States Congress who violated their oaths of office when they pretended that they didn't need to declare war against Afghanistan and Iraq? The Constitution is clear: only Congress can declare war. That law is still in effect.

To make this crime perfectly obvious, in October 2002 Congressman Ron Paul proposed legislation to declare war on Iraq, and Congress refused to pass it.

Keith Olbermann's hard-hitting rant is merely hot pabulum designed to reinforce in the general public's mind the mistaken idea that Bush or any other president can behave as America's dictator.

Care to count the war criminals? Given the enormity of the crime, the punishment meted out by the court must certainly be death.

The other two votes of American citizenship

You Can Have Your Country Back by Four-Thirty
More powerful than any election

by Mark Yannone

America is clamoring for change and searching desperately for answers to mounting problems. Red Beckman shows us that we have been looking in the wrong place for solutions that we have always held in our own hands. But I've saved the best news for last. Watch. (Segments are 5-10 minutes each.)



Part 02: Americans Taking America Back
Part 03: The Grand Jury, the IRS, and Voluntary Compliance
Part 04: Democracy vs. Republic
Part 05: Our Constitutional Republic
Part 06: Betrayed Trust in Government
Part 07: The Truth About Grand Juries
Part 08: Constitutionality of IRS in the Executive Branch
Part 09: Grand Jury and Trial Jury Powers
Part 10: Investments in the Future
Part 11: Grand Jury and Jury Nullification
Part 12: 16th Amendment - The Law that Never Was

Watch: The juror who took on the IRS
Watch: The attorney who took on the IRS
Watch: Not guilty on all counts!

The truth is available to those who will hear it

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul discusses the Federal Reserve and the end of the American dollar.

How 545 men and women can steal $8.5 billion every day

America's Best Illusion

by Mark Yannone

You wouldn't think it would be too easy to steal $8.5 billion a day, every day of the year, including Sundays and holidays. But with the help of the old media and lots of preconditioning by government educators, skilled speakers like Andrew Napolitano pave the way for our 100 senators, 435 representatives, 9 Supreme Court justices, and one acting president.

The role that FOX News judicial analyst and former judge Andrew Napolitano has been playing is to convince Americans that the US Constitution has been changed by acts of Congress and executive orders from the White House. He performs this duty in his books, on FOX News appearances, and in speeches like this one in Washington, DC. Using carefully chosen words, he artfully pretends to validate this gang's unlawful seizures of power.

Most of his unsuspecting readers and audience appreciate his apparent patriotism and join with him in bemoaning the "loss of rights." Wherever the likable Andrew Napolitano speaks, the audience is led to think that the federal government is wretched and evil for "taking our constitutionally protected rights away." Who could disagree with that?

I can. So can the United States Supreme Court:

"[a]n unconstitutional act is not a law; . . . it imposes no duties; it is, in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed." Norton v. Shelby County, 118 U.S. 425, 442 (1886).

"An unconstitutional act is not a law; it binds no one." Huntington v. Worthen, 120 U.S. 97, 101-02 (1887).

"An unconstitutional law is void, and is as no law. An offence created by it is not a crime." Ex parte Siebold, 100 U.S. 371, 376 (1880), quoted with approval in Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 408 (1963).

The Constitution describes clearly the processes for amending the Constitution. The processes are found in Article 5. If these procedures are not followed, then the Constitution remains intact and unblemished by the corruption attempted by Congress, the president, and FOX News' judicial analyst, the blustering Judge Andrew Napolitano. We should not be too surprised to find that this is not taught in government schools, just as government schools also fail to teach American children that jurors have the right and the duty to judge not only the facts of a case but also the law itself.

Article V

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

In other words there are two ways to change the Constitution, with two variations in each method:

Method 1: A minimum of two thirds of the US House of Representatives AND a minimum of two thirds of the US Senate must agree on a proposed change to the Constitution, AND then a minimum of three quarters (38 of the current 50) of the state legislatures OR state conventions must agree to every word, comma, and period of the proposed change to the Constitution. Passage in the state legislatures is by simple majority in the state House AND in the state Senate. Passage in the state conventions is also by simple majority. Typically, a time limit of seven years is imposed for ratification, after which the proposal expires, worthless. This is the only method that has been used to date. The requirement for a state convention has been specified only once.

