Socialism and Secularism Suck Vitality Out of Society

By Dennis Prager
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Outside of politics, sports, and popular entertainment, how many living Germans, or French, or Austrians, or even Brits can you name?

Even well-informed people who love art and literature and who follow developments in science and medicine would be hard pressed to come up with many, more often any, names. In terms of greatness in literature, art, music, the sciences, philosophy, and medical breakthroughs, Europe has virtually fallen off the radar screen.


This is particularly meaningful given how different the answer would have been had you asked anyone the same question between just 80 and 120 years ago -- and certainly before that. A plethora of world-renowned names would have flowed.

Obvious examples would include (in alphabetical order): Brecht, Buber, Cezanne, Chekhov, Curie, Debussy, Eiffel, Einstein, Freud, Hesse, Kafka, Mahler, Mann, Marconi, Pasteur, Porsche, Proust, Somerset Maugham, Strauss, Stravinsky, Tolstoy, Zeppelin, Zola.

Not to mention the European immortals who lived within the century before them: Mozart, Beethoven, Dostoevsky, Darwin, Kierkegaard, Manet, Monet, Hugo and Van Gogh, to name only a few.

What has happened?

What has happened is that Europe, with a few exceptions, has lost its creativity, intellectual excitement, industrial innovation, and risk taking. Europe’s creative energy has been sapped. There are many lovely Europeans; but there aren’t many creative, dynamic, or entrepreneurial ones.

The issues that preoccupy most Europeans are overwhelmingly material ones: How many hours per week will I have to work? How much annual vacation time will I have? How many social benefits can I preserve (or increase)? How can my country avoid fighting against anyone or for anyone?

Why has this happened?

There are two reasons: secularism and socialism (aka the welfare state).

Either one alone sucks much of the life out of society. Together they are likely to be lethal.

Even if one holds that religion is false, only a dogmatic and irrational secularist can deny that it was religion in the Western world that provided the impetus or backdrop for nearly all the uniquely great art, literature, economic and even scientific advances of the West. Even the irreligious were forced to deal with religious themes -- if only in expressing rebellion against them.

Religion in the West raised all the great questions of life: Why are we here? Is there purpose to existence? Were we deliberately made? Is there something after death? Are morals objective or only a matter of personal preference? Do rights come from the state or from the Creator?

And religion gave positive responses: We are here because a benevolent God made us. There is, therefore, ultimate purpose to life. Good and evil are real. Death is not the end. Human rights are inherent since they come from God. And so on.

Secularism drains all this out of life. No one made us. Death is the end. We are no more significant than any other creatures. We are all the results of mere coincidence. Make up your own meaning (existentialism) because life has none. Good and evil are merely euphemisms for “I like” and “I dislike.”

Thus, when religion dies in a country, creativity wanes. For example, while Christian Russia was backward in many ways, it still gave the world Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Tchaikovsky. Once Christianity was suppressed, if not killed, in Russia, that country became a cultural wasteland (with a few exceptions like Shostakovich and Solzhenitsyn, the latter a devout Christian). It is true that this was largely the result of Lenin, Stalin and Communism; but even where Communism did not take over, the decline of religion in Europe meant a decline in human creativity -- except for nihilistic and/or absurd isms, which have greatly increased. As G. K. Chesterton noted at the end of the 19th century, when people stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything. One not only thinks of the violent isms: Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, Fascism, Maoism, and Nazism, but of all the non-violent isms that have become substitute religions – e.g., feminism, environmentalism, and socialism.

The state sucks out creativity and dynamism just as much as secularism does. Why do anything for yourself when the state will do it for you? Why take care of others when the state will do it for you? Why have ambition when the state is there to ensure that few or no individuals are rewarded more than others?

America has been the center of energy and creativity in almost every area of life because it has remained far more religious than any other industrialized Western democracy and because it has rejected the welfare state social model.

Which is why so many are so worried about President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party’s desire to transform -- in their apt wording -- America into a secular welfare state. The greatest engine of moral, religious, economic, scientific, and industrial dynamism is being starved of its fuel. The bigger the state, the smaller its people.

Original article here at Townhall.com

North Hills Toyota

Remind me to never, EVER buy a car from North Hills Toyota. You would 'think' with everything going on in the auto industry you might not see this... but then again...
Click here to find out why.

