The Radical Left's War on America

A little light viewing to tide you over as we compose our next opus.

If you've not seen this, do.

Cheers,

Charlie

Milking the Cow Dry

“Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow that they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is - the strong horse that pulls the whole cart.” – Sir Winston Churchill

While virtually all eyes are on the spectacular plane-crash-in-progress that is California, the nauseating reality is that the same cataclysm is playing out in states throughout the land of the decreasingly free. Case in point: the State of Wisconsin.

The background is depressingly familiar. Under the meticulous financial mismanagement of Democratic Governor Jim Doyle since 2003, Wisconsin has ascended through the ranks to become the fifth highest taxed state in the Union. This has resulted, of course, in a vigorous flow of business and brains out of the state to greener pastures. Consequently, with the tax base ever-diminishing and the tax rate ever-increasing, we have Wisconsin face-to-face with its present nightmare: an unprecedented $6.6 billion deficit. Granted other states boast more breathtaking deficit numbers, but when population is factored in – Wisconsin is rather more sparse at roughly six million - she is perhaps the worst off of the fifty United States.

And if she isn’t yet, she soon will be.

Enter the state legislature; majority Democrat as of the Obamanon of November 2008. Full of hope and change and New Left (we’re not Socialists wink, wink) vigor, the Democrats on the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee last week approved – literally in the dead of night - not a spending decrease in light of the leviathan deficit, but an increase of overall spending of roughly 7%. Somewhere Lord John Maynard Keynes is giggling like a school girl.

Mind you, Democratic assemblyman assuaged any fears of recklessness on their part by assuring Wisconsinites that the increase in spending is made possible by federal dollars from the economic stimulus package. Then, in order to regain the mantel of fiscal conservatism, they explained that spending of state tax dollars will actually decrease about 3.4% should this proposed budget pass. As the entire state government of Wisconsin is Democrat, there is no reason to believe it will not pass.

We witness here in a very real and intimate way American government transmuting from Keynesian folly to Marxist tragedy. For State representatives to so gleefully exclaim that they have transferred funding authority from local government to central government is to reveal the degree to which they are indeed Marxists. If this reversal of Federalism doesn’t convince you of such a charge, perhaps a quick look at the rest of the proposed budget will.

(Compliments of The MacIver Institute)

* A new income tax bracket for those despicable Wisconsinites earning over $300,000 per year.

*An increase on the capital gains tax.

*An “oil franchise fee” to stick it to those miserable oil companies (which will result in higher prices at the petrol pump).

*Eliminating welfare reforms designed to put welfare recipients to work. The latest proposal expands the benefit eligibility window from two to five years and relaxes education requirements. Welfare queens, pimps, drug dealers, ne’er-do-wells, and gangstas – Wisconsin welcomes you!

*Increasing the brand new tax on Wisconsin hospitals in order to draw down still more federal dollars to fund the ever-swelling Medicaid roles and various state plans which provide health care to pretty much anyone for “free.” In a wholly unrelated development, Wisconsin hospitals are raising their rates. (Think “oil franchise fee.”) Note: If you have insurance and believe in paying your bills, don’t get sick in Wisconsin.

*New mandates on health and auto insurance which will increase premiums and force many to drop coverage altogether.

*Early release for felons to reduce the expense of incarceration of hardened criminals. Brilliant!

*Elimination of moderately expensive GPS monitoring of sex offenders. Again brilliant.

*Relaxing restrictions on teacher’s union benefits (which just may account for 6.3 of the $6.6 billion deficit already.)

*A new cell phone tax. OMG!

*A school district transportation mandate for pregnant students who live within a few blocks from school.

*The ability to sue pretty much any business any time for anything (this only affects those businesses and individuals participating in activities which involve some modicum of risk such as sky-diving, hunting, skiing, horseback riding, camping, fishing, walking on slippery surfaces, or occasionally sitting back a bit too far in folding chairs.)

*Curtailment on the use of private contractors during hiring freeze. In other words, look for the Union Label. If you don’t see it, it doesn’t get done.

*Fees on mutual funds – A tripling of the registration filing fee and increased the annual filing fee by over $5 million dollars over 2 years. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to file mutual fund registrations!

*Increasing spending to give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants.

*Providing tax-payer funded insurance benefits for domestic partners of state employees.

*Doubling the garbage tax from $5.90 per ton to $13.00 per ton; which will cost municipalities $63 million, and likely result in higher property taxes.

There is much, much more. Why not read it for yourself?. And did we mention the millions of dollars of pork-barrel projects in Democratic districts figured into the budget; the icing on the cake, or the insult to the injury depending on your perspective.

“One, sweeping, secretly-negotiated omnibus motion, on which no public hearing was held,” says the MacIver Institute of this proposal. “New taxes. New fees. New fund transfers. New mandates. New policies.” We would summarize it by another quote, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” That’s the American way in 2009.

When California implodes under the strain of its own Leftist asininity it provokes little more than a roll of the eyes and a chortle. But when states in the purported heartland of America demonstrate such unabashed commitment to Marxist economic policy, how is one to react? After all, the people voted for this.

One by one American politicians, business leaders, and individual citizens line up to suck at the teat of private enterprise, despite her ever increasing burden and suffocating environment. When she finally is sucked dry and collapses under the strain, they will point and say, “You see, the free market does not work. Only government can provide for the needs of the people.” And the people will nod passively in agreement and shuffle along to their holding pens to await their next feeding.

Cheers,

Charlie

100 Daze: What do we have Dr. Obama?

One hundred days into the Obama administration we are reminded of the oft told exchange between Mrs. Powell and Dr. Benjamin Franklin as he exited Philadelphia’s Independence Hall upon completion of the United States Constitution. “Well Doctor what do we have, a republic or a monarchy,” asked Mrs. Powell. “A Republic,” replied Doctor Franklin, “if you can keep it.”

Sentient Americans find themselves asking a similar question today. “Well Doctor Obama, what do we have, a republic, a monarchy, socialism, crony capitalism, corporatism, fascism, communism … what?” No one seems to know.

Newsweek magazine famously (and gleefully) declared, “We are all Socialists Now” citing the massive expansions of government, first under the Bush administration then accelerated exponentially under Mr. Obama.