Method 2: A minimum of two thirds of the state legislatures (34 of the current 50), House AND Senate, must call for a Constitutional Convention. The convention proposes one or more amendments, which must then be approved by simple majority by a minimum of three quarters of the state legislatures (House AND Senate) OR by a minimum of three quarters of the state conventions. This method has never been used.

An outline of the means by which the United States Constitution can be changed looks like this:

• Congress proposes, state legislatures ratify.
• Congress proposes, state conventions ratify.
• State Constitutional Convention proposes, state legislatures ratify.
• State Constitutional Convention proposes, state conventions ratify.

Please note that the president of the United States has no role to play in changing the Constitution in any way. Such power is beyond the president's grasp, no matter how insane or incompetent or dictatorial he may be, and those who pretend otherwise should be held to account, to the full extent of the law.

We don't have a constitutional crisis in this country. All we lack is the education to enforce our laws, which we, as final arbiters of the law, have a right to do. Teach your friends and relatives and neighbors to see through this grand illusion. That's the recipe for freedom you've been seeking.

Tried by a jury of illiterates

Why education cannot be left to government

by Mark Yannone

This story demonstrates what happens when the general population is kept ignorant to suit the purposes of federal, state, county, and municipal governments.

Our founding fathers knew that everyone has a right to self-defense. To help protect that right from encroachment by government, that vital right to self-defense was represented by the Second Amendment to the Constitution in the Bill of Rights:

Second Amendment
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

What do you think will happen if you don't know your rights as a free human being? What do you think will happen if everyone around you is just as ignorant or is willing to pretend those rights can be ignored?

Please note in the following story that the clear violation of the highest law in the land is ignored by all: the gun range operator, the police, the federal agency called the BATFE, the prosecutor, the judge, the defense, the jury, and everyone involved in the news report, including Lou Dobbs. As usual, the National Rifle Association (NRA) was nowhere to be found. Here is the price of ignorance:




Watch: More from Lou Dobbs

What could happen to government employees who violate the strict mandates of the Second Amendment the way these government employees have done? They can be fined and imprisoned for up to ten years. Here is the black-letter law. Demand that it be enforced.

Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 13
Section 241. Conspiracy against rights

If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or

If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—

They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

Betrayed, threatened, and ignored by the nation they protected

The Loss of Liberty
The Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty

by Mark Yannone

As this video so clearly documents, the responses of the guilty parties have been denials, silence, lies, threats, intimidation, and medals--lots and lots of medals. The silence of the remaining victims is now broken.



One day the witnesses to the planning and execution of 9/11 will step forward too.

Wipe those smiles off their criminal faces

US federal government grins as America disappears

by Mark Yannone

According to Reuters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that the United States Congress will send acting president George W. Bush a bill by the end of May to transfer $162.5 billion taken by force from American citizens to continue fighting two illegal, undeclared wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These two illegal, undeclared wars and the continuous threat of a third illegal war with Iran have served to bring America to the edge of extinction, as evidenced by the destruction of the American dollar and the soaring cost of crude oil.


See also: In violation of international law, the bombing of Iraq begins

See also: Convicted and sentenced to death by hanging

See also: USC 18, 2441 War crimes

Another psycho judge surfaces in Nevada

Judge allegedly napped, made bailiff rub her feet

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- Elizabeth Halverson is a judge. But the way courthouse staffers see it, she expects to be treated like a queen.

Her former bailiff, for example, says Halverson made him feel like a "houseboy." He says the judge--who is obese and uses a motorized scooter to get around--made him put her shoes on her feet, massage her back, cover her with a blanket for naps, and make sure her oxygen tank was filled. He says she asked him, "Do you want to worship me from near or afar?"

Halverson also surrounded herself with her own hired guards, saying she did not trust the courthouse security force to protect her. Another time, she allegedly had her husband sworn in so that she could ask him under oath whether he had completed chores at home.

