Readers
Also Write! 
Updated 12/01/02
From
Helen – Sent by the Lt. Col. (ret.)
"Those silver
tongued Marines....y'gotta love 'em!"
France meets the USMC, or, at least a typical Marine Lieutenant Colonel
in Bosnia:
"A funny thing happened to me yesterday at Camp Bondsteel. A French army
officer walked up to me in the PX, and told me he thought we (Americans) were a
bunch of cowboys and were going to provoke a war. He said if such a thing
happens, we wouldn't be able to count of the support of France. I told him that
it didn't surprise me. Since we had come to France's rescue in World War
I, World War II, Vietnam, and the Cold War,
their ingratitude and jealousy was due to surface at some point in
the near future anyway. That is partially why France is a third-rate
military power with a socialist economy and a bunch of faggots
for soldiers. I additionally told him that America, being a
nation of deeds and action, not words, would do whatever it had to do, and
France's support was only for show anyway. Just like in all NATO exercises, the
US would shoulder 85% of the burden, as evidenced by the fact that the French
officer was shopping in the American PX, and not the other way around. He
began to get belligerent
at that point, and I told him if he would like to, I would meet him outside in front
of the Burger King and beat his ass in full view of the entire Multi-National
Brigade East, thus demonstrating that even the smallest American had more fight
in him than the average Frenchman. He called me a barbarian cowboy and
walked away in a huff.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?"
From
Ken –
Good Speech
For those of you who don’t know who General Hawley is, he is a newly retired
4-star general who commanded Air Combat Command. These are good words and true. Speech from the former ACC
commander (now retired and not restricted to being politically correct), Gen
Hawley:
”Since the attack, I have seen, heard, and read thoughts of such surpassing
stupidity that they must be addressed. You’ve heard them too. Here
they are:
1) “We’re not good, they’re not evil, everything is relative.” Listen
carefully: We’re good, they’re evil, nothing is relative. Say it with me now
and free yourselves. You see, folks, saying “We’re good” doesn’t mean, “We’re
perfect.” Okay? The only perfect being is the bearded guy on the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel. The plain fact is that our country has, with all our mistakes
and blunders, always been and always will be the greatest beacon of freedom,
charity, and opportunity, affection in history. If you need proof, open
all the borders on Earth and see what happens. In about half a day, the entire
world would be a ghost town, and the United States would look like one giant
line to see the Producers.
2) “Violence only leads to more
violence.” This one is so stupid you usually have to be the president of
an Ivy League university to say it.
Here’s the truth, which you know in your heads and hearts already:
Ineffective, unfocused violence leads to more violence. Limp, panicky,
half-measures lead to more violence. However, complete, fully
thought-through, professional, well-executed violence never leads to more
violence because, you see, afterwards, the other guys are all dead. That’s
right, dead. Not “on trial,” not reeducated,” not “nurtured back into the bosom
of love.” Dead. D-E—Well, you get the
idea.
3) “The CIA and the rest of our intelligence community has failed us.” For 25 years we have chained our spies like
dogs to a stake in the ground, and now that the house has been robbed, we yell
at them for not protecting us. Starting
in the late seventies, under Carter, appointee Stansfield Turner, the
giant brains who get these giant ideas decided that the best way to gather
international intelligence was to use spy satellites. “After all,”
they reasoned, “you can see a license plate from 200 miles
away.” This is very helpful if you’ve been attacked by a license
plate. Unfortunately, we were attacked by humans. Finding humans is not
possible with satellites. You have to
use other humans. When we bought all our satellites, we fired all our humans,
and here’s the really stupid part. It takes years, decades to infiltrate new
humans into the worst places of the world. You can’t
just have a guy who looks like Gary Busey in a Spring Break’93 sweatshirt
plop himself down in a coffee shop in Kabul and say “Hiya, boys. Gee, I
sure would like to meet that bin Laden fella. “Well, you can,
but all you’d be doing is giving the bad guys a story they’ll be telling for
years.
4) “These people are poor and helpless, and that’s why they’re angry at
us.” Uh-huh, and Jeffrey Dahmer’s frozen head collection was just a
desperate cry for help. The terrorists and their backers are richer than Elton
John and, ironically, a good deal less annoying. The poor helpless people, you
see, are the villagers they tortured and murdered to stay in
power. Mohammed Atta, one of the evil scumbags who steered
those planes into the killing grounds (I’m sorry, one of the “alleged
hijackers,” according to CNN-they stopped using
the word “terrorist,” you know), is the son of a Cairo surgeon. But you knew
this, too. In the sixties and seventies, all the pinheads marching
against the war were upper-middle-class college kids who grabbed any cause they
could think of to get out of their final papers and spend more time drinking.
At least, that was my excuse. It’s the same today. Take the Anti-Global-Warming
(or is it World Trade? Oh-who-knows-what-the-hell -they-want
demonstrators) They all charged their black outfits and plane tickets on
dad’s credit card before driving to the airport in their SUV’s.
