Also patriots
I read the Sept. 2 letter "Patriot," in which the writer attempts to define the word "patriot" by citing the example of the Founding Fathers, just before going on to name a pantheon of presidents (most Republican) that he apparently considers great patriots. The question that this leads to is, "Since when are conservative politicians and pundits the sole arbiters of what constitutes a patriot?"
First, let us direct our attention to the fact that cemeteries in Yorktown, Gettysburg, Normandy and Arlington are full of patriots who were conservative, liberal or in between, and their life philosophies do not make any one more or less patriotic than the other. They lay side by side, American patriots all.
Next, consider the young men and women who left the security of their homes in the early 1960s to come down South to participate in the freedom rides. They were American patriots. The men and women who faced the firehoses and attack dogs in Birmingham and elsewhere were American patriots. The workers who braved the Billy clubs of the Pinkerton agents to organize for workers' rights were American patriots.
The young man who left his dorm room at Kent State to protest the Vietnam War, never to return, was an American patriot. The teacher who reaches into his or her own pocket to buy much-needed classroom supplies is an American patriot.
Patriotism is not simply defending America as it is; it's also fighting to realize America's unreached potential.
RANDALL PEGRAM
Kernersville
Exposing lies
The Sept. 1 column by Greg Sargent, "Call out the lies right in your headlines," has prompted me to write to the Journal for the first time.
Three cheers to the Los Angeles Times for telling the truth and exposing falsehood on the front page. It has been apparent to me for some time that the Romney/Ryan campaign has been depending on half-truths and outright lies to gain the support of the American people. And that by telling the same falsehoods loud enough and often enough, they will somehow gain the cachet of the truth.
I would like to see the same thing happen countrywide. Exposing lies and half-truths by either party would not be partisan politics. It would be informing the public that the people who want our trust and votes are lying to us.
I would really like to see this in the Journal.
TOM WALCK
Lexington
Promises made
In the Sept. 2 editorial "Romney begins hard tack to middle," you noted that Republicans plan to curtail environmental protections, expand domestic oil drilling, hand over national lands to the Western states, require photo identification of all voters, end many social programs and cut taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney may try to appear reasonable on these issues. But if Romney wins in November, will his supporters permit moderation? Will Republicans in Congress vote in favor of environmental protection and other issues that they now oppose?
When Romney accepted the Republican nomination, he said, "President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family." This is just Romney's way of assuring his super PACs that he plans to put the interest of polluters above the health of Americans and the health of the environment. Romney's promise to us is a big helping of dirty air and water.
The CIA has identified global warming as a security issue. It has noted that populations displaced by rising ocean levels posed a threat to our security. Romney must know that climate change due to human activity is a threat to our country and to the world. And he must know that we can protect the Earth and enjoy prosperity at the same time. But does he care?
CHARLES E. WILSON
Winston-Salem
Entitlement results
Christy Nunn's Sept. 3 letter, "The best gift," presented an excellent argument as to why entitlements are destructive and dangerous to society. But there is another reason that she briefly touched on that I would like to elaborate on, and that is independent accountability.
No longer in American society do we attempt to be accountable for our own actions and responsible for our own success. We as a society no longer desire to "get ahead" or improve our lot in society, but we are content to eat the crumbs that the government dishes out. What we fail to realize is that those crumbs will continually decrease over time, and the elite politicians will be the only ones to benefit. Look at the history of the former and current communist societies.
We must realize that this nonsense must be stopped or at least put on a slowdown. While Mitt Romney may not be the ideal candidate, he is far more likely to slow the process down than President Obama.
DONALD R. CREWS
Winston-Salem
Sum It Up
Was the Democratic National Convention a success?
Respond to letters@wsjournal.com and put "Sum It Up" in the subject header. Only signed entries, please — no anonymous ones. Briefer responses receive preference in print.
ofLTE #1: Amen, Mr. Pegram.
ReplyDeleteLTE #2: Amen, Mr. Walck.
LTE #3: Amen, Mr. Wilson.
LTE #4: " . . . While Mitt Romney may not be the ideal candidate . . ." Out of the mouth of a conservative, but how does he know Mr. Romney "is far more likely to slow the process down than President Obama" if Romney isn't even president, and never has been? As president, Barak Obama HAS slowed the process down but conservatives are in complete denial.
Thanks goodness the Republicans, since 2010, slammed the brakes on most of Obama's 'progress' toward the destruction of our country.
DeleteIf we can get Romney in, there's a chance our country can be saved.