Others call it fascism, not as a pejorative Hitlerian reference, but according to the definition of fascism as, “a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.” Arguably all are applicable at present but the belligerent nationalism and racism. Belligerent Leftist political correctness, however, may yet prove an effective substitute.

Conservative political activist and former diplolmat, Alan Keyes, believes Mr. Obama to be a radical communist.

And economist Larry Kudlow, in a recent column about Obama’s economic interventions, muddied the waters still more.

“It’s not socialism because the government won’t actually own the means of production. It’s not fascism because America is a democracy, not a dictatorship, and Obama’s program doesn’t reach way down through all the sectors, but merely seeks to control certain troubled areas. And in the Obama model, it would appear there’s virtually no room for business failure. So the state props up distressed segments of the economy in some sort of 21st-century copy-cat version of Western Europe’s old social-market economy. So call it corporate capitalism or state capitalism or government-directed capitalism. But it still represents a huge change from the American economic tradition.”

Zounds. And all this in just 100 days.

So please tell us, you Hope & Changers, exactly what was it for which you voted? It would appear they haven’t a clue.

In a recent letter to members, Heritage Foundation President, Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D. analyzed the “puzzling ambivalence in the America people.”

“Following President Obama’s speech to Congress on February 24, a national poll sought the public’s overall reaction; 68 percent said they found it ‘very positive’; 88 percent said the policies he proposed will take us in the ‘right direction.’ But now consider some other polls. Rasmussen asked people whether Congress knows what it is doing in addressing our economic problems; 69 percent of voters said they didn’t think so. In another poll, Rasmussen asked whether Ronald Reagan was right when he said, ‘Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.’ Surprisingly, 59 percent of all voters (not just Republicans) agreed with that. President Obama is proposing something on the order of $1 trillion in new taxes; yet 57 percent of voters say tax cuts would help the economy.”

Such analysis leads one to the only logical conclusion which is that the American people are on crack. Not all of them. The sober are either attending Tea Parties desperately trying to resuscitate what remains of Dr. Franklin’s Republic, or quietly delighting in the phenomenal progress their Marxist schemes are making in all sectors of society. The masses in the middle, however, are clearly on crack.

Poor timing this. Iran, Russia, North Korea, Islamists the world over, and, last but by no means least, China are all vying for position to be the first to seriously challenge American resolve in the age of hope and change. In public, the rest of the world applauds Mr. Obama’s conciliatory gestures in face of it all. In private, they crave vigorous and unapologetic American protection; for they know that without it, all is lost.

“The price of greatness is responsibility,” declared Sir Winston Churchill before an audience at Harvard in 1943 regarding America’s role in the world. This is more true now than then. This is not the time for the American people to be smoking crack, or experimenting with Marxist variations of government and economy, or whining for chimeras like risk free loans and free health care.

The United States Constitution and free market principles have served Americans and, consequently, the world quite well. Would that these institutions be shown the respect and attention they deserve.

Cheers,

Charlie

Earth Day: The New Religion’s Holy Day of Obligation

“Only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy.” - President Barack Obama

Mother Gaia has been raped one time too many. Mankind has forfeited any right to liberty he managed to arrogate unto himself. Repent sinners! Judgment is coming. The terrible swift sword of justice shall be leveled upon ye. For mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord, and its name is GOVERNMENT.

GOVERNMENT is all powerful. GOVERNMENT is all knowing. Yet GOVERNMENT is compassionate to those who would truly renounce their sin.

Thus prepare your sacrifice, and with happy heart give freely of your liberty, your wealth, and your way of life, that you may be made worthy in the eyes of GOVERNMENT.

Take ye now the Earth Day Vow of Poverty:

Do you renounce the use of all fossil fuels? (Your answer) I do.

Will you accept all manner of regulations affecting how you work and live?
(Your answer) I will.

Will you accept a global warming tax amounting to nearly $2,000 on every American household annually? (Your answer) I will.

Will you accept a diminishment of disposable income of more than $1,000 per household? (Your answer) I will

Will you accept gross domestic product losses in excess of $600 billion per year? (Your answer) I will.

Will you accept cumulative gross domestic product losses of nearly $7 trillion by 2029? (Your answer) I will.

Will you accept annual job losses exceeding 800,000 for several years? (Your answer) I will.

Then go forth, unburdened by greed and self-interest, of clean spirit into a clean world and sin no more; for thou hast been made worthy in the eyes of GOVERNMENT.

A Blessed Earth Day to all!

Cheers,

Charlie

Sacrifice, the “Common Good”, and Greater Evils

“My Father! If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done" (Mt. 26: 38-39).

Sacrifice. It is core to the extraordinary teaching of Christ. We are compelled to sacrifice by God’s commandment, love thy neighbor as they self, and the revolutionary insight that it is in giving that we receive.

No where in this transaction is there a role for the State.

The salvific quality of sacrifice – great or small – is in the individual creature surrendering his will to the will of the Creator by free choice. To be compelled to give by force of law is no sacrifice at all.

Herein lies the bitter heresy of the so called Christian Social Justice movement that provides “moral authority” to the rape of human liberty currently being arranged in the halls of government throughout the free world. No thinking free man would willingly sacrifice his hard earned wealth to the corrupt cesspits of waste and ruin that comprise the majority of today’s social justice industrial complex. But force him to fund them through taxation and declare that doing so is necessary in order to ensure justice, eradicate poverty, and save the planet, and what choice does he have?

This is extortion not sacrifice, for the element of choice – Liberty – is wholly absent from it. Entities which identify this process as “sacrifice” reveal the perverted state of their minds and souls. They make virtues of envy and materialism and condemn the exercise of liberty as sin. This they do, they say, in the name of the “common good.” But they are blind to the far greater evil they unloose in supplanting human liberty in the name of “righteousness.”

This is the great sin of our time, for those championing it, know of what they do. It could scarcely be made more plain than in the words of Pope Benedict the XVI in his first Papal Encyclical “Deus Caritas Est” of 2006.

“There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love. Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such. There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable. The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern.

We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need.

The Church is one of those living forces: she is alive with the love enkindled by the Spirit of Christ. This love does not simply offer people material help, but refreshment and care for their souls, something which often is even more necessary than material support.

In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live “by bread alone” (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3)—a conviction that demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human.”

This Easter we pray that the Logos – the Word made Flesh, the Communion of Faith and Reason - be raised again in the hearts and minds of men, shedding the light of true freedom, and stirring them, as before, to fight all that would threaten their God given gift of Liberty.