5) “Any profiling is racial profiling.” Who’s killing us here, the
Norwegians? Just days after the attack, the New York Times had an article
saying dozens of extended members of the gazillionaire bin Laden family
living in America were afraid of reprisals and left in a huff, never to return
to studying at Harvard and using too much Drakkar. I’m crushed. I
think we’re all crushed. Please come back. With a cherry on top? Why
don’t they just change their names, anyway? It’s happened in the
past. Think about it. How many Adolfs
do you run into these days? Shortly
after that, I remember watching TV with my jaw on the floor as a government
official actually said, “That little old grandmother from Sioux
City could be carrying something.” Okay, how about this: No, she
couldn’t. It would never be the grandmother from Sioux City. Is it
even possible? What are the odds? Winning a hundred Powerball
lotteries in a row? A thousand? A million? And now a Secret Service
guy has been tossed off a plane and we’re all supposed to cry about it because
he’s an Arab? Didn’t it have the tiniest bit to do with the fact
that he filled out his forms incorrectly- - three times? And then left an Arab history book on
his seat as he
strolled off the plane? And came back? Armed? Let’s please all stop singing “We
Are
the World” for a minute and think practically. I don’t want to be sitting on
the floor in the back of a plane four seconds away from hitting Mt. Rushmore
and turn, grinning, to the guy next to me to say, “Well, at least we
didn’t offend them.”
SO HERE’S what I resolve for the New Year: Never to forget our murdered
brothers and sisters. Never to let the relativists get away with their immoral
thinking. After all, no matter what your daughter’s political science professor
says, we didn’t start this. Have you seen that bumper sticker that says, “No
More Hiroshimas”? I wish I had one that
says, “You First. No More Pearl
Harbors.” Dick Hawley
Also From Ken -
Malachi 3:3 says: “He will sit as a refiner
and purifier of silver.”
This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study
and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of
God. One of the women offered to find
out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next
Bible Study. That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment
to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her
interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a
piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining
silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the
flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about
God holding us in such a hot spot then she thought again about the verse that
says: “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.”
She asked the silversmith if it was true that
he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being
refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to
sit there holding the silver, but he had to
keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver
was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she
asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”
He smiled at her and answered, ”Oh, that’s
easy—when I see my image in it.”
The answer came easily.
From Alan –
DEMOCRAT TAX REFUNDS
If you don’t understand the Democrats’ version of tax cuts (and you are
not alone), this will help explain it for you:
50,000 people go to a baseball game, but the game was rained out. A
refund was then due.
The team was about to mail refunds when the Congressional Democrats
stopped them and suggested that they send out refund amounts based on the
Democrat National Committee’s interpretation of fairness. After all, if the
refunds were made based on the price each person paid for the tickets, most of
the money would go to the ticket holders of the most expensive tickets. That would be unconscionable.
The DNC plan says:
People in the $10 seats will get back $15, because they have less money
to spend. Call it an “Earned” Income Ticket Credit”. Persons “earn” it by
demonstrating little ambition, few skills and poor work habits, thus keeping
them at entry-level wages.
People in the $25 seats will get back $25, because that’s only fair.
People in the $50 seats will get back $1, because they already make a
lot of money and don’t need a refund. If they can afford a $50 ticket, then
they must not be paying enough taxes.
People in the $75 luxury seats will have to pay another $50, because
they have way too much to spend.
The people driving by the stadium who couldn’t afford to watch the game
will get $10 each; even though they didn’t pay anything, they need the most
help.
Now do you understand? If not, contact Representative Richard Gephardt
or Senator Tom Daschle for assistance.
From Alan –
My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that
year. It was an exciting season for a six year old. For weeks, he’d been
memorizing songs for his school’s “Winter Pageant.” I didn’t have the
heart to tell him I’d be working the night of the production. Unwilling to miss
his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me there’d be a
dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend
that evening were welcome
to come then.
Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise. So, the morning
of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the
cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room, I saw several other
parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led
into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged
on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their
song. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday
as “Christmas,” I didn’t expect anything other than fun, commercial
entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer.
So, when my son’s class rose to sing, “Christmas Love,” I was slightly taken
aback by its bold title. Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his
classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon
their heads. Those in the front row- center stage -held up large letters,
one by one, to spell out the title of the song.
As the class would sing “C is for Christmas,” a child would hold up the letter
C. Then, “H is for Happy,” and on and on, until each child holding up his
portion had presented the complete message, “Christmas Love.” The performance
was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a small, quiet, girl in the
front row holding the letter “M” upside down – totally unaware her letter “M”
appeared as a “W”.
The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this
little one’s mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood
tall, proudly holding her “W”. Although many teachers tried to shush the
children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all
saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to
widen.
In that instant, we understood - the reason we were there, why we celebrated
the holiday in the first place, why even in chaos, there was a purpose for our
festivities. For when the last letter was held high, the message
read loud and clear:
“CHRISTWAS LOVE”
And, I believe, He still is. Maybe it wasn’t a mistake after all.
From Connie –
MOM - Job Description
POSITION: Mother, Mom, Mommy, Momma
JOB DESCRIPTION: Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work
in an, often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent
communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours,
which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.
Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy
weekends and endless sports
tournaments in far away cities. Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive
courier duties also required.
RESPONSIBILITIES: The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated, at least
temporarily, until someone needs $5 or turns 21. Must be willing to bite
tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and
be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the
screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating
technical
challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and
stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate
production of multiple
homework projects. Must have ability to plan and organize social
gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks. Must be willing to be
indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next. Must handle assembly and
product safety testing of a half
million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices. Must always hope for
the best but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete
accountability for the quality
of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and
janitorial work throughout the facility.
POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION: Virtually none. Your job is to
remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly
retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can
ultimately surpass you.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: None required unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.
WAGES AND COMPENSATION: Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bonuses. A balloon payment is due
when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become
financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The
oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and
wish you could only do more.
