Co-operative Buisnesses Deal With Recession

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13381546 Believe it or not, there are still co-operatives in Spain, the country where the CNT originates from. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederaci%C3%B3n_Nacional_del_Trabajo A co-operative is an enterprise which is jointly owned, and managed by the people who work there. Therefore the profits are shared amongst themselves. So that all of the employees mutually benefit. The recession has affected these buisnesses as well. But I hope that they will be able to remain solvent, and competitive in the current economic circumstances. This example also shows however that socialism can be built within the existing system. And that the workers can also benefit from the free market.

Christian Reconstructionists, Like Rushdoony, are Looney.

Christian Reconstructionism is a type of dominion theology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Theology, which is rooted in the reformed faith of Calvinism in particular. (note This is not to say that all calvinists are like them. Christian Recon is an extreme example of politicised religion.) Dominionists seek to replace our representitive democracy with a theonomy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theonomy. Officially they propose to do this peaceably, by getting people to vote for candidates that support there agenda. They have already come to dominate the Republican party, down in Texas. http://www.theocracywatch.org/texas_gop.htm (note 2. Once again, not all Republicans are dominionists. Not even all of the "religious Right". And there is a difference between dominionism and traditionalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditionalist_conservatism even.) All freedom loving americans, including christians and/or conservatives, need to stand against this reactionary religious extremism. On a personal note, my maternal cousin, Adam, is christian recon. So I have to deal with these attitudes first hand. In fact, I think that by and large my entire family tends to support political Christianity. So I would appreciate it if you'd keep in your prayers and/or thoughts, as I stand up against this threat to our personal freedom, and human rights. It's just so shocking that there are actually christians who are similar in many ways to the islamists. P.S. Here is a link to my radical right cousin's blog http://puritancalvinist.blogspot.com/, and also here is an article that informatively illustrates what Rushdoony's ideology is all about, and why it's so alarmingly extreme. http://www.sullivan-county.com/nf0/fundienazis/royal_race.htm

Pagans and St. Patrick's Day.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/169787/the_truth_about_st_patrick.html?cat=74 Today people celebrated St. Patrick's day. Even I wore green. But not all people think of him fondly. St. Patrick, according to legend, was said to have driven away all of the snakes from Ireland. However the "snakes" actually refers to the Druids, and there followers. The Druids were priests of the pagan folk religion of Ireland. Supposedly, St. Patrick persecuted all those who would not convert to Roman Catholic Christianity. Like I said in the post about the Baptist pastor who was killed, beliefs can not be destroyed by force. And even now there are still neopagans who practice a renewed faith in the old ways. This is known as Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism.

Critique of Rush Limbaugh's CPAC Speech.

A few days ago, Rush Limbaugh gave an address to CPAC. I am now going to comment upon some of his remarks. Here is a transcript of it, in case you wish to follow along. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/01/transcript-rush-limbaughs-address-cpac/ "When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when
we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere, we see Americans. We see
human beings. We don't see groups. We don't see victims. We don't see people we
want to exploit. What we see -- what we see is potential. We do not look out
across the country and see the average American, the person that makes this
country work. We do not see that person with contempt. We don't think that
person doesn't have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best he or
she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their path like onerous
taxes, regulations and too much government." This attitude ignores other barriers to success, like substandard wages, debt, and lack of suitable training/education. Also under our current socio-economic system, buisness and labour alike receive welfare, in order to subsidise there earnings. So the government does give grants to people, rich and poor alike. And the biggest "welfare queens" are corporations. "We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We believe that the preamble to the Constitution contains an inarguable truth that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life. Liberty, Freedom. And the pursuit of happiness. Those of you watching at home may wonder why this is being applauded. We conservatives think all three are under assault." We non-conservatives also love and revere the Constitution, plus life, liberty, and the "pursuit of happiness", which I like to identify as being livelihood. Ironicly enough we feel that these have been undermined by the supposedly conservative Bush administration. Because of the PATRIOT act, and deficit spending.