Capitalism Goes Out Of Tune

In "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville anticipated people being governed by "an immense, tutelary power" determined to take "sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate." It would be a power "absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident and gentle,"aiming for our happiness but wanting "to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness." It would, Tocqueville said, provide people security, anticipate their needs, direct their industries and divide their inheritances. It would envelop society in "a network of petty regulations — complicated, minute and uniform." But softly: "It does not break wills; it softens them, bends them, and directs them" until people resemble "a herd of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

We're being led to the slaughter-house and, with the exception of the tea parties, no one seems to care. Wake up people!
More from George Will's essay here

White House mum on Sykes’ GOP jokes

"You know you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight."

What's funny here is yet another mis-informed celebrity in a long line of mis-informed celebrities. Note to Sykes, read the newspapers!
For more on this hysterical circus act, click here

Miss Calif. to learn whether she'll keep crown

The pageant has been investigating whether the 21-year-old San Diego native violated her contract by making public appearances with groups opposed to same-sex marriage.

If you're going to DQ her for posing in her underwear as a teenager, fine...but not for this crap.
More here

The Hamas 'Peace' Gambit

The Hamas peace plan, as explained by the New York Times: "Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?" by Tom Lehrer, satirist

Perhaps a hearty handshake between The Chosen One and Meshal will do the trick?
Read more from Charles Krauthamerhere

WHY WON'T OBAMA RELEASE THE PHOTOS?

After the taxpayers spent $328,000 on pictures of Air Force One over Manhattan, and after hundreds of New Yorkers marked their shorts, Obama has decided that the photos will not be released to the public. Sort of odd, isn't it? After all, this White House has been eager to release other photos! How about pictures of American troops "torturing" Islamic radicals? How about pictures of the coffins of dead American soldiers returning from the Middle East? Those pictures are just fine, thank you very much. But those pictures of Air Force One? No way. And why not? Well ... here are two possibilities:

1. The Obama White House knows that those photos will be a constant reminder to the people of his free spending policies.

2. If the pictures are released someone will immediately duplicate them using Photoshop .. and dare you to tell the difference.

Just a bit embarrassing. Hard to blame him, isn't it? Release of those photos only leads to additional embarrassment.

From Neal Boortz

Study: Declining Great Lakes Levels Entirely Natural

Detroit, Mich. — Like polar bears, hurricanes, and arctic ice caps, recent drops in Great Lake water levels have been a poster child for green activists’ claims that the global warming crisis is upon us. A sampling:

April, 2003, Detroit News: “A group of scientists predicted that global warming will wreak havoc on the Great Lakes region . . . the largest single concentration of fresh water in the world.”

October, 2003, Detroit Free Press: “The idea that warming has benefits may be a particularly tough sell to Michiganders already disturbed by what happens when the Great Lakes drop near historic lows.”

April, 2007, Detroit News: “Data from a new United Nations report on climate change . . . strengthens scientific opinion that Michigan will see other dramatic effects in the coming decades: lower Great Lakes water levels, a dramatically receding Lake St. Clair. . . . ”

May, 2008, Detroit News: “A report released by an environmental group warns that unless Congress acts to curb global warming, Great Lakes water levels will drop up to 3 feet; beaches will close more often, and fish and animal populations will decline.”

Never mind.

In a comprehensive, two-year study of Great Lakes water levels, Canadian and American researchers working for the International Joint Commission this week found Mother Nature was to blame. “It’s not ongoing. It has definitely stabilized,” said Ted Yuzyk, the Canadian co-chair of the study, who added the changes have reversed in the last two years anyway. “And it’s not human driven. This is more natural.”

“Record high levels were seen in the early 1950s, in 1973, and again in 1985-1986,” reads The International Upper Great Lakes Study. “In the late 1990s, a nearly 30-year period of above-average water level conditions in the upper Great Lakes ended. Since then, Lake Michigan-Huron and Lake Superior have experienced lower than average lake level conditions.”

Among the natural factors that explain the lakes cyclical rise and fall, reported the Detroit News, “were changing climate patterns, including greater rain and snow” and “shifts in the ’s crust, called glacial isostatic adjustment, that are the result of the planet's rebound from the melting of glaciers 10,000 years ago.”

Green groups were not amused. Facts are such inconvenient things.

Lovingly taken from Henry Payne's Blog Planet Gore at NRO.

Can You Believe This?

I don't believe in UFOs, but that has to be the only viable explanation behind this nonsense. Someone please call the MIB!

Extremist Lexicon

Published, but pulled back by Homeland Security. I wonder why? Could it be that it basically outlines everything wrong with the government today? Which one fits you? I fit into quite a few!

(U) alternative media
(U//FOUO) A term used to describe various information sources that provide a forum for interpretations of events and
issues that differ radically from those presented in mass media products and outlets.

You are now looking at and extremist site. I guess that makes you one too!