BENEFITS: While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition
reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered; this job
supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and free hugs &
kisses for life if you play your cards right.
From
Roland –
http://investigativejournal.com/stories/chemtrailscuppett.htm
Why so many rumors?
Foreign military on U.S. soil and in the
skies
From Roland –
a.
An armed man is a citizen. An
unarmed man is a subject.
b. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
c. Colt: The original point and click interface.
d. Gun control is not about guns; it’s about control.
e. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
f. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
g. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
h. If you don’t know your rights you don’t have any.
i. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
j. The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights reserved.
k. What part of “shall not be infringed” do you not understand?
l. The Second Amendment is in place in case they ignore the others.
m. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
n. Guns only have two enemies: rust and liberals.
o. Know guns, know peace and safety. No guns, no peace nor safety.
p. You don’t shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
q. 911 - government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
r. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
s. Criminals love gun control - it makes their jobs safer.
t. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.
u. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control
them.
v. You only have the rights you are willing to fight for.
w. Enforce the “gun control laws” we have, don’t make more.
x. When you remove the people’s right to bear arms, you create slaves.
y. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.
z. “...a government of the people, by the people, for the people...”
From Alan –
http://www.alighthouse.com/flag.htm
Ragged Old Flag by Johnny
Cash
From Roland –
http://www.rense.com/general31/horowitzVacInjuryhomeland.htm
From Helen –
Clinton whitehouse sold info also, to save the
grid of the North Koreans from going down, what is wrong with both the
Republicans and the Democrats? Where will they live if their friends
destroy America?
Helen sends this with a hope that you don't
want this and will let the drunk bastard know it.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/24/international/asia/24KORE.html?todaysheadlines
From
Roland –
Good article from
Edgar Steele
http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/saddamed.htm
From
Roland –
With
advances in technology and ever-increasing government surveillance, the
situation has worsened since Orwell's imaginings of the future. —John
Whitehead, the Rutherford Institute, November 4, 2002
Despite
the self-satisfaction of George W. Bush and John Ashcroft, and the somnolence
of the press, there is rising resistance around the country to the serial
abuses of our liberties. More Americans are becoming aware of what Wisconsin
Democratic senator Russ Feingold prophesied from the Senate floor on October
11, 2001, when he was the only Senator to vote against Ashcroft's USA Patriot
Act: "There is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be
easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country where police were allowed
to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country where
the government is entitled to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone
conversations, or intercept your e-mail communications; if we lived in a
country where people could be held in jail indefinitely based on what they
write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, the
government would probably discover more terrorists or would-be terrorists, just
as it would find more lawbreakers generally. But that wouldn't be a country in
which we would want to live."
Some of
that warning has come to pass. What has become more specifically evident is
underlined by Lincoln Caplan in the November-December issue of Legal Affairs (A Magazine of Yale Law
School): "The [USA Patriot Act] . . . authorized law enforcement
agencies to inspect the most personal kinds of information—medical records,
bank statements, college transcripts, even church memberships. But what is more
startling than the scope of these new powers is that the government can use
them on people who aren't suspected of committing a crime."
As then
house majority leader Dick Armey—a conservative Republican libertarian—told
Georgetown University law professor Jeffrey Rosen in the October 21 New Republic: "The Justice
Department . . . seems to be running amok and out of control. . . . This agency
right now is the biggest threat to personal liberty in the country." (The
Defense Department is an even bigger threat, with its Orwellian plan to place
all of us under surveillance—more on that in a later column.)
One
sign of the growing fear of losing our Bill of Rights protections against an
out-of-control government came from the heartland. On September 8 of this year,
the Journal Gazette, a daily
newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana, published a full-page, five-column
editorial—its first such broadside in nearly 20 years. The headline was
"Attacks on Liberty": "In the name of national security,
President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and even Congress have pulled
strand after strand out of the constitutional fabric that distinguishes the
United States from other nations. . . .
"Actions
taken over the past year are eerily reminiscent of tyranny portrayed in the
most nightmarish works of fiction. The power to demand reading lists from
libraries could have been drawn from the pages of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. . . . The sudden
suspension of due process for immigrants rounded up into jails is familiar to
readers of Sinclair Lewis's It Can't
Happen Here."
But
what is most encouraging is the continued growth in cities and towns throughout
the nation of Bill of Rights Defense Committees or their equivalents, a number
of which are working with ACLU affiliates. The first BORDC, as reported here,
was formed in February this year in Northampton, Massachusetts, when about 300
doctors, nurses, lawyers, students, teachers, and retirees formed a group to
protect the citizens of that town from the USA Patriot Act and the subsequent
unilateral attacks on our liberties by John Ashcroft.
After
the Northampton city council unanimously passed in May a resolution officially
supporting the protests of the BORDC, other towns and cities learned how to
organize similar committees through the Northampton group's Web site: www.bordc.org.
Fourteen
town or city councils—from Takoma Park, Maryland, and Alachua County, Florida,
to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Berkeley, California—have now passed, sometimes
unanimously, similar resolutions originated by local BORDC organizations. Other
proposals are pending before local government bodies in 40 more cities and
towns, in 24 states. One BORDC is in formation in New York City.
Next
week: The details of some of these resolutions that involve city and state
police and local members of Congress. The roots of the Bill of Rights Defense
Committees, it is important to remember, are in the pre-revolutionary
committees of correspondence, initiated by Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty in
Boston in 1754.