"President Obama has the ability -- he has the ability to inspire excellence in
people's pursuits. He has the ability to do all this, yet he pursues a path,
seeks a path that punishes achievement, that punishes earners and punishes --
and he speaks negatively of the country. Ronald Reagan used to speak of a
shining city on a hill. Barack Obama portrays America as a soup kitchen in some
dark night in a corner of America that's very obscure. He's constantly telling
the American people that bad times are ahead, worst times are ahead. And it's
troubling, because this is the United States of America. Anybody ever ask -- I'm
in awe of our country and I ask this question a lot as I've gotten older. We're
less than 300 years old. We are younger than nations that have been on this
planet for thousands of years. We, nevertheless, in less than 300 years -- by
the way, we're no different than any other human beings around the world. Our
DNA is no different. We're not better just because we're born in America.
There's nothing that sets us apart. How did this happen? How did the United
States of America become the world's lone super power, the world's economic
engine, the most prosperous opportunity for an advanced lifestyle that humanity
has ever known? How did this happen? And why pray tell does the President of the
United States want to destroy it? It saddens me. The freedom we spoke of earlier
is the freedom, it's the ambition, it's the desire, the wherewithal, the
passions that people have that gave us the great entrepreneurial advances, the
great inventions, the greatest food production, the human lifestyle advances in
this country. Why shouldn't that be rewarded? Why is that now the focus of
punishment? Why is that now the focus of blame? Why doesn't -- Mayor Bloomberg
the other day, ladies and gentlemen, resisting his Governor's call for an
increased tax on the rich in New York had some astounding numbers. Eight million
people live in New York. 40,000 of those eight million pay roughly 60 to 70% of
New York's operating budget. He was afraid that if he raised taxes on those
people some of them might leave. Mayor, one already has, by the way." As a result of the financial crisis, we are in bad times. The Obama administration is trying to stimilate the economy. While you may not like how he plans on accomplishing this, fiscally, he is being realistic. "President Obama is so busy trying to foment and create anger in a created atmosphere of crisis, he is so busy fueling the emotions of class envy that he's forgotten it's not his money that he's spending. [Applause] In fact, the money he's spending is not ours. He's spending wealth that has yet to be created. And that is not sustainable. It will not work. This has been tried around the world. And every time it's been tried, it's a failed disaster. What's the longest war in American history? Did somebody say the war on poverty? Smart group. War on poverty. The war on poverty essentially started in the '30s as part of the New Deal, but it really ramped up in the '60s with Lyndon Johnson, part of the Great Society war on poverty. We have transferred something like 10 trillion, maybe close to 11 trillion, from producers and earners to nonproducers and nonearners since 1965. Yet, as I listen to the Democratic Party campaign, why, America is still a soup kitchen, the poor is still poor and they have no hope and they're poor for what reason? They're poor because of us, because we don't care, and because we've gotten rich by taking from them, that's what kids in school are taught today. That's what others have said to the media. You know why they're poor, you know why they remain poor? Because their lives have been destroyed by the never-ending government hay that's designed to help them, but it destroys ambition. It destroys the education they might get to learn to be self-fulfilling." Actually it is not your money. The federal government prints, and mints it. So if the government can be in charge of it's production, why can't it also be allowed to control it's distribution? The rest of his remarks are just negative slander that I will not even dignify with a response, except to say that it's not true of me, or of other Democrats as a whole.

Taliban Targets Schools For Attack.

