The Baby Boomers, Our "WORST" Generation!

"What's the matter with kids today?" is the title of a song from the musical "Bye, Bye Birdie" pretty much sums up everything I'm about to say about the generation that gave us hippies, "Hanoi Jane" Fonda, the "Easy Rider," Woodstock, and free lovin''. I'm referring of course to the "Baby Boomer" generation, those children born in the late 1940's following the end of World War II. This generation owes it's size and everything else to the fact that there were a lot of "hookups" happening when "Johnny came marching home" from the European and Pacific theaters. These actions had consequences,  and in keeping with the morality of the day, these men and women got MARRIED and actually RAISED the children they had conceived during their drunken "hook-ups."  Lucky for the BOOMER Generation, there WERE no Planned Parenthood abortion mills or free clinics around the corner to keep THEM from being born.

So how is it possible that the generation that survived the Great Depression and then fought and defeated the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan, came back home and led this country to one of the greatest periods of prosperity and growth the word has ever seen, produce a generation that in less than fifty years time would singlehandedly undo everything their parents and grandparents had done for them? Sadly, a significant portion of the blame rests wtih the Greatest Generation, themselves. They were so determined that their children should know none of the hardship and adversity that marred their younger lives that they were over-indulgent and over protective of their children to the extent that they literally spoiled them ROTTEN.

The GREATEST generation had grown up in a country that was in the grip of the Great Depression for mos of their lives.  They had their CHARACTER forged in the blood and iron of World War II.  They had know real hardships, deprivation, and seen all manner of human suffering and they were determined that their CHILDREN would not know such things if they could help it.  This goal was made possible by the economc boom that followed the finish of both the WAR, and the economic policies of Frankin D. Roosevelt wnen a President with good old fashined COMMON SENSE took the office and proceeded to dismantle the maze of alphbet soup buracracies put in place during the New (or was it RAW)  Deal.  Truman understood that it was in fact these very policies that were responsbile for the United States being the ONLY country int he WORLD to have a GREAT Deperession, which  had only ABATED during the war and reared its' ugly head once more when Johnny came marching HOME again and tried to a find a JOB that did NOT include catching bullets as part of its' enumeration of duties.

Thanks to the economic boom that Truman enabled, the children of the BOOMER generation were the first to grow up if not actually IN the LAP of luxury, they were in pretty closee proximity to it.  It was THIS generation that was the first to expect new cloethes at the beginning of EVERY school year, catered birthday parties (complete with clown or magician), a backyard swimming pool, air conditioning, television, and the possibility of getting handed the keys to a new or late model used  car upon reaching their seixteenth birthday and obtaining their driver's license.  This was ALSO the first generation for whom the possibilty of a university education was more than a remote one.  Sadly, many of the boomers did go to college wehre they ran smack into the waiting arms of communist ideologues tthat had been infiltrating the faculties of these colleges and universities since the early part of tghe twentieth century, when Americans learned the extent of the atrocities perpetrated by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution and Communism become the anathema to Americans that it did and SHOULD have REMAINED!

Imagine the pride shining in the eyes of parents of the GREATEST generation as they packed their wholesome, fresh faced, corn fed progreny off to college to become Doctors, or engineers, or even LAWYERS (which were still REPECTED in those days). These children would have opportunities the parents never even DREAMED of.  Conversely, imaagine their HORROR when, a few short months LATER, they opened their door to find a greasy, long-haired, unhygenic, drug addled HIPPIE standing  where there son had been, or if it's a daughter, add PREGNANT to the description, the father being one of her philosophy professors.  Now imagine, that you've reovered from your initilal shock,  only to find out over dinner that the child that had revered you as his HERO and wanted to be just like you, now referred to you as a "capitalist PIG" or "the MAN" or "the ESTABLISHMENT" or  a  "Bourgoisee criminal" and vowing to bring your entire way of life down around your ears.  These were scenes that played out in American households all throughout the SIXTIES and SEVENTIES.

To be fair, not EVERY member of the boomer generation turned into a HIPPIE.  Indeed, many of them, thanks to a strong  Christian family upbringing, were able to resist the lure of marxism and the temptations of hedonism.  It was for this reason that more extreme marxists like Bill Ayers opined that students needed to be radicalized at an earlier age, prompting many commynist thinkers and sympathizers to become teachers themselves and enter the elementary and secondary schools to being indoctrinating children that were less mature and less experienced.  For these reasons, they were less likely to oppose the ideas being forced upon them by teachers more interested in creating future communistis than in actually TEACHING children to do anything productive, like READ.   But that's a topic for a while different essay.

If there is a simple way to distill the real legacy of the boomers into something that will fit in a Twitter post, it would be that this generation destroyed the American concepts of  personal responsibility, and the FAMILY. If you think about it logically, thanks to boomers actions no long have CONSEQUENCES, at leastt not PERSONAL ones, in theory at least.

