Constitutional Convention? Are You Crazy? Read the History of the First

Get real! Once a convention is called it can do whatever it wants. The first was called only to amend the Articles of Confederation not create a whole new Constitution. That convention, thank God, had statesmen on it. If you can find some statesmen it might be a good idea, but look around, all there are is opportunists, climbers, and phonies, hardly a statesman in the bunch. One amendment at a time if you want to change the Constitution. Let's repeal the 16th amendment and shrink the federal government down to size. SEE HERE

If You LIked the Last Bit, Try This One, About A Year Old

Collapse ... suck it up. This is the game ender if we don't get control of all the spending. This rhetoric has been running for over a year and things only get worse. No-one wants to face reality. They want to run deficits until the end of time. Yup! That will take the whole system down.

The Brainless Policy In the Middle East

It's anyone's guess where this will all end as the Middle East gets shakier and shakier. But anyone that thinks this is a victory for Democracy just doesn't understand the dynamics and the players. Look for more unrest and even worse events to come. That's my bet. The U.S. has no friends in the Middle East but Israel and we treat them so badly that the only reason they're friends is that they are surrounded by enemies who hate them.

Stand By For More Bad News: The Collapse Is Underway?

SEE HERE I don't know if the collapse is underway or not. Spreading gloom and doom has its own risks of self-fulfilling prophecy. I do know that spending has been over the top and irresponsible for years and years and that reality has to come a cropper sooner or later. You can't spend beyond your means, even if you're government, forever. The states are starting to go bankrupt and the feds are in denial. My guess is that we're rapidly approaching the tipping point. I've bought the usual collection of financial advice books that are always being put out in times like these. Will they be helpful? I'm not sure, but I think it is my responsibility to myself and my family to be informed as much as possible and to try to do what I can.
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to relive it. Is this balanced and likely. It sounds a bit alarmist to me, but the data is mostly correct I think, so concern ought to be building. I think the video confused Ford with Chrysler also.

Science as Shill: The Crumbling Credibility of Scientists

SEE HERE I resent the global warming fiasco more than most people I guess. I resent it because of what it says about the morals, or lack thereof, of a lot of people claiming to be scientists these days. When I went through school and studied Physics there was a lot of talk about what a high calling it was to be a scientist. Data was presented as sacrosanct and instances of cherry picking your data to make your results look better were condemned and some pretty prominent scientists came up for a little criticism when their data looked a little too good to be true.

Global warming is simply full of all these things and it is or ought to be totally scandalous. What really burns me is that it doesn't seem to be getting that treatment and that says more than all the studies you could ask for. It says that too many scientists these days are for sale and cook the books to make their sponsors happy. I think that's just outrageous. Until scientists start standing up and condemning this kind of dishonesty we can expect to see public respect decline.

COVER-UP CONTINUES

It Takes A Crook To Know One: Government Is A Ponzi Scheme

SEE HERE Set a thief to catch a thief I always hear. Well if the government is a Ponzi scheme (at least government regulation of the financial markets) you'd expect Bernie Madoff to know. Certainly the government's handling of the money supply sure looks like a Ponzi scheme. Need more money? No problem, fire up the printing presses. Like all Ponzi schemes, the patsy is the person holding the worthless paper at the end.

Spine? What Spine?

SEE HERE When it's a matter of principle, do what must be done and do it proudly. Running away from the challenge is how we got into trouble in the first place. Running away now is stupid. Double down and go for it.

Isn't Glenn Beck Awful? Wow!! Especially When He's Right.

SEE HERE I guess I should admit that I don't watch Glenn Beck much. But I find it amusing that he's such a lightening rod for the left and even some pundits on the right. Apparently they can't stand it that Glenn Beck has a huge, I mean really huge, following. He gets that following I think by always asking questions and not so much expressing opinions. He ornaments his questions with facts and the facts are often quite devastating. On the whole Beck has been on the money on a lot of issues, especially those revealing the chicanery going on in the Obama administration. I always like to know whose ox has been gored before taking outright ad hominem seriously. Liberals really hate Glenn Beck and for my money that makes him a good guy. Anyone who can reduce the left to sputtering and rage by just asking questions and presenting facts has to be doing something right.

Don't Believe Everything You Read and Hear

SEE HERE Apparently there's a bit of difficulty with the notion that hydro-fracking or whatever it is called is necessarily dangerous to the water supply. At least the claim here is that the major propaganda effort attacking it is fundamentally flawed.

Agenda 21? Well What Do I know ... Is This For Real?

I'm new to this Agenda 21 thing so I have not researched it. This came floating into my mailbox and it chilling if accurate. The bottom line is that I don't trust anything the U.N. has a hand in, but this sounds quite over the top. Who is orchestrating this kind of thing? Here's a U.N. LINK — Tell me what you think.

So What's Behind the Wisconsin Thing?: Scott Walker In His Own Speak.

Unions have to face reality just like the rest of us. "We're broke!" When you're broke you can't continue to pay benefits which already exceed what all the rest of the people receive. Notice how unreasonable they become when told that they have to face reality. Does that mean they think they are better than the rest of us? I don't know, but the sheer arrogance of all this just makes me boil. Virginia is a "Right to Work" state, which means you can't be forced to join a union. Frankly, forcing people to do anything is already suspect. Unions have a history of being unreasonable. That's too bad because collective action focused on quality is a good thing. Collective action focused merely on forcing others to give you a pass on quality and pretty much anything else is just a fundamental evil.

It's Time To End Government By Union Thuggery

This is the kind of intimidation that needs to be resisted. The true colors of the liberal progressive thugs who are trying to create a monolithic welfare state are on display for all to see. If you're prepared to support tyranny, here's your chance. But if you want limited representative government you need to stand up against the thugs and support Governor Walker. Your future likely depends on it.

It's Called Tyranny: They Want to Beat You Down!

SEE HERE The government has become a cosmic interferer. The whole EPA thing is over the top. This is simple tyranny. Between protecting snail darters and slugs and vague kind of rats and invading your property and pushing you around, just what benefits actually result from this kind of invasion of individual property rights. Instead of the government having the right to step in and say stop, they should be required to show cause and pay all the expenses if they want to interfere with people's property.

Trashing A War Memorial So They Can Be Seen

I guess the question is whether any of the younger generation get it. Freedom isn't free. If they want to do it, tough on your sensibilities. They don't give a damn. (At least it ended up being cleared off.)