Cheers,

Charlie

Our Interview with Churchill’s Bust

Churchill’s Parrot: Charlie, Churchill’s Parrot here, honored with the opportunity to sit down with the first of likely many casualties of the Obama administration, Churchill’s Bust. Mr. Bust how are you this evening?

Churchill’s Bust: Smashing Charlie couldn’t be better. And you?

Churchill’s Parrot: Suffice to say we’ve seen better days. Mr. Bust, you’re expulsion from the Oval Office has made you quite the celebrity of late. We’ve all heard much about the affair. What’s your take?

Churchill’s Bust: Well speaking for myself, Charlie, I must tell you that it is an extraordinary relief.

Churchill’s Parrot: Relief? How so?

Churchill’s Bust: To sit frozen upon a mantel overseeing daily the dismantlement of the world’s economic engine, the disarmament of the last best hope of mankind, the appeasement of tin-horn dictators and noxious regimes, the impudence - intentional and unintentional - toward that heretofore esteemed sacred in the American ethos … it’s enough to make even a lifeless hunk of bronze blow chunks.

Churchill’s Parrot: Not to mention the out and out disrespect this action demonstrates toward the British people and the Special Relationship.

Churchill’s Bust: That, we must say, we find rather amusing. For the nearly eight years I resided in the Oval Office, the British press and people unreservedly declared the popularly elected President of the United States a war-monger, a Nazi, a genocidal murderer, a racist, a homophobe, a diabolical genius, a wrist-dragging chuck-head, the free world’s greatest enemy, a coward of the lowest order, and a man worthy of beheading under Islamic law. A curious disposition for those interested in maintaining a relationship one might categorize as “special” don’t you think? But, alas, now they cry foul. Bullocks.

Churchill’s Parrot: How do you think the next chapter of the Special Relationship will read?

Churchill’s Bust: Regarding those aspects Mr. Churchill delineated in his great clarion call for Anglo-American brotherhood in 1943 at Harvard – “law, language, literature, common conceptions of what is right and decent, a marked regard for fair play, a stern sentiment of impartial justice, and above all the love of personal freedom, always ready to spring at the throat of tyranny, marching shoulder to shoulder on the fields of war and in those realms of thought which are consecrated to the rights and the dignity of man” – well you can forget all that. Neither Britain nor America is home to sufficient numbers who consider all this anything other than anachronistic bilge, if they consider it all. Too few are interested in bearing the responsibility that comes with the greatness given them by their forefathers.

In terms of a union of international socialist states, marching shoulder to shoulder toward a Marxist global utopia, however, I see the two nations getting along quite swimmingly. Until , of course, China makes the world its bitch.

Churchill’s Parrot: That’s the non-sequitur about Obama’s apparent attitude toward Britain and Gordon Brown; they’re all Lefties aren’t they?

Churchill’s Bust: Indeed. But remember that Mr. Obama is pose incarnate. As such he understands quite well that destroying the symbolism of the old order is essential to the vitality of the new order. Ousting me and treating Britain as he might any two-bit republic is his message to the Left that he is serious about doing so. It is also his way of showing them who is going to be boss in this new arrangement: not America, as such, but Obama.

Churchill’s Parrot: You mentioned China previously. How will they fit into this new arrangement?

Churchill’s Bust: They will not fit into it. They will own it. They’re merely letting these pubescent would-be commies do the demolition work for them. China has more than enough might and disdain for the West to seize the global mantle. And the United States is the easy – and not entirely innocent – target of animosity over the current economic depression. Once the 60’s radicals and their disciples establish a good thriving anarchy throughout the free world, the Chi-Coms will move in to save the day with their unique brand of peace and justice.

Churchill’s Parrot: Bit of a dismal outlook you are providing us here. Anything positive on the horizon?

Churchill’s Bust: But of course. The lone voice of sanity in the last seventy years has been that of the Conservatives. In Britain and America, via insidious Leftism in our schools, culture, and churches, that voice has been increasingly marginalized to the point of being utterly incomprehensible to the masses. Yet today, in small pockets here and there, we are witnessing a visceral reawakening to the fundamentals of Liberty that Conservatives have always held sacred: a clear understanding of the essentiality of limited government to human dignity, the recognition of individual liberty as a gift from God that requires responsibility on the part of the recipient, an appreciation of the practical and moral superiority of free market principles over all other economic models, the knowledge that national defense is the first and foremost duty of any legitimate government, and the understanding that Judeo-Christian values are the precious soil from which the incomparable garden of Western Civilization has sprung.

In a perverse sense we have Obama to thank for this reawakening. For it is a universal truth that human beings do not fully appreciate what they have until they have lost it. Many are coming to the realization that they have lost it.

Churchill’s Parrot: Any chance they’ll get it back?

Churchill’s Bust: In the next millennia or so? Not bloody likely. But cheer up old chum. You and I, as British parrot and bust, are quite accustomed to being encased and shelved, helplessly watching as socialism eats out the marrow of our beloved realm. Let’s see how the Americans like it?

Churchill’s Parrot: Brandy or Scotch?

Churchill’s Bust: Scotch, thank you, and let’s not be timid about it.

The Re-Constitution of the United State of America

Nancy and Harry, still with red pens in hand, have turned their improving-eye upon the core impediment to hope and change in America: that damnable Constitution!

Word is they are working feverishly – even into the late afternoons – in hopes of having their revisions ready for President Obama to sign by Ash Wednesday (Nancy being the good Catholic girl she is.)

As we have noted earlier, revisions to the Bill of Rights have been underway for some time. Of particular irritation to Congressional leaders (who are NOT Socialists by the by) is that 10th amendment:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Various Republican governors are citing this silly provision as cause for them to resist Federal stimulus which they believe potentially deleterious to the economy, human liberty, and core-being of the American ethos. Pish posh!

Thankfully, Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina has intervened with provisions to override these fools, declaring that refusing the stimulus is a slap in the face to African Americans. Well of course it is. Afterall, for the past 40 years the Democrats (who are NOT Socialists) have demonstrated repeatedly that African Americans are utterly and completely incapable of fending for themselves without the loving and guiding hand of (mostly white and Democrat) government.

Yes, to oppose the Stimulus is racist. Let there be no more debate.