In
1805, in Boston, there was published Mercy Otis Warren's History of the Rise and Progress and
Termination of the American Revolution. A historian, playwright, and
political pamphleteer, she wrote in this, her major work: "Perhaps no
single step contributed so much to cement the union of the colonies, and the
final acquisition of independence, as the establishment of committees of
correspondence. This supported a chain of communication from New Hampshire to
Georgia that produced unanimity and energy throughout the continent." Sam
Adams and other patriots continuously spread the news of attacks on the
liberties of these new Americans by the King, his ministers, and his governors
and officers in the colonies.
These
committees, as Supreme Court Justice William Brennan once told me, were a
precipitating cause of the American Revolution. Yet John Ashcroft accuses his
critics—among the most active of which are the Bill of Rights Defense
Committees—of "capitulating" to the enemy. More Americans are coming
to agree with Dick Armey that Ashcroft's Justice Department "is the
biggest threat to personal liberty in the country." Who, then, are the
American patriots now?
From Roland –
An expose' on NAFTA and GATT..."free trade". A couple of
years ago someone wrote, "America will be a Third World country inside of
20 years". I don't believe we have 20 years to our destruction.
Buchanan and the NAFTA CORRIDOR.
Extra
links on NAFTA Corridor here - http://www.rense.com/general/naftacanal.htm
And http://www.chalcedon.edu/report/99feb/rose.shtml
While it grinds my soul to
put this out since it is Buchanan’s, but what he says is the truth, and needs
to be told. There are too many facts here not to forward this on. Get it on to
everyone, here is the total honest facts about what your wonderful Congress
critters, and Presidents have done to America...NOW tell me they are not
traitors to this country...this is the absolute end of what is to come...
..Virginia.
http://i.am/jah/plan.htm
To
all. Below Pat talking about the ballooning trade deficit,
which has for all practical purposes been blocked from all media outlets.
When was the last time you saw a major network or one of the Sunday
talking heads shows mentioning the trade deficit, and the complete failure of
Nafta, GATT , WTO, FTAA..ETC..? Virtually nonexistent! I hope
Pat and others will expound and debate loudly and in depth the coming “NAFTA
CORRIDOR” which is soon to open up this winter ! This may be the
biggest change to the fabric of America since Roe vs. Wade (although
there is no comparison ), the one dealing with very life itself, and the other
dealing with the very idea and ideals we stand for from a fiscal and
sovereignty perspective. What does this mean in practical terms?
Just this. Mexican truckers will be allowed free reign of our
highways and byways. At the present time Mexican truckers must unload their
incoming cargo within an approximately ten mile range once they enter the
country. That means they have to transfer to American truckers or trains
to have their cheaply made Mexican goods then dispersed throughout the country.
Once the corridor opens they will be traveling next to our wives and children
with their eighteen wheelers loaded with cheap Mexican goods made with slave
labor,..illegal drugs like methamphetamines, cocaine etc..(marijauna is passé),
weapons, weapons of mass destruction and illegal immigrants and terrorists!
PRE-APPROVED Mexican trucking companies will have their trucks
inspected in MEXICO! They will then be given bar-coded zip strips
to zoom through optical truck scanners. Does that make you feel safe? And
besides all that you may wonder where is the American Teamsters outrage over
this??? Well here is the quid-pro-quo. Sweeny and the
“leadership” of the teamsters has cut a deal with Bush and Vincente Fox and the
globalists i.e. they will “allow” the corridor provided the
Mexican Truckers join the “Teamsters” and become Americanized, thus blurring
the separation of nations in a most intimate way. I hope at this point
the ‘independent’ truckers do what the farmers did when they drove their
tractors on Washington, and organize a convoy and blockade of I-35 thereby
effectively blocking the Mexican truckers from coming up the corridor. Perhaps
that will put the spotlight on what is going on. If the corridor is allowed to
stand it will mean the virtual complete integration of Mexico and the United
States. Next to merge integrally with South America. “THE ORGANIZATION OF
AMERICAN STATES”! This is talked about openly among international leaders.
I hope it is talked about by our leaders of true conservatism. If
there ever was an group of Americans that have a “network” ,..it’s the truckers.
Let’s use them to spread the word. Surely they are not sleeping on the job
The poison fruit of free
trade
In August, the
U.S. merchandise trade deficit - the value of goods we import, less the value
of the goods we export - hit $42.3 billion, an all-time record for any nation.
Our merchandise trade deficit is now running at $507 billion a year, nearly 5
percent of America’s Gross Domestic Product.
For every $1
billion in exports, Presidents Bush I and Clinton used to remind us, 20,000
jobs are created. A $507 billion trade deficit means 10 million production jobs
lost to American workers. No, free trade is not free.
Watching
television the other night, I saw my friend and colleague Larry Kudlow
chuckling over the trade deficit. It means we get all those TV sets and cars
other people make, laughed Larry. On another channel was a lengthy report about
Hathaway Shirts closing its last U.S. plant, in Waterville, Maine.
That same day,
Goodyear announced it is shutting down a Lincoln, Neb., plant and replacing its
U.S. workers, who earn $18 an hour, with Mexican workers, who will earn $12.77
a day. By dumping the U.S. workers, Goodyear is slashing payroll by 91 percent.
Well, as
ex-Budget Director Dick Darman said about U.S.-made computer chips, “If our
guys can’t hack it, let ‘em go.” That is the Spirit of the Carlyle Group. And,
yes, we have been letting them go.