The Nature Of The Welfare State: A Train Wreck!

The welfare state has grown and grown and has as a byproduct the destruction of the families of the poor and the subordination of the heads of families to a bureaucracy maintained by liberal progressive apparatchiks. The limitless growth of entitlements is coming to a reality test. The hard reality is that the capacity to fund it is running out just at the time that it has destroyed the initiative of the American people, thereby setting up a crippling train wreck. Once you've conditioned people to think they should be taken care of by others, and then you run out of money to deliver, you've created an inflammatory situation. It's time to wake up and restore American independence and initiative.

Civility: Democrat Style! It would be funny if it weren't pathetic.

SEE HERE After over a year of vile Democrat Liberal Progressive name calling and demonizing directed at the middle class Americans that form the heart of the Tea Party, the usual suspects reveal the real nature of intolerance and hate. You guessed it. The left wouldn't have standards at all if it weren't for double standards. The hypocrites are out in force with all the vile attacks you could think of except they're not nearly as civil, orderly, and respectable as the Tea Party. Funny thing about that. The reason the left is so facile with their accusations is because they're always projecting their own psyche on others. It must be tough to be as dour, cheerless, and filled with bile as they folks are.

It's Time To Close the Candy Store

Unions in the public sector are a form of blackmail against the people. The problem is that it's one big gravy train on other people's money so no one is minding the store. It's easy to grant more benefits when you're really not paying the bills and all it involves is raping the taxpayers. Well all the candy in the candy store is gone. There isn't any more. If you can't be reasonable then you don't deserve a job at all. It's not as if you're doing anything really worth what you're being paid. The private sector can do it all better and cheaper. Government has never done anything very well, never cheap, and never fast. It's lose, lose, lose all the way around.

The Hypocrisy of the Open Minded

SEE HERE Those who seek the truth are not content with the sham evasion called "being open minded." That is really just an excuse to abandon the search for what is true, good, beautiful, and fundamental. I would add only one proviso and that is to avoid the trap of false certainty. We can be deluded and for that reason we should always be open to correction through the maintenance of an existential doubt, which says "I am prepared always to be shown that I am wrong, but I don't believe that I am on this matter."

Some Fundamentals: Be Not Misled

A few excerpts from Imprimis see Imprimis Reprinted by permission from Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College.

Islamic authorities of all the major branches of Islam hold that the Koran must be read so that the parts written last override the others. This so-called theory of abrogation means that the ruling parts of the Koran are those written after Muhammad went to Medina in 622 A.D. Specifically, they are Suras 9 and 5, which are not the Suras containing the verses often cited as proof of Islam’s peacefulness.

Sura 9, verse 29, reads: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of truth, even if they are of the 40 people of the Book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

Sura 5, verse 51, reads: “Oh ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors; they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them for friendship is of them. Verily Allah guideth not the unjust.”

Sura 3, verse 28, introduces the doctrine of taqiyya, which holds that Muslims should not be friends with the infidel except as deception, always with the end goal of converting, subduing, or destroying him.

Any portions of Islam that one imagines indicate it is a religion of peace only come from the time in Mecca. All else is blood and violence and conquest. The lands that Islam first subdued were all the classic Christian lands of the New Testament. Not only is Islam not a religion of peace, it is a religion of subjugation and religious genicide.

Cost of Health Care?

You're paying for all this healthcare that is being provided gratus to illegal aliens. One can be sympathetic, but if they are not supposed to be here in the first place we should charge their country of origin for their health care or in some other way make it clear that it is not our obligation to give free health care to everyone who chooses to violate our laws.

Freedom of Speech or Propaganda: Jam Islam Down Your Throat

Red State points out that this is increasingly going on through out the United States as Islam tries to posture as a civilized option. Sorry ... dialogue is not approved. This is Islam's idea about "open discourse." Disagreement is not allowed.

The Party's Over

UPDATE 2-25-11 Hot war may only make things worse. Might be best to be in cash says Money News

Here's the bottom line folks. The party is definitely over. I got a financial report today which was positively chilling if you read between the lines. Let me summarize at the big picture level. Government spending is running 23% of GDP. That's Federal Government spending of course. If you kick in the spending by state and local governments the figures get worse. Independent of tax rates the government can't consistently take in more than 20% of GDP. If they try the economic shrinkage kills the expected benefits of the higher tax rates. The current debt limit is $14.3 trillion. BTW just to put that number in perspective the GDP of the entire U.S. was $14.26 trillion in 2009. So the government currently owes the entire income of the country for a year and is generating new spending at 23% of that figure each year of which, catch this, 43% is new debt.

This is not just unsustainable, it's sheer madness. Suppose this were the position of a individual who was making $50K a year. To have a situation like the U.S. currently has he would owe $382K and be spending $87.9K a year, $37.9 K more than he is taking in. To service his debt he has to pay about 2.88% (gets favorable rates) which works out to $11 K per year in current interest so if you stick all this stuff in a spreadsheet you discover that under any reasonable assumptions the system collapses in no more than 20 years on the outside and probably substantially less than that. It's reality time! You can't fix it with taxes and you can't fix it with more debt. It's time to cut spending and entitlements big time. The gravy train is over! As Maggie said: ‎"The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." Well the game is over. The question now is whether the players will recognize it and do something sensible or take the whole system down? I'm betting right now that they're idiots and we can watch the panic. Meanwhile you better figure out what you're going to do. I sure hope I'm wrong. (BTW there are some other really bad scenarios such as all the reserve currency float coming home to roost if the rest of the world decides to stop using our currency as their store of value which they might well do if we look like a bad risk. Then move the collapse date up substantially.)

Can anything be done? Probably, but not if no-one will belly up to the bar and recognize the problem is real and urgent. You can't tinker your way out of this most likely. I've over simplified this a lot so maybe I've missed some important fundamental factors. I'm going to try to validate my analysis and keep you posted. Meanwhile, what would you do if most of your money became worthless tomorrow?

Magical Thinking: The World Is Mystical To Its Core

SEE HERE I'm a scientist. What that means, among other things, is that I start out as an operational materialist. I assume first that everything has an explanation that can be adduced through understanding the characteristics of matter. But as everyone should know, although many seemingly don't, this is really not a very adequate stance if you want an explanation of everything. The world is at once too magnificent and too magical for such a mundane explanation to be wholly satisfactory. Nevertheless that is what scientists do and we tend to condemn "magical thinking."