Hope and change have turned into desperation and impeding destitution.
The gloom and doom party (GOP) works very hard at self fulfilling prophecy.
Delete;-)
Delete'Progress' has been redefined by liberals. It now means proceeding toward failure.
DeleteI guess it makes sense. Especially since liberals want to redefine a bunch of other words and phrases-like marriage and 'hope'.
Liberals-they're always up to something, and it's usually no good too.
There a quite a few elite Republicans that want to redefine marriage. Just ask David Koch, Jerry Sanders (Mayor and former Chief of POLICE in San Diego), Dick Cheney, or Laura Bush, to name a few.
Delete:-D
Delete“Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.” Mark Twain
ReplyDeleteLTE #4... Entitlement Results. All I can say is speak for yourself.
LTE #4... Entitlement Results, Part II. With a 60% rate of the population being overweight or obese, the lack of personal responsibility is evident, you are correct about that part. The biggest entitlement problem for the country is the feeling of entitlement to eat whatever we want, whenever we want, and as much as we want. I believe the term is Gluttony.
ReplyDeleteI agree Bob. Those than can, should be out and about getting some exercise.
DeleteThe lithe young girls of yesteryear are almost all gone.
Who wants to watch the Serena Williams of the world play tennis? I know I don't. Geez!
Then you have a choice. Turn the TV off. “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” Groucho Marx It's the weak man that feels threatened by a strong woman.
DeleteTalk about personal responsibility, the Forsyth GOP holds it's meetings where? The Golden Corral
DeleteYou may save money on food, but your medical bills will be quite high. I prefer the hepatitis helper.
Delete:), hehe, with a side of salmonella salad, and top it off with the never ending chocolate fountain.
DeleteAlso patriots. Wide open subject there and brimming with danger. A patriot and a cad can inhabit the same body. Richard Nixon was both. I believe our current president has more in common with Nixon than he does Jimmy Carter. Carter was at least a decent man...and a patriot too.
ReplyDeleteExposing lies. Politicians lie, journalists lie. Since all campaigns and their elections are simply contests for power, this is necessary to see just what people can be persuaded to believe. Lies that support the prevailing narratives are the stuff of Pulitzers. Lies that go against the narratives are the stuff of dirty filthy Nazi like propaganda. With our government now in control of nearly every phase of our lives and lusting for more....the lying must be even greater. Give the voters complete unvarnished truth in this current environment and the pol doing so may get his A double shot dead before sundown.
ReplyDeletePromises made. Obama made his lower the oceans etc statements because Obama sees himself as mighty Zeus. An ego with a teleprompter. The EPA had an original mission. Its current mission is the anti jobs administration. I know the CIA said that "global warming" is a security issue, but the boys at Langley will embrace anything come budget time. The Pentagon has said that our out of control national debt will become a national security threat too. So much so that in 2009 they began including people from the world of finance in some of their "war game" scenarios. As Americans, we can manage job growth and a healthy environment when we return to acting like Americans.
ReplyDeleteEntitlement results. Good summary. To this I would add a part from a long discussion on how we got here along with the rest of the developed world:
ReplyDelete"99 years ago the Fed was born. Then there was a world war. Two decades later, Keynesian economics (in a somewhat mutated form than that envisioned by the author, much like the Taylor rule) became the gold standard (pardon the pun) of the status quo, as it gave the political establishment a "scientific" justification to spend and accumulate gargantuan debt loads without fear of backlash by the public. Then there was another world war. Then the gold standard was obliterated, allowing the same establishment to dilute the instrument used as money and to cross the "gargantuan" barrier in spending and debt issuance. Then the world came to the verge of complete socio-economic and systemic collapse after a ponzi pyramid of $1 quadrillion in credit money nearly imploded in on itself. Then the final chapter of the corporate takeover of the sovereign model (established by the Treaty of Westphalia) arrived, as private deleveraging at the terminal expense of public debt took place at a record pace. This in a nutshell is the world history of the past century. In the entire "developed" world, there is only one country that runs a budget surplus, even as the entire "developed" world is now, according to the Reinhart and Rogoff definition of sustainable public leverage, insolvent." Math rules in the end.
Does anybody know how much 'stimulus' money the Fed has dumped into our economy at the behest of Obama and the Democrats?
DeleteNobody is talking about this as our food and gas prices are rising.
Also, the median income in the U.S. has dropped approximately $4 thousand dollars during the Obama years. Yet Obama and the Democrats say we're better off than we were four years ago. Really? They must be using Rush's twisted logic to arrive at that conclusion. That's the only explanation.
