United Liberty

We all know that one of the major causes of the current economic situation is the decline of home values and the subsequent turmoil this reigns upon the financial system. I’m not going to quote any numbers here or research. If you want to read more details, then go read this.

When I got the idea to write this article, I thought it would be good to do a little research on alchemy. After a bit of reading from various Wikipedia entries, my favorite source for encyclopedic information, my ignorance on the subject was apparent. However, what I learned only reinforced my premise.

The word “nationalization” has put fear and trembling into the American marketplace, and understandably so. It rings of socialism, of the European model, of the Third-Way progressive compromise. It’s the death knell of the American form of free-market capitalism that is the foundational pillar beneath our symbolic hegemony over the rest of the world.

Apparently our current administration and its Congress don’t believe this for a minute, because they haven’t yet caught onto the fact that the word needs more than just denial; it needs replacement.

In a class today, several female students brought up a Powerpoint presentation on feminism. There were really good points presented about wage gaps for women, oppression in Muslim countries and negative images of women in culture.

However, it was disappointing to hear one of the presenters talk about how gender roles are socially contrived. In an era after Republicans for decades clobbered Democrats in part by exploiting the bizarre approach to social issues that the Left often presents, only losing recently due to their own mistakes and the emergence of the uber-charismatic Barack Obama, nonsense like this is still being touted.

Before you write a lengthy response to the title of this blog and accuse me of supporting ‘greed’ and the ‘ultra-rich,’ allow me to explain myself.

Big government has led us into a situation that I can’t see ending well. Public outcry against excessive executive salary has been going on for years. “Why should they make $1,000,000 and the worker only make $20,000?” “They don’t do more than the average worker!” The comments go on and on and on. I think people need to look at this from a totally different perspective instead of believing they are getting jipped or ripped off.

Barron’s has an article by Alan Abelson that expresses my sentiments better than I could today. Here’s the crux:

House prices, in our bloodshot view, have another 20% or so to fall before hitting bottom and, at the earliest, we’re talking sometime next year. And, possibly more important, a meaningful brightening of the current, profoundly bleak jobs picture, isn’t in the cards for certainly as long, if not longer.

A sad assessment of affairs, with which I agree.

In The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan sums up neoconservatives as essentially advocates for an Israel-centered American foreign policy:

I have recently discovered the awesomeness that is Google Reader and through this have subscribed to the “Introduced Legislation” feed from GovTrack.  So, practically every other day I’m treated to at least 50+ new pieces of legislation that our intrepid government representatives have introduced in the House of Senate.  Here are a few that have popped up in the last week or so (yes, there is little that our federal government has not stuck its nose into)—

H.R. 1117: Medically Fragile Children’s Act of 2009- introduced by Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

If you click on this link, you’ll find “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Federal Funding Facts and Status.”

There you will find that in 2007, Congress allotted $400 million for public broadcasting. While $400 million is not alot in the face of $1 trillion stimulus packages or $700 billion bailouts, it is a healthy sum of money. Think of how many students could get aid for their college tuition from that money or how many MRI machines could be bought for hospitals. If you don’t like that, imagine how much could be returned directly to taxpayers.

Instead, it’s going to be pay for Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! Wow, what a critical spending priority.