My Blog

Category: Society

  • We’re Dying — Another 5.4 Million Get SS Disability

    Yesterday I re-wrote about Tytler:

    A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.

    The post when on to cite recent news about how we’re nearing this point.  We have a record number of folks on food stamps, approaching a majority.  We also have a record number of folks who do not pay any taxes… also approaching a majority.  Therefore we are at the point whereby the majority will vote in their own self interest and sink the entire country.

    Today this story comes along:

    A record 5.4 million workers and their dependents have signed up to collect federal disability checks since President Obama took office, according to the latest official government data, as discouraged workers increasingly give up looking for jobs and take advantage of the federal program.  …

    Since the recession ended in June 2009, the number of people who’ve signed up for disability benefits is twice the job growth figure. (See nearby chart.) In just the first four months of this year, 539,000 joined the disability rolls and more than 725,000 put in applications.via Investors.com.

    Incredible.

    For those that don’t know, disability is something you’re on forever… as in until you die.  You basically become a drain on everyone else in society.  The story goes on:

    This is straining already-stretched government finances while posing a long-term economic threat by creating an ever-growing pool of permanently dependent working-age Americans.

    A long-term economic threat indeed!!

    As a result, by April there were 10.8 million people on disability, according to Social Security Administration data released this week. Even after accounting for all those who’ve left the program — mainly because they hit retirement age or died — that’s up 53% from a decade ago.

    We need everyone to understand that for every person doing nothing collecting a check we need 15, 20, or 30 people out there working and paying taxes for those that don’t.  Further, for every government worker, you need another 20, or 30 workers to pay for their salary and benefits.

    Our ratios of workers to non-workers and workers to government employees is out of whack and unsustainable.  Those who do can no longer support those who don’t (and those who do but do so for the government.)

    Big BIG trouble ahead.

  • Food Stamps & Taxes Suggest We’re Nearing the End

    A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

    Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.

    attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler.

    I first published that quote nearly two years ago.  I thought it was true then… perhaps even truer now.

    The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that 45 million people in 2011 received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a 70% increase from 2007. It said the number of people receiving the benefits, commonly known as food stamps, would continue growing until 2014.

    via WSJ.

    And there is this:

    Out of the 143 million tax returns that were filed with the IRS in 2010, 58 million – or 41 percent – of those filers were non-payers.

    In other words, only 85 million actually paid taxes.

    via CNSNews.com.

    We cannot — and will not — survive when ‘net givers’ are outnumbered by ‘net takers’.  Two days ago I wrote that a record number of Americans have renounced their citizenship.  The U.S. is dealing with intellectual flight of massive proportions.  We are facing a perfect storm of breakdowns in both the economy and society.  The poor rarely have the ability, the means, to leave.  The rich however can easily move to wherever they like.

    We are only a few bad decisions away from the wheels falling completely off the bus.

  • Record Number of Americans Renounce Citizenship

    Last year, almost 1,800 people … renounc[ed] their U.S. citizenship or handing in their Green Cards.  That’s a record number since the Internal Revenue Service began publishing a list of those who renounced in 1998.  It’s also almost eight times more than the number of citizens who renounced in 2008, and more than the total for 2007, 2008 and 2009 combined.

    via Reuters.

    This is not good any way you twist it.

    Go read the story.  It’s not the tired, poor,  huddled masses yearning to breathe free that are leaving.  It’s the well educated, the well off, the well healed who are heading for the door.  Tired of our unfair tax policies people the rich are saying enough.

    Who’s going to pay the bills when these people go?

  • Michigan’s Armed Raids on Small Pig Farmers

    NaturalNews can now confirm that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has, in total violation of the Fourth Amendment, conducted two armed raids on pig farmers in that state, one in Kalkaska County at Fife Lake and another in Cheboygan County. Staging raids involving six vehicles and ten armed men, DN[R] conducted unconstitutional, illegal and arguably criminal armed raids on these two farms with the intent of shooting all the farmers’ pigs under a bizarre new “Invasive Species Order” (ISO) that has suddenly declared traditional livestock to be an invasive species.

    via Natural News.