Right then, now that that’s all tidied up, it’s on to the environment!

Cheers,

Charlie

A Guide for Brave New Americans

"Consider how barren a philosophy is the creed of absolute Collectivism. Equality of reward, irrespective of service rendered! It is expressed in other ways. You know the phrase - "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." How nice that sounds. Let me put it another way - "You shall work according to your fancy; you shall be paid according to your appetite."

- Sir Winston Churchill, May 4, 1908, Kinnaird Hall, Dundee

Congratulations America, and welcome to the glorious international union of socialist republics!

We here provide here a quick guide as for what you are now in store; made simple (BIG PICTURES) for the kiddie-winkies and your left-leaning friends. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Charlie

UPDATE: A dire message from Mr. Edwin J Feulner, President of The Heritage Foundation

"For the last 35 years, educators and analysts at The Heritage Foundation have been intimately involved in the nation's great public policy debates. In all that time, we have never encountered legislation with such far-reaching and revolutionary policy implications as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act currently before Congress. And never have we seen a bill more cloaked in secrecy or more withdrawn from open public exposure and honest debate.

-READ MORE (if you dare)

More Happy Days for Socialists

Fear not Earthlings, Gordon Brown – Britain’s avowed Socialist not-so-slow-motion-train wreck of a Prime Minister – is coming to the rescue.

“Gordon Brown now sees himself adopting the mantle of Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt, architects of the reconstruction of the global economy after the Second World War.
An hour after setting out his £37 billion rescue plan for three of Britain's major banks - the Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds TSB – Mr. Brown was outlining his proposals for reform of the world's financial system.

‘What is a truly global problem requires a truly global solution,’ he said.

World leaders - clearly including himself - must now show the same ‘courage and foresight’ in reforming the international financial system as Roosevelt and Churchill did more than sixty years ago.”

(Read entire article)

Good God! Mr. Brown, we knew Winston Churchill. And you sir are no Winston Churchill.

Cheers,

Charlie

Shooting the Tiger

“Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow that they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is - the strong horse that pulls the whole cart.” – Sir Winston Churchill

The horse has been corralled and gelded. The cow milked dry. All that remains to be done is shoot the tiger. The American electorate has it in their sites, and appears eager to fire.

Cheers,

Charlie

Can't seem to get the NYT to place our full-pager

(click to enlarge)

UPDATE: Yet another missing DNC related video. Seems to be a bit of a trend, eh?

UPDATE: "The End of Capitalism?" Excellent analysis from the American Conservative Union Foundation.

UPDATE: Excellent redux of the whole bloody mess. Human Events, "Democrats Behind CRA Cover-Up " Excerpt: "But unless the American public is told, re-told, and educated about how we got here, there won’t be reform of the bailed-out-but-still-alive GSEs nor of the CRA. Then we would witness more big government, giving us far more help than we can afford. "

Coup Coup Kachoo

"If you destroy a free market, you create a black market."
- Sir Winston Churchill

It is done.

Sentiments we shared, to no avail…

“No, we’re talking far more than curing a potential recession; we’re talking about preserving America as the greatest and most successful experiment in freedom that humankind has ever experienced. We are bogged down trying to understand derivatives, swaps, and other arcane minutia of modern capitalism while overlooking what is really happening. This is the final takeover of America.” (whole column)

- David H. Padden - founder and chairman emeritus of The Heartland Institute

“God grant those few responsible yet remaining in Washington, DC the strength to prevent this massive fraud from occurring. God grant them the courage to stand up in the face of this Marxist tidal wave.” (whole brilliant/terrifying article).

- Jim Simpson is a former White House staff economist and budget analyst.

“The risks of rushing this reckless bill through are immense because setting off down the wrong path now could turn a big problem into a disaster. The House should not be scared by cries of “Fire! Fire!” into gambling away $700 billion of taxpayer money. The House owes it to the American people to take whatever time and effort are necessary to determine the real nature of the current liquidity problems and then to devise more effective solutions that do not threaten to bankrupt the federal government and impoverish the next generation.” (whole statement)

- Fred L. Smith, Jr., President of the Competitive Enterprise Institute

What now to tell the children?

"Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide."

- John Adams, Letter, April 15, 1814

Cheers,

Charlie

UPDATE: What Just Happened?

Eat your heart out Hugo Chavez

"The vice of capitalism is that there is an unequal share of the blessings; the virtue of socialism is that there is an equal share of the misery." -Sir Winston Churchill

The government takeover of the American economy is progressing quite nicely. With the bail out of AIG, the government of the people, by the people, and for the people has demonstrated how readily it is adapting to its new role as government over the people.

Sadly, by their behavior, the people seem to be asking for it.

Well give the people what they want. After all, misery loves company.

Cheers,

Charlie

UPDATE: Our dear friends Frank and Shane at Political Vindication report on potential culpability at the root of this titanic fiasco. Shockingly, it involves the Democrat Party.

UPDATE: Uh-oh. Look who's hands are in the Fannie/Freddie Cookie Jar! More here.

UPDATE: Uh-oh. Look at who tried very hard to expose and put an end to all this rubish back in 2005?

UPDATE: It really doesn't matter anymore. Democrats, Republicans, Labor, Torie.... we are all socialists now. So long free market, and thanks for the ride!

Well that cinches it America...

Gordon Brown – disastrous, socialist, ham-fisted, soon-to-be-jettisoned-from-office-and-none-too-soon, Prime Minister (and we apply the term liberally) of the United Kingdom – has endorsed one Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States.

Need we say anything more?

Cheers,

Charlie

The West’s Glorious Return to the Dark Ages

Yet another feature American advocates of nationalized health care may wish to highlight in selling their cause: vermin. Good show! Progressivism: leading the way in the destruction of civilization!

Cheers,

Charlie

At Least Marx Had Integrity

Granted Karl Marx was a bitter, self-loathing, misanthrope, half-crazed with envy and his own depraved world view, but at least he had integrity. When advocating the implementation of his beloved communism, for instance, he made no attempt to sugar coat what would be required:

“The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible. Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property…”

While not quite promising the mass imprisonment, terror, and murder this process would necessitate, one can pretty much surmise as much from this and other such statements in Marx’s Communist Manifesto.

Today’s communists, however, are far more image savvy, realizing that having brought about the slaughter and ruin of millions upon millions of innocent human beings, collectivist ideologies can prove a tough sell. So a bit of Madison Avenue re-packaging has been done.