Think about it this way. If you're sexually irresponsible, they created a pill to spare you those consequnces, and they'll give out condoms as well as teach you how to do things in school. if you STILL manage to and get KNOCKED up, they made it legal to murder the baby so it doesn't become a burden to you, and they'll even help you get around telling your PARENTS.   If you opt to HAVE the child, you're eligible for all manner of free stuff from the federal and state government including unearned income tax cfedit, welfare, subsidized housing, food stamps, medicaid, etc.  You've hit the JACKPOT.

Likewise, If you rack up debt you can't pay, no problem. They pass a law and suddenly you're FREE and CLEAR.  If you take crazy risks run a business into the ground, no problem. Either the GOVENRMENT can bail you out, or you can go bankrupt, and as long as you  haven't committed a criminal act (like a Madoff style Ponzii scheme) , your house, car, Rolex, and bank accounts are safe.  Too bad the same CAN'T be said for your shareholders.  This explains to conduct of Wall Street, Counbtrywide Morrgage, and FANNIE  MAE and FREDDIE MAC in causing the recent housing and stock market MELTDOWN,  but why it is that only Bernie Madoff lost everything and wen tto PRISON?  Why is Angelo Mozilla still strutting aroudn free an dliving in his placial estate?

IN a different way of illustrating lack of personal responsibility, if a government wants to invade your privacy but that pesky FOURTH Amendment keeps getting in the way, no problem again. We'll just pass a PATRIOT Act, and suddenly, they can LEGALLY come into your home, business, bank account, mailbox or wahever whenever they  please, and WITHOUT your knowledge, let alone CONSENT.  The whole BOOMER generation thinks they can LEGISLATE anything, and that their drones in the LEGAL system and Judiciary will give them cover.  Sadly, they seem to have been RIGHT in that assessment for the most part. Progressive or liberal activist judges have legalized CRIMINAL behavior msny times over.

Why do you think good little commies become either LAWYERS or Community Organizers? It's to FORCE legislation, or write law via the BENCH that they can't get through the ballot box such as ABORTION!  No elected legislator ever passed a law legalizing abortion.  That was done by the COURTS.  Since the landmark and totally UNCONSITUTIONAL "Roe v. Wade" case, however, MANY legislators have voted to spend taxpayer dollars subsidizing the abortion INDUSTRY via Planned Parenthood, and now through Obama Care!   Since the boomers entered colleges, more generation of Americans are becoming Teachers, lawyers, or community organizers than any other career fields.  Wouldn't it nice if you could find a DOCTOR when you need one?  Wouldn't it be even NICER to find MEN who know how to DO more than talk or type?

The BOOMERS have been on the political, social, and economic scene for nearly FIFTY years now, and in their wake is a country that went from a moral nation and an eoconomic and military superpower that produced the finest goods in the world and had a rock solid economy, to a national riddled with debt, social problems, economic misery, devalued currency and eroding freedoms.  To see how  much we've lost form what THEY inherited, you have only to watch old movies, find old newspapers on microfilm at your local library, watch reruns of "Happy Days" or even the more current show "Mad Men."  I think one of the reasons for the popularity of THAT show, it that it reminds of the time in our history when it was really GOOD to be an AMERICAN!   Clearly we've lost a LOT during the stewardship of the BOOMERS, and like the ripple effect created in a pond when you toss a rock in th ecenter, this generation has INFECTED every successive one in greater and greater numbers.

So, the next time you see an aged hippie boomer rolling down the road on his power scooter and you're sorely temptedto exact a little "poetic justice" by pushing it over on top of him, think again.  The mantra of the boomers was "if if feels good, DO it" and though it may FEEL great to knock that old hippie over on his ass and crush him under his own scooter, don't DO it.  In that way, you're REJECTING his entire philosophy of life, and only by doing THAT can we hope to being to clean up the MESS left to us by our WORST generation and restore this country to it's natural state of FREEDOM and PROSPERITY!

The "Myth" and "Reality"of Health Care Reform

Yesterday I, like many of my fellow Americans, lost several hours of my life that I will NEVER get back watching the "Blair House Dog n' Pony" show that was the Health Care Summit. The purported idea behind the "summit" was for Republican and Democratic congressmen to engage in a free and open exchange of ideas for reforming our health care delivery system with the President and members of his administration. On the surface this is what appears to have occurred, but as we're all too well aware, appearances can be deceiving. Since this Administration and Congress took power, that seems to have become the RULE itself, not the exception it was once thought to be. What became readily apparent to me, however, was that what was happening had absolutely NOTHING to do with health care reform at all. What health care "reform" is, and has ALWAYS been, is a naked power grab by the federal government of the United States. It is the latest in a SERIES of grabs, by this government for federal control of private businesses and industries with the SOLE aim of increasing the POWER of the federal government. This is FASCISM by definition.

When the Democrats initiated healthcare "reform" their stated goal was to bring down the cost curve, to allow for portability of insurance, to eliminate the pre-existing condition exclusion, and to ensure that the however many millions of uninsured Americans there REALLY are (since the number varies in each politician's speech) could obtain affordable healthcare coverage. Then the Democratic controlled houses of Congress managed to put together and pass two bills that accomplish few if ANY of their stated goals (according to a panoply of non-political business, economic, and insurance experts), expand the size and authority of the federal government, and cost the taxpayers approximately a TRILLION dollars above and beyond the current budget.

