et ceteras

How can anyone need more evidence to see that the bloated non-meritocracy of America’s public sector can not be sustained? In the past few weeks, three major cities and one ritzy ski town have filed bankruptcy, and the word on the street is that another not-insignificant municipality (Compton, CA) is about to do the same.

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Speaking of the above, I am reminded of something my brother-in-law has been saying for some time: The police and firemen are next on the chopping block, and this time around, the public that pays their salaries and benefits will no longer be sympathetic to their pleas.

He has been proved right by the bankruptcy of Scranton, PA, in which the city’s mayor cut the pay of every city employee, including his own, to minimum wage. This means that teenagers working at McDonald’s are now making the same amount as the police chief, beat cops, fire marshal, firefighters, etc., and I have not heard a peep of public outcry.

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Histrionic types have long been predicting that America is headed for a race war or class war. I hope no such “war” ever happens in our country, but if one does, I believe it will be the private sector versus the public sector after the former has finally had enough!

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I was young when Ronald Reagan took office in the midst of a serious recession and laid out his vision for America. But I remember those years vividly. I remember how he championed entrepreneurism and free enterprise. I remember how people responded to his encouragement of those things, and how the nation benefited from that response.

I remember how Reagan always told of a bright future and never spoke ill of fellow Americans. His political adversaries were referred to as “our liberal friends,” without a hint of insincerity, even when he poked fun at them.

Contrast that to the spiteful, belittling, mocking persona of Barack Obama, which has been evident for years but was especially evident in his “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that, somebody else made that happen” speech. When a nation’s leader talks that way, the nation stands no chance of pulling out of a recession because those with the talent and means to start new enterprises will not be stupid enough to stick their necks out. They will sit on the sidelines until the leader is gone (who wouldn’t?) and it is not them who will be harmed, but the un- or under-employed they otherwise would have hired.

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Speaking of Obama’s “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that, somebody else made that happen” speech, am I the only one who picked up on how laughably false he was when he said “government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet”?

Technically, it is true that “government research” created ARAPNET, which was later broadened to become the Internet we know today. However, ARAPNET was created by the military -- the one and only part of government that Obama despises rather than loves, and the one and only part of government whose funding he wants to cut! Plus, ARAPNET was not developed “so that all the companies could make money off” it, but so the military could quickly and fluidly respond to an attack by launching nuclear missiles to bomb enemy nations “into the stone age,” as the old saying went.

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In case you didn’t hear, for the first time in history the average Canadian household is now wealthier than the average American household. And it is not only wealthier, but wealthier by an average of $40,000. I can not help but notice this has occurred a mere handful of years after Canada began implementing conservative policies under the administration of Stephen Harper, and a mere handful of years after the U.S. began implementing liberal policies under the administration of Barack Obama. Keep in mind that, comparatively speaking, Canada has been liberal for most of its existence while the U.S. has been conservative. Isn’t it telling how quickly conservatism defeats liberalism when implemented side by side?

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Lastly, and by far most importantly, let us all send prayers to the victims, and victims’ family members, of the Colorado movie theatre shooting…