The Fed is not beholden' to anyone. Their decisions are not subject to review by the legislative or executive branch and it's headed by a Republican. Lets see, 4 years ago we were losing jobs at around 750,000 per month, the economy shrank 9%, and we were engaged in two costly wars. Now we've had 30 straight months of private sector job growth, the Dow has doubled in 4 years which is great for investors including retirement accounts, etc, etc, our troops are home from Iraq. Yes, the recovery has been slow, but with the advent of technology replacing humans on every level, is that really unexpected?
DeleteThe stimulus plan was actually started in the Bush years, in the form of 'tax' rebates from the IRS. Towards the end of the Bush reign, the stimulus plan went into full gear beginning with the finance and auto industries. No one gives Bush full credit for the stimulus in these industries but because Obama carried over the stimulus plans, Obama now gets ALL the blame.
Deleteand it's blame for something that actually worked, not as well as projected, but then again the economy was shrinking over twice as fast as anyone realized at the time. The proof is in the graphs and math. Losing 800,000 jobs > gaining 200,000 jobs when the stimilus kicked in. By any measure that's a million jobs per month turnaround.
DeleteWith just a little help from our friends (the GOP), who knows how much better it could of been. The American Jobs Act is still waiting on Congress.
DeleteThe U.S. economy's failure was started by Rep. Barney Frank (D) and the Congressional banking committee that forced banks to make loans to underqualified buyers. Plus, europe's economy was also failing. That's the bottom line.
DeleteI don't expect a liberal to tell the truth about it, however. Who really expects the 'truth' from any liberal, on any matter?
I sure don't.
Just how were they forced? No one can force a bank to lend any money they don't wish to. The door was opened and they took advantage of it simply because of greed.
DeleteMeaningful discussion, Phargo, but no response yet.
DeleteThey lowered their standards at the direction of the Banking Committees loan regulations through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
DeleteThat was common knowledge to most well-read Americans back during Barney's reign of liberal stupidity.
I wouldn't expect a liberal to know that, however. So don't feel slighted.
As LaSombra said, meaningful discussion, but no response yet.
DeletePrices have actually been much more stable since we junked the gold standard. The Fed can actually adjust the value of currency based on the state of the economy rather than the arbitrary price of a single commodity.
DeleteThe gold standard is best left in the trash can of history. Forget Keynes...William Jennings Bryan was right all along.
The US supposedly abandoned the gold standard in the 1930s, but gold was still tied tightly to the US dollar until the Nixon administration.
DeleteThe West likes to think, as it always does about everything, that it controls the value of gold from London, but the truth is that much of the gold in the world is in the hands of people far removed from the West.
The area of the world that is the center of the real gold biz, the Indian Ocean, is a virtual river of gold, a vast center of gold smuggling, and has been for over 15 centuries. I need only mention the nations that surround the Indian Ocean to alert my fellow Americans to the dangers of returning to the "gold standard".
BTW, here is a crazy story about gold coins that will stretch your imagination:
$80 Million...It Belongs To Uncle Sam
The Trickster got that one right. That, and China.
DeleteWas the DNC convention a success? Yes. It had a long cast of characters that ranged from nutty to angry to just tawdry. A couple of high lights...notably Gabby Giffords leading the pledge with not a dry eye on the floor, or in many house holds including mine.
ReplyDeleteThis convention was an appeal to the leftist base and it did so. In the process, it had a lot of the feel of the RNC convention in Houston 1992. Angry. Sometimes conventions are invigorating for the nation. This one was not. It was revealing.
Anytime you get a bunch of liberal Democrats together it turns into a freak show. That's for sure.
DeleteThe comments that are usually made are so outrageous that only someone with Rush's nutty mindset would buy into their garbage.
you mean for instance: "Legitimate Rape." "In my day the gals just held an aspirin between there knees."
Deletetheir
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DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThat one spouted most recently by Rick Santorum's billionaire money (and hot air) bags, Foster Friess.
DeleteSince the Congressional gridlock will continue after the election, when you go to vote in November, you will be voting for the culture of the party. I'm not sure what that is in the case of the Democrats, but I think it is pretty clear in the Republican case...anti-female, anti-gay, anti-minority in general, anti-human rights, anti-poor, anti-middle class, anti-separation of church and state, indeed, anti-human, except for their kind of human...white, Anglo-Saxon, so-called christian, angry old men.
