Good news...kind of.

With everything that is going on in the country, it is easy to fall into a feeling of hopelessness. And I have noticed the depressing effect our current situation has had on Christmas over the last couple of years. So I thought I would give you some good news...kind of.

Of course, I cannot tell you that this will be over any time soon. I can in fact almost guarantee it will not. I cannot say even like Churchill that this might be the end of the beginning. But I can give you one sliver of hope, if you want it bad enough.

That one sliver of hope is the promise that there will always be a place of sanctuary, no matter how bad things are. Even in the worst parts of the worst apocalyptic prophecy, including the Bible, there is always a place of sanctuary. And we are nowhere near that bad at the moment. But no promises.

The problem is for us as Americans this is still an uncomfortable thought. For the last 200 years or so, we have been the sanctuary of the world. Things change, and we were not prepared. We were always able to offer our loyalty to our country, as the country embodied those higher principles that made the nation what it has been historically. That is unfortunately no longer true.

But now I get to give you another piece of good news; we finally have the opportunity to begin to disentangle the founding principles from the unrealistically romantic idea we have about what the nation we live in actually is. This can provide us with our greatest power: the ability to give our loyalty solely to the founding principles instead of splitting them between those principles and the amorphous thing we call "America".

This is an incredible blessing, the ability to give total allegiance to those principles, as that is how America was founded in the first place. We call them "Patriots" but in reality the Founding Fathers would have been shocked and dismayed at how docile we have become. Their first loyalties were always to the principles they held, and only to the nation they created inasmuch as it practiced them.

There are then two ways to approach the issue of the collapse of American principles, both of which are acceptable--either we stand and fight and keep at least of the country free to continue being that sanctuary, or we can find sanctuary in any of a couple of dozen of other countries that do not have the name America but hold up the ideals.

There will be detractors that will claim that those who would leave are traitors, and that if they really believed in those principles they would stay and fight for them. But that is a bunch of nonsense. If we do not resist together, there is no point in resisting individually. And the truth is, strapping a bomb on will never do anything but lead to further accusations of cowardice. Either way, the result is the same. Like it or not, any resistance MUST be widespread enough to openly resist the dictators that be like they are doing in Iran, or it is pointless to bother.

The last piece of good news is that we have three full years to prepare. Whether we fight or flee, there is time to prepare to take action. Each of us need to make whatever plans are necessary to act when the time comes. That may be the best news of all.

Yes, things are going to be bad for a long long time. Yet even if we take the full brunt of what the communist pigs that currently run our government throws at us, we will always have a way to be in a safe place. If only we have the courage to refuse to submit. There is a future, and if we will cultivate it, the opportunity to rebuild. All we have to do is want it bad enough.

The Last of the Americans.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/10/15/anita-dunn-a-corruptocrat-flack-and-a-mao-cheerleader/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCvQ8BSUv-g

http://www.amazon.com/Saves-World-Generation-Everything-Sucking/dp/B002HREL1I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256497141&sr=8-1

www.facebook.com/tspriggs

I am certain beyond a reasonable doubt that America is finished as a decent, worthwhile nation. To prove this, I offer you the best evidence I know of; my roommate.

My roommate is one of the generation know as "generation Y" or the "millenials", and frankly, they are part of the coalition that in the long run spells the death of America. They are, quite literally, the Last of the Americans.

When the Baby Boomers came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, they were a huge leftist wave that crashed on the bow of the American ship of state. They turned it, sure enough, but they also nearly sunk it. In a lot of ways my generation, the Xers, was a response to the powerful socialist tendencies of the Boomers.

It was an uphill climb: my generation was much smaller than the Boomers, and we suffered further casualties due to abortion--the first generation to suffer massive losses through authorized murder. Our direct political clout was somewhat limited. If it were not for the third or so of the boomers that realized in the late 1970s that we could not continue on the path we were on, America would have been gone long ago. My generation was only large enough to buy some time. We turned the tide in the 1980s and 1990s, bringing America to one of its peaks in economic terms, but it was temporary, a stopgap measure. We could only start the process that could set America back on the right path, we needed support from others to keep the momentum going and allow the principles we supported to become a part of the overall American political culture.

It's not going to happen.

