People have become too comfortable with government

When average everyday American citizens come home from work, they almost invariably drive on a congested highway owned and maintained by the government, often on the way to an overcrowded government school to pick up their children. And before they pull into the garage, they check on their mail from the government-run bankrupt post office.

Simply put: American citizens cannot avoid the pernicious intrusion of government into virtually every facet of their lives. It is pervasive. And it is invasive. Yet, very few people fully understand the long-term consequences of constant government intervention. It is clear that the side effects of ubiquitous government control often causes people to make what many free market advocates might consider irrational decisions about current government programs.

For example, when one economist asked MIT Nobel laureate Robert Solow why he was opposed to school choice he said, “It isn’t for any economic reason; all the economic reasons favor school vouchers. It is because what made me an American is the United States Army and the public school system.” That economist was Dr. Daniel Klein and Solow’s reaction is what he calls “The People’s Romance.”

“The People’s Romance” is a phenomenon that draws people to government in a way that allows government to do things to which most people would object were they to step back and take a closer look at the deleterious effects of government usurpation. Through a myriad of common government-owned “focal points” (i.e. roads, postal service, schools), government solidifies its power, which Klein calls “encompassing sentiment coordination.”

Once government gains the passive acceptance of a large portion of the population under “The People’s Romance,” it can do almost anything it wants. One common historical example was Josef Stalin’s reign over the Soviet Union. It is clear that he had the subjugated people under one of the strongest “People Romances” in recorded history.

Obviously, “The People’s Romance” is very dangerous for a functioning free society and is at the heart of authoritarian thinking. Karl Marx believed that workers were alienated through capitalism and the division of labor, and that they should be brought together as a “union into one single productive body.” That meant that every individual was now working towards a communal end.

And it is now clear that “The People’s Romance” is becoming an established fixture in the United States. For example, most Americans cannot even fathom the elimination of the Department of Education – even though the quality of education has plummeted since the establishment of that union-controlled monolithic bureaucracy. And rarely will one ever hear a Washington politician or mainstream media pundit discuss a true free-market solution to the nation’s health care problems – even though it would cut costs and improve quality just as it has in almost every other industry.

Unfortunately, because of “The People’s Romance” indoctrination, the words privatization or deregulation are now considered taboo. And all of the while the nation goes bankrupt as government continues grabbing up and running down one sector of the economy after another.

So now, sadly, the solutions to many of the current problems facing the United States are being ignored simply due to people’s blind trust in the powers that be. And patched-over roads with massive traffic jams leading to costly government schools where children’s heads are filled with mush have become an acceptable norm, along with the inefficiencies of an government monopolized postal system.

In short, they are all part and parcel of a once less obtrusive, arms-length relationship the American people once had with their government that has long-since devolved into an oppressive “People’s Romance” gone horribly awry.

SOURCE

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Parents rebel against Obama TV speech to schools

'President doesn't get to speak to my children unchallenged'

Parents across the country are rebelling against plans by President Barack Obama to speak directly to their children through the classrooms of the nation's public schools without their presence, participation and approval. The plans announced by Obama also have been cited as raising the specter of the Civilian National Security Force, to which he's referred several times since his election campaign began, but never fully explained. "He's recruiting his civilian army. His 'Hitler' youth brigade," wrote one participant in a forum at Free Republic.

"I am not going to compare President Obama to Hitler. We'll leave that to others and you can form your own opinions about them and their analogies. ... However, we can learn a lot from the spread of propaganda in Europe that led to Hitler's power. A key ingredient in that spread of propaganda was through the youth," wrote a blogger at the AmericanElephant.com blog, where the subject of the day was a national "Keep-Your-Child-at-Home-Day."

"Totalitarian regimes around the world have sought to spread their propaganda and entrench their power by brainwashing the children. I guess it's easier to indoctrinate a six-year-old instead of fighting a 26-year-old or being challenged by a 46-year-old in the voting booth," the blogger wrote.

At issue was an announcement that Obama plans to deliver a message directly to students via the Internet into public school classrooms across the nation on Sept. 8. According to announcement posted on ServiceWire.org, Obama will address students "about the importance of persisting and succeeding in school" at 1 p.m. Eastern at the WhiteHouse.gov website. The announcement said the federal Department of Education "is encouraging educators, students and parents to use this opportunity to help students get focused and begin the school year strong."

The government also is publicizing a list of suggestions for students and teachers to do in preparation for the speech, including studying Barack Obama's writings and presidency.

