LEE RODGERSOBAMA A MARXIST? OF COURSE …
THE FUTILITY OF “GUN CONTROL” ...
NOTHING WILL COME OF BENGHAZI MURDERS
Peter Ferrara in FORBES with the bottom-line reality that many Americans can't admit ...
“President Obama says that income taxes must be raised on the rich because they don’t pay their fair share. The indisputable facts from official government sources say otherwise.
“In 2009 the top 1% of income earners paid 39% of all federal income taxes, three times their share of income -- 13%. Yet, the middle 20% of income earners, the true middle class, paid just 2.7% of total federal income taxes on net that year, while earning 15% of income. That means the top 1% paid almost 15 times as much in federal income taxes as the entire middle 20%, even though the middle 20% earned more income.
“The bottom 40% of income earners, instead of paying some income taxes to support the federal government, were paid cash by the IRS.
“So why does President Obama keep saying that the rich do not pay their fair share?
“The answer is that to President Obama this is still not fair because he is a Marxist. To a Marxist, it is not fair unless more is taken from the top 1% until they are left only with what they “need,” as in any true communist system. That is the only logical explanation of President Obama’s rhetoric, and it is 100% consistent with his own published background.”
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If those obsessed with “gun control” were capable of logical thought, they might consider this quote from a man who knew what it was like for a disarmed citizenry at the mercy of a tyrannical government …
“What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say goodbye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling in terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin´s thirst; the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!" -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
- Thanks, Kevin -
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A reader with a law enforcement background offers his view on guns and crime ...
"I was a deputy sheriff for 27 years. The last 16 years I was a crimes against persons detective. That included everything from harassing phone calls to murder.
"I have been lead investigator on a lot of homicides, robberies and assaults with deadly weapons. Of all of those crimes that were committed by the use of a firearm, I cannot recall any of them, in which it would have been legal for the person who committed the crime to possess that particular firearm had they not been committing a crime. In other words, it was already a crime for the person to possess the gun before they committed a ciolent crime. It did not seem to deter them one bit.
"I have been to some suicides where a firearm was used and in every one of those the firearm belonged to the victim. But, I have been to far more suicides where the victim hanged themselves or overdosed on legal drugs than those where the victims shot themselves."
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“The (Connecticut) school was already a 'gun free zone;' so obviously that wasn't effective. Of course, the sort of people who would respect a ;gun free zone' in the first place are the very ones you wouldn't have to worry about carrying a gun; so it's an almost useless designation.” – John Ransom, Townhall.com
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The investigation and revelations regarding the murder of our ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in that country should continue. It is, however, unrealistic to expect even the most incendiary results to affect most Democrats' attitude toward their Dear Leader and his ideology-driven left-wing administration.
Democrats, specifically including those in Congress, are so determined that nothing tarnish their delusional image of Obama that they will blind themselves to any malfeasance or misfeasance by him or any of his underlings. They would do so even if they found blood on his own hands. Look at old newsreel film of the deranged mobs that worshiped demagogues from Stalin to Castro and you'll see the same wild-eyed adoration accorded Obama.
Further, neither will revelations of her own incompetence in the Libya affair hurt Hillary with Democrats in 2016.
By the way, wasn't it interesting that neither her loving husband nor daughter rushed to her bedside, with attendant publicity by a slavering media, after her "fall" and "concussion?"
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I couldn't have said it better ...
"I see the every time I hear a politician tell me what the 'American People' want or don't want. The latest being some bozo saying,'What the American people don't want is armed guards at schools.' I don't remember being consulted. Could it be what he/she doesn't want? I also have heard 'American People' preferences from the likes of Bob Schieffer.
"I am also offended by canned laughter in comedy shows. I shouldn't have to be told what is funny. I would enjoy the networks' evening news more if it did have canned laughter." -- Bob, reader
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A life in radio -- and travel (cont) ...
I was on my first visit to the island of Samos, the last in the string of Greek Islands across the Aegean Sea, only about five miles off the coast of Turkey. Small population and, at the time, off the beaten tourist path. It's also not far from the island of Lesbos, where certain kinds of girlish frolic are said to have originated.
I stayed in the (then) largest hotel in a little village on Samos, the picture-postcard town of Pythagorio, named for the mathematician Pythagoras. The largest hotel had three guest rooms, with a restaurant/bar downstairs. The price was under $10 per night.
The seafood was fabulous, the wine delicious. My late partner in our travel business had relatives on the island, which was his motivation to fly over from Athens for a couple of days, leaving our large group of tourists in the capable hands of local guides in the capital. I tagged along, just to see something new.
I loved Samos and thought it would be a restful retreat from the hustle-bustle of Chicago. I inquired about property for a vacation home and was introduced to the owners of a beautiful two hectares near the only airport on the island. No problem with noise; there was only one flight per day, around noontime.
After an evening of over-indulgence in ouzo, the lethal national drink of Greece, I met the owners' representatives. It seems the property belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church, and was supervised by a local community of monks.
"No," I was told, "We can't possibly sell the land."
Dipping into my limited fund of knowledge about such matters, I asked about obtaining a 99-year lease. The monks had never heard of such a concept and were skeptical, but we finally settled on a 66-year lease for a modest price.
The deal was done, the money paid.
I returned to my busy life in Chicago and ever-expanding interests and other complications. Those factors, plus the difficulty of dealing with contractors far away in a language I barely understood (to this day, written Greek looks to me like something assembled from broken bits of alphabet soup) became more than I wanted to deal with. Thus I kept postponing building my dream cottage. And postponing again ... and again. Finally, in the face of a volatile political situation in Greece – not a rare event -- I gave up on it.
I do retain my fantasies, however. And occasionally I take a satellite look at my little place on that faraway island. If you'd like to join me, use Google Earth ... enter "Samos, Greece" ... zoom in on "Pythagorio" on the southeast end of the island ... then pan left to the airport. Just to the right of the airport is a patch of land with a large fishpond and the ruins of an ancient small family chapel alongside it. It's easily visible on Google Earth.
To the lower right of the property there is a cluster of houses, a couple of which seem to have spilled over onto my land. Mine for a few more years, at least, until the monks reclaim it. In any event, I doubt I could persuade a Greek court to evict Greek citizens from land leased by a foreigner thousands of miles away, even if I were so inclined.
Nevertheless, it still pleases me to occasionally fantasize about what might have been. It also reminds me that it's probably not a great idea to do a business deal in the wake of a repeated visits to bottles of ouzo.
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Roger Tulgren is 42. He lives in Sweden. Off the taxpayers. He collects disability payments because he convinced the state welfare bureaucracy that his addiction to heavy-metal hard-rock music has rendered him unable to work.
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Argus Hamilton --
"Danish historians found a previously unknown book written by Hans Christian Andersen in Copenhagen. It's a never-before-published fairy tale. It tells the story of an American president who convinces fifty-one percent of the country that higher taxes will create jobs."
"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."