The sinister moniker of “communism” and the slightly less ominous “socialism” have been replaced with the sunny, “Progressivism.” Instead of wild-eyed ravings about the bourgeoisie, the proletariat, and oppressive class antagonisms, they opt for more lyrical terms such as “social justice”, and “multiculturalism.” Instead of Marx’ chilling but unmistakably clear rhetoric: “The theory of the communist can be summed up in the single sentence: abolition of private property”, Progressive’s prefer less confrontational terminology like “sustainable global community” and “promote the equitable distribution of wealth within and among nations.” And instead of presenting their collectivist demands to the world via a bellicose “Manifesto”, the Progressives are soft peddling theirs surreptitiously with the aid of the United Nations by means of a poetic and enchanting “Earth Charter.”

A masterpiece of abstruse, feel-good, New Age, leftist pappery, the seemingly innocuous Earth Charter is truly a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or more accurately a Bear in dove’s feathers. In short, the Earth Charter is nothing less than a call for the establishment of a supranational governing authority to dictate the production and distribution of wealth according to ill-defined and arbitrary “principles of sustainability.” Indeed, at its crescendo, the charter declares:

“In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development.”

Beyond this obedience, the nations of the world (but mostly the United States) are also to disarm themselves to the satisfaction of these same arbitrary principles:

* Avoid military activities damaging to the environment.
* Demilitarize national security systems to the level of a non-provocative defense posture, and convert military resources to peaceful purposes, including ecological restoration.
*Eliminate nuclear, biological, and toxic weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
*Ensure that the use of orbital and outer space supports environmental protection and peace.

Anyone possessing the slightest knowledge of human liberty, the brutal state-sponsored assaults upon it throughout the twentieth century, and the threats it faces in the twenty-first ought be chilled to the bone at such a statement. Yet, despite the best efforts of Conservative watchdogs and pundits (see excellent analyses here, here, here, and here) the Earth Charter continues to grow in both influence and endorsement. Numerous groups and organizations, from The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization UNESCO; to the U.S Conference of Mayors; to sweet little nuns across North America have thrown their hats and habits into the ring in support of this insidious fraud.

This is due largely to the standard pathologies of contemporary society: “Go-Green” bandwagonism, mindless pacifism, lack of serious consideration of what implementation of the Earth Charter would actually require, and – of course – ignorance of history. But more than all this, the Earth Charter’s advance is due primarily to the shrewd advocacy and network building of its weighty founders.

The Earth Charter is the brainchild (i.e. Frankenstein) of he-of-the-unfortunate-birthmark: former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. He is not alone. Joining Gorby in creating and infusing this doctrine is Canadian billionaire socialist Maurice Strong , and American socialist billionaire Steven Rockefeller of the inimitable Rockefeller Brothers Fund, (Mr. Rockefeller also serves on the Board of billionaire socialist, George Soros’, the Soros Economic Development Fund. It is difficult to imagine Mr. Soros does not have his slimy hands all over this initiative as well.)

But unfortunate bed fellows and ominous warnings from wingnut neo-con reactionaries such as ourselves are insufficient to counter the somnambulistic effects of the Earth Charter’s Phil Collins-meets-Walt Disney language. Very well then. We encourage one and all to read the essays of the Earth Charter’s founders and supporters themselves, for no more damning evidence can be found that this movement is a very real threat to human dignity, liberty, and well-being. (Well actually it can. But this is a good place to start.)

For our own part, we provide the following analysis, which brings us back to our friend Karl Marx.

Echoes of Marx

In the Marxist tradition, we have taken it upon ourselves to confiscate the intellectual property of the Earth Charter and reorganize it as we bloody well please; in this case according to Marx’s "Ten Measures" by which the communists will “wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie” and “centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state.” We believe, even a brief perusal of the following will make clear the chilling degree to which the Earth Charter “principles” resonate with Marx’s vision and his prescription for implementing it. .

MARX MEASURE #1: ABOLITION OF PROPERTY IN LAND AND APPLICATION OF ALL RENTS OF LAND TO PUBLIC PURPOSES.

Corresponding Earth Charter Happy-Speak

· Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.

· The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous—but not inevitable.

· Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more.

· We affirm the following interdependent principles for a sustainable way of life as a common standard by which the conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and transnational institutions is to be guided and assessed.

· Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible.

· provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves.

· Accept that with the right to own, manage, and use natural resources comes the duty to prevent environmental harm and to protect the rights of people.


MARX MEASURE #2: A HEAVY PROGRESSIVE OR GRADUATED INCOME TAX.

Corresponding Earth Charter Happy-Speak

· Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative.

· Empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves.

· Enhance the intellectual, financial, technical, and social resources of developing nations, and relieve them of onerous international debt.

· Provide all, especially children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development.

· Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world.

· Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.

· Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards.

· Affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge, and power comes increased responsibility to promote the common good.

· Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible.

· Secure Earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations.

· Recognize that the freedom of action of each generation is qualified by the needs of future generations.

· Strengthen local communities, enabling them to care for their environments, and assign environmental responsibilities to the levels of government where they can be carried out most effectively.

· Place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm, and make the responsible parties liable for environmental harm

· This requires a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility.

· we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals

· Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives.

· We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more.

· To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world.

· it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

· The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening.

· we affirm the following interdependent principles for a sustainable way of life as a common standard by which the conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and transnational institutions is to be guided and assessed.

· Transmit to future generations values, traditions, and institutions that support the long-term flourishing of Earth's human and ecological communities.

· provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves.

MARX MEASURE #3: ABOLITION OF ALL RIGHTS OF INHERITANCE.

Corresponding Earth Charter Happy-Speak

· An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous—but not inevitable.

· Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world.

· Recognize that the freedom of action of each generation is qualified by the needs of future generations.

· Ensure universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and responsible reproduction.

· Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world.

· Our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision.

MARX MEASURE #4: CONFISCATION OF THE PROPERTY OF ALL EMIGRANTS AND REBELS.

Corresponding Earth Charter Happy-Speak

· Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

· Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more. We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions.

· To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world.

· a common standard by which the conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and transnational institutions is to be guided and assessed.

· Accept that with the right to own, manage, and use natural resources comes the duty to prevent environmental harm and to protect the rights of people.

· Affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge, and power comes increased responsibility to promote the common good.

· Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible.

· Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives.

· Establish and safeguard viable nature and biosphere reserves, including wild lands and marine areas, to protect Earth's life support systems, maintain biodiversity, and preserve our natural heritage.

· Control and eradicate non-native or genetically modified organisms harmful to native species and the environment, and prevent introduction of such harmful organisms.
· Take action to avoid the possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm even when scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive.

· Place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm, and make the responsible parties liable for environmental harm.

· Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world.

· Guarantee the right to potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required.

· Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world.

· Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards.

· Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.

· Ensure that all trade supports sustainable resource use, environmental protection, and progressive labor standards.

· Require multinational corporations and international financial organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them accountable for the consequences of their activities.

· Affirm the right of indigenous peoples to their spirituality, knowledge, lands and resources and to their related practice of sustainable livelihoods.

· Protect and restore outstanding places of cultural and spiritual significance.

· Institute effective and efficient access to administrative and independent judicial procedures, including remedies and redress for environmental harm and the threat of such harm.

· Strengthen local communities, enabling them to care for their environments, and assign environmental responsibilities to the levels of government where they can be carried out most effectively.

· Protect wild animals from methods of hunting, trapping, and fishing that cause extreme, prolonged, or avoidable suffering.

· Avoid or eliminate to the full extent possible the taking or destruction of non-targeted species.

· This requires a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally.

· This can mean difficult choices. However, we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals. Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play.

· In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development.

MARX MEASURE #5: CENTRALIZATION OF CREDIT IN THE BANKS OF THE STATE, BY MEANS OF A NATIONAL BANK WITH STATE CAPITAL AND AN EXCLUSIVE MONOPOLY.
Corresponding Earth Charter Happy-Speak

· Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner.

· Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.

· Ensure that all trade supports sustainable resource use, environmental protection, and progressive labor standards

· Enhance the intellectual, financial, technical, and social resources of developing nations, and relieve them of onerous international debt.

· Require multinational corporations and international financial organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them accountable for the consequences of their activities.

· To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.

· The global environment with its finite resources is a common concern of all peoples. The protection of Earth's vitality, diversity, and beauty is a sacred trust.

· The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous—but not inevitable.

· The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life.

· Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living.

· We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more. We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions.

· To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities.

· We are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world.

· we affirm the following interdependent principles for a sustainable way of life as a common standard by which the conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and transnational institutions is to be guided and assessed.

· Accept that with the right to own, manage, and use natural resources comes the duty to prevent environmental harm and to protect the rights of people.

· Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible.

· Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives.

· Ensure that decision making addresses the cumulative, long-term, indirect, long distance, and global consequences of human activities.

· Promote the development, adoption, and equitable transfer of environmentally sound technologies.

· Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards.

· Ensure universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and responsible reproduction.

· Support international scientific and technical cooperation on sustainability, with special attention to the needs of developing nations.

· Guarantee the right to potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required.

· Empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves.

· Promote the contribution of the arts and humanities as well as the sciences in sustainability education.

· This requires a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally.

· Life often involves tensions between important values. This can mean difficult choices. However, we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals. Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play.

MARX MEASURE #6: CENTRALIZATION OF THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION AND TRANSPORT IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE.

Corresponding Earth Charter Happy-Speak

· We urgently need a shared vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world community.

· Transmit to future generations values, traditions, and institutions that support the long-term flourishing of Earth's human and ecological communities.

· Take action to avoid the possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm even when scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive.

· Place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm, and make the responsible parties liable for environmental harm.

· Ensure that decision making addresses the cumulative, long-term, indirect, long distance, and global consequences of human activities.

· Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards.

· Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world.

· Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired.

· Support international scientific and technical cooperation on sustainability, with special attention to the needs of developing nations.

· Recognize and preserve the traditional knowledge and spiritual wisdom in all cultures that contribute to environmental protection and human well-being.

· Ensure that information of vital importance to human health and environmental protection, including genetic information, remains available in the public domain.

· Empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves.

· Require multinational corporations and international financial organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them accountable for the consequences of their activities.

· Eliminate discrimination in all its forms, such as that based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, language, and national, ethnic or social origin.

· Uphold the right of everyone to receive clear and timely information on environmental matters and all development plans and activities which are likely to affect them or in which they have an interest.

· Integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life.

· Provide all, especially children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development.

· Promote the contribution of the arts and humanities as well as the sciences in sustainability education.

· Enhance the role of the mass media in raising awareness of ecological and social challenges.

· Recognize the importance of moral and spiritual education for sustainable living.

· Ensure that the use of orbital and outer space supports environmental protection and peace.

· We must deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the Earth Charter, for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.

MARX MEASURE #7: EXTENSION OF FACTORIES AND INSTRUMENTS OF PRODUCTION OWNED BY THE STATE; THE BRINGING INTO CULTIVATION OF WASTE LANDS, AND THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL GENERALLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH A COMMON PLAN.

Corresponding Earth Charter Happy-Speak

(See entire Earth Charter!)

· Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human rights, and community well-being.

· Act with restraint and efficiency when using energy, and rely increasingly on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

· Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards.

· We urgently need a shared vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world community.

· To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.

· We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment.

· Accept that with the right to own, manage, and use natural resources comes the duty to prevent environmental harm and to protect the rights of people.

· Affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge, and power comes increased responsibility to promote the common good.

· Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations

· Ensure that all trade supports sustainable resource use, environmental protection, and progressive labor standards.

· Require multinational corporations and international financial organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them accountable for the consequences of their activities.

· Implement comprehensive strategies to prevent violent conflict and use collaborative problem solving to manage and resolve environmental conflicts and other disputes.

· Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible.

· Recognize that the freedom of action of each generation is qualified by the needs of future generations.

· Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives.

· Establish and safeguard viable nature and biosphere reserves, including wild lands and marine areas, to protect Earth's life support systems, maintain biodiversity, and preserve our natural heritage.

· Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions.

· To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities.

· Manage the use of renewable resources such as water, soil, forest products, and marine life in ways that do not exceed rates of regeneration and that protect the health of ecosystems.

· Manage the extraction and use of non-renewable resources such as minerals and fossil fuels in ways that minimize depletion and cause no serious environmental damage.