(U) anti-immigration extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who are vehemently opposed to illegal immigration, particularly along
the U.S. southwest border with Mexico, and who have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts
of violence and terrorism to advance their extremist goals. They are highly critical of the U.S. Government’s response to
illegal immigration and oppose government programs that are designed to extend “rights” to illegal aliens, such as issuing
driver’s licenses or national identification cards and providing in-state tuition, medical benefits, or public education.

Now, I don't advocate violence but I do advocate following this nation's laws. Lord knows that I should not be "highly critical of the U.S. Government’s response to illegal immigration and oppose government programs that are designed to extend “rights” to illegal aliens, such as issuing driver’s licenses or national identification cards and providing in-state tuition, medical benefits, or public education." It might lower an illegal alien's self esteem. Notice how they don't title it anti-illegal immigration. It only says "illegal" further in.

(U) patriot movement
(U//FOUO) A term used by rightwing extremists to link their beliefs to those commonly associated with the American
Revolution. The patriot movement primarily comprises violent antigovernment groups such as militias and sovereign
citizens. (also: Christian patriots, patriot group, Constitutionalists, Constitutionist)

God forbid we follow the Constitution! i just love the way they throw "violent" in there. Has one Tea Party erupted in violence?

(U) rightwing extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of rightwing groups or individuals who can be broadly divided into those who are primarily hate-oriented, and those who are mainly antigovernment and reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority. This term also may refer to rightwing extremist movements that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration. (also known as far right, extreme right)

Hate-oriented? What does that mean? I hate liver and onions. Does that make me a danger to cattlemen and meat producers. This is just a pretext to labeling "alternative media" as hate speech. It's coming. You just watch. As for rejecting Federal for State Government, what's wrong with that? All states have the right to secede from the "union." I just love the way they lump in immigration (note: not "illegal" immigration) and abortion as right wing causes.

(U) tax resistance movement
(U//FOUO) Groups or individuals who vehemently believe taxes violate their constitutional rights. Among their beliefs are that wages are not income, that paying income taxes is voluntary, and that the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed Congress to levy taxes on income, was not properly ratified. Members have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and terrorism in an attempt to advance their extremist goals. They often target government entities such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
(also: tax protest movement, tax freedom movement, antitax movement)

This one is patently ridiculous! Do you know one american who smiles as he licks closed the envelope to send his check to the government on April 15th? Do you see one worker look at his diminished paycheck and bask in the warmth of his withholdings? Btw... when's the last time someone blew up an IRS facility?

And of course... the one everybody is trying...

(U) racial Nordic mysticism
(U//FOUO) An ideology adopted by many white supremacist
prison gangs who embrace a Norse mythological religion,
such as Odinism or Asatru.
(also: Odinism, Asatru)

Read the story and download the lexicon here. I hope they can keep the pdf link open. let's watch and see.

The things you don’t read about Barack Obama

The Portuguese water dog and Alaskan "hillbillies" news beats apparently leave little time for anything remotely skeptical of the president of the United States. And they wonder why folks aren’t buying the papers like they used to.

So here is a small selection of news on the most powerful man on Earth which has been deemed unfit to print:

•Obama’s first two major bills alone, the "stimulus" and "omnibus," cost nearly twice as much as was spent on Iraq over six years – $1.2 trillion vs. $650 billion.

•Obama abandoned his campaign promise of "a net spending cut," his first annual deficit – not counting bailouts – being three times the worst deficit under President George W. Bush.

•Obama’s objective in his first G20 summit – commitments to spend our way to prosperity with massive stimulus boondoggles across the G20 – was rejected out of hand.

•Obama’s objective in his first NATO summit – commitments to combat troops for Afghanistan from "our European allies," which Obama and his party imagined were ready and willing to fight if only someone "enlightened" like him were running things – was predictably refused, with some more European non-combat contingents offered as a token.

•Obama’s Defence Department announced cuts of $1.4 billion to missile defence, the day after North Korea test-fired its long-range, multi-stage ballistic missile.

•Obama’s economics were criticized by Warren Buffet, whose endorsement had been candidate Obama’s highest economic credential.

•Obama reversed the free trade Bush policy that had allowed about 100 Mexican tractor-trailers into the United States, which the Mexican government immediately used as an excuse to levy tariffs on 90 American goods amounting to $2.4 billion in U.S. exports.

•Obama’s "tax cuts for 95 per cent" turned out to mean $13 a week from June to December, to be clawed back to $8 a week in January – as compared with President Bush’s 2008 tax rebates of $600 to $1,200 plus $300 per child, which were notably scoffed at during the election campaign by Michelle Obama.