Since then, the 50-year-old Nevada district judge has been locked out of her Las Vegas courtroom, suspended from the bench and brought up on judicial-misconduct charges that include not only misusing her position and treating her staff like personal valets but also tainting juries and falling asleep on the bench. [Full story]

See also: Judge Kent Dawson

It's much easier to be righteous when you're well-informed

Memo to race mongers: "racist" and "racial" are not synonyms

by Craig J. Cantoni

Race mongers in the moronic media are saying that it was racist for Hillary Clinton to state the fact that she gets more votes from working-class whites than does Barack Obama. Based on this incorrect use of the word "racist," then I'm a racist for stating the fact that Obama gets more votes from blacks than does Clinton.

Actually, both her comment and mine are racial, not racist. A "racial" comment is a comment about race, whether negative, positive, neutral, factual, or not factual. A "racist" comment is a comment that reflects a belief that a given race is inherently inferior to another race.

Why is this distinction so difficult for the brain-belching class to understand?

Here's a 10-question pop quiz to see if you understand the distinction:

1. Is it (a) racist or (b) racial to say that the Mafia, the Costa Nostra, and Tony Soprano have their roots in Sicily?

2. Is it (a) racist or (b) racial to say that Northern Italians are born smarter than Sicilians?

3. Is it (a) racist or (b) racial to say that as a group, African Americans have the highest rate of out-of-wedlock births?

4. Is it (a) racist or (b) racial to say that African Americans are genetically predisposed to having uncontrollable libidos?

5. Is it (a) racist or (b) racial to say that Asians outscore other minorities on placement tests?

6. Is it (a) racist or (b) racial to say that all Chinamen can't be trusted?

7. Is it (a) racist or (b) racial to say that 90 percent of the illegal immigrants in Arizona are Mexicans and that their children have a dropout rate of 50 percent?

8. Is it (a) racist or (b) racial to say that Mexican immigrants don't have the brains to learn English?

9. Is it (a) racist or (b) racial to say that Craig Cantoni reeks of garlic?

10. Is it (a) racist or (b) racial to say that Craig Cantoni is an idiot because he's Italian?

Correct answers: "Racial" is the correct answer to all of the odd-numbered questions, and "racist" to the even-numbered ones.

Bonus question: If a pundit, reporter, editorialist, K-12 teacher, or college professor uses "racist" as a synonym for "racial," is he (a) a moron or (b) a race monger?

Correct answer: He is a moron and a race monger.
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An author and consultant, Mr. Cantoni reeks of garlic and, thankfully, can be reached at a long distance by email at ccan2@aol.com.

30 days in jail

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (of Super Size Me fame) gives us a glimpse into what it means to be an inmate in America.

All together now, boys and girls: Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

We need an uninspiring guy like Barney Fife in the Oval Office

by Craig J. Cantoni

Amazing. Scary. Discouraging.

I'm referring to an email from a smart guy with strong libertarian leanings. In it, he said that he was supporting Barack Obama this year because Obama "understands that the most effective leadership is built on inspiration."

The guy went on to make this equally amazing, scary, and discouraging comment: "From what I know of him [Obama], he may well understand what it's going to take to straighten out the economy."

In the early 1930s, millions of Germans, including many intellectuals, said the same thing about Hitler, seeing him as inspirational and believing that his socialism would fix the economy, which it did in the short term but couldn't last without the use of ever-increasing coercion and central planning. Of course, Obama isn't going to suspend civil liberties, end liberal democracy, commit genocide, burn down Congress, and attack Poland and France (although McCain might).

As an aside, it's too bad about Obama's unwillingness to burn down Congress. Just kidding. No I'm not . . . yes I am . . . no I'm not.

Seriously, ever since sixth grade, when my school showed newsreels of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, I've been trying to understand the human propensity to suspend reason, succumb to emotion, and follow a charismatic leader to the gates of hell. Hundreds of books later, I still don't understand it and remain frightened by it.

It's not over the top to say that the looks of adoration on the faces of Obama's fans are similar to the looks of adoration on the faces of the throngs cheering Hitler in Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will. In both cases, reason and substance have been pushed aside by emotion and style.



All inspirational leaders are not demagogues, but all demagogues are inspirational leaders. Rather than take the risk of an inspirational leader turning into a demagogue, I'd prefer to have an uninspiring person at the head of government. Calvin Coolidge comes to mind. So does Harry Truman.

