Observations From the Back Row

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Americans Produce More Regulatory Compliance Paperwork than Manufactured Goods
Yes ma'am. You heard that 'torectly as they say (sometimes) in the South. Americans spent enough time and effort complying with government regulations to total $1.8 trillion of our roughly $15 trillion national GDP. (Source: Small Business Administration). During the same year, the entire American manufacturing industry made $1.7 trillion worth of: airplanes, cars, furniture, clothes, upholstery, widgets, gadgets, wingnuts and Sidewinder missiles. Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Industry Economic Accounts (2009) This is why this current 'debate' (mid-slinging) by the Obama Administration over 'out-sourcing' and 'Bain Capital' is so maddening, mind-numbing and quite honestly, 'dishonest'. If you have ever wondered why so many US corporations have fled to set up shop overseas over these past 30 years, look no further than this astounding fact:

$1.8 trillion in regulatory costs. The entire $1.7 trillion in total manufactured goods produced in America today.

The Desire to Return to the Box
Prometheus was a sneaky Titan. He created man despite Zeus warning him not to. Then he brought men fire. In addition to punishing Prometheus, Zeus decided to get even.  He had Hephaestus mold a woman from clay and the gods breathed life into her filling her with all the finest attributes of the god’s beauty, creativity, kindness, and also curiosity.  Zeus then arranged a marriage between the woman and Prometheus’s brother, Epimetheus. Prometheus had warned his brother not to accept gifts from Zeus, but the brother did so anyway. He and his wife, Pandora, were given a box with a very clear instruction on it to never open it.

One day, Pandora, overcome by her god’s given curiosity, opened the box. Pestilence, plague, disease, and sin poured forth from the box into the world. Last out of the box came hope.  Some will take issue with comparing guns to Pandora’s box, but in the discussion of gun control, Pandora’s box is the appropriate analogy. Try as we might, we will never, ever put guns back into Pandora’s box.  Gun control is a fool’s errand.

Obama Campaign Official Sen. Louise Lucas: Romney Campaigning on Racism
Disagreement continues to be defined as racism by the Democrat party. Speaking on the John Fredericks Morning Show, State Sen. Louise Lucas, part of President Obama’s “Truth Team” and an official member of the campaign, accused Mitt Romney of gearing his campaign in Virginia to “fringe racists” which, one can only assume, is anyone that opposes President Obama.

 Bloomberg: A Little Anarchy Might Help Convince People to Give Up Their Guns
The latest evidence that New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg’s brain is melting into a puddle of hot goo came courtesy of a Monday night appearance on Piers Morgan’s CNN “show” .This time, the pint-sized billionaire with a taste for cradle-to-the-grave control over the proletariat suggested that police officers across this country stand up collectively and say we’re going to go on strike until the people, in exchange for order, safety, and security, willingly give up their right to bear arms.

We’ve Defeated Fred Upton!
Well, not exactly. Fred Upton has defeated Fred Upton.  As the primary season progresses, we’ve see this pattern repeat itself on numerous occasions. There’s an old bull Republican who has been pushing for big government and anti-free-market policies for years. Then, as soon as his primary opponent begins to sow the seeds of disquiet in his district, the old bull lurches to the right, introduces conservative legislation, and attacks his conservative challenger as a liberal.

Republican Supporters of a Democrat Senate
In recent years, GOP establishment figures have accused the Tea Party of thwarting a Republican majority in the Senate by nominating conservatives whom they believe are unelectable. One would expect them do elicit a commensurate degree of outrage from the following story reported by The Hill.

Putting Students First
One of the things that we should take from the epic battle in Wisconsin as well as the fundamental changes that are taking place in New Jersey, is that real education reform is no longer a “third rail” political issue. Organizations, governors and activists are taking the issue of education head-on and even the National Education Association (NEA) is learning that their time as the dictators of education are over.

News versus propaganda
By Thomas Sowell
Since so many in the media cannot resist turning every tragedy into a political talking point, it was perhaps inevitable that (1) someone would try to link the shooting rampage at the Batman movie in Colorado to the Tea Party, and that (2) some would try to make it a reason to impose more gun control laws. Too many people in the media cannot seem to tell the difference between reporting the news and creating propaganda.

o NBC News apparently could not resist doctoring the transcript of the conversation between George Zimmerman and the police after the Trayvon Martin shooting.

o Now ABC News took the fact that the man arrested for the shooting in Colorado was named James Holmes to broadcast to the world the fact that there is a James Holmes who is a member of the Tea Party in Colorado.

Why GOP leaders slur Bachmann, defend Obama

By Alan Keyes

 

During the GOP’s blatantly rigged 2012 primary season, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., distinguished herself as a sincere spokeswoman for the conservative grass-roots constituency the nomination of Mitt Romney will emphatically betray. Just recently she joined with several of her colleagues courageously to demand an investigation into evidence the Obama faction has placed people associated with organizations that promote Islamic jihad and Shariah law into high-level positions in the U.S. government, from which they may be exerting inordinate influence on America’s foreign and national-security policy. Now key members of the elitist faction’s leadership in the Democratic and Republican parties have embarked upon a scurrilous campaign of personal destruction aimed at discrediting Bachmann’s demand. Their campaign makes use of ad hominem attacks that accuse her of anti-Muslim bigotry and falsely suggest that her apprehension has no factual basis. Yet the ad hominem assault appears to have been launched precisely because Rep. Bachmann capably established the solid basis for her concerns. In a letter to Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., she rebutted his scurrilously false characterizations of her actions with a meticulously footnoted response amply documenting the facts that justify her security concerns.

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