Saturday, May 1, 2010

“The "Let Them Eat Cake" Philosophy - Newsblaze.com” plus 3 more

“The "Let Them Eat Cake" Philosophy - Newsblaze.com” plus 3 more

The "Let Them Eat Cake" Philosophy - Newsblaze.com

Posted: 01 May 2010 06:05 AM PDT

By Chic Hollis

The "have-nots" comprise the great majority of our so-called civilized society. Consequently, the "have-a-lot" minority must pay for or provide everything that the "have-not" majority thinks they ought to have. This philosophy, flourishing amongst today's compassionate humans, demands that those who have a lot must take care of those who don't have as much.

The philosophy is based on several ancient moral teachings such as: we are our brother's keeper, everyone should share equally in the family's pie and our nation's wealth, and it is far more blessed to give than to receive. Who can argue with these "politically correct" assumptions? Who dares to argue about them? Not one member of Congress or of our state legislatures (regardless of their party affiliation.) However, observant humans know that the rich (and powerful) will automatically abuse the poor (and weak) when they have a chance.

I'm not one to argue with anyone, but I do think that we should analyze the consequences of adopting that philosophy. It wasn't the philosophy that our Founding Fathers used to write our Constitution. Rugged individualism was the political/economic philosophy in vogue back then. Each person was expected to strive to take care of himself and his family. "Work out your own salvation with zeal and diligence." (Or some Puritan saying like that.)

But attitudes have changed. All of us are aware that not everyone is zealous and diligent. There is not much fun in striving that hard. So, for those who can't take care of themselves or won't accept the economic challenge, our society has rejected the basic Law of Nature: Make a sincere and strenuous effort to survive or die!

This simple guideline has been replaced with the modern political philosophy of "Let everyone eat the cake provided by our compassionate government." But our various government agencies don't serve cake, do they? They can't afford it. Nor can the rich among us - there just aren't enough of them!

Not everyone is born with equal capabilities, yet today each human born expects to be an equal participant in enjoying the abundant fruits of the economy's largesse. The Constitution of the US doesn't guarantee that everyone can eat at the community cafeteria, be treated at the community clinic, and earn a decent living by working on some community project.

This country was not founded on the Communistic belief which used the following motto: "From each according to his ability to each according to his need." That objective may eventually become the goal of our society, also. Who can guess? However, to achieve that goal in the long run would require a brand new approach to financing the redistribution of wealth. Recently, our leaders have been trying to help the poor by diverting income from the rich via taxation and by dipping into the earnings of future unborn wage earners.

Accomplishing that goal won't be easy without undermining the incentive to be a conscientious and productive worker. The debt created by our various "entitlement" programs already has many economists concerned. Any pyramid of debt haunts those responsible for paying it off. Economic reversals are known to happen, and depressions usually hurt the poor more than the wealthy.

The Soviet socialistic economic system failed, and yet the young adults in our society have forgotten that fact in their push to provide for the underprivileged. "Tax the rich," they scream. "The rich have too much disposable income and wealth already!" Maybe they do for their own basic needs, but who dictates that the rich are responsible for the welfare of the rest of this country's citizens, the industrious but poorly paid or the lazy slackers?

Providing "entitlement" benefits costs our federal and state governments billions of dollars. Entitlement programs only cover very basic human needs. For example, a retired person can barely live on his or her monthly social security check. The food stamp hand-out, unemployment compensation, monetary aid to the disabled are all limited programs and some of them are under-funded. Consequently, benefits are rationed arbitrarily via restricting the amount of money paid out and the length of time that payment is available.

These safety nets are barely adequate for the individual who qualifies. The revised welfare program was specifically restructured to motivate welfare recipients to look for a job that pays the wage-earner a larger amount per week than a welfare check. In addition, a sundown provision was enacted to end payments after a prescribed number of years.

Now, the Halloween celebrants who want to "help the poor" are advocating some form of universal health insurance. All insurance programs demand premiums from the insured who desire to reduce their risks of a catastrophe. The total of the premiums collected hopefully balances the losses/expenses incurred over the short run and leaves some "profit" for the investors who own the insurance company. Car insurance is supposedly mandatory, but in California the insured pays an extra amount to cover accidents where the uninsured are deemed responsible.

Before the "healthcare reform" law was passed, citizens whose employers don't offer any healthcare insurance could buy a private policy. A recent survey indicated that nine out of ten of the individuals who seek private healthcare insurance can't afford it or have a physical problem that made them ineligible to be insured.

The "lamentable "situation of millions of uninsured fellow citizens troubles the folks who want their friends and neighbors covered by some kind of health insurance. Are these compassionate folks ready for the cost increases in their own policies as a consequence of insuring everybody? I suspect not.

