The Orangutan & The Hound Dog

The Orangutan & The Hound Dog

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Marvelous Monday - 09/28/09

One week ago today the Atlanta area went through what "they" are calling a 500 year flood. Because of that flood, I have discovered the up side to not having a basement: since we don't have a basement, our basement didn't flood. So far I've talked to one person who has a basement who didn't have water in it. Other than some detours to avoid flooded bridges, we really didn't have any problems from the water.

But that's not the only thing that makes today marvelous. Alice is four years old today.

Marvelous Monday - 09/21/09

Our son and his wife came for dinner on Saturday and that was good.

We played Phase 10 afterwards. I hadn't played Phase 10 in years and usually don't do well, but I had three or four goods hands this time.

Marvelous Monday - 09/14/09

Thank you, God, for letting me grow up in a country where we don't have to agree with everything the government leaders say. See previous post.

Back on Uncle Sam's Plantation

Six years ago I wrote a book called "Uncle Sam's Plantation." I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it.

I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas. A poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism.

I talked about government programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS), Emergency Assistance to Needy Families with Children (EANF), Section 8 Housing, and Food Stamps.

A vast sea of perhaps well intentioned government programs, all initially set into motion in the 1960's, that were going to lift the nation's poor out of poverty.

A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?" to "What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?"

Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems. The kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others.

The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black families.

Through God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is.

I had the privilege of working on welfare reform in 1996, passed by a Republican congress and signed into law by a Democrat president. A few years after enactment, welfare roles were down fifty percent.

I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with wealth producing American capitalism.

But, incredibly, we are going in the opposite direction.

Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism.

Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and they have said, "Thank you, Suh."

Now, instead of thinking about what creative things need to be done to serve customers, they are thinking about what they have to tell Massah in order to get their cash.

There is some kind of irony that this is all happening under our first black president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new young president. And maybe even more troubling, our corporate executives seem happy to move onto the plantation.

In an op-ed on the opinion page of the Washington Post, Mr. Obama is clear that the goal of his trillion dollar spending plan is much more than short term economic stimulus.

"This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending-it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care, and education."

Perhaps more incredibly, Obama seems to think that government taking over an economy is a new idea. Or that massive growth in government can take place "with unprecedented transparency and accountability."

Yes, sir, we heard it from Jimmy Carter when he created the Department of Energy, the Synfuels Corporation, and the Department of Education.

Or how about the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 -- The War on Poverty -- which President Johnson said "...does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done. It charts a new course. It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty."

Trillions of dollars later, black poverty is the same. But black families are not, with triple the incidence of single parent homes and out of wedlock births.

It's not complicated. Americans can accept Barack Obama's invitation to move onto the plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility and freedom.

Does anyone really need to think about what the choice should be?

(from Townhall.com)

Socialism Explained

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

--------------------------------------------

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.


The professor then said, "OK,
we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".


All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.


After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.


As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D!
No one was happy.


When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.


The scores never increased as bickering,
blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.


All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.


Could not be any simpler than that.

Southern Ten Commandments

Some people have trouble with all those 'shalts' and 'shalt nots' in the Ten Commandments.. Folks just aren't used to talking in those terms. So, in middle Tennessee they translated the 'King James' into 'Jackson County' language.....no joke (posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Gainesboro, TN ).

(1) Just one God.
(2) Put nothin' before God.
(3) Watch yer mouth.
(4) Git yourself to Sunday meetin'.
(5) Honor yer Ma & Pa.
(6) No killin'.
(7) No foolin' around with another fellow's gal.
(8) Don't take what ain't yers.
(9) No tellin' tales or gossipin'.
(10) Don't be hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff.

Now that's plain an' simple. Y'all have a nice day!

Marvelous Monday - 09/07/09

A day to relax and catch up on stuff. I could get used to it.

Marvelous Monday - 08/31/09

Yeah, I know. Marvelous Monday is more likely Terrific Tuesday.

We got an interesting phone call Sunday evening. It was one of my step-mother-in-law's daughters calling to tell us about something my father-in-law had been invited to do. Because of his many years in the carpenter's union in Paducah, he's going to be one of the Grand Marshals of the Labor Day Parade in Paducah. I think that's kind of neat.