I am also a fan of G.K. Chesterton and his two disciples C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien who have plumbed deeper depths than the average scientist to find at the core of the world not matter but a magician, a mystical magician who has woven webs of mystery around all things. The mere fact that we can know beauty and goodness and truth is a marvel. That we can commune with nature and see in the mystery of a raindrop the design of the universe is all magical. Chesterton says it over and over and very well. "We have all forgotten what we really are." ... "All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork." ... "The thing is magic, ... I came to feel as if magic must have a meaning, and meaning must have some one to mean it." (Orthodoxy isolated pickings from Chapter 4 Ethics of Elfland)

Peter Navarro: My Favorite Financial Newsletter

SEE HERE It's not like I have a zillion dollars or anything. I don't. But I've always enjoyed handling my own investing. I have a couple of IRAs and a non-tax sheltered investment account as well as a couple of Annuities. All told it doesn't come to all that much after a lifetime of saving and I expect many of you are in the same kettle of fish. I was just reading the other day that the average American who's been struggling to save over the years with a 401K and maybe an IRA is looking at a pretty bleak future. This is likely going to be worse even than expected since our good buddy the NIC (Narcissist In Charge) is busy trying to spend the country into bankruptcy, take over the health care system, destroy conventional marriage, and ... well it goes on and on but to no good place. If things don't change we're likely in a lot of trouble.

Over the years I've read a lot of books on investing and I've invested myself. I've made some good deals and some not so good ones, but over all did better that I probably would have in some brokerage account with an adviser trying to churn the account whenever he needed extra money. A couple of years ago I got a Little Professor course at Barnes and Noble called Big Picture Investing. I thought it was the most level headed no-hype and thoughtful course in investing I'd ever listened to. Later I bought a couple of his books and I signed up for his newsletter. It's free! If you want to get advice from someone who doesn't have an ax to grind and is pretty level headed, I'd check out Peter Navarro.

Curable or Incurable?

SEE HERE Just how much common sense do you have? This article might give you a personal assessment.

The Truth About Islam

CHECK IT OUT This gives you a fair and balanced view of Islam in the modern world. You can get some further validation from Allen West HERE

This Should Be An Impeachable Offense

SEE HERE Since when is it the prerogative of the executive to uphold the federal law or not? If he doesn't agree with the law he should work to change it, not refuse to defend it by fiat. This is rule by tyranny not by law. Demand accountability. MORE

Death Spiril Of A Failed Philosophy

SEE HERE Red State has it right. If it doesn't fail now, it will fail soon. The policies of Progressive Liberalism are like walking into the gas chamber with your eyes open. It's a death sentence. We wake up soon or the whole thing explodes in our faces.

Government Controlled Wireless Internet?

SEE HERE What part of the Constitution suggests that the government should control the wireless internet? When are we going to stop these power grabs? The NIC (Narcissist In Charge) isn't going to be satisfied until he's spent all the money and controls everything that can be controlled. This whole administration has been one big money spending fest and power grab, not to mention the interminable golf outings, vacations, and great chef fly-ins. I'll be happy if I can afford some Spam® by the time this character is done.

Sometimes It Takes A Computer

It was great fun watching the IBM Watson computer in action this past week on Jeopardy. Now it spawns a humorous cartoon pointing out that most of the rising debt that is crippling the country is due to out of control entitlement programs, otherwise known as the third-rail of politics. The problem is with unsustainable promises that have been allegedly funded with payroll deductions and then the money was simply spent by the government which put IOUs (government bonds) in what were called trust funds. It's all been a Ponzi scheme and killing 60 million potential taxpayers (read abortion) didn't help cover the expenses. The system is now officially bankrupt and well on its way to disaster. We're still whistling past the graveyard. This house of cards is going to come down in either an orderly manner of a catastrophic manner. Any bets on which is more likely? Let me give you a hint: Washington is braindead!

The Sustained Hypocrisy of the Left

SEE HERE Tea Party folks take note: When the big government types come out to argue for the sustained perks they derive from your taxes, they are the voice of the people, but when you come out to ask for smaller government and liberty you're maligned and accused of being bigots and Fascists. There you have it. These people are not on your side. They need to be replaced with patriots.

The Brainwashed Serving their Masters

SEE HERE Let's see ... is this doing your job? When you're asked to actually make a contribution to your health care and your retirement instead of just cranking up the demands higher and higher, when you're already receiving benefits 44% higher than those in the private sector, then you're perfectly entitled to use your students as camera-candy for your defiance. Yeah, that's responsible NOT. The interesting thing is that from the student's point of view this is just a day off from school. Most of them couldn't explain what the issues are to save their lives.

Amusing

Awkward Situation Room - Passive / Aggressive from RightChange on Vimeo.

People To Government Employees: "We Can't Afford You!"

SEE HERE "Can You Hear Us Now?" should be the mantra for Wisconsin. Government employees shouldn't be receiving benefits and salaries substantially better than their counterparts in the general economy. That's just one more sign of the irresponsibility of government. No one is minding the store. Get a government job and coast for the rest of your life. Somebody should say "The gravy train is over. Start pulling your fair share of the load." Hopefully Wisconsin is sending that message. It's a message that needs to be heard and acted on more widely.

And Exactly How Is This Fair? Public Servants?

SEE HERE One has to wonder on what planet such generous benefits can be afforded. I suppose, facts be known, that these are likely not the average payouts, but there is the question on what grounds any of these examples ought to happen. Part of the problem with government is that no-one is minding the store. It's always party time when you're spending other people's money.

What Is The Responsibility Of The Press?

SEE HERE So here we have a fellow in a Pakastani jail for killing a couple of persons he claims were trying to rob him. He's a U.S. citizen and the Washington Compost says he is a contractor working for the CIA. This revelation no doubt will make it harder for the guy to get out of Pakistan and it might well make it hard for him to get out alive. The question I have is why this is something the Post has to reveal? Do they have any responsibility in their reporting to consider the possible effects on others? I don't see why I needed to know this and if this guy ends up being offed I think we can confidently say that the Washington Post would be one of the reasons.

Don't get me wrong. I am interested in what the CIA is up to. I'm not the biggest fan of the CIA just because I don't think it gets nearly enough oversight. But I also recognize that just being suspected of being CIA related can get you killed in some places. So I'm sure the family is grateful that you idiots at the Post outed him. I think it could have waited.

Laugh of the Day

SEE HERE
Check out the date before taking this too seriously.