Every insurance payment or entitlement payment made by a third party comes from a general fund set up to cover such payments. Each fund must be reimbursed sooner or later for the program to remain viable. Since contributions to these funds are periodically fixed while costs are constantly increasing for a variety of reasons, the newcomers and those already eligible for any risk-sharing program must either pay a larger premium or be taxed at a higher rate - an anathema in today's political environment.

The government agencies or the insurance companies who are responsible for maintaining these so-called "safety nets" or entitlement programs can't shirk their duties of finding ways to acquire the money to pay for the benefits offered under the program. The result of a lack of funds is either restricted benefits or increased contributions on the part of contributors, rich, poor, or middle class.

Since there are so many more middle class wage earners, this group bears the largest brunt of the increased contribution. It should come as no surprise that when the cake is being distributed to those invited to the banquet, the middle class is the major supplier of the cake. The rich do contribute a larger amount per person, of course, but the overall amount which that "class" contributes is far less than the total amount contributed by the middle class. The middle class demonstrators who demand more benefits or entitlements don't realize that fact or choose to ignore it. Therefore, "let everyone eat cake," and let our children pick up the tab for the party!

Chic Hollis lived on four continents, speaks seven languages and had five children, all of which helped him gain a unique perspective on life.

* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze

 

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Walton brings energy, philosophy to Clinton - Quad-Cities Times

Posted: 01 May 2010 03:56 AM PDT

You can't help but think that maybe - just maybe - Bill Walton might have the wrong idea about what sort of place Clinton, Iowa, is.

But there's no question he has the right approach to life.

The former UCLA and NBA basketball star is undeniably upbeat and perpetually positive. Enthusiasm gushes from him, and he intends to enjoy every minute of two upcoming visits to eastern Iowa.

"The way I look at it, if I don't have the time of my life, it's my own fault," he said.

Walton will make a free public appearance at Ashford University at 5 p.m. Sunday, at which he will speak about his life and outlook, sign autographs and mingle with the masses. He will return next weekend to speak at Ashford's commencement exercises May 8-9. All those events will take place in the Durgin Educational Center's Kehl Arena.

"This is a great opportunity for me," Walton said Friday in a telephone interview. "Education is No. 1 in terms of a society moving forward. To have the opportunity to share and give to young people, to share and nurture their dreams and their aspirations is a great thing."

Walton said he plans to do several things in the future with Ashford, which is owned by California-based Bridgepoint Education and is emerging as a national leader in online education.

"What they're doing is really the future of education," he said.

He has been to Iowa before. He has visited the Quad-Cities at least once and he's also been to Dubuque and Cedar Rapids.

"I've never been to Clinton," he admitted. "I'm looking at it on the map and I see it as being the center of the universe."

What he's really looking forward to is visiting the Midwest. Walton has lived in the same house in San Diego, on the edge of Balboa Park next to the famed San Diego Zoo, for 31 years. But he said he feels an innate kinship with the Midwest and its people.

"The two most important influences on my life, John Wooden and Larry Bird, are from the Midwest," he said. "John Wooden is the most important, most inspirational person in my life other than my parents, and Larry Bird was unquestionably the best player I ever played with. Their ideas, their values, are who I strive to be."

You only need to mention Wooden to send Walton into a rambling monologue of glowing adjectives. The man who coached UCLA to 10 national titles in a span of 12 years is very nearly a deity to Walton.

Wooden is now 99 and Walton said he still visits him as often as possible.

"He still has an incredible spirit," Walton said. "I treasure every day with him and can never thank him enough. He's jealous that I get to go to Clinton and he doesn't ...

"He is one of those remarkable souls who has given his entire life to help other people's dreams come true."

Walton admitted that during his playing days at UCLA (1971-74), he didn't really grasp the full value of Wooden's homespun homilies and grassroots philosophies.

"We thought it was all kind of silly and stupid," he said. "We thought he was a walking antique. It wasn't until the day we walked out the door and graduated and realized that not everything and everybody was like John Wooden at UCLA."

Walton said that when he left UCLA, Wooden presented him with a hand-scrawled piece of paper, on which he had written: "Walton, it's the things you learn after you know it all that count the most."

Walton had it framed. It still sits on his desk.

"He was not our friend when we played for him, but we became friends the day we walked out the door," Walton said. "While we played for him, he was tough, fierce, demanding, challenging, determined to get us to places we could never reach ourselves.

"But he was fair. He was the most positive, constructive, upbeat person. His humble, caring, selfless, sharing nature is just truly remarkable."

Walton realizes that when people hear him and others speak in such incandescent tones about Wooden, there is skepticism. It's hard to believe the old coach could be as immensely virtuous as he is portrayed.