While the public had voiced it's disapproval at the directions the Democrats were taking their legislation at Town Hall meetings and tea party rallies, the Democrats chose to ignore their constituents and press ahead. But when word of the veritable "bribery" of Senators Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson became public knowledge, voter anger exploded and the Democrats lost their veto proof super majority in the senate as Massachusetts elected Scott Brown to the Senate head long held by the late democratic Senator, Edward M. Kennedy. This turnover of a once secure seat to a republican in the very democratic state of Massachusetts, together with rising public disapproval for their legislation, and the fact that all house democrats and several prominent senators have to face re-election in less than a year put the legislation on a very shaky footing. While the separate bills had passed in their respective houses, there were substantial differences between the two bills that would make reconciliation difficult if not impossible. To many, myself included, it appeared as though the push for health care reform was effectively stalled, if not dead.

Then, out of nowhere, it's back and now the Democrats realize they are going to need republican support to get health care legislation passed. Additionally, because of the upcoming election, they WANT the political cover of having republicans on board with this legislation. To this end, they have been courting the more progressive republicans in both the Senate and House and getting nowhere. For this reason, President Obama convened the Health Care Summit at Blair House so that prominent congressional democrats and republicans could get together with him and key members of his administration to try to arrive at a workable compromise legislation that could garner true bi-partisan support. To their credit, Republican legislators showed up and presented a variety of time tested and proven free market solutions which, if implemented, would likely produce the results the democrats claim to want, and without the trillion dollar price tag or need to expand federal bureaucracy. If the Democrats really wanted to fix the system, they would take the Republican's ideas, put them in the bill, and if they worked, take credit for fixing health care in the next election and, if they didn't, blame the Republicans in the next election. All this is merely academic at this point as health care reform is only the magician's assistant. The REAL "trick" in these pieces of legislation is the creation of an American replication of Great Britain's National Health Service.

The National Health Service of Great Britain is the largest single employer on that tiny island. One out of every three working adult Britains is employed by this agency. Of these only one out of three is a medical professional such as a doctor or a nurse. The rest are paper pushing bureaucrats. If you take into account all the workers of other British governmental agencies, nearly forty-five percent of all adult workers in England work for the government and one HUNDRED percent depend on that government for health care. This creates a large and LOYAL voting constituency for the Labor party resulting in that party's veritable stranglehold on political power for the majority of the past thirty years. A great French writer by the name of Alexis De Tocqueville once stated that "Democracy will endure until the day politicians discover that they can bribe the people with public funds." That is EXACTLY what has kept the Labor party in power, and this lesson has NOT gone unheeded by our own democratic politicians.

In addition to the INTENT of the health care "reform" legislation, there is a far more dire and (I HOPE) unintended consequence that can occur if this legislation is signed into law in it's present forms. The net effect of this budgetary nightmare might very well bring to fruition the Cloward-Piven Stragety, especially when combined with the unravelling of the Ponzii schemes that the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs have become. Thanks in no small part to the Babt Boomer's free love and unfettered abortion policies there are not enough working adults in the private sector of the economy paying into the system to keep pace with the benefits that will have to paid out, esp if no new manufacturing or other capital producing jobs are created in the next ten years. To understand what the net effect of Cloward-Piven will be, you have only to look at what happened to the former Soviet Union, and what's happening in Greece today. Thst is Cloward-Piven in ACTION.

The total economic, political, and social upheaval in this country that would result is the revolution that many progressive Baby Boomers have been dreaming about and creaming their flower appliqued bell-bottomed jeans over since they were teenagers fornicating in the mud at Woodstock. The destruction of America as it has always been, and the remaking of it as a socialist UTOPIA is and has ALWAYS been the goal of the boomer progressives, and with this one piece of legislation, they may well be able to achieve that goal and put the final nail in the coffin that was once the United States of America.What Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground could not accomplish with their bombs, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid may be able to do with their two thousand page bills.

Woith the election of Republican Scott Brown and the loss of the democrats filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, we the PEOPLE thought we had ended this very existential threat. Sadly, healthcare reform seems to have had a "Lazarus" moment and is once again alive and well. Actually, the legislation is more like Michael Myers in the "Halloween" movies and we all know that you can't kill the boogeyman. But like the boogeyman, if you don't kill this legislation now and for all time, it will rise up again and kill you and yours, fiscally speaking.

If the Democrats are allowed to succeed in this, when we go on to our great reward, or punishment, as the case may be, we may very well have to face the Founding Fathers and account for the mess we made of their once noble experiment. Remember, these guys settled their differences with canes, swords, and pistols, and we may very well deserve the thrashing we will receive at their hands for what we have allowed to happen to what THEY bequeathed us. In less than fifty years time, these elitist idiotswill have rolled back every reform of humanism since the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment. We think it no good thing that Islamic terrorists want to take us back to the Dark Ages, but in reality it's our own progressive elites that want to return us to the Dark Ages and feudal serfdom. I truly hope there is a special corner in the hottest part of hell for progressive politicians in BOTH parties for the part they have played in systematically destroying the last, best, hope for mankind and freedom in this world.