A vote for the GOP in November will be no different than would a vote for George Wallace have been in 1968.
"A vote for the GOP in November will be no different than would a vote for George Wallace have been in 1968."
DeleteRush
___________
Everybody in the forum knows Rush is way out there, but sometimes a statement comes along that really confirms it.
He's a typical liberal. He wants you to be afraid of not voting for a black man because you might get called a bigot. The truth is: Rush and his liberal clones are the real bigots of our time, with their hate toward white males, corporations, successful people, and religious groups.
So when you see a 'progressive' walking down the street, know that you are probably looking a real bigot and hater in the eye.
I would post a link to the definition of the word "bigot" but it would be a waste of time because Dunce is incapable of understanding it...after all, that is what "dunce" means, "incapable of learning".
DeleteYou might want to read it, so you'll understand what you are.
DeleteA new poll from The Wall Street Journal and NBC shows that President Obama is simply crushing Mitt Romney among black voters, roughly 94 percent to 0 percent.
Delete_________
If whites voted 'against' Obama or for Romeny in such a manner, the liberal media would be 'SCREAMING' racism!
But liberals and the liberal media have their own set of rules. They are found in the book entitled 'How to be Politically Correct'.
DeleteUnbelievable. And they wonder why people think they're a bunch of dopes.
Phargo, I don't know what to make of your left-wing commie liberal proclamations, but here is what Rush Limbaugh's parrot has to say:
ReplyDeleteThanks goodness the Republicans, since 2010, slammed the brakes on most of Obama's 'progress' toward the destruction of our country.If we can get Romney in, there's a chance our country can be saved.Hope and change have turned into desperation and impeding destitution. 'Progress' has been redefined by liberals. It now means proceeding toward failure.I guess it makes sense. Especially since liberals want to redefine a bunch of other words and phrases-like marriage and 'hope'.Liberals-they're always up to something, and it's usually no good too. I agree Bob. Those than can, should be out and about getting some exercise.The lithe young girls of yesteryear are almost all gone.Who wants to watch the Serena Williams of the world play tennis? I know I don't. Geez! Does anybody know how much 'stimulus' money the Fed has dumped into our economy at the behest of Obama and the Democrats?Nobody is talking about this as our food and gas prices are rising.Also, the median income in the U.S. has dropped approximately $4 thousand dollars during the Obama years. Yet Obama and the Democrats say we're better off than we were four years ago. Really? They must be using Rush's twisted logic to arrive at that conclusion. That's the only explanation. The U.S. economy's failure was started by Rep. Barney Frank (D) and the Congressional banking committee that forced banks to make loans to underqualified buyers. Plus, europe's economy was also failing. That's the bottom line.I don't expect a liberal to tell the truth about it, however. Who really expects the 'truth' from any liberal, on any matter?I sure don't. Anytime you get a bunch of liberal Democrats together it turns into a freak show. That's for sure.The comments that are usually made are so outrageous that only someone with Rush's nutty mindset would buy into their garbage. I'm sure the list of Democrats would be longer because Democrats are generally sleazer people. I wonder how many felonies Rep. Barney Frank (D) committed before the Supreme Court ruled that buggery was okay?It seems like Democrats are always messing with somebodies' anal cavity in one form or another.but I just wanted to remind you that there's something called the 'Hatch' Act. You better keep that in mind while your at your new job. Hee Hee.Of course, everybody knows you're just punching your ticket. You won't be there long. Liberals....they're always up to something. Obama is a lot like Rush, he wouldn't know the truth if it hit him in his Clinton.He's going to use the money (that we borrowed) for wars, to pay down the debt and 'other' things. Oh brother.The sad thing is that there are people out there that believe him, AND Rush.OBAMA: ‘‘I'll use the money we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work — rebuilding roads and bridges, schools and runways. After two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it’s time to do some nation-building right here at home.’’The 'Phantom' Peace Dividend-Pathetic!I've hiked up to the top of 'Cold Mountain'. Really not much to it. But of course, there are always these morbidly fat people, like Rush, that try it, and have to turn back after about a mile or so. The only hiking you do is going to get your daily bag of pot from your local drug dealer. Tell the truth, Rush. Oh, I forgot. You don't know how to do that. Look no further than 'The Proposal' to find out where I went. Of course, you went off on a wild 'goose' chase, instead of looking at ursus arctos One day, there will be laws prohibiting gays from leering at others in public/private bathrooms/showers.I may not be alive when they get here, but they're coming soon to Le Bec-Fin.