A third of our
steel is foreign made, an even larger share of our cars, half our machine tools
and almost all our shoes, shirts, radios, televisions, cameras, telephones and
VCRs. At Tyson’s Corner, Mall of America and Southland shopping centers, U.S.
consumers relish their range of choices. Do they know what it is costing their
country?
Since U.S.
trade surpluses disappeared in 1971, writes ex-GM executive Gus Stelzer, we
have run $3.5 trillion in trade deficits, and the national debt has soared from
$408 billion to $6 trillion.
Is there a
link? You bet. You don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to know that every product
carries in its final sales price the full cost of the taxes imposed on the
company that made that product.
http://i.am/jah/greeneco.htm
Stelzer estimates that 50 percent of the sticker price
of a new Cadillac goes for taxes. That includes the sales tax, Social Security
and Medicare taxes of GM workers, federal and state income taxes withheld from
wages, GM’s corporate income tax and the property taxes GM pays. When you buy
an American-made car, you are contributing to Social Security and Medicare, and
to our national defense and national parks, and helping pay for the local
police, public roads and public schools.
This is why
exports are better than imports, why trade surpluses are better than trade
deficits. When foreigners buy U.S.-made goods, half the price they pay
underwrites the cost of our government. But when we buy foreign goods, we
contribute taxes to the regimes in the countries where those goods are
produced. Keep that in mind the next time you buy goods “Made in China.”
Free-traders
cheer that tariff rates have fallen to almost zero. What they do not understand
is that all taxes are tariffs on production. “An income tax is a tariff, so are
property, payroll, sales and every other tax,” writes Stelzer. Why? Because all
taxes are factored into the final sales price.
Now that
tariffs have been virtually abolished, foreign-made goods carry almost no U.S.
tax. But goods “Made in the USA” carry U.S. taxes of 50 percent of their price.
Free trade thus makes a mockery of equal protection of the laws.
Free trade,
writes Stelzer, “is the only competitive activity in which the rules are not
the same for every competitor even though the lives of millions of people ...
are involved. No other competitive activity would tolerate such immoral and
unconstitutional double-dealing.” This unjust system will one day kill U.S.
manufacturing.
Once, our farms
and factories produced virtually everything we consumed, and we had no income
tax. Manufacturers were the geese that laid the golden eggs. Free trade is now
slaughtering the geese.
While
conservatives wear Adam Smith ties, they ignore his wisdom:
When
the necessaries of life have been taxed in any country, it becomes proper to
tax not only the necessaries of life imported from other countries, but all
sorts of foreign goods which can come into competition with anything that is
the produce of domestic industry.
Adam Smith
believed in a level playing field.
Elite America
no longer believes that, and because it doesn’t, Middle America is losing its
access ramp to the American Dream.
From Cheryl –
Wow. You do need a Kleenex for this one!
Got a soft spot in your heart??? (and a Kleenex handy)
In Phoenix, Arizona, a 26-year-old mother stared down at her 6 year old son,
who was dying of terminal leukemia. Although her heart was filled with sadness,
she also had a strong feeling of determination. Like any parent, she wanted her son to grow up and fulfill all his
dreams. Now that was no longer possible. The leukemia would see to that. But
she still wanted her son's dreams to come true. She took her son's hand and
asked, "Billy, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you
grew up? Did you ever dream and wish what you would do with your life?"
Mommy, "I always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up."
Mom smiled back and said, "Let's see if we can make your wish come
true."
Later that day she went to her local fire department in Phoenix, Arizona, where
she met Fireman Bob, who had a heart as big as Phoenix. She explained her son's final wish and asked
if it might be possible to give her six-year-old son a ride around the block on
a fire engine.
Fireman Bob said, "Look, we can do better than that. If you'll have your
son ready at seven o'clock Wednesday morning, we'll make him an honorary
fireman for the whole day. He can come down to the fire station, eat with us,
go out on all the fire calls, the whole nine yards! And if you'll give us his
sizes, we'll get a real fire uniform for him, with a real fire hat-not a toy
one-with the emblem of the Phoenix Fire Department on it, a yellow slicker like
we wear and rubber boots. They're all manufactured right here in Phoenix, so we
can get them fast."
Three days later Fireman Bob picked up Billy, dressed him in his fire
uniform and escorted him from his hospital bed to the waiting hook and
ladder truck. Billy got to sit on the back! of the truck and help steer it back
to the fire station. He was in heaven. There were three fire calls in Phoenix
that day and Billy got to go out on all three calls. He rode in the different
fire engines, the paramedic's van, and even the fire chief's car.
He was also videotaped for the local news program. Having his dream come true,
with all the love and attention that was lavished upon him, so
deeply touched Billy that he lived three months longer than any doctor
thought possible.
One night all of his vital signs began to drop dramatically and the head nurse,
who believed in the hospice concept that no one should die alone, began to call
the family members to the hospital. Then she remembered the day Billy had spent
as a fireman, so she called the Fire Chief and asked if it would be possible to
send a fireman in uniform to the hospital to be with Billy as he made his transition. The chief replied, "We can do better
than that. We'll be there in five minutes. Will you please do me favor?
When you hear the sirens screaming and see the lights flashing, will you
announce over the PA system that there is not a fire? It's just the fire
department coming to see one of its finest members one more time. And will you open the window to his
room?"
About five minutes later a hook and ladder truck arrived at the hospital and
extended its ladder up to Billy's third floor open window. 16 firefighters
climbed up the ladder into Billy's room.
With his mother's permission, they hugged him and held him and told him
how much they loved him. With his dying breath, Billy looked up at the fire
chief and said, "Chief, am I really a fireman now?"