Recently I posted about how Pres. Obama plans on striking a deal with certain factions of the Taliban. http://libertariansocialist.blogspot.com/2009/03/barack-obama-reaches-out-to-taliban.html Here is a follow up article, written by a National Guard officer, who witnessed an attack upon a co-ed school, by the Taliban. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/opinion/17rouse.html As I've mentioned in the preceding post, we must not even try to negotiate with these human monsters. The American people, civilian and military alike, do not support appeasing the Taliban. And while we all want for our troops overseas to come home safe and sound, as soon as possible, not before they finish what they started against the terrorists, and the rogue regimes that support them. This should be a no brainer. However some people do not support the mission of our military forces, in combating the Islamist enemy. Just the other night, I had watched the Veggie Tales video, "Minnesota Cuke, and Samson's Hairbrush". It seemed to suggest that our response to the attacks on 9-11 makes us just as much terrorists as Al Qaeda, and that we should just try and be nice to the Taliban, and make friends with them. While I do know that there are some christians who believe in non-resistance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-resistance, to give the same moral equivalency to the U.S. military, as the Islamist mujahedin, is outrageous. For any of my readers who don't make the same connection as I do, and think that I am mischarecterising things, and are perhaps also Veggie Tales fans. Let me tell you this. I've seen all of the classic "Indiana Jones" movies. And Indie's enemies have always been Nazis. Except for 'The Temple of Doom", in which they were a thugee cult, and "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", in which they were Bolsheviks. So it's not hard to put two and two together. Just like the Nazis, the Taliban are fascist. And just like the thugees, Al Qaeda is a death cult. So if anyone expects us to just take this lying down, they've got another thing coming. We should use all due force necessary to counter-attack the enemies that threaten our safety, and freedom. No matter how hard it might be, or whatever some may say. And Barack Obama, plus Phil Vischer ,and Mike Nawrocki, the creators of Veggie Tales, should be ashamed of themselves. We need to stand up against "bullies", and if necessary fight them, if we are to be able to have a secure homeland, not to mention playground.

Baptist Pastor Killed While Delivering Sermon.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5872418.ece As some of you may know, I knew the notorious gunman, Matthew Murray, personally on-line. http://libertariansocialist.blogspot.com/2007/12/tragic-life-of-matthew.html So this really hits home for me. We do not know why the perpetrator chose to kill this particular pastor. Perhaps the shooter was deranged. Maybe he was also a satanist. Self described satanists, mostly ignorant teenagers, have burned down churches before. There are many possible motives for this senseless crime. But if the killer hoped to destroy Christianity, it would have been in vain. As Thomas Dewey once said, "you can't shoot an idea with a gun." We all must not use carnal means to advance ideas. Ideas will rise and fall according to it's merits. No force can stop it.

Barack Obama Reaches Out To Taliban.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20090226bc.html This is outrageous. As the article says, even the most "moderate" elements of the Taliban are still religious extremists. If the Taliban are able to hold, and/or even share power, it will be bad news for the personal freedoms of Afghans, especially those of minority faiths. The Taliban oppressed people, women in particular, and have also threatened world peace. None of them should be allowed to have political power. The United States should work together multilateraly with neighboring countries, in the surrounding region, to counter the prescence of the Taliban. Our military forces should do more than just fight against terrorists, they should also fight for democratic freedom.

Remarks on Gov.Jindal's Response.