Don't Confuse Republicans and Conservatives

SEE HERE Red State points out what ought to be pointed out over and over and over again. Republicans and Conservatives are not the same thing. A good fraction of Republicans are just soft Democrats in disguise. Conservative is as Conservative does. Don't mistake the Republican brand for "conservative." All too many are nothing of the kind.

Freedom of Speech on the Left? Lipservice!

SEE HERE So much for freedom of expression if you don't hew the party line. It's always a hoot when the left talks freedom and then fails to practice what they preach. Where I come from it's called hypocrisy. No shortage where the Clintons are concerned. I'm not convinced I'd support this guy's pint of view, but I'd support his right to indicate his disagreement in a basically non-disruptive way. The left isn't very good at toleration despite preaching it all the time.

This Ought To Be Interesting

SEE HERE Well if this happens I guess we'll get an objective measure of just how safe open carry on campuses is likely to be. I suppose it depends on how many lunatics are on campus. My father used to say that an armed society is a polite society. We always had guns all over the place and no-one ever abused them. My mom would find one every now and then years after my dad died. We grew up around guns and never really thought much about it. The modern world which has demonized what my dad used to say was "... among the simplest of machines" has created most of the fear out of whole cloth and ignorance. When I was a young man every high school had a rifle team. One of my girl friends had a hilarious picture of herself holding the biggest bull-.22 rifle you ever saw. It was bigger than she was. She knew how to shoot it too. My wife surprised me at a picnic one time where we were firing .38's by hitting the bulls eye the first time. Don't mess with her!

Disgrace At Columbia

SEE HERE Spoiled brats at Columbia protest the idea of ROTC. The military are the ones that sacrifice to defend their freedom. Perhaps we should restore the draft and start by giving special consideration to Columbia students. In a society that is rife with degradation and moral decay the military remains one of the last bastions of sacrifice and honor. These young people are a disgrace. MORE

Religion of Peace? Brutal Barbarians More Likely

SEE HERE This is the kind of thing you get from the religion of peace. Violent attacks on defenseless women. Brutal treatment of their own wives and daughters. When are we going to portray Islam for what it really is? Meanwhile, Islam wants to impose Sharia law in the United States, no really! And the flag of Islam will fly over the White House and we can all sing Kumbaya and brutalize our women together. No he didn't say that. He didn't have to. SEE HERE

What Possible Business Of Government Is It What Kind Of Light Bulb I Use?

SEE HERE This nanny state nonsense has to stop. It is simply crazy to think that the government should have a hand in deciding what kinds of light bulbs, food, and all the rest of it we use, eat etc. Who made them God and put them in charge of all our lives? I want them to do government things like defense, courts, and weights and standards and keep people honest by holding them to what they advertise and put on their products, but telling me what to do? Nope! Where is that in the Constitution?

Rights? Not Really. You Have Duties.

SEE HERE All we every hear about is rights. I have a right to this or that. The bottom line is that you have a right to get off your tail and start busting it to make do. There is no long line of folks lined up to take care of your needs. They are having enough trouble taking care of their own and if they have a little extra it goes to the folks they have responsibilities for before you get a cut and it's entirely voluntary on their part if you do get a cut. So just stop yammering about all your rights. I want to hear you telling me about your duties and how you are fulfilling them. When you're through doing that you can tell me about your rights. I've spent my whole life trying to live up to my responsibilities and I'm not very patient with folks who think that among them is taking care of them when they won't try to take care of themselves. That's a non-starter.

A Certificate of Live Birth Is Not A Birth Certificate

James David Manning is an interesting and passionately anti-Obama person as far as I can tell. He runs something called Atlah up in New York. The fact that this issue continues to have major traction is interesting in its own right. The point is that no-one seems to be able to confirm that Obama was actually born in Hawaii, no attending physician, no hospital, no corroborating testimony and no-one who testifies to actually knowing he was born in Hawaii. Meanwhile there appear to be a large number of people in Kenya who think he was born there. The issue needs to be explored and confirmed. It's too important and there are people in prison now just because they refused to obey orders they were not convinced were legal orders. Why is a birth certificate causing all these problems if it isn't a real issue? I have one. What's so sensitive about it unless you don't have it.

Will the Supreme Court Do Its Duty? Don't Bet On It!

SEE HERE The whole issue of Obama's eligibility should have received a hearing a long time ago. But I doubt this will turn out to be anything more than a pro-forma cover. Meanwhile a career officer languishes in prison for demanding that the Commander In Chief show that he is entitled to hold his office. I had to show my birth certificate to register for social security. It seems like a reasonable demand that the president show his bonefides. Good luck on that!

The Hypocrisy of the Left

We're always hearing how it is the right that engages in hate speech. The odd thing is that generally I don't see that. I see the left engaging in hate speech and then accusing the right of it if they so much as complain. CHECK OUT WISCONSIN MORE

Theft By Government Agents: Literally

SEE HERE Gee don't you feel safer now?

We Continue to Delude Ourselves: It's Time for Some Straight Talk

SEE HERE Read this paper and give yourself a reality check. China and Russia are not our friends. Islam is not a religion of peace. The world is a very dangerous place, and George Washington said: "In time of peace prepare for war." This is not the time to imagine that we can shrink the military a lot. I'm all for going in and trimming fat, but we need to recognize that the next war will be "come as you are." There won't be time, like in wars of past years to gear up. It will start and be over and if you're not careful you'll be a radioactive cinder. The biggest deterrent we have is our capacity to quickly and convincingly deliver power anywhere in the world. Nothing less is acceptable. Don't kid yourself.

The Irony Of It All: Liberal Duplicity!

SEE HERE Ann Coulter can always be counted on to see straight to the core of liberal hypocrisy. Here she does it again. She's right on, as usual. Just where was the cheering squad when George Bush was removing a dictator and giving the people of Iraq a change for democracy? What a bunch of hypocrites!

Ten Things Wrong With the U.S. Economy

SEE HERE Click through to some of the charts and tables to see supporting data. Gloom and doom and rah-rah hoopla are flip sides of the financial community's usual sales pitch. I have a bookshelf full of claims that the economy is about to collapse with publication dates going back to the 1950's so the cry of woe is me and gloom and doom isn't new. Still the problem never seems to get better and incremental growth in cumulative gloom and doom seems to go nowhere very good. So read and consider what your exit strategy is?

