Damn You

Vietnam was America’s longest war. We lost a lot of people and had a great number injured. Many still carry the physical and emotional scars today.

Go here for a tribute to our Vietnam Vets. Photos from the Vietnam War are accompanied by the Statler Brothers’ beautiful song, “He’s More Than A Name On The Wall.”

As a country we displayed a character flaw by dishonoring and withdrawing support for our Vietnam soldiers. It is a debt that can not be repaid. Founding Father Samuel Adams’ words reach out and instruct us about both the Vietnam War and the War in Iraq:

Contemplate the mangled bodies 0f your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!

If you are one of those persons who denigrated our soldiers then or don’t support them and their mission now, Damn You!

Motivated or Self-Medicated?

I am angry! Last night I watched the movie Murderball, which is a documentary style story about wheelchair bound paraplegics who compete in Olympic level wheelchair rugby. Quoting from the DVD cover, “fierce rivalry, renewal of the human spirit and larger-than-life personalities, Murderball is courage redefined.” The movie is 86 minutes of telling the stories of men who became paraplegics due to accident or disease and who compete better than they could if they were fully-abled. The story revolves around the USA team and the coach of the Canadian team, who abandoned the US when he could no longer make the cut for the US team.

After the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat on the field of play, the last scenes of the movie depict the team at a US military rehabilitation center where they introduce wheelchair rugby to our troops made paraplegic in Iraq. You see the same determination and drive of the human spirit in the faces of our injured military personnel. America’s best; missing or useless limbs and still moving forward.

But, why I am angry? It’s because there is a significant segment of fully-abled in our society which is totally opposite to the paraplegics described above. They are a parasitic drain on society. They lack motivation, drive, education, work ethic, and productive values. They are swirling around in an entitlement driven cesspool of drugs and criminal activity.

Within the last two weeks, I’ve watched as youth and young adults trudged in and out of a house where you can purchase methamphetamine. There were a half-dozen present when we served the search warrant, including a 17 year old girl complete with the requisite pierced lip and nipples. She was holding the dope and money for the dealer. She had just gotten out of juvenile hall for possession of another “friend’s” handgun, which of course was stolen property. Each of the half dozen in the location was a tweaker (meth user), and they all appeared to have mental diminishment.

Two nights ago I attended the searching of a vehicle driven by a seventeen year old male arrested for selling ecstasy. His clients: probably mostly youth and young adults.

Yesterday, I participated in the perimeter containment of a residential area as officers searched house to house for the remaining suspect in a home invasion robbery. Two young adults, armed with handguns, invaded the home of an elderly woman and her son, and tied them up with duct tape. When the scum bags failed to find what they wanted, they cut loose the male from his bondage with the intention of taking him to an ATM to withdraw money. Their plan went in the bucket when they stepped out of the house and ran into the officers.

I am angry at the still vivid scenes in my mind of mass personal and societal dysfunction in New Orleans after Katrina with the acknowledgement that similar entitlement driven environments exist in every big city.

Poverty has always been with us. While poverty is linked to crime and drugs, it is not causative. It is a lack of positive personal values which is causative. A goodly portion of our youth is entering adulthood without the prerequisite characteristics and preparation to become productive members of society.

It is not the responsibility of government to prepare children for life, but rather the responsibility of parents. Parents must present a child with a loving, supportive environment and present a properly prepared child ready to be formally educated by government schools. Government, in general, has tried to assist, but has failed miserable. It is ironic that the very governmental efforts intended to help have exacerbated the conditions. That’s because government has chosen the technique of entitlement, which undermines personal responsibility.

There is definitely something wrong with familial/social & political systems that encourage and facilitate the devolution of core personal values necessary for a healthy and dynamic society. The various welfare entitlement programs and a deteriorating family structure is sucking out vitality and fueling a growing dependent, parasitic, and often criminal underclass.

The human spirit can be strong and produce productive citizens despite horrendous adversity. Or, it can be weak and produce dependent, non-productive, self-medicating failures. Society needs parents to be both responsible role models and tough-minded teachers. There is the primary rub. We have a failure in the family. Garbage parenting will produce more of the same.

Failure is American Bred

The rise and fall of nations is dependent upon the character of its people and the ability to defend itself from outside aggressors. Especially with large nations, the two are often interrelated. There are some indicators that the U.S. has begun the downward slide.

