Tag: Economy

Taking Religion out of the Military?

I have mixed feelings about this one:

“Soldiers with minority religious beliefs and atheists often feel like second-class citizens when Christianity is seemingly officially endorsed by their own base,” American Atheists president David Silverman told Fox News. “We are very happy the Pentagon and the Army decided to do the right thing.” A military spokesman told Fox News the cross was literally dismantled and will be removed from the base to be in “compliance with Army regulations and to avoid any misconception of religious favoritism or disrespect.” “After a Christian prayer, the cross was removed from the roof of the chapel,” the spokesman said. “During the removal, the cross was dismantled; however the cross was reassembled and currently awaits transportation to a larger operational base.” The military told Fox News the cross will only be brought out during Christian services and will be designated as a “non-permanent religious symbol.” Silverman said a Christian chapel on an Army base in Afghanistan could have put American troops in danger. “It inflames this Muslim versus Christian mentality,” he said. “This is not a Muslim versus Christian war — but if the Army base has a large chapel on it that has been converted to Christian-only, it sends a message that could be interpreted as hostile to Islam.” An Army spokesman said all chapels must be religiously neutral. “The primary purpose of making a chapel a neutral, multi-use facility is to accommodate the free exercise of religion for all faith groups using it,” he said. “We take the spiritual fitness of our Soldiers seriously and encourage them to practice their faith and exercise their beliefs however they choose.” Retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, of the Family Research Council, told Fox News a Christian cleansing of the military is under way. “I don’t think you can categorize it any other way,” he said. “There is a strong effort, led partially by the Administration as well as by atheist groups to destroy the identity of who we are as a nation and that means robbing us of our history.” —- Military: Crosses Removed ‘Out of Respect for Other Faiths’ | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes

On one hand, I would hate to think that having Christian symbols on a battle front could be putting our Military at risk. On the other hand, I would hate to see Christianity being removed from the Military entirely. However, we are in a Muslim Nation is Afghan region; one would think that the Military would want to be respectful of those people and their culture.

It is a mixed bag, and all the more reason why we really need to get out of that Country. Our mission is done there; we killed Osama and we need to leave. We do not want to make the same mistake the Russians made there. Besides all that, Al-Qaeda has moved into other regions and is much more a threat to other interests in other parts for the world now.

So, to this Independent, the quicker we leave, the better.

This is what happens when Democrats destroy an economy.

People get desperate:

Stay classy, Atlanta burglars.

Last month, thieves reportedly stole more than $250,000 worth of equipment from a warehouse northwest of the city, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The building was being used to film “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” — a sequel to the 2004 comedy “Anchorman,” starring Will Ferrell and Christina Applegate.

The building’s owner, Davis Nort, told authorities that $300,000 worth of copper wiring had been stripped from the building. The suspects also made off with four Apple computers.

“It’s a shame this happened,” Nort told WSBTV, “because Atlanta is really trying to get big in the film industry.”

via ‘Anchorman 2’ Set Burglarized In Northwest Atlanta  Huffington Post.

The plain truth is that the Democrats under Bill Clinton passed the sub-prime clause to the Community Reinvestment Act of 1973, in 1994. Clinton also repealed the Glass–Steagall Act. This caused an economic bubble and destroyed our economy. To be fair, the Republicans did not help matters either, when they removed a good deal of regulation from the SEC on loans and loan companies.  This only made things worse from the standpoint of how bad and big the bubble became.

When bubbles collapse like this one has, people become unemployed and people get desperate and when they do, they begin to steal. The ironic thing here is that the very polices that got us into this whole mess, which were passed in the 1990’s by the Democrats, are the very same one’s that the Democrats are advocating for now and are supported by people like Huffington Post and its owner.

Trickle down recession

This is what happens when Washington DC scares the living crap out of everyone:

SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell in Asian trade today on signs of weaker US energy demand and as positions hardened in a fiscal showdown in Washington that could push the world’s biggest economy back into recession.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January was down 16 cents to USD 87.72 a barrel in the morning and Brent North Sea crude for January shed nine cents to USD 108.72.

A weekly US government report released yesterday showed a surge in supplies of gasoline and other products, indicating softer demand in the world’s biggest oil consuming nation.

The supplies of distillates, which include diesel and heating fuel that are closely watched at the onset of winter, rose by three million barrels, while gasoline inventories leaped by 7.9 million barrels, five times more than forecast.