Rage, Politics, and the Barrel of a GUN!

In the past several days, indeed over the past several YEARS, we've seen more than a few people attempt to vent their frustrations and assuage their rage with loaded guns and a body count. I can personally recall the mass shootings at The post office, Columbine High School, The Atlanta brokerage office, Virginia Tech, and the college in northern Illinois. Just this week we've seen two back-to-back yet unrelated incidents at Fort Hood,Texas and an office in Orlando, Florida. While there is no definitive connection between any of these incidences, there ARE similarities in the motivation and causation of each. In every case just named, the shooter was a male who felt he was the victim of an injustice or injury that he felt powerless to resolve or ameliorate. His frustration builds , along with despair and rage in equal proportion until they reach critical mass and he decides his life is no longer worth living. However, instead of merely committing suicide, these shooters resolve to reclaim the power they feel has been taken from them, to go out in the proverbial "blaze of glory," and (in a poetic measure of "justice") take the people they feel are responsible for their miseries (no matter how inaccurate their perceptions) out with them. Though there are subtle variations to this basic architecture in each of these cases, the underlying foundations are uniform. Sadly, with our recessive economy, these incidents of sporadic violence are on the rise. This is nothing new as we've frequently seen upticks of violence in down economic cycles. During the depression we saw the rise of cold-blooded killer gangsters like "Baby Face" Nelson, "Pretty Boy" Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde. These people loved violence for the sake of violence and happily sprayed lethal streams of lead wherever they went. However, since their most frequent victims were banks and bankers, the "schaddenfreude" aspect of human nature kicked in, and we took a perverse pleasure at the violence directed at the banks, which many Americans perceived to be the cause of their miseries, and these thugs were turned into Robin Hood like folk heroes. In the economic miseries of the 1970s it was the radiical and violent groups like the Black Panthers, and The Weather Underground that were turned into the folk heroes of the leftists who wanted government collapse, anarchy, and power to the people. Sadly, some of these people survived, escaped the prosecution and imprisonment they so richly deserved, and mainstreamed back into society where their higher education was used to corrupt students and further their radical agendas by inflicting their radical ideologies on the youth of America. This campaign of indoctrination begins as early as preschool and kindergarten and continues right on through high school and college. It is no accident that the overwhelming majority of new voters register and support not only Democrats, but the most RADICAL and MARXIST of democratic politicians in every election cycle in which they can be counted upon to participate. Typically (and THANKFULLY) this is only a Presidential election, and even then only when a Presidential candidate actually appeals to them. This is why John Kerry did NOT get the same level of support from younger voters that Barak Obama did. Now, as for the political element in all of this, today we are faced with a very real existential threat to our American way of life and that threat does not come from a foreign power as in the days when the Soviet Union was the source of all evil in the world, but from our very own elected government. We have empowered the most radical slate of elected officials in our history, and every item on its legislative agenda is purposely designed to deprive American citizens of their freedom and rights to private property and personal wealth. Now the same was said of Franklin Roosevelt's administration and rightly so, but the difference between the Roosevelt government, and the current administration and congress is like the difference between the softer European socialism of France and Germany, and the hardline socialism of the former Soviet Union, China, and North Korea. We have empowered a cabal of elitist politicians that want to "fundamentally transform the United States of America" as if the present model which has taken us from horseback to space ships in less than 200 years isn't good enough anymore. This slate of politicians got elected by deceiving the majority of voters into believing that they were moderates with only the best interests of the American people at heart, when in reality they are firmly committed Marxist idealogues with only the maintenance and spreading of their own power and ideology at the root of every item on their toxic legislative agenda. We the PEOPLE know that if the Marxist/Democrats succeed in passing their slate of legislation, it will result in the greatest confiscation of property and restraint of personal liberty this country has ever seen and more than a simple majority of the people of this country want NOTHING to do with it. When we typically have a disagreement with our elected officials, there are several forms of political activity available to us to try to change their behavior. In ordinary circumstances we write letters to our congressmen to inform them of how we feel about their legislation or support and if enough people send enough letters, they get the message and alter their behavior. If letters aren't enough, we call them. If that doesn't work, we show up at their offices and make our feelings known, and if all that fails, we vote them out of office in the next election cycle. Today, much to our frustration and dismay, NONE of those measures seems to have any effect on these politicians. They are so driven and committed to their ideology, that they are not responsive to the wishes of the people they purport to represent. They seem to have forgotten that THEY work for US and not the other way around, although most of us typically have to work more than six months out of every year just to pay our taxes and fees, so that doesn't always seem to be the case anymore. The last and most extreme political measure available to people to protest against the policies of their government is the ballot. Though there was no election on a national scale, people who wanted to change the direction of our current government put their energies and money behind two gubenatorial elections to oust the democratic incumbent and candidate and elect conservative republican candidates. Though