Change is expected and often good. The U.S. political systems have been moving left such that the Republican Party of today looks very much like the Democratic Party of JFK. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party of today has embraced the type of socialism that is failing miserably in Europe. So on one hand we have beneficial progress, and on the other hand we have a let’s shoot ourselves in the foot progress.

There are a myriad of warning signals that the U.S. is on the wrong track. They range from: the abysmal non-producers revealed by the New Orleans Katrina flood; to the overflowing prison systems; and the disgraceful abandonment of the Vietnam mission. There are so many problems in the U.S. that is overwhelming to attempt to consider meaningful policy to alleviate the conditions.

There are two essential root problems: an over sense of entitlement; and a large proportion of the populous which is uneducated, or lacks intellectual curiosity and/or is brainwashed by the predominantly liberal educational and media systems.

LA Times columnist Al Martinez noted:

And the new historians prepare to write it all down for people who don't read, don't understand what they do read or don't much care about it anyhow.

When so many can tell you the latest happenings on a “reality” show, or what the last thing Oprah Winfrey said, or the life history on a basketball player, and then not have a clue as to world conditions, you begin to get a feel for the problem.

It is quite remarkable and a testament to the vitality of the American system that this country continues to stand center on the stage of world affairs. It also makes us a target and our weaknesses are beginning to show.

And what is that weakness? It’s a lack of backbone on the part of the American citizens when things get a little tough.

Author Michael Yon had this to say about the Iraq war:

But what I saw (and see) as the biggest threat to the outcome was not the increase in sectarian violence among Iraqis. The biggest threat to this mission, and by extension to the future stability of this region and the long term security of the United States and our allies, is and always has been the inability to see, hear and communicate the truth to the American people and our allies. In the final analysis, it is not going to matter if the French support our mission in Iraq, but once Americans turn away from their soldiers in the field, we’ve lost.

It’s Vietnam debacle on the horizon all over again. And, if it happens I will be convinced that a permanent mutation has occurred in the collective DNA of the nation altering the basic character of the American people. In that case we will no longer deserve to consider ourselves to be the best nation in the world. I would call that a failure. I know that there are those among us who will raise a toast in celebration because they will consider it a victory. That’s only because they are already mutated.

To the Victor Goes the Spoils, Get Over It

Measured in terms of development and the Western expansion of the North American continent in what is now the United States, you can conclude that the efforts of the expansionists were widely successful. From a Native American Indian point of view, the same Western expansionism was disastrous. Preceding the Westward expansion, on the West coast there was a Northern expansion by the Spanish that was equally disastrous to Native Americans Indians. We don’t hear much about that little trivial part of history.

What we are hearing is that the Southwestern portion of the U.S. was stolen from Mexico and somehow Mexican/American Indian heritage entitles those with such blood lineage to have a legitimate stake in the claimed U.S. territory. Well, excuse me. The early Americans stole most of the continent fair and square. And the losers have no basis to claim foul since each dispossessed tribe got their territory by engaging in the exact same behavior with other Native American tribes. Not only that, but I suspect that most of those making the claim hail from Mexico and do not have any bloodlines from American Indians in what is now the U.S.

In the current comic series Alley Oop, the Kingdom of Moo just repelled an invading King’s attempt to take control. Alley comes up with the astute observation that it is the victor who writes the history.

And, to the victor goes the spoils, get over it.

History Repeats Because Man’s Nature Remains the Same

I grew up in a suburb of the Eastern San Francisco Bay area. When I was in junior high school, my brother and I were walking home from the library at night when a carload of high school students decided to accost us for who knows what their reasoning. They surrounded us, and it quickly became apparent that we were about to receive a pummeling. Instead of just being a victim, I decided to be an aggressive victim and I struck first and landed a resounding blow to the nose of the main antagonist. I can’t say I won the fight, but I didn’t lose it either. Contrast my black eye to his broken nose. I’ll have to admit that I scared my mother half to death with the blood all over me, but it was none of mine.

As a libertarian/conservative type of person, I look for examples of articulate liberals who can argue their causes without the rancor of the Michael Moore crowd or the air-head entertainment crowd. I’ve found just the right person, whose writing I immensely enjoy. That would be Los Angeles Times columnist Al Martinez. Since Al and I don’t agree on much of anything politically, his work offers me the opportunity to refute his liberal viewpoint. Take for instance Al’s recent column History:Doomed to repeat it and repeat it wherein he bemoans the fact that humans have not learned from our violent past and we continue to engage in violence. That’s correct enough, but drawing a moral equivalency between John Endicott organizing the genocidal slaughter of the Pequot Indians and Pres. George Bush ordering the invasion of Iraq is a good example of liberal confusion. Al writes:

In 1637, it was John Endicott, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who organized an army to slaughter the Pequots. Today, it's George W. Bush, president of the United States, who gathered an army to invade a sovereign nation in the name of a nonexistent threat; it's an effort that brings new pain to a world already screaming in agony.