Obama had announced the speech during a child reporter's visiting the White House. During the interview, Obama said, "On September 8, when young people around the country are … will have just started or are about to go back to school, I'm going to be making a big speech to young people all across the country…"

But opposition is assembling quickly, similar to the concerns expressed on the AmericanElephant blog: "Now the former community organizer and current president of the United States is making an unprecedented speech to the school children of our nation. I'd like to believe his motives were pure and politics didn't play into this. But viewing this administration's track record doesn’t afford such benefit of the doubt.

"When the president browbeats property owners who want to protect their legal rights… when the president admits he doesn't know the facts but impugns the integrity of a police force… when the president calls me a liar for reporting what is actually in the health care bills and encourages my neighbors to report me to some enemies list… when the president apologizes to nations around the world and bows to a Saudi king… he loses the benefit of the doubt," the blogger wrote. "Without benefit of the doubt, the president doesn't get to speak to my children unchallenged," the writer said.

The education department's suggestions include building background knowledge for students about Obama, and then asking, "What do you think he'll say to you?" During the speech, students should be instructed to "think about the following: What is the president trying to tell me? What is the president asking me to do?" Another exercise would be to have students write letters to themselves about "what they can do to help the president." "These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals," the recommendations suggest.

At the Docstoc website where the announcement about the speech was drawing negative reaction, one forum participant confirmed that his grandchildren would not be in school that day. "What's he going to do, tell the kids to report their parents to the Thought Police if they don't support Obamacare?" added another. "I don't care what the heck he's going to talk about, unless he holds a teaching degree for every state, and he plans on actually TEACHING a lesson, this SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED!!!" added another....

Duane Lester, writing at All American Blogger, has verbalized opponents' worst fears.

"Hitler knew that if you control the youth, you control the future. I wrote about him in 'The Threats to Homeschooling: From Hitler to the NEA.' As I noted in that article, Hitler said: 'The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of innoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled,'" he wrote.

More HERE

Update:

There has now been a big backdown on the "lessons" to go with the speech.

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BrookesNews Update

Is excess capacity dragging the world economy down?: Excess capacity is a effect, not a cause. The belief that can generate a 'deflationary spiral' is a myth. There is only one way avoid mass layoffs and to prevent masses of capital from being rendered idle and that is for central banks to adopt sound economics. Unfortunately this will never happen while economists like Bernanke and Lin insist on practising 'macromancy'
The idea that consumer confidence drives an economy is a gross economic fallacy :The idea that consumer confidence is needed to drive an economy is complete nonsense. Focusing on consumption instead of production is a grave error that has enormous consequences. It is because of this error that we now find ourselves in the current economic mess
Thanks to our incompetent self-appointed guardians of the free market protectionism is on the rise :Once we take the phenomenon of overvalued currencies into account protectionist arguments that blame free trade for the decline in manufacturing fall to the ground. However, the overvalued-currency approach helps explains the fall in manufacturing as a proportion of GDP and thereby fingers monetary mismanagement as the real culprit
Barnaby Joyce is now the real leader of the Australian Opposition :Is the Liberal Party finished? Turnbull has betrayed the Party and the country to Big banks, national law firms, transnational accounting firms, Wall Street traders and the merchant bank millionaires are not the real industry of Australia. They are the froth floating on the real rivers of productive industry, the rivers that Turnbull wants dam. It's time for Turnbull and his rich pals got the royal boot
Don Hewitt and the CBS covered for Castro's tyranny : Don Hewitt's death brought forth an avalanche of encomiums from his media comrades, praising him for his integrity, courage and fearless defence of the truth. In fact, Hewitt deserves not praise but utter condemnation. He spent years covering for the sadistic Castro and his crimes. He nothing less than a totalitarian fellow traveller who was deeply complicit in the torture and murder of thousands of Cubans
Oil is NOT a fossil fuel, and CO2 is an innocent victim of green hysteria :Man-made global warming argument is a myth and the idea that Co2 is a pollutant is a lie. It is in fact a nutrient and is absolutely vital to life. Without it the planet would be literally lifeless. Furthermore, scientific evidence is mounting that far from being organic oil is an infinite resource that is being continuously produced within the bowels of the earth
US dollars and the tyranny of oil : "The realities of the market, and probably the expectation of inflation caused by the printing of money in the United States and the rest of the world during the current recession, virtually guarantee that oil tyrannies in the Middle East, Eurasia and Latin America will continue to enjoy big revenues
The law of supply and demand applies to health care too : "Despite the fact that Massachusetts' mandated health insurance has turned into a medical and financial nightmare Obama is fanatically determined to impose a similar scheme on the country, a scheme that he and his fellow Democrats intend to exempt themselves from. In addition, Obama's contempt for the beliefs of others could close down scores of catholic hospitals
Obama's czars: who's really minding the store?: A number of Obama's czars share several unsavoury characteristics: they don't like America, they want to turn the country into a socialist state, they are opposed to the First Amendment, they want America emasculated and they want the Democrats to control broadcasting. And they were all chosen by Obama because he shares their leftwing beliefs