“Oil prices fell… after data showed a huge increase in gasoline stockpiles in the United States last week,” Phillip Futures said in a market commentary.

The political impasse in Washington over avoiding mandatory fiscal cliff of tax increases and spending cuts in January that may toss the US economy back into recession was casting a cloud on sentiment.

via Oil prices down in Asian trade – The Economic Times.

This is what happens when you scare the living crap out of everyone with a chicken match. If you are invested in oil, get out while you can. On the other hand, gas prices are going to come down and for we middle class, that is a very good thing. But, for those in the market, it sucks. Good time to get out of futures and get into gold or something.

Oh yes, and the Democrats are owning this one too.

This pretty much sums it up

I know I said that I would not be linking to this guy anymore. I have reversed this decision. If Israel wants to be stupid, then they should expect derision from people like this man here.

Anyhow, this pretty much sums up my opinion of the Republican establishment:

The Republicans in the House are largely more conservative than at any time since Wilson left office. One would expect them to understand the intent of the voters who sent them there and thus say no to more taxes, no to more spending and no to more borrowing. Instead, we have Republican leadership in the House that actually proposed raising more revenue by eliminating deductions on income taxes. They somehow claim that they are being faithful to their stated mission of fiscal conservatism by making you pay more money but at the present tax rates. They, too, have failed economics 101.

Any significant movement of wealth from taxpayers to tax consumers will not enhance prosperity; it will crush it, and it will breed dependence on a government that is fiscally out of control. The recipients will no doubt vote to re-elect those who gave them these payments.

via NAPOLITANO: GOP for Big Government – Washington Times.

Amen and Amen. Big Government sucks and taxing the job creators is beyond stupid. If the GOP plays surrender monkey on this; you can kiss that party goodbye. Because the grassroots will not vote for a party that says one thing and does another.

I will also say this: If the Republican Party thinks for one lousy second that the Tea Party is dead and that the movement has ended, they will be in for a huge shock come 2014. I believe that there well a huge ground swell of voter discontent come 2014, especially after when taxes go up on small businesses.

So, if the GOP wants to cave on this; feel free — but the clock is ticking and you have basically blown through your political capital, Mr. Boehner. If you believe that punishing true Conservatives is going to do you any good. Think again. Oh, it will help you on the short-term, so that you can play nice with the President. But, in the long-term, you are toast. You will be out of job, because I tend to believe that the Republican grassroots and the Conservative grassroots —- you know, those who actually vote for you? — are not going to stand for this at all.

 

Mildly Interesting.

Some seriously good stuff here, go read it:

Exactly two years ago, some of the more politically biased progressive media outlets (who are quite adept at creating and taking down their own strawmen arguments, if not quite as adept at using an abacus, let alone a calculator) took offense at our article “In Entitlement America, The Head Of A Household Of Four Making Minimum Wage Has More Disposable Income Than A Family Making $60,000 A Year.” In it we merely explained what has become the painful reality in America: for increasingly more it is now more lucrative – in the form of actual disposable income – to sit, do nothing, and collect various welfare entitlements, than to work. This is graphically, and very painfully confirmed, in the below chart from Gary Alexander, Secretary of Public Welfare, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (a state best known for its broke capital Harrisburg). As quantitied, and explained by Alexander, “the single mom is better off earnings gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income & benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income and benefits of $57,045.”

via When Work Is Punished: The Tragedy Of America’s Welfare State | ZeroHedge.

Unbelievable what they’re doing to us. So sad. 🙁

Please be sure to go read the rest of that.

Others: JustOneMinute, Instapundit, Power Line, Le¡gal In¡sur¡rec¡ tion, American Power, The PJ Tatler,The Lonely Conservative, Wake up America, Scared Monkeys, americanthinker.com, The Gateway Pundit,Moonbattery, Weasel Zippers and UrbanGrounds

The Hope and The Change: Restaurant Performance Index declined in September

All a part of The Hope and The Change that the President promised us.

Calculated Risk blog reports the following:

The RPI – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 100.4 in September, down 0.3 percent from August. Despite the decline, September represented the 11th consecutive month that the RPI stood above 100, which signifies continued expansion in the index of key industry indicators.

“Although restaurant operators reported softer same-store sales and customer traffic levels in September, they are somewhat more bullish about sales growth in the months ahead,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the Research and Knowledge Group for the Association. “Forty-five percent of restaurant operators expect their sales to improve in the next six months, while only 11 percent expect weaker sales.”