Despite all our benign and beautiful characteristics, humans are a violent group of creatures who clump together for mutual assistance and protection. We identify our groups culturally, racially, nationally and religiously. Violence is part of the nature of mankind, specifically males. And, no amount of wishing that it were otherwise can change that fact.

To the peace loving portion of our human nature there is no difference between the micro attack on my brother and myself and the macro attacks that result in genocide or the killing of 3,000 by flying planes into buildings.

As to the correctness of the decision to invade Iraq, the intelligence communities from all the main players in the world were in agreement that Saddam Hussein had WMD’s. Why did they think that? Could it be because Hussein had already used WMD’s on the Iranians and his own people? Could it be that he played a cat and mouse game leading the world to believe that he still maintained a WMD program? When we invaded Iraq, the threat of Iraqi WMD’s was not known to be non-existent. In retrospect, Saddam Hussein screwed-up and miscalculated Pres. Bush and the Congress. Now that it appears that there was no longer a viable WMD program in Iraq, liberals suddenly have forgotten that the liberal politicians vigorously supported the invasion of Iraq and it is now only Pres. Bush’s fault that we are in a war.

And, if we want to throw stones at our own intelligence community for being bamboozled, let’s remember that it was the liberal politicians (the Democratic Party) who gutted our intelligence community funding and set-up the deplorable condition of our current intelligence capability.

Man is a violent animal and when he attacks or is preparing to attack you, you can choose to be a victim like sheep led to a slaughter. Or, you can be a victim that strikes back. Anyway you look at it, someone is going to be hurt or die.

I wish the world could be as good as Al thinks it should be. But, good thoughts and dreams don’t necessarily relate to reality. Man has evolved technologically, but not emotionally. He is still beset with powerful overriding insecurities and fears made even more threatening by relatively new world wide lethality.

Donny Boy

Donny Boy
(With a tip a’ me hat to the gent who penned the original)

Oh Donny boy, the snipes, the snipes are bawling,
From spin to spin, some generals now decide,
The war’s all wrong and for your head they’re calling,
‘Tis you, ‘tis you must go, they want your hide.

But guard your back from those now in the meadow,
From starry pundits claim they told you so.
To hype their books, they snipe you from the shadow,
Oh Donny boy, oh Donny boy, they hate you so.

And if you run when all the media’s lying,
Then truth is dead as dead the truth may be.
They’ll howl and hound you ‘til you are a’ dying,
And spiel an evil epitaph for thee.

And they will sneer no matter what befalls thee,
At all your dreams of sweetest victory,
For if you win they’ll still not ever love thee,
You’ll see no peace until Bush cuts you free.

Oh Donny boy, the snipes, the snipes are bawling,
From spin to spin, they’re crying for your hide.
Your war is lost is what the media’s calling,
‘Tis you must go, they want ol’ Rummy fried.

Russ Vaughn

Hot Easter Gift

Well, we had a great day with the grandkids, their parents and neighbors. The kids had a wonderful time hunting for eggs, and then we sat down to a scrumptious meal.

It was a couple of hours after everyone left that I begun to get the chills, backache and the fever headed right up to 102.6. That’s when we headed for the local Urgent Care facility. You may recall that I wrote on the emergency room problems previously. And, I’ll have to add something more on today’s visit when I’ve got more energy. Right now it’s antibiotics and off to bed.

Medicaid ID Requirements a First Step

Under a new law set to begin June 30, 2006, recipients of Medicaid are going to be required to show proof of citizenship in order to receive benefits. This is a very good first step toward shoring up sovereignty. And, it is a model that all government services should require before doling out of the public trough.

With alien immigration out-of-control, it is essential that government make serious efforts to ensure that illegal aliens are not stealing the public treasury.

Naturally there are those who are whining that citizens are going to be denied their rightful benefits. That is highly unlikely, but it is possible that some people will have to make some effort to prove their citizenship. So be it for the greater good.

Are You Conservative, Liberal or Libertarian?