many Americans could not legally VOTE in either the Virginia or New Jersey elections (unless of course they belonged to ACORN), conservatives and republicans across the country gave financial and political support to the conservative republican candidates and these efforts succeeded in ousting the democratic incumbents and candidates in states that previously been solidly for democrats in hopes of sending these democrats on capitol hill a clear and unambiguous message to stop what they're doing or the same fate could befall them in 2010. This action was ignored, minimized as "state politics" and indeed, the democrats have even spun these elections as a political victory. So now we have anger at what our elitist politicians are trying to do to us, and a growing sense of frustration because we don't seem to be able to do anything about it. We HAVE written letters and even sent e-mails and tea bags only to be ignored. We've made phone calls only to speak to a third tier flunky who gives us a canned platitude in response to our concerns. We've also shown up and protested, first at town halls, then at tea parties, only to be ignored or worse, ridiculed and insulted. Tea Party protesters have been called everything from racists to nazis and branded as unpatriotic and un-American. Funny how the dissenters to government were heroes and patriots when it was democratic protesters against a republican controlled government. This hypocrisy, as well as the heaping of insult on top of injury only adds to the growing sense of frustration and rage building across this country. This elitist cabal of politicians, together with its' willing accomplices in the media and academia is now poised to ultimately destroy the American way of life as we've known it. They further intend to cede American sovereignty to the United Nations by signing its' Climate Control Treaty which amounts to nothing more than Cap n' Trade on a global scale. However, unlike Cap n' Trade which will merely cost lower and middle class citizens far more than they are likely to be able to afford in utility costs, as well as to cause every manufactured product still made in this country to cost more, the global version will permit an international government to further regulate our behavior and confiscate yet more of our personal property and freedom. This will devastate an economy already in peril, and will likely make the economic miseries of the 1970s seem like the "Happy Days" of the 1950s by comparison. The politicians elected to make things better are only amplifying the damage and committing generational theft by running up a tab that our great grandchildren may still be paying when they are senior citizens. So there is a great deal of fear and despair among free-thinking Americans who don't believe everything they see on TV, read in the New York Times, or have lived through the 1970s. Since no political solution has seemed to get the attention of these committed Marxist Democrats, what is left? When you have a large part of the population gripped in the fear of economic uncertainty and the TERROR of the intent of our elected officials and seemingly no way to effect their intention to radically alter or destroy the things we hold dear, you get that very volatile combination of despair and rage that can lead to violence against those perceived to be the cause of that suffering. Sadly, our congressmen and women seem to be oblivious to the growing danger that faces them as they proceed hell-bent on ramming their legislative agenda down our throats regardless of our wishes to the contrary. In that regard they are like a team of horses with blinders running at break-neck speed along the side of a steep cliff with us riding in the carriage being pulled along behind them. If they go right, they live and so we. If they go LEFT, they plunge off the cliff to their destruction taking US with them. Given those considerations, it wouldn't be unreasonable for someone to conclude that if they are successful, we might prefer death to life in the AmeriKa they would create. One of our most famous Founding Fathers, Patrick Henry, said "Is life so dear as to purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me give me LIBERTY or give me DEATH!" Given that mindset, what is to prevent someone from reaching that critical mass and taking his guns and directing their fire at members of Congress? After all, they do not have the protection that the President has, and they don't stay in Washington all the time, either. If someone takes out congressmen between now and 2010, depending on the laws in their states, such an act can force special elections in which conservatives can band together and get conservatives elected to replace the deceased Marxists thereby sending a CLEAR and unambiguous message that even the most committed Marxist demon-CRATS can only ignore at their own peril. Sadly, I fear there are those out there in what the coastal elites of Hollywood, New York, and Washington DC refer to as "flyover country" namely the rest of the United States in which REAL people live, that may be starting to think along these lines. I only PRAY this does not happen, for the result would be anything but the desired one and would more likely result in the total suppression of freedom of speech and assembly, the imposition of martial law, and the confiscation of all privately held firearms by the government and its' local, state, and federal police agencies. Just as John Wilkes Booth miscalculated the consequences of assassinating Abraham Lincoln, any conservative who undertakes this extreme action will likely do far more harm than good to his cause. The only real HOPE for CHANGE will come in the elections of 2010 and 2012. In the meantime, keep writing and calling your elected officials, and keep showing up at the tea parties and rallies. Despite the lies told by the media, these actions ARE having an effect because if they were not, health care legislation would have been passed by the Democrats a long time ago. No, my fellow Americans, we still have our rights to free speech, free assembly, and free (if not always FAIR) elections, and we can take heart that even ACORN can't steal an election if it's not close. We need to work together to get honest conservative candidates running in the primary process and supporting those candidates to secure their election to the House and Senate in 2010, and 2012! The BALLOT is still more mighty than the BULLET and we need to keep it that way if we are to remain the United States of America!

Throw Mama From the Train . . and Under the BUS!