    It’s worth noting that Natural News’ writing contains some hyperbole.  So I went looking for another source for the story….

    Implementation of the ISO, as of April 1st, not only takes private property without compensation it also denies farmers of fundamental private property rights and the right to make a living.  It will reduce or eliminate customer access to heritage breed pork, a product that has become increasingly popular with health conscious consumers and restaurants across the state.

    The ISO allows DNR to seize and destroy pigs raised by Michigan farmers; Michigan DNR has publicly stated they will not compensate farmers whose pigs are destroyed. Possession of prohibited swine after April 1, 2012 is a felony with penalties of up to two years in jail and $20,000 in fines.

    Attorney Joseph O’Leary is suing the DNR on behalf of four of the aggrieved business owners. He explains, “Wildlife is owned by the state; it is the role of the DNR to regulate and control state property. Livestock on farms is privately owned and properly belongs in the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture. When a governmental agency blurs these lines, people had better wake up and take notice because at that point we are all in a lot of trouble.”

    via Global News Wire.

    A little more perspective there.  And I tend to agree with attorney O’Leary.  Government intrusion into our private lives rarely ends well.  This story reminds me of Reagan’s old line about the nine most terrifying words in the English language being, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

    But we still don’t know what’s really going on here.  Why is the Michigan DNR going after small pig farmers in the first place?

    The Michigan Pork Producers Association and other large agribusiness interests, as well as conservation groups have worked together with the DNR to push for the ruling to be implemented. For the factory pork breeders, this is about eliminating the competition. The ISO ensures consumers will only have the choice of pork raised in confinement, known as confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).For more than a decade, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has worked politically to drive private hunting preserves out of business. However, the Michigan state legislature repeatedly rebuffed their attempts. Elected officials recognize how important private property rights are, and they were unwilling to prohibit landowners to raise and harvest animals in open areas. Now, backed by large Agribusiness interests in the state, DNR has done an end run around participatory democracy and declared swine with certain characteristics “feral” which not only includes animals raised at hunting preserves but thousands of other small farms across the state.

    “The DNR has strayed into the unfamiliar territory of agriculture regulation. Given the nebulous and open ended description by which pigs are targeted, farmers fear for their futures,” says Pete Kennedy, Esq., President of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.

    Wow!

    You see, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the GSA partying in Vegas or the MI DNR, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  People placed in positions of power will abuse that power if not constantly checked on by the people.

    I hope this story gets some MSM attention and people understand that the few should not get away with oppressing the many.

  • CHA Relocations = Higher Crime Rates?

    According to the Sun-Times:

    Crime was worse in neighborhoods where former Chicago Housing Authority residents used vouchers to move into private apartments, a new study found.

    From 2000 to 2008, violent crime was 21 percent higher in neighborhoods with high concentrations of voucher-holding former CHA residents — when compared to similar neighborhoods without them, the Washington-based Urban Institute found. Property crime also would have been lower without relocated residents in those neighborhoods, the study said.

    via Chicago Sun-Times.

    This is rather indicting.  Of course, the most powerful quote comes at the end of the story:

    Some communities are not very happy to have them. Chatham, where generations of African-American teachers, lawyers and other professionals have called home, has seen an influx of former CHA residents with vouchers — about 120 of them.

    “It has been disastrous for Chatham,” said Keith Tate, president of Chatham-Avalon Park Community Association.

    “Never did we see individuals sitting on their cars drinking 40-ounce bottles of beer.”

    Tate said the community is experiencing a clash between longtime residents with a strong work ethic and former CHA residents on the dole.

    “We have opened our arms to accept anyone into our community,” Tate said. “But it has caused a tremendous problem. We have had more burglaries than normal, more shootings. . . . We’re fighting on all fronts now to satisfy the needs of the long-term residents and the new residents who just moved here.”

    Yikes!

  • Google’s Brin: Web Faces Greatest Threat Ever

    The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

    In an interview with the Guardian, Brin warned there were “very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world”.   “I am more worried than I have been in the past,” he said. “It’s scary.”