· Control and eradicate non-native or genetically modified organisms harmful to native species and the environment, and prevent introduction of such harmful organisms.

· Take action to avoid the possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm even when scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive.

· Place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm, and make the responsible parties liable for environmental harm.

· Ensure that decision making addresses the cumulative, long-term, indirect, long distance, and global consequences of human activities.

· Prevent pollution of any part of the environment and allow no build-up of radioactive, toxic, or other hazardous substances.

· As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning. Such renewal is the promise of these Earth Charter principles. To fulfill this promise, we must commit ourselves to adopt and promote the values and objectives of the Charter.

MARX MEASURE #8: EQUAL OBLIGATION OF ALL TO WORK. ESTABLISHMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ARMIES, ESPECIALLY FOR AGRICULTURE.

Corresponding Earth Charter Happy-Speak

· Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible.

· Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative.

· Guarantee the right to potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required.

· Empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves.

· Recognize the ignored, protect the vulnerable, serve those who suffer, and enable them to develop their capacities and to pursue their aspirations.

· Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.

· Ensure that all trade supports sustainable resource use, environmental protection, and progressive labor standards.

· Promote the active participation of women in all aspects of economic, political, civil, social, and cultural life as full and equal partners, decision makers, leaders, and beneficiaries.

· Honor and support the young people of our communities, enabling them to fulfill their essential role in creating sustainable societies.

· Provide all, especially children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development.

· Support local, regional and global civil society, and promote the meaningful participation of all interested individuals and organizations in decision making.

· Strengthen local communities, enabling them to care for their environments, and assign environmental responsibilities to the levels of government where they can be carried out most effectively.

· We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.

· The resilience of the community of life and the well-being of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and clean air.

· The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living.

· The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions.

· To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world. The spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature.

· We urgently need a shared vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world community. Therefore, together in hope we affirm the following interdependent principles for a sustainable way of life as a common standard by which the conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and transnational institutions is to be guided and assessed.

· We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally.

· Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play. The arts, sciences, religions, educational institutions, media, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are all called to offer creative leadership. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for effective governance.

· In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development.

· We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally.

· In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development.

MARX MEASURE #9: COMBINATION OF AGRICULTURE WITH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES; GRADUAL ABOLITION OF ALL THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN TOWN AND COUNTRY BY A MORE EQUABLE DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULACE OVER THE COUNTRY.

Corresponding Earth Charter Happy-Speak

· Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living.

· Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives.

· Establish and safeguard viable nature and biosphere reserves, including wild lands and marine areas, to protect Earth's life support systems, maintain biodiversity, and preserve our natural heritage.

· Control and eradicate non-native or genetically modified organisms harmful to native species and the environment, and prevent introduction of such harmful organisms.

· Manage the use of renewable resources such as water, soil, forest products, and marine life in ways that do not exceed rates of regeneration and that protect the health of ecosystems.

· Prevent pollution of any part of the environment and allow no build-up of radioactive, toxic, or other hazardous substances.

· Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world.

· Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.

· Protect and restore outstanding places of cultural and spiritual significance.

· Strengthen local communities, enabling them to care for their environments, and assign environmental responsibilities to the levels of government where they can be carried out most effectively.

· To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.

· The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous—but not inevitable.

· Recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.

MARX MEASURE #10: FREE EDUCATION FOR ALL CHILDREN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. ABOLITION OF CHILDREN'S FACTORY LABOR IN ITS PRESENT FORM. COMBINATION OF EDUCATION WITH INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION, ETC.

Corresponding Earth Charter Happy-Speak

· Provide all, especially children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development.

· Empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves.

· Eliminate discrimination in all its forms, such as that based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, language, and national, ethnic or social origin.

· The arts, sciences, religions, educational institutions, media, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are all called to offer creative leadership. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for effective governance.

-----------------
In conclusion, we call to your attention one particular Earth Charter “principle” - under Section II. Ecological Integrity – which, for its deliberate lack of specificity, we find especially distressing:

Control and eradicate non-native or genetically modified organisms harmful to native species and the environment, and prevent introduction of such harmful organisms.

Given the tone and rhetoric of so many of this warmed-over manifesto’s chief advocates, is it preposterous to question whether or not this dictum might be applied to human organisms? Were the Europeans, after all, not a “harmful non-native organism” to the native Americans and to the Australian Aborigines? Is human population itself not a “non-native organism” in so many corners of the Earth to which it ventures and seeks to live?

Such questions will, of course, be laughed off as rabid paranoia. That is until such time as no one is laughing at all.

Cheers,

Charlie

Al-Robin Hood: Terrorists in Tights

“It was the deep knowledge--and pray God we have not lost it--that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest.”
- President Ronald Reagan, 40th Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, Pointe du Hoc, France, June 6, 1984

Generations of kiddie-winkies have thrilled to the swashbuckling antics of Robin Hood and his merry band of men, gleefully stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Implicit in this oft told tale is the presumption that the rich are thus by means of ill-gotten gains and therefore, any misfortune that can be brought their way is giving them what they deserve – the bastards – the more onerous the better!

This Doctrine of Robin Hood competes with that of Peter Pan (the sacred right of perpetual immaturity) for distinction as the foremost tenet of Lefty dogma: poverty justifies any and all depravity. Its influence can be seen easily in wealthy nation’s often impotent response to violent crime; preposterous government social programs; and in virtually every song, television program, film, stage play, and news story produced since 1965. Poor good. Rich bad.

A most extraordinary exposition of this Doctrine of Robin Hood was provided before a live audience of 2,200 at London’s Grand Westminster Hall this past 11 December at the Spectator/Intelligence Squared sponsored debate on “The Future of Iraq.” The results of the debate prescribed yet another bitter pill for the anti-war left as the majority in attendance could plainly see the catastrophe that would ensue were the recommendations of the “Leave Iraq Now” advocates in the debate heeded. This is hardly surprising given the recent momentum of counter insurgency efforts in Iraq under General David Petreaus, and the fact that the majority in the audience still had their brain stems intact.

In his desperation to save the Lefty cause in the debate, however, British socialist icon, the Right Honorable Mr. Tony Benn declared,

“There is no difference between a suicide bomber and a Stealth bomber.”

This evoked the prodigious ire of “gravely voiced” British General Sir Michael Jackson who derided Benn’s comments as, “extraordinary and obscene. A calumny!”