"Billy,
you are, and the Head Chief, Jesus, is holding your hand," the chief
said.
With those words, Billy smiled and said, "I know, He's been holding my
hand all day, and the angels have been singing." He closed his eyes one
last time.
Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead tell your storm how big your
GOD is.
From Helen –
http://www.dojgov.net/
You will enjoy this be ye Liberal or Conservative, and don't
forget to reenlist in the Militia, i.e., the people that vote, write and call
their congress and assembly critters. Let Tom, and George know that you
are not happy. Both Larrys are harping on the same issue! Pratt of
GOA and
Frankel, formerly head of Pa. ACLU who has stepped down and been replaced by
the new Executive Director: David DiSabatino are decrying the loss of liberty
by the Homeland Security bill.
Sincerely hope you vote and complain,
Helen
From Roland –
The Birth Certificate
From Helen –
Interesting!
"http://starbulletin.com/2002/11/25/news/index3.html
Newborn Metabolic Screening Program
http://www.state.hi.us/health/resource/family/genetics/screening.html
From Echo –
New Immigrants Masters at Food Stamp Fraud
Thursday, November 28, 2002
By Matt Hayes
http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,71629,00.html
From Roland –
http://www.mirror.co.uk/printable_version.cfm?objectid=12377231&siteid=50143
From Roland –
ASPARTAME PLEASE READ!
An E-Mail That I received and Am Passing on.
Diet Coke or Not
In October of 2001, my sister started getting very sick, she had stomach
spasms, she was having a hard time getting around, to walk was a major chore.
It took everything she had just to get out of bed, she was in so
much pain. By March 2002,she had undergone biopsies, and was on 24 various
prescription medications.
The doctors could not figure out what was wrong with her. She was in so
much pain, and so sick, she knew she was dying. She put her house, bank
accounts, life insurance, etc., in her oldest daughters name, and made sure
her younger children were to be with her oldest daughter. She wanted her
last hooray, so she planned a trip to FL (basically in a wheelchair) for
March 22nd.
On March 19th I called her to ask her how one of her tests went, and she
said they didn't find anything on the test, but they believe she had MS. I
thought, oh, my....then I recalled an article a friend of mine emailed to
me...and I asked her....Do you drink Diet pop? She told me yes, as a matter
of fact she was getting ready to crack one open that moment, I told her not
to open it, and stop drinking the diet pop....and I emailed her the following
article.
She called me within 32 hours after our phone conversation and told me she
stopped drinking the diet pop, and she can walk...she went up the stairs, and
the muscle spasms went away. She said she didn't feel 100% but sure
felt a lot better. She told me she was going to her doctors with this
article and would call me back when she got home. She called me, and her
doctor was amazed, he is going to call all of his MS patients to find out if
they consumed artificial sweetener.
In a nutshell, she was being poisoned by the aspartame in the diet soda, dying
a slow death. When she got to FL March 22nd, all she had to take was one pill,
and that was a pill for poisoning....she is well on her way to
recovery.....and she is walking! No wheelchair! This article saved her
life! The life saving article: If it says "SUGAR FREE,"
on the label, DO
NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!
I have spent several days lecturing at the WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE on
"ASPARTAME" marketed as 'NutraSweet', 'Equal', and 'Spoonful'. In the
keynote address by the EPA, it was announced that in the United States in 2001
there is an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus, that it was hard
to understand what toxin was causing this to be rampant. I stood up and said
that I was the lecture on exactly that subject.
I will explain why Aspartame is so dangerous: When the temperature of this
sweetener exceeds 86degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts to
Formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic
acidosis. (Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants. The
methanol toxicity mimics among other conditions multiple sclerosis. People were
being diagnosed with having multiple sclerosis in error. The multiple sclerosis
is not a death sentence, where methanol toxicity is!
Systemic lupus has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis,
especially with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. The victim usually does not
know that the aspartame is the culprit. He or she continues its use,
aggravating the lupus to such a degree that it may become
life-threatening. We have seen patients
with systemic lupus become asymptomatic once taken off diet sodas. In the case
of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, (when in reality, the disease is
methanol toxicity), most of the symptoms disappear.
We've seen many cases where vision returned and hearing improved markedly. This also applies to cases of tinnitus.
During a lecture I said "If you are using ASPARTAME (NutraSweet, Equal,
Spoonful, etc.) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting
pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus,
joint pain, depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or
memory loss-you probably have ASPARTAME DISEASE!"
People were jumping up during the lecture saying, "I've got some of these
symptoms: Is it reversible?"
Yes! Not drinking diet sodas and keeping an eye out for aspartame on food
labels, yes! We have a very serious problem. A stranger came up to Dr.
Espisto (one of my speakers) and me and said: "Could you tell me why so
many people seem to be coming down with MS?" During a visit to a hospice,
a nurse said that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke addicts, had all
been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence! Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi,
etc. ARE NOT DIET PRODUCTS!
The Congressional Record states that it makes you crave carbohydrates and will
make you FAT. The formaldehyde stores in the fat cells, particularly in the
hips and thighs. Once off these products with no significant increase in
exercise, etc., Dr. Roberts in his lecture stated that he had patient who lost
an average of 19 pounds over a trial period. Aspartame is especially
dangerous for diabetics!!!