How do you classify yourself politically? Chances are you hold some views associated with one party and other views with a different party. The Advocates for Self Government have posted on their site a ten question quiz called the “World’s Smallest Political Quiz.” Go to the link and see where you fall on the political map.

Ethics Column Advocates Unethical Conduct

Bruce Weinstein writes a column on ethics, and this week he laid a big ethical egg. The question at hand is whether or not it is ethical to bring your own food into a movie theater when the theater management has prohibited the practice.

This week’s column is a muddle-headed piece of writing, which attempts to advance the theory that it is ethical to sneak food into the theater in contravention to theater rules. Weinstein writes:

If you choose to bring your own food and drink to the movies, eat it quietly, clean up after yourself, and know that there are good reasons to believe you are doing no wrong,...

But then Weinstein appends to the above sentence,

…but you may be mistaken in this belief.

OK Mr. Weinstein, is it ethical or unethical?

Weinstein writes:

To require movie patrons to purchase snacks that are marked up significantly more than even the retail cost elsewhere is simply an unjust rule, and there is no ethical obligation to follow unjust rules.

Point of clarification: the patrons are not required to purchase snacks.

Earlier in the article, he got wrapped-up in a discussion about the profit margin of the theater, as if this has anything to do with the issue.

The bottom line is this: when you buy a ticket to enter the theater you are entering into a civil contract. You are paying your good money for the right to enter the establishment under the conditions granted by the theater management. You are not obligated to purchase food products. But if a condition of the license to enter is that you may not consume food products that are not purchased on the premises, you may not do so or you are in violation of the contract that you agreed to upon purchasing the ticket.

You have to wonder about the credibility of an author on ethics who does not understand that it is unethical to violate a civil contract.

If you don’t like the rules of the contract, go spend your money on some other activity.

Free Speech Does Not Mean You Can Vomit on My Blog

Both centrist Dennis Prager and conservative Hugh Hewitt have commented recently about the large amount of hostile vulgarity that they receive chiefly from those holding leftist and liberal philosophical positions. Michelle Malkin, also a conservative, has been the recipient of a massive amount of vulgar, racial, sexual and sexist attacks. Certainly there are conservatives who write with a potty mouth, but they don’t seem to exist nearly to the extent as do the liberals and leftists.

I hold strong views, and they are expressed in my writing. Naturally, if you are published you are going to get oppositional comments. For the record, I welcome well thought out and respectfully delivered contrary views.

I refuse to waste my valuable time reading vulgar comments on other blogs, so I naturally expect others to feel the same. Since I am competing for my readers’ time, I intend to offer them a product worthy of their time. Therefore, I require a high level of decorum on my blog.

I was recently the target of affection by a leftist out of the San Francisco area. My attempts to get this person to write comments respectfully without gutter language failed miserably. After explaining my rules of engagement to no avail, I began deleting only the most objectionable postings. When that did not work, I added the asocial response technique. This technique failed as well.

This week, the person posted a vile comment on my Cynthia McKinney piece. So, I decided to treat the recalcitrant childish behavior with the only technique that is likely to work. I deleted every comment he has recently made on this blog, and I will continue to delete any comment he makes in perpetuity. No grace period. No redemption period. And, it does not matter if he starts to post responsibly. He’s done on my blog, because I don’t trust him to keep a civil tongue in his head.

Time will tell what temper tantrums will be thrown. What else can be done? If he were a dog, I’d hit him on the nose with a newspaper and admonish “bad dog.” It is hard to debate when a significant vocal faction of the opposition is vulgar, rude, angry and infantile. I don’t expect my three year old granddaughter to engage in mature political discourse, but even she is not rude, angry or vulgar.

Higher Leftist Propaganda

Russ Vaughn penned a new poem on higher education, which is really higher leftist propaganda. Go to The American Thinker to read his poem.

Sheepdog Blood Leaves Queasy Stomachs

The noted psychologist Viktor Frankel posited that there are only two types of humans, the decent and the indecent. But, Frankel did not recognize that there are two subsets of decent people: the majority sheep; and the minority sheepdogs. The indecent are called wolves.

LTC (Ret) Dave Grossman wrote the excellent article On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs. He could not be more correct in his assessment. The LTC knows what he is talking about because he is a sheepdog, and he has lived a warrior life in the company of fellow sheepdogs protecting the sheep from the wolves.

If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.