•Obama’s campaign promise of a $3,000-per-employee tax credit for businesses that hired new workers – repeated ad nauseam for weeks before the election – was discreetly retired even before inauguration day.

•Obama abandoned his campaign promise that "lobbyists won’t work in my White House," waiving his no-lobbyist executive order or conveniently re-

defining his appointees’ past lobbying work to allow 30 lobbyists into his administration.

•Obama abandoned his campaign promise to reform earmarks, signing the omnibus bill which contained 8,816 of them.

•Obama took more money from AIG than any other politician in 2008 – over $100,000 – and signed into law the provision guaranteeing the AIG bonuses which later had him in front of the cameras "shaking with outrage" and siccing the pitchfork crowd on law-abiding citizens who had fulfilled their end of a contract and had their payment upheld by Obama’s own legislation.

You'd have to be blind to see how much in the tank the media is for Obama. He can do no wrong. Just watch them leap like the good dogs they are!

Full op-ed article by Andrew Smith here. A must read.

Torture? No. Except . . .

Judging by Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress who were informed at the time, the answer seems to be yes. In December 2007, after a report in The Post that she had knowledge of these procedures and did not object, she admitted that she'd been "briefed on interrogation techniques the administration was considering using in the future." Today Pelosi protests "we were not -- I repeat -- were not told that waterboarding or any other of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used." She imagines that this distinction between past and present, Clintonian in its parsing, is exonerating.

If it walks like a coward, talks like a coward, looks and acts like a coward, it must be a coward.
Must read here

NOW THIS IS NEWS!!!

Obamas take a walk, holding hands in the evening
May 3, 3:40 PM (ET)
By CHRISTINE SIMMONS
WASHINGTON (AP) - The first couple took full advantage of the cool spring night. After a date night out on Saturday evening, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama decided to take a stroll when their motorcade arrived back at the White House.

So they began walking on the driveway of the White House South Lawn while holding hands. First they passed the West Wing, then their children's swing set. They kept walking, swinging their hands together.
There were no Secret Service agents right behind them - the agents stood off, in one of the rare moments that the Obamas had private space outside the White House walls.

As the Obamas walked behind shrubbery and out of sight, the unscripted moment left reporters guessing where they were going. To the vegetable garden? The basketball court? No final word, but they eventually came back the same way from where they started, rounding out their 8-minute walk.

The walk wrapped up one of their first date nights in the District since they've lived at the White House. Before arriving home and taking the stroll, the president and first lady dined out for nearly two hours at a posh Georgetown restaurant.

The stroll was a quiet contrast to their dinner outing. The Obamas' visit to Georgetown attracted thick crowds of onlookers who were held back by police tape, while sirens occasionally wailed and a protester chanted outside the restaurant.

Unbelievable. Don't the media have anything better to do?

I cant wait to see the next headline:
COLOSSAL GAFFE! Michelle meets French Ambassador with large zit on forehead and improper footwear.

WTF?

Actual fluff article here.

Now I know it's a hoax...

ecoAmerica has been conducting research for the last several years to find new ways to frame environmental issues and so build public support for climate change legislation and other initiatives. A summary of the group’s latest findings and recommendations was accidentally sent by e-mail to a number of news organizations by someone who sat in this week on a briefing intended for government officials and environmental leaders.

Oops! But wait... There's more!

The answer, Mr. Perkowitz said in his presentation at the briefing, is to reframe the issue using different language. “Energy efficiency” makes people think of shivering in the dark. Instead, it is more effective to speak of “saving money for a more prosperous future.” In fact, the group’s surveys and focus groups found, it is time to drop the term “the environment” and talk about “the air we breathe, the water our children drink.”

“Another key finding: remember to speak in TALKING POINTS aspirational language about shared American ideals, like freedom, prosperity, independence and self-sufficiency while avoiding jargon and details about policy, science, economics or technology,” said the e-mail account of the group’s study.

Mr. Perkowitz and allies in the environmental movement have been briefing officials in Congress and the administration in the hope of using the findings to change the terms of the debate now under way in Washington.

You're right, ecoAmerica! Don't bog us down with facts or science... just TALKING POINTS!!!!

Article from the NY Times, no less.

Obama hopes to replace Souter by October

The joke of the century:

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Friday he will replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter with someone who shares the president's respect for "constitutional values" and hopes to have "him or her" seated on the highest U.S. court by the start of its next term in October.

I take that back, THIS is the joke of the century:

Obama's first pick is likely to be a liberal-leaning nominee.

Really? Thanks, Mr. Obvious. How convenient that he waited until just after the 'Chosen One's' inauguration to make this announcement.
For more, click here