"Golden Years" is more than a song by David Bowie. It is the term that described the time that elapses from when a person retires from his or her chosen profession to the time that he or she "shuffles loose this mortal coil." Thanks in no small part to the rock-solid alliance between America's senior demographic and the Democratic Party, those "golden" years have heretofore been golden indeed. Senior citizens have routinely seen increases in their Social Security and Medicare entitlements over that past thirty to forty years, and they in turn have given their loyalty and support to democratic politicians. However, in the time since the near market collapse of September, 2008, senior citizens have seen thier "golden" years turn to lead painted with gold paint. Most seniors have seen their life's savings evaporate, whether in the stock market decline or in the real estate collapse, and they have seen their costs of living rising steadily. Now, thanks to the legislative agenda of the Democratic Party, they are looking as substantially higher costs on every single product and service they rely upon.

One would think that the old adage "dance with the one that brung 'ya" would serve to protect the senior population from the democrats' reckless and proflagate spending agenda, but the sad reality is that you would be wrong. In nearly EVERY version of the so-called "health care reform" bills, democrats in Congress are proposing paying for the new entitlement at the expense of the already troubled Medicare program. If you're a senior citizen on a fixed income, you can't help but wonder how the government is going to cut half a billion dollars from a program that's nearly bankrupt as things NOW stand, without severely curtailing your benefits, thereby increasing your COSTS. At a time in life when seniors HAVE to live on a fixed income and a tight budget, if their out of pocket costs go up, their quality of life MUST go down.

Today's senior citizens have been sacrificing their entire lives. This is the generation that saw us through the Great Depression, that fought and WON World War II, that fought and WON the Cold War, and that has worked hard all their lives to give themselves and their families the highest standard of living in the world. Now, in their twilight years, the democrats are demanding further sacrifices from our seniors because in passing any or all of its' legislative agenda, senior citizens are going to find themselves with health care expenses they can't afford to pay, utility bills they can't afford, and a social security check that will not get them from one month to anther without substantially reducing their expenses, thereby diminishing the quality of of their lives and severely diminishing the enjoyment of those lives. Just as it was before the Republican party passed the prescription drug benefit, seniors are once again looking at having to choose between healthcare, utilities, and food. They have been through too much to have to shop for their food in the pet food aisle at the local supermarket.

The reason I chose the title I did, was that in addition to incorporating a movie title, I have a seventy year old "mama" that will be very negatively affected by nearly every one of the democrat's proposed pieces of legislations. My mother has been through a LOT in the preceding decade or so of her life. She had a major stroke which left her left side completely paralyzed, a second minor stroke, open heart surgery to replace her heart valves, and last February she fell in or bathroom shattering her kneecap and requiring two surgeries, an extensive convalescence at a convalescent home which she had to pay for out of her own pocket because neither Medicare, nor her Medicare Advantage plan covered that particular expense. It came to more than $25,000.00 our of her pocket In the legislation now pending, a government bureaucrat might have concluded she was not worth all that expense and she might have had to languish in a nursing home for the remainder of her life wtih painful pins holding her leg together.

I also know that my mother's social security and pension benefits are barely enough to pay her bills as they are NOW. Imagine if Congress succeeds in passing Cap n' Trade and her power bills DOUBLE what they are now? If the proflagate government spending continues, inflation will make the dollar worth less and everything will cost more. How is someone on a fixed income who's not even confident in a cost-of-living adjustment to social security supposed to absorb this? Something will have to give, and that something will diminish the quality of enjoyment of life for most if not ALL senior citizens. And, for the record, it's not just ME saying these things. I heard all this and more when I took my mother to the local senior center earlier this week. The prospect of the looming health care reform bills is something that is TERRIFYING local seniors as well as anyone that has a health care issue.

So why would an organization as politically astute as the Democratic Party has proven itself to be in the past six years risk alienating its' largest and most reliable constituency? No single answer to that query makes any sense, but if you look at a variety of consequences, either intentional or unintentional, you begin to see a pattern emerging. Whatever politically esoteric label you want to put on democratic (and sadly, SOME republican as well) politicians, they are about ONE thing, and one thing only, POWER! They have something in their DNA that makes them think they are entitled to it. They forget that they work for US, not the other way around. They forget that they are representatives, NOT rulers.

Democrats in particular are infected with this disease of arrogance. When they lost Congress in 1994 and were related to the "cheap" seats for nearly twelve years, they SEETHED with rage and did everything they could do to undermine the republicans, and attempt to sabotage every program and policy regardless of the consequences to national security or public safety. Their attack dogs in the press virtually committed TREASON exposing our national defense policies on the front pages of ther papers and magazines. Any challenge of this nature, however, was met with the rhetoric about dissent being patriotic, and we should ALWAYS question our government. Funny how that seems to NOT be the case now that THEY control that government and they want to make certain that they never LOSE that control again. That's the only way you can explain the "double standard" democrats insist on hiding behind. So , assuming all this is true, you're probably asking "If democrats are all about keeping power, why would they risk alienating their most reliable constituency?"