"But when you get to know him, he is measurably better than the vision, the image, the legend," Walton said. "He is truly an intergalactic treasure."

Not surprisingly, Wooden is a big topic of conversation when Walton does speaking engagements such as the one he will do Sunday.

But that's not all he will talk about. He'll also bring up former teammates such as Bird, Kevin McHale and Maurice Lucas. Walton, an inaugural inductee into the Grateful Dead Hall of Honor, is just as likely to discuss Jerry Garcia and Neil Young. And don't be surprised if he mixes in a little Mark Twain and Lewis and Clark.

He said he has had 36 orthopedic operations in his lifetime, but despite having bad knees, bad elbows, bad shoulders, fused ankles and now a fused spine, there is nothing wrong with his energy and his passion.

"I'm back in game and I'm coming to Clinton," he said.

"I'll be the first one there and the last one to leave. I encourage people to come and bring all their memorabilia. We'll sign it all. I'll answer every question. This will be a totally interactive event."

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Coulter: I can’t believe how much the media’s willing to lie about ... - Hotair.com

Posted: 01 May 2010 02:19 PM PDT

Coulter: I can't believe how much the media's willing to lie about Arizona's law

Via the Right Scoop, I was planning a post on this very subject but now I see that she — and Byron York — have beaten me to it. No wonder we're all in sync: Even by its usual standards of bias and screeching demagoguery, the commentariat really has outdone itself this time. Click that last link to see what I mean, being careful to note that it's not just lefties with filth on their hands. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Arizona's law will be a spectacular success even if it never goes into effect. Look at how much it's accomplished: It's derailed the Democrats' amnesty bill; it's refocused national attention on the disgraceful state of border enforcement; it's convinced some illegals that Arizona's not worth the trouble; and it's baited bottom-feeders in the media into all sorts of dumb, self-discrediting analysis. All that in just a week, before the law's even taken effect. That's some mighty efficient legislatin' right there.

I'm giving you a second video below the Coulter clip along the same lines, to remind you (a) that some people are conscientious enough to read the bill before commenting on it and (b) that it's a mistake to assume that all Latino citizens are against the bill. (But then, we already sort of knew that.) An important fact that's often lost amid the shameless racial pandering on this subject: There are hundreds of thousands of Mexicans every year who do follow proper procedure in immigrating to the U.S. and most people are happy to have them come. In 2008, more than 230,000 native-born Mexicans were naturalized as American citizens, the most from any nation in the world and a number greater than the combined total from the next four countries on the list. In 2009, more than a million people became legal permanent residents; 15 percent were Mexican, the only country in double digits percentage-wise. Not everyone jumps the line, although why they don't, given the shrieking resistance to enforcement against illegals among American amnesty shills, I have no idea.


Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Students travel through time - Battle Creek Enquirer

Posted: 01 May 2010 11:42 AM PDT

A dozen children's voices rose in a cacophonous chorus as they read the plaque out of sync.

"...1834..." "...Log school house..." "...floor, desks and..."

More than 50 second-graders participated in the W.K. Kellogg 150th anniversary historic walking tour. They ran ahead of the tour guide to read a historic marker on Michigan Avenue.

"OK, if you quiet down I can tell you what it says," said Edwyn Jae Jenkins, shouting over the kids.

Jenkins, a local historian and 13th-generation Battle Creek resident, dressed in period costume to give the kids, and a few adults, a chance to learn more about city history.

Jenkins led the students from Ann J. Kellogg Elementary School on part of the Battle Creek Heritage Mile, which spans from Memorial Park to the Historic Adventist Village.

Second-grader Mychale Mosley and her classmates could barely curb their excitement as they walked by historic landmarks. The walk also gave the kids exercise, said festival manager Deb Owens. This was one of the reasons it was planned as part of the 150th anniversary festivities.

"The walk speaks on W.K. Kellogg's philosophy on healthy living," Owens said. "We wanted these events to focus on W.K.'s philosophy."

The selected group of children also was deliberate, Owens said. Ann J. Kellogg was W.K.'s mother, and strife in their lives was what prompted W.K. to build the school.

"You go to a school that is well-known throughout the country," Owens told the assembled children. "I would have been honored to go to that school."

Although they may not have understood everything they were hearing, students seemed to pick up little facts from the tour.

"That statue all the way over there," Mosley said, pointing toward the Sojourner Truth statue. "It's twelve feet tall."

But students seemed to enjoy the history outing. They marched beside Jenkins, Owens and other supervisors, holding hands and asking questions.

And whatever students did pick up was important, Owens said.

"We have an incredible, vibrant history here in Battle Creek," she said. "I think one of the most important histories of any city."

Sarah Lambert can be reached at 966-0589 or slambert@gannett.com.

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