The Current Situation Index, which measures current trends in four industry indicators (same-store sales, traffic, labor and capital expenditures), stood at 99.9 in September – down 0.7 percent from a level of 100.6 in August. Although same-store sales remained positive in September, the softness in the labor and customer traffic indicators outweighed the performance, which led to a Current Situation Index reading below 100 for the second time in the last three months.

Here is the chart:

Click to make it bigger…

So, what does this have to do with Obama? Plenty. When you promise a better economy, and then, you spent 16 trillion-dollar on recovery that does not work and then you hike taxes on businesses and the middle class and above stop eating out, because of a President, who is more interested in taking trips and living it up, instead of actually running the Country. This is what happens, businesses suffer, and that includes Restaurants. Restaurants like Gallagher’s in New York, which survived the depression, but could not survive this economic downturn.

This is why we need to vote different in 2012; Are you unemployed? Are you feeling the pinch, like many Americans? This is why, when an economy gets depressed like this; this is what happens, restaurants and other businesses take the hit. Housing Market collapses, stock market tumbles, then the Economy drops. Then, the Government tries to print more money to fix it; and then everything you buy goes up. It is a vicious cycle and the only way to stop it, is to get the people out of power that caused it. This is why we have to vote for Mitt Romney. Memo to my Democratic Party friends: George W. Bush did NOT cause this mess. Bill Clinton did! Because of this, we are ALL feeling the pinch.

We need new leadership, and that is why we need Mitt Romney to be President of the United States.

Movie: The Hope and The Change

ACTION ALERT!

First, Please, Watch this Movie:

The Hope and The Change may also be purchased on DVD HERE.

Now, if you are a blogger, please, go to this link, and embed this video on to your blog.

If you are not a blogger and you are reader of this blog or even if you have came in via search engine; and you like this video, you need to get the word out. You can do this be e-mailing ALL of your friends, especially, if they voted for Obama and are now feeling the pinch. We must get this done by November 6, 2012. You see, I myself, am not a Republican. However, my friends, lets just be honest; Obama has failed to deliver the goods to the people. Because of this, he has to go and lets give Mitt Romney a chance to fix things.

Do I believe that Mitt Romney is perfect? No. But, I tend to believe Mitt Romney will be a better President. Not because Obama is black and Romney is white! That is so stupid and that “Race-Card” stuff is played out and I mean badly. It is because Mitt Romney is a businessman, and there is no bigger business than the United States! Mitt Romney will run the business and run it the way it is supposed to be run.

Putting this in personal terms from me to you; allow me to share a short story. I really should have been in this video. In 2004, I was $18.500 in debt, credit cards, cellphone, new 2000 Chevy s-10 pickup truck that I bought new. I was working for a pallet company in southwest Detroit, when I got this truck; everything was wonderful, until one day, the job ended — no warnings, no offers to go elsewhere — nothing. Here I was $18.500 in the hole and no offers of employment. I was on unemployment for a while and finally, that ran out. My parents helped as long as they could. Finally, in 2004, I could not put it off, I filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy. (Total Liquidation! I reaffirmed NOTHING!)  No, I do not blame Bush for my problems. I blame the economy in Michigan, which predated the huge crash in 2008. I also blame Democrats and their idiotic stupidity in Michigan too.

Here is a fun fact: No one bailed me out of my debt and prevented me from going under. Nobody offered me any hope and change. In defense of the auto companies, they were caught in the crossfire and the credit crisis. However, I still felt that they could have done a managed bankruptcy and protected the union workers, like my Dad. But to be fair, my dad lost much of his niceties in his health insurance. Me, on the other hand — I have no health insurance at all. I am grateful that I have my parents to fallback on, because some people do not have that. I can relate to the guy in this video, living with his Mother-in-Law. I live with my parents and I would love to live on my own, in my own house or apartment. But, in this economy; I just cannot afford, I never really could, being in so much debt. Now, I am debt free, I just would like a job or for my business to take off. But in this economy?  Good luck!

In fact, Obama basically tossed your “General Laborer” workers under the bus! Obama said that he wanted the “High Tech” jobs to come back here. What about those of us, who are not really high tech workers? Confused There are more unskilled laborers in this Country, than skilled ones. Does Obama care about them too? It is to wonder.

Anyhow, again, send this video to your Democratic Party friends and have them come here and read my story and watch the video. Maybe, just maybe we can win this election and get the United States out of the hands of this idiot that is trying to be President.

Thanks for reading,

-Patrick