The answer is simple and can be given in one word, MONEY. It takes a LOT of money to mount effective political campaigns, and senior citizens live mostly on fixed incomes. As the "baby boomer" generation retires, they go from being producers to being consumers and will be less likely to make the kinds of contributions to the democratic party coffers that they did as working people. The younger voting demographic, however, will be earning, paying taxes, and thanks in part to twelve or more years of liberal political indoctrination in schools, will be more likely to make their contributions to the democratic party. So the democrats are gambling that the money and votes they net from the younger demographic will be enough to offset the votes they MIGHT lose from the senior citizens. When it comes to the "boomer generation" the democrats know that more of those are lifelong liberals and believe that they will be far more likely to remain loyal to the democratic party regardless of its' policies.

Nevertheless, if is a real risk the democrats are taking. Younger people are notoriously unreliable when it comes to actually VOTING, esp in mid-term and more local elections. Another disadvantage of counting on the young is then they tend to get older, and with age some wisdom also sets in. In the words of the immortal Sir Winston Churchill, "If you're not liberal when you're twenty you have no heart, but if you're not conservative when you're forty, you have no brain." It's never too late to reform a liberal. If you doubt this, just look at Dick Morris. Last point is, that with senior citizens living longer, and being far more reliable voters, this ploy of catering to the younger demographic at the EXPENSE of the senior one, may very well backfire on the democrats. Only TIME will tell, and the time most telling will be in November of 2010 and November of 2012! As Rush Limbaugh so aptly put it, "I hope they FAIL!"

Reviolutionary War Redux: Townhall Turmoil!

Like most Americans, I watched the events that occured outside a town hall meeting hosted by Missouri Representative Carnahan in which purple-shirted union thugs physically assaulted and injured Kenneth Gladney, a conservative African-American man as he was passing out buttons and flags bearing that most American of expressions "Don't Tread on Me." I watched this event with a mixture of horror and anger that literally DOUBLED when I learned that these thugs had been dispatched to this meeting and others like it by the WHITE HOUSE. I will not speculate as to the identity of the individual responsible, but I hope that will be the subject of SOMEONE'S investigation at some time in the future.

Both health care reform and town hall turmoil were topics of discussion at my weekly Toasmaster's roundtable. As you might exepct, the dicussion got someone heated and animated, especially given the fact that I'm outnumbered by liberals. These meetings sometimes take on the feel of an episode of "The View" which, for the record, I do NOT watch. I only see the segments that are aired as part of OTHER news programs. Following one of the more aminmated exchanges in which I called a liberal friend's charge that the people protesting and speaking out at these meetings were "hired guns," ridiculous, another friend of mine said "It's a good thing that town hall meetings were not like this before the American Revolution or we'd still be British." Like most things out of the mouths of liberals, this statement was heavy on emotion, and light on fact.

The fact of that matter is that pre-revolutionary war town hall meetings were very contentious events, often erupting in sporadic acts of violence. After all, they culiminated in the American Revolution. So, too, was the act of introducing hired muscle to disrupt such meetings a very colonial american concept. Understanding the significance of these events requires an understanding of the times in which they occurred. Since legitimate US history is no longer accurately taught in public schools, there are at least two generations of Americans that have grown up with out any real understanding of what this country is or how and why it came to be, so if you'll permit me, I'll enlighten you a little.

In the mid 1700s, the North American continent was not a united anything. The british controlled the original 13 colonies which occupied the east coast from Maine, then part of the colony of Massachussetts, down to Georgia. The French controlled most of the middle of the continent in the Louisiana terrirory which ran from Quebec down to New Orleans, along the Mississippi River. France and Britain were longstanding enemies and the French befriended native American indian tribes in their territory and encouraged them to make war against the British colonists' more western settlements. This resulted in a declaration of war by Britain against France and the British exported their army and navy to take on the French and the indians on the north american continent and high seas in what became known as the French and Indian War.

American colonists enlisted and fought with the british army as well as in independent colonial militias, and with the help of such future heroes as George Washinton, and Daniel Morgan, the british and colonial forces successfully prosecuted the war to victory, gaining new territories in the Ohio valley for the british crown. When the conflict was concluded, the vast majority of the british army returned to Britain, leaving only a few volunteer brigades to man the garrisons and the british forts to guard against any repeat of the hostilities by the french or the indians. Some of these troops had to be quartered in colonists' homes, for there were not sufficient military barracks at the forts to house them all. This was mandatory and there was no compensation offered to the inconvenienced colonists for the intrusion on their privacy. Though the soldiers received sufficient compensation to provide for their board, they often helped themselves to their hosts provisions and comandeered the furniture and horses of their hosts for their own personal use without offering any reimbursement. Needless to say, this did not endear them to their hosts and this anger would be demonstrated in later events.