Al-Qaida Recruiting American Muslims

Budget Reality: We Have To Stop The Spending

I've been watching the antics in Washington for a long time. The players may change but the game never seems to. We have to "balance the budget" we hear. We have to have "fiscal responsibility" we hear. The folks saying those things always seem to be the folks out of power. So the public which is concerned about runaway spending votes in the wailing minority and they proceed to spend just like the majority and now the new minority takes up the mantra. We're being gulled. We need to start talking this seriously and stop being the targets. Every dollar the government spends is extorted from you. For every dollar someone gets from the government, more than a dollar was spent in the bureaucracy on the round trip from your pocket and back via Washington. Worse, the government when it spends money spends it recklessly. They don't get value for the money they spend. It's all "free money" from their point of view. They didn't have to earn it. This game will go on until we get serious about throwing the bums out or the system collapses. Right now it's an even money race! I think collapse has the most chance of winning though. These clowns in Washington are too addicted to this game to stop playing.

Liberalism Is The Ideology of Western Suicide

SEE HERE Multiculturalism is a failure. Worse it is a recipe for the death of Western Civilization. Pat Buchanan explores the current state of collapse in Europe. Is there a solution? Not within the liberal playbook. It was solved once in Spain when the Muslims were expelled. That may be the only solution if the West is to be preserved.

Pressure to Dump the Dollar as the Reserve Currency Continues

SEE HERE France wants to move away from the dollar as the reserve currency. The problem is that that's a hard move because there is no other single society with enough capital to bankroll the reserve so they have to move to some kind of multi-currency system. Ultimately this could move towards a world currency like the Euro which would also be a move towards world government. Neither of these are good for sovereignty. I'm not prepared to see the U.S. knuckle under to a world court, a world governance system or a world currency, thank you very much. But if the move away from the dollar continues then all those dollars come home and that sounds like a lot of inflationary pressure possibly in a short time.

Who Do You Trust? Who Can You Trust?

SEE HERE Well if this isn't a smoking gun I don't know what is. Data fudging is bad science. When a data set is changed the question is why? Here we have an example that shows a rather malicious change in a climate data set to make a global warming claim. Bad science almost certainly. Agenda driven lying quite likely!

WMD Attack Certain says FBI Expert

SEE HERE This isn't really a surprise is it? The mindless hatred in the minds of some drives them to attack innocent people. It's likely a kind of paranoia or maybe a kind of twisted envy. You have more than we do so it must be your fault that we are poor and downtrodden. This kind of thinking is rampant in the world. It isn't the case.

It's called Zero Sum Game thinking and assumes a false model of wealth as sort of a finite pile of gold so if you have the gold you must have stolen it from my share. They might think about it more like a gold rush. The folks that get the gold are those that go to where it is and work hard to dig it out. If you didn't go and dig, why do you think you have a right to any? Much less why do you think you have a grievance that justifies you killing people randomly?

Reality thinking however says that they're there, they don't like us, and they want to hurt us and so we must be ever vigilant and head them off if we can.

Some Things Are Too Funny Not To Share

The Difference Between Can and Ought

SEE HERE This is a piece about where many Libertarians go wrong. They go wrong because they have confused license with liberty. They imaging that morality is only a personal matter. That is an error and it leads to very bad places.

Economic Concerns: Are We Seeing the Decline of A Once Great Nation?

SEE HERE There always seem to be two kinds of folks, the doomsdayers for whom the end of the world is right around the corner, and the pollyannas who find something to be cheerful about in anything. This is a little piece from the doomsdayers. You should read it just to be informed. There are a lot of economic concerns that we should address. Many of these concerns are driven by out of control government spending and on the consumer side, excessive consumer credit. We could all use a dose of reality when it comes to spending money we don't have. The signal that the party is over will probably be a sudden and substantial rise in prices. The leaders will all then moan about greedy corporations and what not, but the reality is that the currency will have finally been debased to the point of excessive inflation and maybe even hyperinflation. That's a pretty stern wake-up call. We should start patching the boat before it sinks, not while it is sinking.

Ron Paul Supporters Boo Cheney and Rumsfeld

SEE HERE I suppose some people simply have no class and no perspective on history. Both Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are admirable public servants and deserve to be treated with respect by an allegedly conservative crowd. Perhaps we need more than anything to start teaching manners again.

Ever Growing Dependence on Government Has to End

It's Insane That There's An Argument

Here it is! This is the basic argument for the freedom of a free citizen to keep and bear arms. I have the right, not from a document but from natural law to keep and bear arms. The question is, by what stretch of the imagination should your right to defend yourself be limited by a state that not only can't protect you but actively frees repeat offenders who are dangerous criminals, that is a state that recklessly endangers you. "I don't like repeat offenders. I like dead offenders." Well said Ted!

Stand By For Armageddon

SEE HERE This can hardly be a recipe for peace in the Middle East. Israel surrounded as she is by enemies may well be pressed to the wall. The psychology of all this is hard to exaggerate. We need some voices of reason and accommodation in the region before everything erupts into a war that is likely to spread.

Rand Paul: Saying What Needs To Be Said

SEE HERE This is not the time for half-measures. We need to start seriously cutting back government before the system simply collapses.

This Is Hilarious — Proves My Case. Liberals Are Just Projecting!

SEE HERE Some things are just too funny and this is one. Liberals are always calling people on the right selfish, bigoted, and on and on. I've always thought that very strange since Conservatives are among the most generous and compassionate people that I know and many of the Liberals I know are always labeling and demonizing folks. So this article which cites survey data is really funny. It shows that when liberals are calling names, they're really just projecting their own attitudes on Conservatives. That's not really a surprise but it is hilarious. So the next time a liberal calls you a name just smile and ask him if he's seen his therapist lately.

SDR's A New Global Reserve Currency?

SEE HERE This is a bit concerning I'd say. It sounds like a mechanism to flee the dollar which is currently the global reserve currency. The would free up the dollar for an inflation run that might make Jimmy Carter's look like a cake walk. It's time to start practicing some fiscal restraint, rein in the deficit and squash this idea before we become the latest casualty in the fiat currency collapse game.

Laffer Weighs In: Good Economics Is Non-Partisan

SEE HERE Reagan's economic policies created 21 million jobs. The Democrats claim it increased the deficit and the deficit did go up, but the deficit, as usual, was created by too much government spending. We need to cut tax rates and cut government and you'll see the economy prosper. Government is the biggest anchor on the economy you can imagine. It creates nothing and aborbs everything taking a bite out of every dollar it pretends to "invest." Government doesn't invest, it lavishly wastes.