The peace that the sheep demand and enjoy comes at a personal cost to the sheepdogs and their families. It has always been so. The repetition of police and military funerals is a constant reminder that a price is being paid by some to the benefit of all.

Police sheepdogs are constantly killed and injured, and many are cashiered from their professions as a result of on-duty injuries. These traumatic events scarcely cause a ripple in societal awareness.

Military sheepdog death and injuries are more dramatic in that they are generally clustered and associated with high profile military conflicts. For some sheep, it is the deaths and injuries to the military sheepdogs that slams smack dab into a wall of denial about the nature of the world. The result is a tendency to cut and run to assuage queasy stomachs.

The Los Angeles Times did a three part story on wounded military personnel and the great success that the military medical system is having in saving the lives of personnel that would have died in previous wars. Read about it here, here and here.

Marine Corps LTC Tim Maxwell wrote a terrific piece titled A Wounded Warrior. Maxwell is a wounded warrior, and he reiterates the theme presented in the Los Angeles Times articles that our wounded warriors are anxious to heal and get back with their units and into the fight. That’s a quality to which many sheep can not relate.

The great tragedy of the Vietnam War was that a good portion of the sheep lost their moral courage when the anti-war propaganda injected into American politics by Communist provocateurs and leftist intelligentsia exploited the sheep’s natural state of pacifism. As a result, the American public turned its back on the sacrifices of its own sheepdogs and conscript colleagues.

George Orwell wrote, “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” We are a society of sheep and we can not exist without out our sheepdogs. We sheep need to stiffen our spines and confront any denial that a cost must be paid for our survival. Let’s have no more Vietnam disgraces. Let’s honor our sheepdog warriors and stop the whining and hand-wringing. Our warriors ask for no more than our support. And, you don’t honor and support our sheepdogs by asking them to withdraw from the battlefield that has soaked up their blood. Their blood, not sheep blood!!

If the American sheep don’t come together and heed the advice of their sheepdogs, the pitiful bleats will be mixed with the gurgling sound of spilling sheep blood as Islamofascist wolves butcher in the name of Allah. Come to think of it, the gurgling was loud on September 11, 2001.

Arrogance, Class and the Race Card

Self-important and arrogant are characteristics often found in celebrities, and sometimes those characteristics are in direct contrast with the public’s impression of the celebrity. For my money, Bob Hope was one of those individuals. Here was a guy loved all over the world for his comedy, film career and work with the USO’s. He hobnobbed with the rich, famous and the politically powerful. And, how did he get so famous? By the dollars that the little people coughed-up. And, yet when one of the little people wanted his autograph, he was arrogant, and dismissive. Here’s the story.

It was the inauguration of the Ronald Reagan Library in 1991. Hope and his wife were VIP guests, and at the conclusion of the event they were walking toward their car. A little girl, no older than ten years old, ran up to Hope with a piece of paper and a pencil in her hand. She politely asked Hope if she could get his autograph. Hope ignored her and continued walking. She ran alongside him, asked several times if she could have his autograph, and then stopped in her tracks as he strode away never once acknowledging her presence. I’ve heard a number of similar stories about Hope, but I can’t attest to them. I can on this one because I saw it happen.

Contrast that behavior with that of Pres. Ronald Reagan, the Gipper. Everybody wanted to have the autograph of Pres. Reagan, but he often could not stop because the Secret Service would hustle him through the crowds. So, what did the Gipper do? He handed out pre-signed business cards as fast as he could.

It is interesting how some people never lose track from whence they come. And, others are too good to acknowledge the “common folk” or follow the rules of conduct. Rep. Cynthia McKinney appears to be one of the latter. Her behavior in the melee with the U.S. Capital police officer reveals her to be arrogant, self-important, hostile, violent, unrepentant and a race baiter.

Rep. McKinney walks through the security area of the Capitol without her identifying pin and expects that the officers should know who she is. Maybe they should have and maybe not. There is not yet any evidence to suggest whether or not the officer even had the opportunity to have seen her face. What we do know is that he had to pursue someone who failed to respond to orders to stop. It might be just a little difficult to determine who it is he is pursuing when the person is hurrying away from him and refuses to stop or turn around. When the officer takes a hold to detain her, she strikes out at him. Apparently, the battery is significant enough that a warrant may be issued for McKinney’s arrest. Does McKinney apologize for her actions? No, she and her spokespeople immediately play the female black race card. Her lawyer said that she is "just a victim of being in Congress while black."