Some would say that in times of trouble or danger, an inspirational leader is necessary to motivate the masses. That's nonsense. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Barney Fife could have been president and the nation still would have done what was necessary. Besides, a compelling case can be made that inspirational American leaders had precipitated Japan's attack through years of meddling in the Pacific.

If a homicidal maniac is breaking down my door, I don't need to look to someone else for inspiration to protect my family and shoot him between the eyes. If the federal government is breaking my piggy bank with its out-of-control spending, taxing and printing of money, I don't need to look to someone else for inspiration to know that I have to get my money offshore until I can vote the bastards out of office. People who need inspiration to get off their asses should be pitied and feared, especially those who are infatuated with a guy like Obama, who is going increase spending, taxing, and printing of money.

Obama is so inspiring that his cooing fans on campuses haven't noticed that he has said nothing about the $800,000 in unfunded liabilities that is being bequeathed to each American under the age of 18. Of course he hasn't: His economic policies will screw the very same young people who are cooing him.

George W. Bush proves the point that a leader doesn't have to be inspirational to motivate the masses. There isn't a more uninspiring guy (although many Republicans were inspired enough by him to anoint him as their candidate). Yet the masses fell into lockstep and supported his invasion of Iraq. Just think of what might have happened if he were inspirational: We might have also invaded Iran, Syria, and North Korea.

I'd be a lot more optimistic about the nation's future if Barney Fife were our next president.
______________

Mr. Cantoni is an author and columnist. He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.

Identifying the terrorists

Yes, that's right. We are the terrorists.

Prepare The Hague to receive the war criminals.


Ali Hussein, 2, was pulled from one of the four homes struck by U.S. missiles in
Baghdad, Iraq. The boy died later in a hospital. [Full story]

See also: How Massacres Become the Norm by Dahr Jamail

Be careful what you ask for, hija mia

Caucasians will be sprinkled with diversity seasoning and barbecued until golden brown

by Craig J. Cantoni

A friend recently emailed a flyer to me for one of those ubiquitous diversity propaganda programs that are conducted by government, industry, and schools. You know: a program in which all races are honored except Caucasians.

The flyer had this gem: "Join the discussion with panelists representing the Asian, African, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Native American cultures." In responding to my friend in jest, I added these sentences: "Learn how, after taking over the Caucasian culture, they'll sprinkle whites with diversity seasoning and then barbecue them over an open-pit fire until they're crispy and golden brown. Yum. Tastes like chicken."

Okay, it wasn't very funny, but it did get me thinking seriously about what the nation would be like if its founding Anglo culture were to be replaced by the culture that exists in much of Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Native-American lands. (Note: As the "oni" at the end of my name suggests, I am not Anglo.)

This isn't as hypothetical as you might think. Given the low birth rate of Caucasians in the U.S. and around the world, Anglos and other whites will be nearing political extinction in a few generations.

Imagine that the ideas of such classical liberal luminaries as Edmund Burke, John Locke, and Thomas Jefferson were to be replaced by the one-party idea of China, the preference for racial purity of Japan, the caste system of India, the genocide and tribal hatreds of sub-Saharan Africa, the corruption and lack of property rights of Latin America, the radical Islam and tribal blood feuds of the Middle East, the tribal collectivism in Native-American nations, and the retrograde racial thinking of such nut cases as Michelle Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Diversity would be the first to go. Affirmative action would be the next. Pluralism would be the third.

Without the common enemy and whipping boy of Caucasians to keep them together, the other races would pull apart into separate enclaves. Asians would be 90 percent of the student body at M.I.T., Cal Tech, Georgia Tech, and other prestigious universities. East Indians would own 90 percent of the convenience stores and independent motels. Shiites and Sunnis would be at each other's throats and only come together to persecute Jews. The smoldering animosity between Hispanics and blacks would become a conflagration. And without the guilt payments of whites, tribal collectivism would wreak even more havoc on Native Americans living in Indian nations.

There, for Michelle Obama and Jeremiah Wright to see, would be the ludicrousness of their proposition that if it were not for white racism, all other races would live in peace, harmony, and prosperity.

It would be fun to watch--as long as I didn't end up barbecued.
______________

Mr. Cantoni is an author and columnist. He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com. His Italian skin turns golden brown in the summer sun of his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona.