TFP Sticks It Out At CPAC: Standing Up For Moral Principles

SEE HERE This really shouldn't have to be said. There is simply no compromise on moral principles. You stand for the truth or you stand for nothing at all. The GOProud crowd is a noisy and destructive diversion. If you want to accelerate the deterioration of the republic just keep watering down the message. You have to stand for something and actually have a message to be counted. The Democrats have a message — Power at any price. If it were not for double standards they'd have no standards at all. We can do better than that.

GOPride Conservative? Don't Make Me Laugh!

SEE HERE You can't abandon traditional values and call yourself a Conservative. It's really just that simple. Homosexual orientation (whatever that is) is itself likely a psychological illness, but homosexual practice is immoral and a perversion. Sorry, but facts are facts. All the current jockeying around to try to position oneself in some sort of neutral position is just dishonest. You either stand up for truth or you fold and admit to being a relativist. Which is it?

CHECK OUT LES FEMMES' TAKE

An Open Letter To Congress

SEE HERE Global warming alarmism is bunk! Let's hear it from some real scientists. I get so annoyed by the pseudo-science that is pushing the AGW alarmism that I could just spit. These are folks on an agenda driven crusade based on cherry picked proxies to create a climate conducive to big government initiatives to extend the power and wealth of a select few. It's nonsense and it's bought and paid for by government grants. The big reason why government grants are a bad way to fund science is that it ends up here, buying all the "science" that fits your agenda.

Con Men In Washington? What A Surprise!

SEE HERE Give me a break! Of course the folks in Washington are trying to marginalize the Tea Party. If they can't then we might actually have a chance of ending their party, the tax and spend forever until we're all bankrupt party which has been going on for decades. Don't be fooled. You have few if any friends in Washington. They are all scoundrels until proved otherwise.

Economics 101: Big Government Is A Bad Idea

Staying On Top Of Things

Religion of Peace Strikes Again!

SEE HERE When are we going to stop hearing about how Islam is "a religion of peace." It's just a lie. Islam was spread by the sword from the beginning and has almost zero tolerance of free speech. If you doubt that then read the article again. We hear how they tolerate people of the book, Jews and Christians, but it really isn't true. What they do is suppress the people of the book making them live second class lives under Sharia law. It's time for the West to wake up and face facts and not play this little "all religions are the same" Kumbaya game. All religions are manifestly not the same.

Lest we forget perhaps this 2007 report should be remembered.

iPhone Confession App

SEE HERE Give me a break! This managed to get totally confused as one of my colleagues popped into my office this morning and said something like "Did you hear that you can use your iPhone to go to Confession?" — well he didn't quite say that, but that was sort of the gist. I had no idea what he was talking about but here's one of the stories this managed to generate. The VATICAN
was quick to point out that this was not going to confession on the phone. The iPhone app is apparently something to help Catholics with the examination of conscience that is expected to precede any confession. Confession is a sacrament of the Church and implements Jesus's injunction: "Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them. Whose sins you shall retain they are retained." John 20:32.

LES FEMMES LINK1 LINK2 offers a couple of posts on the same topic.

Judicial Activism? When the Courts Actually Do Their Job!

SEE HERE This is a new twist. The courts have been bending over and letting the Congress get away with murder for decades. Maybe it's time to rein in all the out of control abuses of power created by extending the interstate commerce clause beyond any reasonable construction. It's time to start interpreting the Constitution based on what it actually says and not on what the Congress wishes it said. It would be a good thing to do while we still have a republic.

Christians Need Not Apply

SEE HERE The military is being suborned by the gay agenda. Apparently morality is no longer welcome in the U.S. military. Suck it up and accept a blatant double standard Christians. You can have your nose rubbed in the aggressive in your face immorality of others but you can't protest. This is a grievous offense against freedom of expression and traditional morality. What's next? And why? We have a society on the skids and this can hardly do anything but accelerate the deterioration.

Bacon On the Hoof ... A Hunter's Delight

SEE HERE Feral pigs, a new game for hunters and at their breeding rate one that will not be soon exhausted. This reminds me of a day when my sister was driving with me to the mall and suddenly went nuts: "Follow that car she commanded." "What car?" I said. "That black one!" So being a dutiful brother I followed this black SUV and as we got closer my sister said "I love it. I have to get one of those." I thought she meant the SUV. "No" she said. "That bumper sticker." There on the back of the black SUV was the bumper sticker: "I love animals, they're delicious!"

AUSTRALIA MAY HAVE A BIGGER PROBLEM

Ultimate Weirdness: Ghost Cities In China!

SEE HERE Why? Why would anyone build huge ghost cities with all the modern conveniences and no population? Does anyone have an explanation? This is just awfully strange. In some kind of rational world you'd expect it to mean some sort of planned population relocation. But up front, I'm totally mystified. They look pretty interesting too. The modern equivalent of building pyramids? SEE HERE STILL MORE MORE TIME PHOTOS OF ORDOS

Figures Don't Lie But Liars Figure

SEE HERE The CDC is holding up the abortion report, indeed, it appears they actually had not intention of releasing it until their feet started to be held to the fire. Here is what appears to be just another case of the government managing data for political purposes. If you wonder why people don't trust the government here is a case in point to go with the cooking of science to create global warming alarmist, the cooking of economic data to conceal obvious inflation and deteriorating job data or hiding overspending with off the books transactions. There need to be some teeth put into the process so that people who cook government data are punished and held up for public examination.

Managing Money

SEE HERE I received a message the other day with the disturbing data that students coming out of college are often saddled with huge debts $20,000, $30,000, even $40,000 and more. That's quite a burden to bear when you are just staring out. Moreover, with the state of the government finances there are serious questions about the future. The best strategy is to plan for financial independence and that means first and foremost learning to manage your money well, pay your debts off and be very careful about creating debt. The link I put up was sent to me by a reader and has a lot of resources you might want to consult.

The bottom line observation that I would make is if you can avoid increasing your indebtedness then don't take on more debt. It is far better to go without for a few years while saving than to just borrow up to the maximum. This is as true for home mortgages as for anything else. The home mortgage thing has to balanced against the cost of renting however. Building equity in a home is certainly better than simply paying rent. Another element is to build a long term investment plan. Start putting aside at least 10% of your pay into investments with the commitment that you won't touch that money. If you do that wisely then you'll build equity in the future. If you don't then forty years from now when your working life is finishing up you'll find that almost all you have is the mountain of debt you've accumulated and no way to pay it off. Start being frugal and investing now, not ten years from now. The discipline you build doing that is alone worth the price of admission.