With the hostilities concluded, the british parliament saw that its' treasury had been greatly depleted by the war, because wars as we know are expensive affairs. When parliament examined its' assets and liabilities, it concluded that it was only fitting that the American colonies should be required to recompense the crown's treasury for its assistance in defending the colonists. Ironically, had the colonists been included in these discussions, there might likely never have been an American Revolution, because it's only fair that they should help pay for their own defense. However, since American colonists were britsh subjects but not full british citizens, there was no right of participation in the governance of the empire. Consequently, the parliament passed the Stamp Act, assessing a surcharge on all paper products used in the colonies. The colonists had no idea what had occurred, except that one day a messager disembarked from a ship from London, went to the home of the Royal colonial governor, and from that time on, every paper product purchased in the colonies was suddenly far more expensive. That included playing cards which, in a time without TV's, computers, or IPODs, were the most common form of entertainment in the majority of colonial households.

The anger at having their homes invaded and their pockets picked by a faceless, non-inclusive bureacracy caused colonial Americans to pour into their town halls with the goal of venting and finding the means by which to redress their greivances. Initially all discussions were aimed at petitioning the King or the parliament for the repeal of the Stamp Act and the right to elect colonial representatives to the british parliament to represent the interests of the American colonies in legislation. However, another far more dangerous solution to the problem was also voiced at these meetings, that being the concept of American independence from Great Britain.

When word of this idea having been voiced reached the ears of the social elites, the landed gentry and wealthy merchant class of colonial society also known as Tories, they reacted in alarm. After all, they owed their fortunes to the largesse of the King as it was he or one of his predecessors that gave their family its' land or license, and the same King could just as easily strip them of it if he chose to do so. Even if they did not fall out of favor with the King as individuals, they also knew that if the colonies were perceived to be rebellious, the King or parliament could declare martial law and severely curtail freedom and thereby prosperity in the colonies. A merchant may not lose his import or shipping license, but if the ports were to be blockaded by the british navy, his business would definitely suffer.

With their selfish interests at heart, these societal elites attended the town hall meetings to promote the idea of petitioning the british governor, parliament or the King for the repeal of the Stamp Act, and the inclusion of the colonies into the parliament. These notables were intially very well received by the assembly. They were, after all, the celebrities of their time and it would be as if Donald Trump walked into a town hall today. However, when the citizens realized that these Tory elites were only there to preserve the status quo and protect their own selfish interests, the crowd turned on them. In those days, an angry crowd could do some serious damage to the target of their anger, such as severely beating them, or tarring and feathering them, in the most extreme cases. Consequently, these Tories stopped off at the local docks to pick up a burly stevedor or two to accompany them to these meetings as a bodyguard.

As the rhetoric and passions grew more heated, the Tory elites stopped attending the meetings altogether, as they did not feel safe in their persons when they did so. They still had a a compelling interest to keep the talk of sedition, treason, and revolution from the ears of the government so they came up with a different plan. Instead of taking some dockhands to protect THEM, they decided instead to recuit dockhands in larger numbers to break up the meetings and thereby keep the King's peace. Intially, this worked, but it had some serious and certainly unintended consequences.

The first of these was to compel the American Patriots, as they were now calling themselves, to fight fire with fire. Initially, the toughs that attended the town hall gatherings as bodyguards to the Tory elites were against the patriot cause. However, as they stood and listened to the arguments made, more than a few of them decided they would rather SUPPORT the patriot cause and many of these men joined with Samuel Adams to form the Sons of Liberty, a patriot organization that was formed specifically to do unto the tories as they were doing to the patriots. The Sons of Liberty were the precursors to the Continental Army, and engaged in tactics that can best be described as guerilla warfare against the Tory establishment. Sadly, they are being described by modern educators as terrorists, and equated with the likes of Al Quaeda.

A second, and probably greatest unintended consequence of the selfish goals of the Tory elites was to disenfranchise several of their own, and turn them into ardent patriots. Among these is wealthy Boston merchant, John Hancock, who would later serve as the President of the First and Second Continental Congresses. He and others like him committed their "lives, fortunes, and their sacred honors" when affixing their signatures to the Declaration of Independence which would not have been possible without them. More than one town hall meeting erupted in sporadic violence, either internally as participants assaulted each other, or externally as in the one the triggered the Boston Tea Party or tragically led to the Boston Massacre.

So, take heart Patriots. Continue to attend those meetings and speak your minds. It is our right and obligation as American citizens. Contrary to our own "tories" popular opinons, what's going on in today's town hall meetings is as American as mom, flag, and apple pie. For those entrusted with offices in our goverment to say otherwise just goes to show how ignorant and out of touch they truly are with what America is and has always been.

Today's elitist democrats that want to dismiss the tea parties and town hall meetings as noise, rabble, astroturf, etc. will continue to make their mistakes, but take heart because just as the Tory elitists of pre-revolutionary war America saw their tactics backfire and turn a crazy idea into the United States of America, so too will the dismissive and strongarm tactics of the modern Tories, our own (anything-but-Jeffersonian) Democrats, blow up in their faces. Considering what happened last time, I like the possibilities that could come from this very real movement to let the vox populi or "the voice of the people" be heard, if not undertood,and heeded. Should they fail to do so, the elitist democrats will likely pay a very heavy political price and we will once more live in the USA and NOT the USSA. In the words of the Gipper himself, Ronald Reagan, "government is NOT the solution to the problem, it IS the problem." So to the town halls we go, for where American began, there it shall continue.