How America's law defiers get illegal compliance

Clients of murdered DC Madam include Dick Cheney, John McCain, and Rudy Giuliani.









Watch: Why Would Everybody Be Silent?

You know you have paid too much when . . .

Signs of Excessive Municipal Funding
A continuing series

by Mark Yannone

Municipal budgets are typically large and complex fungi. Up close they insult the eye and can wither the best of parietal and temporal lobes. Yet from a safe distance the insanity that constitutes the waste and fraud is all but invisible.

Fortunately, the insanity seeks us out, begging to be seen, stamped to a pulp, and well salted against regrowth. Here is a recent sample from the City of Phoenix, Arizona (USA):

Brown Bag Luncheon Highlights Cross-Cultural Communications Panel Discussion

Communication Coach Kristi Dee Doden will facilitate a multi-ethnic panel discussion on the do’s and don’ts of communicating with others of different cultures at the free Faces of Diversity Brown Bag series noon to 1 p.m. Friday, May 16, at the Phoenix City Council Chambers, 200 W. Jefferson St.

Join the discussion with panelists representing the Asian, African, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and Native American cultures. Find out the top three things you should avoid doing and the absolute three things you need to remember to interact respectfully with others who have a different cultural background than yours. True diversity is built around understanding and respecting the things that make us different.

The free series, a diversity education and awareness project of the city’s "We’re All On The Same Team" program, is sponsored by the Phoenix Human Relations Commission and the city’s Equal Opportunity Department. It features dynamic people telling their stories about diversity.

Bring your lunch and enjoy a cultural experience. No reservation needed. For more information, call 602-261-8242 or 602-534-1557/TTY or visit phoenix.gov/eod/bbag.html.

Wear heavy boots, and bring tons of salt. Pikes are optional but welcome.

The price of socialism is astronomical

Free People Are Worth More

by Mark Yannone

Wherever productive people are forced to surrender the fruits of their labor, as governments consume larger percentages of a nation's production, the efforts of productive people are worth less.

Therefore, as governments grow in an involuntary system, those outside of government become less able to sustain themselves. Every government program, every government office, and every government employee makes every nongovernment individual less productive, less valuable to himself and his family.

When coercive governments have grown so large that the work of one person cannot sustain a family, then another member of the family tries to compensate by leaving the home every day and going to work.

When Mom has to leave home every day to help support the family, there are consequences. As governments continue to grow, the consequences become increasingly severe. England, where government already consumes more than half of the gross domestic product, is struggling with many of those consequences now. Here is just one example:

Some mothers and fathers "dump" pupils at breakfast clubs and pick them up late in the evening because of the demands of work, said Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers.

Britain’s so-called "back to work culture"--which has also prompted many parents to place children in nurseries from a young age--risked undermining family life, he said.

Under Government reforms, so-called extended schools open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., providing "wraparound" childcare to help mothers return to full-time jobs. Around 10,000 primary and secondary schools in England now offer breakfast clubs and after-school sessions. [Source]

What do you suppose is identified as the cause of the problem? Several were mentioned:

• Some parents are abdicating responsibility for their children. (Bad parents.)
  

• They take advantage of the system. (Bad parents.)

• The country advocates a "back to work" culture. (Bad country.)

• The country doesn't promote the importance of quality time at home. (Bad country.)

• The benefits system "entraps" vulnerable families. (Bad system.)

• Since most children will never need to see a psychologist, a speech therapist, or counselor, the problem is overblown. (What problem?)
  

What does the president of the National Association of Head Teachers think should be done to correct this? She "insisted that parents should be paid to stay at home and look after their children instead of being forced to return to work."

In keeping with the fatal doctrine that every problem has a government solution, she believes productive people should be forced to pay government even more, so that government can pay economically productive parents to stop being productive and raise their children instead. To pay this huge cost, even more parents will be forced to leave home to help support the family, whereupon they will receive payments from the productive sector (via government) to stay home and raise their children. This will continue to spiral upward until the nation is (metaphorically) eating all of its seed corn and is left with nothing to plant.

The key element in this predictable, slow-motion disaster is government coercion. Where the transactions between the productive sector and government are voluntary, the size of government is limited. Where government is limited, productivity is enabled and encouraged, and one individual is most likely to be able to support a family.