I apologize for posting something that is so difficult to read, but Limbaugh will not medicate his parrots, so they all have diarrhea of the beak, and you know how that runny stuff runs together.
DeleteHow were you able to get it all in one comment?
DeleteCheated...
DeleteActually, tried to post and got the too much method, so deleted a couple of sentences...no loss since Limbaugh's parrot just repeats the same crap over and over.
Remember when stupid liberals tried to portray Sarah Palin as being dumb, all the while Nancy Pelosie, the dizziest bimbo in congress, was about to become in line to become the POTUS?
DeleteAt least Palin could READ.
Liberals.....they're always up to something, and it's usually pretty stupid too.
Like I said, no loss...the parrot will reliably repeat, reliably repeat, reliably repeat, reliably repeat, reliably repeat...ad nauseum.
Delete:D
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt was probably a waste of space anyway. Thanks for removing it.
DeleteOK, I'll put it back. What it said was:
Delete"If I delete this post, Dunce will post: 'It was probably a waste of space anyway. Thanks for removing it.' "
:D
DeleteWe have a Macaw that makes better noises than you, bucky.
DeleteBy all means teach that Macaw to type...even a bird brain's posts would rise above some on here.
DeleteFrom the statements above, it seems like the real loros, and lora, are you all.
DeleteSquawk and poop, that's what liberals and parrots do.
It is easy to see how every time Dunce tries to sound like he knows something, he just ends up stepping in bird shit.
DeleteAs mentioned before, "dunce" means "unable to learn", which fits perfectly with Dunce's copy and paste mentality. And the C&P mentality is challenged to the utmost when it has to think past "first hit" on a Google search.
What he was trying to refer to here is the subfamily "Lorinae", which consists of three tribes, all of them the tiny "parrots" known as "parakeets".
Of course, when referring to the big fat idiot Rush Limbaugh, we would never think in terms of such tiny critters. We would be thinking of big fathead parrots, like those in the subfamily Psittacinae, the African Gray or Senegal (Poicephalus, which means "meat-head"), parrots with real meat on their bones and in their heads.
"Polly want a Le Bec-fin!"
This link is for Dunce only. No one else is allowed to click on it. If you do, a curse will be cast upon the USA and George W. Bush will become the permanent President.
ReplyDeleteMacaw
If you've ever driven in Texas, you'd know that going 85mph on those roads isn't that dangerous. Of course, there are some crack heads, I mean liberals, that want to raise a stink about it though.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-09-09/texas-interstate-speed-limit/57701428/1
We can always count on the Dunce to get everything wrong. Almost as predictable as sunrise.
DeleteOne of his main problems, and there are many, is that he usually bases his "opinions" on his own, real, or as often as not, imagined, experiences. In this case, maybe one time he worked up the guts to drive 80 MPH and didn't get killed, or, more likely, kill anyone else.
What is missing from his "ideas" is reality. Let's take stopping distance at different speeds. There are two basic elements, which my generation learned from the annual Ohio Highway Patrol safety team's visit to our high schools.
They taught us that the first element is "reaction time", the time between realizing that we need to stop and the moment that we actually apply brakes, which they gave as 3/4 of a second. Of course, we now know that that was a minimum, and that reaction time can vary, depending upon the age and condition of the driver to how closely the driver is paying attention to driving and other factors, from 3/4 of a second to 1.5 seconds to never.
At 60 MPH, an alert, highly trained driver could have a thinking distance of only 60-80 feet. But the "average driver" is going to travel more like 236 feet, over 2/3 of a football field, before applying the brakes. At 80 MPH, that distance will stretch to 324 feet, over a football field in distance.
Now we come to braking distance. Once the brakes are applied, that distance is determined by a wide variety of circumstances, including the surface and its condition, the brakes and their condition and the tires and their condition.
If we are driving a Ferrari or most Porsches, we will stop much faster than if we are driving a Honda or a Toyota…maybe within 420 feet or so in ideal conditions. But the average Honda or Toyota will take much longer, say maybe 500 feet if we are lucky. Push the speed to 80 MPH, and you are looking at more like 600-700 feet. And, of course, those huge tractor trailers take much longer.
And I don't have time to get into impact versus speed. Suffice to say that impact increases geometrically. Not to mention gas mileage.
The decision to set the Texas speed at 80 MPH was driven by the Chamber of Commerce, the petroleum industry and the auto industry, none of whom care whether you live or die. Yet another reason to choose some other ticket than Ryan/Romney in November.