We found that physicians would believe that they have a patient with
retinopathy, when in fact the symptoms are caused by aspartame. The
aspartame drives the blood sugar out of control. Thus diabetics may suffer
acute memory loss due to the fact that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are
neurotoxic without the other amino acids found in protein. Thus it passes
the blood brain barrier and deteriorates the neurons of the brain, causing
in diabetics (as well as in patients not suffering from diabetes) various kinds
of brain damage, seizures, depression, manic depression, panic attacks, rage,
violence. (The Aspartame in thousands of pallets of diet Coke and diet Pepsi
consumed by men and women fighting in the Gulf War, may be partially to blame
for the well-known Gulf War Syndrome.) Dr. Roberts warns that it can cause
birth defects i.e. mentalretardation if taken at the time of conception and
early pregnancy. Children are especially at risk for neurological disorders and
should NOT be given NutraSweet.
I can relate different case histories ofchildren having mal seizures and other
disturbances being on NutraSweet. Unfortunately it is not always
easy to convince a mother that aspartame is to blame for her child's illness.
Only by trial and success will she be able to warn other mothers to take
their children's health in their own hands.Stevia, a sweet herb, NOT A
MANUFACTURED ADDITIVE, which helps inthe metabolism of sugar (which would be
ideal for diabetics) has now been approved as a dietary supplement by the FDA.
For years the FDA has outlawed this sweet food because of their loyalty to
MONSANTO. Books on this subject are available: EXCITOTOXINS: THE TASTE THAT
KILLS - written by Dr. Russell Blayblock (Health Press 1-800-643-2665) and
DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE - written by DR H. J. Roberts, also a
diabetic specialist. These two doctors will be posting a position paper with
some casehistories on the deadly effects of Aspartame on the Internet.
According to the Conference of the American College of Physicians "we are
talking about a plague of neurological diseases caused by this deadly
poison." Here is the problem: There were Congressional Hearings when
aspartame was included in 100 different products. Since this initial
hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings, but to no avail. Nothing
has been done. The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Now there
are over 5,000 products containing this chemical, and the PATENT HAS EXPIRED!
Scary!
From Connie -
LIPIDLEGGIN’
F. Paul Wilson
[Editor's note: This story
was first published in 1978 by F. Paul Wilson.
Then it was probably
considered rather "out there". Today it's a prescient look at what is
close to becoming a reality as the Food Police continually try to foist their
"good-for-you" policies on individuals. We're pleased to bring this
story to our audience.]
Butter.
I can name a man's poison
at fifty paces. I take one look at this guy as he walks in and say to myself,
"Butter." He steps carefully,
like there's something sticky on the soles of his shoes.
Maybe there is, but I
figure he moves like that because he's on unfamiliar ground. Never seen his
face before and I know just about everybody around. It's early yet. I just opened the store and Gabe's the only other
guy on the buying side of the counter, only he ain't buying. He's waiting in
the corner by the checkerboard and I'm just about to go join him when the new
guy comes in. It's wet out---not raining, really, just wet like it only gets up
here near the Water Gap-and he's wearing a slicker. Underneath that he seems to
have a stocky build and is average height. He's got no beard and his eyes are
blue with a watery look. Could be from anywhere until he takes off the hat and
I see his hair: It's dark brown and he's got it cut in one of those soup-bowl styles
that're big in the city. Gabe gives me
an annoyed look as I step back behind the counter, but I
ignore him. His last name
is Varadi--sounds Italian but it's Hungarian--and he's got plenty of time on
his hands. Used to be a Ph.D. in a philosophy department at some university in
Upstate New York till they cut the department in half and gave him his walking
papers, tenure and all. Now he does part-time labor at one of the mills when
they need a little extra help, which ain't near as
often as he'd like.
About as poor as you can
get, that Gabe. The government giraffes take a big chunk of what little he
earns and leave him near nothing to live on. So he goes down to the welfare
office where the local giraffes give him food stamps and rent vouchers so he can
get by on what the first group of giraffes left him. If you can figure that one
out...
Anyway, Gabe's got a lot of
time on his hands, like I said, and he hangs out here and plays checkers with
me when things are slow. He'd rather play chess, I know, but I can't stand the
game. Nothing happens for too long and I get impatient and try to break the
game open with some wild gamble. And I always lose. So we play checkers or we
don't play.
The new guy puts his hat on
the counter and glances around. He looks uneasy. I know what's coming but I'm not going to help him out. There's a
little dance we've got to do first.
"I need to buy a few
things," he says. His voice has a little tremor in it and close up like
this I figure he's in his mid-twenties.
"Well, this is a
general store," I reply, getting real busy wiping down the counter,
"and we've got all sorts of things. What're you interested in? Antiques? Hardware? Food?"
"I'm not looking for
the usual stock."
(The music begins to play)
I look at him with my best
puzzled expression. "Just what is it you're after, friend?"
"Butter and
eggs."
"Nothing unusual about
that. Got a whole cabinet full of both behind you there."
(We're on our way to the
dance floor)
"I'm not looking for
that. I didn't come all the way out here to buy the same shit I can get in the
city. I want the real thing."
"You want the real
thing, eh?" I say, meeting his eyes square for the first time. "You
know damn well real butter and real eggs are illegal. I could go to jail for
carrying that kind of stuff."
(We dance)
Next to taking his money,
this is the part I like best about dealing with a new customer. Usually I can
dance the two of us around the subject of what he really wants for upwards of
twenty or thirty minutes if I've a mind to. But this guy was a lot more direct
than most and didn't waste any time getting down to the nitty-gritty. Still, he
wasn't going to rob me of a little dance.