    The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment industry’s attempts to crack down on piracy, and the rise of “restrictive” walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms.

    via The Guardian.

    I’m not actually a big “Brin” or Google fan.  Although I do believe the story is accurate, it may be nothing more than a Google play for more “openness” so that Google kind find out more and more about you… so they can track you.

    We need to face the fact that Google is beyond spooky.  It tracks everything about you and has some undisclosed relationships with the government.  That’s not a good combination.

    Perhaps Brin should do a little spring cleaning in his own house before pointing fingers at Facebook and others.

  • ‘Why Didn’t White Folks Keep Them for Themselves?’

    The Chicago Teachers Union, and school employee unions in general, are pulling out all the stops to slow down a school choice and education reform movement that is bowling them over in numerous states and cities.

    Bold reform efforts are being pushed by the likes of Republicans like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Democrats like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It’s a bipartisan effort that has Big Labor on its heels.

    In Chicago in particular, the teachers union is flailing to stop any meaningful reform it possibly can. In response to the move for a slightly longer school day, the union has demanded an astonishing  30% raise. For weeks, union leaders have been beating the war drums for a teachers’ strike, which could cripple the city.  …

    But perhaps the most remarkable accusation came when she said, “If charter schools were so good, why didn’t the white folks keep them for themselves?”

    via Breitbart.

    Just plain amazing.  This is what CPS has teaching our children.

    This is how brainwashed some people have become by CTU and it’s tactics.  A sorry state of society where race politics superceeds student and parent choice.  Troubling days ahead.

  • Fostering Creativity in Education

    CNN has a few articles about improving education:

    Blue School is on The Next List because it’s an institution championing creativity and curiosity by bringing together the best minds to encourage educational reform. In the process it’s celebrating the famous adage “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

    Blue School’s founders, Matt Goldman, Chris Wink, and Phil Stanton are best known for originating the world-renowned, Blue Man Group. They say the motivation to open Blue School came from the dissatisfaction with their own educational environment.

    via CNN Blogs.

    Interesting ideas being advocated not by educations professionals… or by a teachers’ union… but by businessmen who see school failing and what to do something about it.

    This is where the future of education will come from.  The current system is so hopeless broken that it’s incapable of developing any new ideas to fix itself.  The solutions will come from outsiders.

  • Another Deadly Weekend

    It started out peaceful enough.  So much so that Drudge reported, “Only 1 Dead, 5 Wounded in Chicago.”

    A woman was killed and four men wounded in five separate shootings between 11:30 p.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Saturday.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    It wasn’t even that warm.  But only 5 shot overnight, hardly worth mentioning.

    Then we had Saturday night:

    2 Dead Among 15 17 Shot Overnight Across City

    A 13-year-old boy and 41-year-old woman were killed by gunfire Saturday night, and 15 others were wounded across the city, police said.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    The early morning count was 15, I guess someone in the newsroom got it wrong.  Or thpolice were so backed-up that it took CPD awhile to get the actual numbers out to the press.

    Regardless, something is very wrong within our inner city neighborhoods.  We have a systematic failure of society.  From the babies to the grown-ups and from the city to the fed, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

    It time to take some bold action to begin changing 60 years of failed inner city policies.

  • Another Easter Egg Hunt Cancelled

    Another traditional Easter egg hunt has fallen victim to aggressive parents, with event organizers in Macon, Ga., forced to cancel this week amid fears greedy moms and dads would become violent and trample on kids to grab eggs.  …

    He said that a woman was hurt and several kids were trampled on at previous hunts as aggressive parents tried to get more eggs for themselves or their children. …

    It is not the first Easter egg hunt canceled because of pushy parents in the past month.  A free annual event held in Colorado Springs, Colo., was canceled in March because “aggressive” parents previously snatched too many eggs for their children.

    via NYPOST.com.

    So this is what we’ve become.

    What hope do children have of ever fitting into society when their parents are anti-social?  Are we really creating a majority of people who believe they can just take whatever they want?  People that believe the rules do not apply to them?

    It’s quite scary actually.