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ELSEWHERE

Fire service at fault in big CA fires: "Months before it dispatched its famed firefighters to California's historic inferno, the U.S. Forest Service was warned by its internal watchdog that it could not reliably decide which forests were most vulnerable to wildfires or take pre-emptive actions because it had failed to follow through on reforms it promised to make in 2006. The April 3 warning from the Agriculture Department's inspector general about a continued shortcoming in the Forest Service's fire prevention program called "hazardous fuels reduction production" surfaced Wednesday as Forest Service officials acknowledged that the government agency failed to clear more than 1,500 acres of Angeles National Forest underbrush that it had been authorized to clear. The U.S. Forest Service obtained permits to burn away undergrowth and brush on more than 1,700 acres, but had done so on just 193 acres, Forest Service resource officer Steve Bear told the Associated Press." [This is typical of Greenie influence. Greenies HATE preventive burns]

Rogue black college president: "Maricopa County sheriff's detectives want to talk with embattled Montgomery [MD] College President Brian K. Johnson about an outstanding warrant that would land him in jail if he returned to Arizona. Capt. Larry Farnsworth said the department is looking at Mr. Johnson, who is accused of owing at least $12,000 in child support in Maricopa County, Ariz., and confirmed the warrant is still active in that state. "I'd love to convince him to come back," Capt. Farnsworth told The Washington Times. "I'm happy to make him a resident of our jail." The Montgomery College Board of Trustees is expected on Thursday to decide the fate of Mr. Johnson, who has been accused of mismanagement and excessive spending. College officials have said Mr. Johnson is regularly absent from the office and has not attended meetings with key politicians, including Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley."

I think I know who the real A**hole is here: "In a video linked on Drudge Report, Obama Czar Van Jones calls Republicans A** Holes for not siding with Obama on legislation such as the Stimulus bill."

The destruction of the mass print media will help save freedom in America: "The invention of the Internet, just like the invention of the printing press in the 16th century, has reshuffled the deck when it comes to who controls the news and information to which ordinary people have access. The mass media is losing its power to control the news. It’s that simple! A new type of journalism, a citizen journalism in which all sides of a story are written about from every conceivable angle, is taking hold. It may be a bit chaotic right now, but better a little chaos than the controlled flow of information.”

Misanthropy revisited: "It seems to me that among too many scientists and champions of science there is a pointless misanthropy afoot, as if somehow to defend proper science against its pseudo variety one needed to take humanity a notch or two. It seems to be doubtless that human beings have special (enough) capacities, attributes, and so forth that classifying them as quite unlike all other animals known to us makes eminently good sense. Just take a few examples of what makes them so: it is human beings who do science, not dogs or orangutans or crows. It is they who build museums, produce movies, write novels, teach courses in anthropology and biology, etc., etc. Yes, people also are known to be quite destructive and, as Aristotle said some 2500 years ago, ‘If there is anyone who holds that the study of the animal is an unworthy pursuit, he ought to go farther and hold the same opinion about the study of himself.’ But while we are all animals, there is a lot that is quite different about people, different from other animals, and much of it is quite beneficial, even admirable at times.”

Whole Foods has guts: "For too long the left has had a monopoly on ‘business ethics.’ Executives who push the communitarian vision, or who are intimidated by progressive pundits, allow ’social justice’ activists to set the agenda and do all the talking. Those who do not agree are often cowed into silence. Business leaders who are turned off by leftist politics are likely to remain uninvolved and avoid getting into controversies. The Mackey article is a visible, concrete example that it is possible to be courageous, to stand up for principle, and to survive the disfavor of statist partisans. If Mr. Mackey can publicly defy those who want a government take over, so can you. There is something satisfying about putting leftist commentators on notice that they no longer control the discussion.”

My Twitter.com identity: jonjayray. My Facebook page is also accessible as jonjayray (In full: http://www.facebook.com/jonjayray). For more blog postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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