The Illusion Of Government "Care"

SEE HERE The idea that government makes anything cheaper or that they provide "care" is a hopeless illusion fostered by those who seek only to enlarge their power in the name of compassion. The reality is that whatever the government touches grows more expensive and more difficult to obtain. They talk a good game but in the end they actually remove dollars from the system to pay for bureaucracy and red tape which gums up the works, slows down everything, and makes some things simply unavailable. It is not for no reason that former president Reagan said: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

Easy As She Goes ... Avoiding the Third Rail and Accomplishing Deficit Reduction

SEE HERE I'm not a big Dick Morris fan. Anyone that has been as close as he has to the Clinton's has a long way to go to earn my trust. He looks like an opportunist to me. But regardless of that, good advice is good advice and just because we're won the Congress doesn't mean we have to be stupid. It's wise to bide our time, follow popular reform and then when we are stronger put more systematic reforms in place. One step at a time's the ticket.

Remembering Ronald Reagan at 100

We want it to be morning in America once again! Happy Birthday Mr. President wherever you are!

Danger Will Robinson ... We've Wimped Out!

SEE HERE Amazon hit me with an new email today about something they call Kindle Singles which apparently are short pieces on "ideas." So I'm a sucker for looking anyway, and went and looked at some of the wares being offered. I actually only load old classics on my Kindle, and some new Computer Science works, but these were interesting to browse through a little.

One caught my eye because it strikes me that it highlights a real problem in our modern society. I'm not sure exactly when we became a nation of wimps who were afraid of their own shadows, but it's happened in my lifetime.

When I was a boy we burned leaves along the road in Falls Church in the middle of a suburban housing development. Now we're afraid of our shadows if we, heavens to betsy, burn leaves. All the kids carried knives to school just because we were cubscouts or boyscouts and that was what boys carried. Most of us had shot BB guns and a lot of us had .22 rifles which we used under supervision. All the high schools has rifle teams and usually there were girls and guys on them. They shot these big bull-nose .22's. We played with mercury a little, making pennies really shiny and I remember if you lived near railroad tracks it was fun putting pennies on the tracks and picking them up again after the train had gone by because they were all flattened. There wasn't nearly as much organized sports which was good because then we could organize for ourselves and go down to the local park or open ball field and create a pick up game. You'd choose sides using a baseball bat and a grab the bat hand over hand method to decide who picked first. Soccer was mostly thought of as kickball in the street. We'd have to stop for a minute if any cars came by. Everyone liked to play with slingshots. We'd make them with rubber bands and shoot paper wads or paper clips. You had to be very careful with the paper clips because they could hurt someone. Chemistry sets in those days had real chemicals in them. We had lincoln logs and tinker toys and constructor sets that let you build really interesting and significant things. There used to be model airplane kids with balsa wood, not these prefabricated plastic things. We had little engines we could run. There were electronic kits to make things. When I was a boy we had real fire crackers and cherry bombs. Every now and again some fool kid would hurt himself, but that was because they'd not been properly taught how to use the things safely. Now noone is allowed to use them.

Nowadays all that kind of thing seems frowned upon. Everything is homogenized and sterilized and sanitized and boring and non-creative. We've been wimpified and scared half to death by ghoststories that have little reality. You might as well put everyone in a padded cell. The world is not a safe place and bringing up kids in a padded cell isn't going to make it any safer. We need to get back to teaching kids about the real world and not teaching everyone to be afraid of their shadow.

Transcending Challenges

SEE HERE Some challenges we make for ourselves and others are just provided gratis. Some are acquired late in life and some spend a lifetime with us. Some are psychological and invisible and others are all too visible and stimulate others to look through us or deem us unworthy of note.

All of that is untrue because we are not our challenges nor are we our talents or good looks. We are miracles each and every one of us no matter how wide or narrow our talents are, no matter whether we are gifted or challenged, beautiful or deformed, we are miracles. We are the triumph of matter bound with spirit and uplifted by glory. We have a destiny beyond the stars, all of us. But we have to love one another. That is the final challenge.

It's Dangerous Out There

A friend writes:
Listen for the first "click" as the driver pulls out and points the gun at the trooper....a .41 magnum revolver. The "click" is the hammer dropping on an already fired round in the cylinder.
The second round was live! A lucky trooper indeed!

The suspect was shot in the back while driving away and died on scene after crashing into a telephone pole.

Note the speed at which the trooper draws his weapon and fires... The entire magazine! All 15 rounds -- Accurately! Practice makes perfect.

A Constitutional Convention Is A Terrible Idea

It's hard to imagine a worse idea. If you want to amend the Constitution it includes provisions for that purpose. Convening a Constitutional Convention will simply destroy the Constitution that we have and leave us open to any wildeyed agenda proposed. I might have a different view if I saw statemen on the scene of the stature of Jefferson, Madison, Washington, and others. But instead I see a cabal of venal climbers and opportunists. Let saner heads conclude that a Constitutional Convention would be a terrible idea.

FOLLOW UP

Down The Tubes ... Stand By For All Hell To Break Loose

SEE HERE If the Middle East destabilizes and Israel is surrounded by enemies and those enemies decide to attack you will have a blueprint for Armageddon. Israel is not going to go down without nuking its enemies if it comes to that. The whole region is a tinder-box of Islamic radicalism. Moreover there is little love lost within Islam between the Sunni and Shiite factions. So it's also likely these folks will be at each other's throats. The whole issue is very complex because of the many factions. About the only thing they manage to be unified about is hating Israel and the West. Good luck!

Too Politicized To Cover: Too Little and Innocent to Even Count.

SEE HERE Now that abortion has become a secular sacrament and no sacrifice is too great to conceal its reality from the general public, apparently the Center for Disease Control (CDC) will no longer cover abortion. The lethality rate on abortion is over 50%, i.e. more than half the people involved die. Of course I'm counting the baby, but as we've seen recently a reasonable number of the mothers die as well. Those that don't die are often, almost always, emotionally scarred. What is it about killing your children that shouldn't be emotionally scarring? But now we have the government not even willing to publish the statistics. How convenient. How telling. How evil.

A Thought For The Day

Cute! Don't take the math too seriously but the message is worth some thought!