McKinney is an embarrassment as a member of one of our national legislative bodies. I imagine that the citizens of Georgia also consider her an embarrassment. But, I suspect that McKinney is not disheartened. After all she still has the loyalty of the likes of Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte and all the other race baiters who rose immediately to her defense and lambasted this country as a bastion of racial hatred.

Welcome Cynthia McKinney to the Race Card Club. You and your fellow members deserve each other.

I’m an Idiot, Says the Marked, Stupid Man

A couple of months ago I wrote on the now fashionable trend of marking your body with indelible ink stains. You know what I mean; those cute little dolphins, fairies, and unicorns that your daughter sports on her buttocks, shoulder blade or bikini line. Or, how about the massive splotch of color across her sacrum? No, it’s a tribal band around the bicep you say; quite popular with males and a few females.

Humor writer Jason Love wrote in an article titled Confessions of a marked, stupid man that he got his tribal band after consuming too much tequila leaving him in a condition best described, I suppose, as blotto. Jason now thinks that:

Every tattoo should say the same thing: "I'm an idiot."

Jason, I think that the tattoo already says that. The trouble is that many people are illiterate.

For my blogging effort, I received a verbal thrashing from the defenders of the right to be an idiot. I suspect that at least one derisive detractor had a sharpened object protruding from the lashing tongue.

As it turns out, Jason eventually came to his senses and decided to have his idiot mark removed. That proves that the idiocy is not necessarily permanent, even though the tattoo tries it’s best to refute the issue. With great humor, Jason recounted his less than comfortable and expensive ordeal trudging the path to redemption.

Comrade Meathead and the People’s Republic

Who can forget the memorable TV series All in the Family staring: Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker; Jean Stapleton as Edith; Sally Struthers as Gloria; and Rob Reiner as Mike the “Meathead?” All of the show’s actors were outstanding making for hilarious comedy. The thing that makes a comedy funny is the truth to which we can relate. I am wondering whether Norman Lear engaged in typecasting when he picked Rob Reiner to play the role of Mike Stivic, the young liberal counterpart to old conservative Archie Bunker. Or did Reiner absorb the liberal persona of his character in the comedy? Which ever way it was, today Reiner is certainly the same “Meathead.”

Thanks to the great amount of money that Reiner has amassed, he is in the forefront of pushing the liberal agenda on the California political scene. You have to give Reiner credit for putting into play his liberal politics in an effective manner, as opposed to many of his Hollywood counterparts who simply spout liberal talking points and make celebrity appearances.

Reiner’s socialist political message is dead-on for the Californians who constitute the virtual People’s Republic of California. Simply put, the People’s Republic of California stands for the principle of wealth confiscation and redistribution. It is ironic, is it not, that some of the state’s most wealth people subscribe to the socialist philosophy of taking from those who produce and giving to those who do not produce. Is it guilt for all that they have? Do they perhaps feel that they have amassed their fortunes too easily? Whatever it is that drives these people, I suspect that none of them are personally hurt financially by their liberal programs. They have so much money that they can afford to hire the best accountants and attorneys to shield their money. And, these wealthy people can easily afford any increased tax liability without impacting their extravagant lifestyle. The same can not be said for the middle income wage earner who ends up carrying the bulk of the liberal agenda tax liability.

One consequence to California’s exorbitant taxation is the flight of business and residents to less tax onerous states. What a shame that the state with the best weather and financial potential is driving away sources of income and residents, who can no longer afford the cost of living in the state.

George Sjostrom, writing for the Ventura County Star, describes the exodus from the state in terms of the cost of renting a U-Haul truck to either move out of or into California. The costs are higher to move out-of-state based upon the greater demand to move away.

California is in the midst of tremendous social upheaval. At the same time that social programs are under siege by greater demands from an increasingly dependant populous, socialist activists are pushing for more programs. Those who are paying the bills are beginning to vote with their feet and move out-of-state.

If California continues on its current path, there will be continual shift toward a more blue state. The more wealthy liberal residents can feel smug and assuage their guilt as they sip their fancy coffee and drive their expensive vehicles. The leftist radical element will celebrate with raised clenched fists under the watchful gaze of Che Guevara on the wall of Bohemian style coffee houses. They will be plotting how they can take the wealth from their smug counterparts. Why not just kill them and take it? It was good enough for Guevara and Fidel Castro. Watch out Rob Reiner; you could go from Meathead to dead meat.