To this Benn responded, “War is the terrorism of the rich against the poor. Terrorism is the war of the poor against the rich.”

Ah there it is, masterfully served up in all its delicious and aromatic Leftism: “Terrorism is the war of the poor against the rich.” You can just see the bumper-sticker manufacturers and pop-song lyricists rushing to their posts to herald this jewel far and wide, can you not?

But, unfortunately for Mr. Benn and his disciples, the Bennites, study after study has demonstrated that terrorists are not poor. For example the 2002 study, “Education, Poverty, Political Violence and Terrorism, Is there a Causal Connection?” conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts concluded:

“No correlation was found between participation in violence and economic depression: violence seems to have increased when local economic conditions were getting better.”

Were it still in existence, common sense might also suggest here that the notion of small nations drenched in oil producing legions of young men driven to acts of unspeakable violence international in scope and often requiring deliberate self-annihilation, merely because they can’t find a decent job is both hilarious and silly. Today, however, this is esteemed as enlightened progressivism.

Right then. Well what Mr. Benn must have meant then was not that the terrorists themselves are poor, but that they are fighting on behalf of the poor. Yes this then justifies all their kidnapping, sniping, raping, torturing, bombing, beheading, and executing of men, women, and children - the vast majority of whom are innocent Muslims - and renders it morally equivalent, if not morally superior to the violence done by Western militaries, does it not?

Afterall, as Lefties so like to point out, squalid living conditions exist across the Middle East due largely to corrupt regimes repressing their people and doing so with the full backing and funding of the free world. Ergo, terrorism is merely our chickens coming home to roost.

Enter Al-Robin Hood and his merry band of Islamaniacs, donning tights and suicide vests, heroically taking not only the money, but also the lives and limbs of the “rich” and giving them to the long suffering poor. (Well not the money so much. The Islamaniacs need that for themselves to fund future poverty-eradicating mass-murders.)

Even to a socialist as far off the scale as Mr. Benn, upon minimal analysis, this must seem a rather counter-productive means of “People’s Revolution” and redistribution of wealth.

Another inconvenient truth for Mr. Benn’s employment of the Doctrine of Robin Hood in defense of terrorism is the billions and billions of dollars in economic and humanitarian aid the U.S. alone has poured and continues to pour into the Middle East (yes, yes, besides Israel). Not to mention the American lives and materials lost in defense of Muslims over the past thirty years. As Dinesh D’Souza points out in his exquisite essay, “Liberal Myths about Radical Islam”:

“Actually America has actively fought on the side of Muslims in several recent conflicts. During the 1970s the United States supported the Afghan mujahedin and their Arab allies in driving out the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. In 1991 the United States assembled an international coalition of countries, including many Muslim countries, in order to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait and restore the sovereignty of that small Muslim country. Later in the decade, President Clinton ordered American bombings and intervention to save Muslim lives in Bosnia and Kosovo.

More recent Muslim wars, such as the Iran-Iraq war, have also produced unbelievable horrors and casualty lists. Over the eight-year period of the Iran-Iraq war, for instance, between 500,000 and 1 million Muslims were killed. Islamic radicals know all this, which is why one cannot find in their literature the kind of indignation over America's killing of Muslim civilians that one routinely finds in liberal magazines, radio shows and websites.”

Furthermore there is the small matter of a rather vigorous shift in policy toward the Middle East inaugurated by the Bush Administration some six years ago when the futility of previous policies was made tragically clear one otherwise beautiful September morning.

This new policy involves a multi-tiered, worldwide, collaborative effort deployed as necessary via a myriad of tactics including diplomacy, financial analysis, criminal justice, intelligence gathering, sanctions, and military intervention. The object of this new policy (also known as the Global War on Terror) is to rid the world of terrorists and those regimes which give them succour. The rationale behind this policy is the notion that by stopping terrorists from annihilating the people and infrastructure necessary for stable economies to exist, we can facilitate the emergence of stable economies where they are not. Rich and poor alike will then have the opportunity to enrich themselves through honest means as they see fit, and thus have a legitimate and personal stake in the upkeep and defense of their economies, communities, and nations. It’s a radical little notion called “free market capitalism” and has met with some mild success where and when applied over the past two or so centuries.

And yet, any and all tactics employed in this endeavor have been relentlessly criticized and condemned by those very Bennites and Lefties who claim so ardently their desire to emancipate the poor. Our diplomatic efforts are “too heavy-handed and saber-rattling.” Financial analysis and criminal justice efforts are “arbitrary and racist.” Intelligence gathering is “an invasion of privacy and an abuse of civil rights.” Sanctions “only add further suffering to the plight of the poor.” And military intervention is, of course, nothing more than “imperialistic mass murder for material gain.” There’s just no pleasing some people. (Note: Add Goldie Locks to our list of Lefty icons: Robin Hood, Peter Pan etc. )

How can this be? Ought not the champions of the poor applaud and support all, some, or even just one of these efforts to relieve the burdens of the oppressed? Of course not, because these champions of the poor couldn’t give a tinker’s damn about the poor. They are well aware of the shrieking fraudulence of their Doctrine of Robin Hood storyline. They spew it regardless, however, for in today’s sentimentalized soft-brained society it serves as a highly effective tool for advancing their true agenda: to discredit, demonize, and destroy free market capitalism and replace it with their beloved socialism.

In the minds of the Bennites then, Islamic terrorists are not savage murderers but agents of change, useful tools in the socialist endeavor to establish their Even-Steven utopia over all the world. That economic theory plays no role whatsoever in the motivation of these terrorists, and that they would just as soon slit socialist throats as capitalists seems to escape them. We are here reminded of Sir Winston’s assessment of the ideology:

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy; its inherent value is the equal sharing of misery.”

- Sir Winston Churchill

In Iraq today, what is known as The Awakening consists of the Iraqi people’s coming to the realization that terrorism is not “the war of the poor against the rich.” Terrorism is the cause of poverty (not to mention death, destruction, misery, and despair). Consequently their support of, assistance to, and participation in terrorists groups is being voluntarily withdrawn, and they are increasingly getting about the hard work of re-building their own nation the right way. Would that this same awakening could take hold in what’s left of the brains of the Bennites and their Lefty brethren across the Atlantic.

Cheers,

Charlie