I've got a dozen years of
dealing under my belt and no green kid's gonna rob me of that. A dozen years... doesn't seem that long. It
was back then that the giraffes who were running the National Health Insurance
program found out that they were spending way too much money taking care of
people with diseases nobody was likely to cure for some time. The stroke and
heart patients were the worst. With the presses at the Treasury working
overtime and inflation getting wild, it got to the point where they either had
to admit they'd made a mistake or do something drastic. Naturally, they got
drastic.
The president declared a
health emergency and Congress passed something called the National Health
Maintenance Act which said that since certain citizens were behaving
irresponsibly by abusing their bodies and thereby giving rise to chronic
diseases which resulted in consumption of more that their fair share of medical
care at public expense, it was resolved that, in the public interest and for
the public good, certain commodities would henceforth and hereafter be either
prescribed or strictly rationed. Or something like that. Foods high in cholesterol and saturated fats
headed the list. Next came tobacco and any alcoholic beverage over 30
proof. Ah, the howls that went up from
the public. But those were nothing compared to the screams of fear and anguish
that arose from the dairy and egg industry which was facing immediate economic
ruin. The Washington giraffes stood firm, however--it wasn't an election
year--and used phrases like "bite the bullet" and "national
interest" and "public good" until we were all ready to barf.
Nothing moved them.
Things quieted down after a
while, as they always do. It helped, of course, that somebody in one of the
drug companies had been working on an additive to chicken feed that would take
just about all the cholesterol out of the yolk. It worked, and the poultry
industry was saved. The new eggs cost
more--of course--and the removal of most of the cholesterol from the yolk also
removed most of the taste, but at least the egg farmers had something to sell.
Butter was out. Definitely.
No compromise. Too much of an "adverse effect on serum lipid levels,"
whatever that means. You use polyunsaturated margarine or you use nothing. Case
closed. Well, almost closed. Most good
citizen-type Americans hunkered down and learned to live with the Lipid Laws,
as they came to be known. Why, I bet there's scads of fifteen-year-olds about
who've never tasted real butter or a true, cholesterol-packed egg yolk. But
we're not all good citizens. Especially me. Far as I'm concerned, there's
nothing like two fried eggs--fried in butter--over easy, with bacon on the
side, to start the day off. Every day. And I wasn't about to give that up. I was strictly in the antiques trade then,
and I knew just about every farmer in Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. So I
found one who was making butter for himself and had him make a little extra for
me. Then I found another who was keeping some hens aside and not giving them
any of the special feed and had him hold a few eggs out for me.
One day I had a couple of
friends over for breakfast and served them real eggs and toast with real
butter. They almost strangled me trying to find out where I got the stuff.
That's when I decided to add a sideline to my antique business. I figured New York City to be the best place
to start so I let word get around the antique dealers there that I could supply
their customers with
more than furniture. The
response was wild and soon I was making more money running butter and eggs than
I was running Victorian golden oak. I was a lipidlegger.
Didn't last, though. I was
informed by two very pushy fellows of Mediterranean stock that if I wanted to
do any lipid business in Manhattan, I'd either have to buy all my merchandise
from their wholesale concern, or give them a very healthy chunk of my profits. I decided it would be safer to stick close
to home. Less volume, but less risky. I turned my antique shop up here by the
Water Gap--that's the part of New Jersey you can get to without driving by all
those refineries and
reactors--into a general
store. A dozen years now.
"I heard you had the
real thing for sale," the guy says.
I shake my head. "Now
where would you hear a thing like that?"
"New York."
"New York? The only
connection I have with New York is furnishing some antique dealers with a few
pieces now and then. How'd you hear about me in New York?"
"Sam Gelbstein."
I nod. Sam's a good
customer. Good friend, too. He helped spread the word for me when I was leggin'
lipids into the city.
"How you know
Sam?"
"My uncle furnished
most of his house with furniture he bought there."
I still act
suspicious--it's part of the dance--but I know if Sam sent him, he's all right.
One little thing bothers me, though.
"How come you don't
look for your butter and eggs in the city? I hear they're real easy to get
there."
"Yeah," he says
and twists his mouth. "They're also spoiled now and again and there's no
arguing with the types that supply it. No money-back guarantees with those
guys."
I see his point. "And
you figure this is closer to the source."
He nods.
"One more question,"
I say. "I don't deal in the stuff, of course"--still
dancing--"but I'm curious how a young guy like you got a taste for
contraband like eggs and butter."
"Europe," he
says. "I went to school in Brussels and it's all still legal over there.
Just can't get used to these damned substitutes."
It all fit, so I go into
the back and lift up the floor door. I keep a cooler down there and from it
pull a dozen eggs and a half-kilo slab of butter. His eyes widen as I put them
on the counter in front of him.
"Is this the real
thing?" he asks. "No games?"
I pull out an English
muffin, split it with my thumbs, and drop the halves into a toaster I keep
under the counter. I know that once he tastes this butter I'll have another
steady customer. People will eat ersatz eggs and polyunsaturated margarine if
they think it's good for them, but they want to know the real thing's
available. Take that away from them and suddenly you've got them going to great
lengths to get what they used to pass up without a second thought.
"The real thing,"
I tell him. "There's even a little salt added to the butter for
flavor."
"Great!" He
smiles, then puts both hands into his pockets and pulls out a gun with his
right and a shield with his left. "James Callahan, Public Health Service,
Enforcement Division," he says. "You're under arrest, Mr.
Gurney."
He's not smiling anymore.