A Report From Egypt I Received From A Christian On The Ground There

Dear friends,

I am writing this to you as a witness to what is going on from the streets of Cairo over the last few days. We have been following the developments since January 25th, which started with a large group of Egyptian youth taking to Tahrir square in an anti-government protest with specific demands. I know some of these people who were in that group and I talked with them. What is happening now has nothing to do with this original protest! What is happening right now is a conspiracy to topple Mubarak from outside the country!! I am not a conspiracy theorist, but let me tell you what I have personnally witnessed on the streets of Cairo.

I want to share first what the LORD told me on Friday morning.

I went to the LORD in prayer on Thursday evening, praying like many others for protection and for the restoration of peace and security in my land. I told the LORD: "Father, answer my prayers with rain", which He has several times before. I went to sleep. I woke up on Friday morning and went directly to prayer. Immediately, I sensed a strong urgency from the LORD saying: "As the people of Egypt presented their requests to Mubarak, I am calling on My people to rise up before me and present their requests to me for their nation". I went on to hear the LORD: "Let the Holy Council assemble". I didn't understand who this Coucil was, but I knew in my heart that the LORD meant that there are people in my land that are called by the LORD to stand before him as His Holy Council with authority to make declaration over the land, to establish the Kingdom in the land. My demands to the LORD were not political ny nature. I prayed for "good news to the poor, freedom for the oppressed, healing for the brokenhearted, and the acceptable year of the LORD" as the Holy Spirit gave guidance. The LORD spoke to me the words "JUSTICE" and "TRUTH". As I went to talk with Rania afterwards, she told me that she had been awake all through the night, and that IT RAINED around 12:45 am. It was very strong, but not for a very long time (a few minutes). I knew then that it was the LORD. The LORD spoke Psalm 97:1-2:

The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice.
Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

Indeed, there had been unusual clouds and very thick fog in December over Cairo, unprecedented in frequency and intensity. Again, the words TRUTH (or righteousness in the English translation) and JUSTICE resounded.

As we followed the unfolding of events including the announced change in government and president Mubarak's speech, we wondered why the international news media is focusing only on the thousands in Tahrir square who are escalating their demands and refusing dialogue. The news media is reporting this as "the people of Egypt" wanting Mubarak to leave immediately. Did they ask the "people of Egypt?". For one, they did not ask me! Where are those, like myself, that want change and reform, but accept the changes that Mubarak is proposing, and want a peaceful transition through elections in September?

We decided to take to the streets to voice our opinion. On Tuesday February 1st we went to Mustafa Mahmoud square in Mohandessin. There were about one thousand people there around 3:30 pm. (yes, we broke the curfew). the crowd grew to about 2500 by 5:00 pm. People were calling their friends over the phone telling them to come. We left at about 6:30 pm and returned yesterday, Wednesday, starting at 11:00 am. The small group had swelled to TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE standing together with banners saying things like:

- yes to stability, yes to Mubarak

- give change a chance

- we are sorry Mr. president

- we accept dialogue, we trust you

- no to ElBaradei, no to the muslim brotherhood (many like this one)

- we are the Egyptians, where is Al-Jazeera, let them come and see

- no to corruption, no to vandalism

- we got what we asked the president for, so why are people still in Tahrir? Who are they? What do they want?

etc., etc., etc.

By 2:00 pm, the crowd had grown to SEVERAL HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE, maybe up to a million, stretching from Sphinx square to Sudan street. We had a great sense of unity and victory. We met with people who were in the original protest in Tahrir square who decided to join us saying: we got what we asked for, and now we accept Mubarak's changes and proposals".

We left around 4:15 pm. The numbers had grown even more, POSSIBLY OVER A MILLION. As we drove home we saw the same slogans on banners all over the city, on cars, on walls, on shop windows. We learned that similar demonstrations are taking place ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, IN MAY DIFFERENT CITIES. THIS IS THE CRY OF THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT THAT IS BEING TOTALLY IGNORED BY THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS MEDIA. Is this on purpose??!!! I am perplexed!!! I am wondering: How come CNN, the BBC, and others are reporting ONLY the anti-government protests as the voice of the people? This is not JUSTICE, this is not TRUTH. There have been reports that these people are being paid by the government. NOT TRUE! I was there with many many others. I SAW THE STREETS.

Now to the situation in Tahrir square. Only a few people (hundreds?) are still there from the original protesters. They have been slowly replaced by other HIGHLY ORGANIZED GROUPS. They all have the same model of cell phones. They all have the same blankets (eye witnesses). THESE ARE NOT THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT. Some witnesses claim that they don't look Egyptians, and don't sound Egyptians (different accent, different dialect). THIS IS A BIG ORGANIZED COUP TO TRY TO CONVINCE THE WORLD THROUGH THE MEDIA THAT EGYPT WANTS MUBARAK TO GO, AND THE MEDIA IS PART OF THE DECEPTION. People in Tahrir square are escalating the situation on prupose to topple President Mubarak FOR THEIR OWN HIDDEN AGENDAS. This is TYPICAL OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERS, AND EVERYBODY IN THE STREETS OF CAIRO KNOWS THIS. We heard people on the streets saying that the plot to take over the country is now clear. THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS. The escalation of violence in Tahrir square is because of this. Egyptians who love Egypt, the millions that took to the streets yesterday, want this to end. They fully understand that president Mubarak is between a rock and a hard place, that he cannot quench the unrest in Tahrir through the army, so the people want to go to Tahrir to disperse the crowds there by themselves. People in Tahrir are vastly outnumbered. If Egyptians go the Tahrir square to take control of the situation, more chaos will erupt, giving a chance to the international media to blame the President even more.

If Egypt falls, then neighbouring countries are going to fall one after the other. WE NEED PRAYER, WE ASK FOR TRUTH, WE ASK FOR JUSTICE, and above all LORD, in wrath, REMEMBER MERCY. Stand with us. The Lord calls Egypt "My people". He is calling on His HOLY COUNCIL in the land of Egypt to stand before Him, to make declarations in the heavenlies to establish a new 'constitution' in the land based on the principles of the Word of God, to establish a 'new foundation' for His kingdom to come. Pray for the schemes of the enemy to be annulled and voided. Pray for deception to be exposed. We humble ourselves and pray. We seek the Face of the LORD. We turn from our wicked ways. LISTEN TO US LORD, FORGIVE US, HEAL OUR LAND. In the Name of Jesus.

In Him, standing for God's purposes in Egypt,

Rafik