Recently I've been hearing negative reaction to Louisiana Governor Piyush "Bobby" Jindal's Republican response to Pres.Obama's address to Congress. I feel that this is unfortunate, and inconsiderate. Gov. Jindal seems like a nice, friendly, and caring man, who loves his country, and sincerly feels that conservative policies are what's best for it. But he also says that he gets along well with Democrats too, and is willing to work with us, in order to come up with an acceptable plan to help deal with the challenges America faces. So since many of my fellow bloggers, Republican's and Democrats alike, are panning his speech, let me give a honest yet positive opinion of his points. First here is a transcript, so that you all can follow along. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/24/sotn.jindal.transcript/ First he starts out by mentioning how monumentous an occasion it is, because of the significance of Barack Obama being of african descent. I think that we all get how incredible it is that a black man was elected President. It's all we've been hearing about for the past few weeks. He didn't need to try and butter him up. I think that he was just trying to be nice, but it came accross as being patronising to me. Then, in the spirit of Ronald Reagan, he recounts stories about his life, past and present. I think that this would be fine, if he were President, and were the one giving the address instead of the response. But he's not the President, and I don't think that we appreciate his grandstanding. We also get that his personal accomplishments are impressive, being that he's the son of immigrants from another country, as well as culture. I'm sure that if and when he runs for President, we'll all be talking about it. And knowing the religious right like I do, the attitudes probally won't be all positive, since he was born and raised a Hindu, and many people don't even know and/or care about the differences between Hinduism and Islam. They just see a swarthy looking, foreign seeming person. I speak from personal experience. I've had to explain to my christian conservative mother that muslims do not worship idols, and that Hindus do not behead people. Well all except for the thugee, which if you've ever watched "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, you'd know all about. And yes, I also know that Jindal, as well as Obama, converted to Christianity. But I think that some people might still have there doubts about him. Anyway, we should be having to deal with that when the time comes. Let's just take things one step at a time. Next he extols tax cuts, and slams spending increases. Now we are getting to the heart of the matter. This is the bread and butter we've all been waiting for. If only he had started out with this. First he criticises the rail line between Las Vegas, and Florida. I happen to know that some libertarians believe that transportation should be privatised, and that improvments should be privately funded by land developers. But Bobby Jindal is not delivering the Libertarian position. He is supposed to be giving the Republican response. And most Republicans have no problem what so ever with improvements of our public transportation system. Then he goes on to criticise funding for volcanoe monitoring. Volcanoe monitoring is a part of the governments role in handling possible natural disasters. Like with FEMA and the flooding of New Orleans. While Gov. Jindal might feel that private companies can do a better job of dealing with such crisises, currently the federal government handles such duties. And incidently, it was a Republican administration that supoposedly mishandled Hurricane Katrina. So I'm sure that the GOP did not appreciate him citing this as an example of government incompetance. According to Keynesian economics, which from F.D.R. until Reagan was the basis for Presidential fiscal policy, Republican and Democratic alike, spending does help grow the economy. It especially helps to counteract the "downward sticky nature of prices", whatever that means. We'll have to see just how well this works in regards to the current financial crisis. If it doesn't pan out as expected, modern economics will be largely discredited, and Bobby Jindal will be vindicated. When it comes time for him to possibly run for President himself, he can tell Barack Obama "I told you so". But for right now Obama, and the Democratic leadership in the Congress, are running the show. So we'll all just have to deal with it the best we can. Also Pres. Obama had promised not to deficit spend, and to go by a "pay as you go" plan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAYGO This was incidently the same plan that liberal Republicans have always went by, since Thomas Dewey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_E._Dewey So unless Obama is going to break his word, I do not think that the national debt will increase. At worse, it will remain the same. Lastly Jindal insists that we can provide healthcare coverage to all Americans, and improve education, all without increasing the size and scope of government. I certainly will be interested in hearing his plans on just how to do this. It seems like it's going to be an interesting campaign season, if and when he does declare his candidacy for the Presidency, in 2012. And if he does secure the Republican nomination, I also believe, and hope, that it will be a nicer, more respectful, campaign too. Unlike if Sarah Palin were to get it, from what I remember from her remarks at the Republican National Convention, and all of the mud that was slung by conservative Republicans during the election season. I think that this actually hurt there reputation amongst non-Republicans, and even moderate Republicans. And Jindal also claims that Americans can do anything. Well, while I appreciate his confidance in the power of the American people, we are not avatars. Only God can do anything. That's if one even believes in an omnipotent God in the first place. It's only with Him that all things are possisle, as my state's motto, Ohio, states. To repeatedly state that we as a people can do anything, is to suggest that we are all potential gods in the making. Which is a New Age belief. It's utterances like this that could cost him the support of conservative christians. But finally, I rather doubt that Gov. Jindal even bothers to read all of the blog posts about his speech. So I don't seriously expect him to even see anything I or any of you type. But if he does see this, I just want for him to know that I like him personally. And who knows, I might even decide to vote for him, if he is able to challenge Barack Obama for the presidency. I'm not a hardline liberal Democrat. And I am also interested in hearing about his proposals, if they're good ideas, regardless of my party affiliation.