The real problem are not the hispanics that have decided to reconquer the North American continent; no, the real problem is the children of the Boomers, the millennials. They are the next powerful wave influencing the American ship of state. They are also more populous than my generation, and the combination of Boomers, millennials, and hispanics create a wave too large to be resisted.

We use the term "dinking the kool-aid" to describe soemone who has bought into the new "progressive" versions of socialism and communism. The problem is, when you talk about millennials, you are talking about a generation who was steeped in leftist ideology from the moment of birth. Kool-aid is all they know, they have drunk it since their first bottle in the crib. Their Boomer parents worked hard and long to ensure they would follow in their footsteps, unlike my generation.

The result is the Boomer version of mini-me; a generation of emotionally and intellectually crippled people who mistake entertainment for truth, rote memory for thought, and the ability to find sources of information that support their leftist impulses to open and honest inquiery. Discussing issues with them is pointless as they are a far more homogenous group than any other in America. They are tighter with one another than even the Black and Hispanic communities. As Mr. Gordiner points out in his book, they even date in groups--I have seen this for myself.

All you have to do is look back through my Facebook feed to see the truth; the only people who attack me for my beliefs are those who have an agenda. They are either millennials, old hippie Boomers, or hispanics, and I defy you to find an exception to that on my Facebook. For example, I very carefully lay out the reason that so many of us are so upset about the direction of government spending and policies in detail to my roommate, all to no avail. Facts and historical truth alone are not enough to persuade. The result is a lot like throwing a pebble at a sidewalk; it has no effect on the sidewalk at all. This generation is simply...unreachable.

And if you check with them, you will find them completely undisturbed by the revelation that many of the Obama adminstration are outright marxists and maoists. In fact, they will defend and deny this, no matter what eveidence is presented. In reality, they just got the government they wanted. What did you think they were voting for?

That makes them the Last of the Americans. The next generation may still live in a country called, "America", but it will not be anything like the America that existed before. Fifty years from now, conservatives will be a tiny minority, a dying ember of a long-gone time when freedom was more than an empty ideological concept.

Thanks to the hippie children of the Boomers, America will soon be dead. Long live America.

Republicans vs. Democrats -Just the Facts.

***It has been quite a long time since I posted a new blog. I want to apologize for being away for so long. I have been quite busy finishing my third book and working on other projects, like this one.***

PART ONE OF THREE OR FOUR -TBD

One of my favorite terms to use describing leftist thought is ideology. I define ideology as a theoretical construct used to support a presumed reality. This is in human terms a very accurate definition -before Hitler, there were others who believed what he did, but it was the National Socialist movement that codified those ideas into a world view. There were communists before Marx -but not a framework in which to think and speak and behave like a communist. Fortunately for all of us, these wonderful men came along and rectified the situation.

However, there is another part of the equation that conservatives often overlook; the mythological beliefs of the left. The mythology is just as important to leftists as the ideology is. In fact, it is just this mythology that draws people to the left: for example, The Women's Room was an important part of the creation of the feminist myth in American history. The myth is used to insert the ideology into society. In my new book and in my blog I already covered the myth of multiculturalism. Now, there is another myth I want to discuss with you, the myth of Democratic Economics.

During the last election, we were subjected to an unexpected assault based on the idea that Democratic Economics were superior to Republican Economics. Web pages like the following were common--the graphs in first one were particularly effective.

http://www.misanthropytoday.com/economy-better-under-democrats-than-republicans/

http://yaforobama.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2246335%3ABlogPost%3A8502

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1021/p09s01-coop.html

But I have good news for you-its all a lie. All of it.

You see, I remember the 1970's - I graduated high school in 1982, and was a year behind because I has a broken leg in the 3rd grade. I remember a lot of this stuff, all the way back to Nixon (although I remember little about Watergate itself). Something seemed fishy about these numbers, so I decided to run them myself.

First, I went to the following web sites to get the numbers for economic growth and inflation:

http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/inflation/result.php

http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm

Then, I decided I wanted to create an honest measure of economic growth, so I decided on a simple formula for what I call Real Economic Growth. It is a three part formula that states Economic Growth minus Inflation equals Real Economic Growth. I started with the end of World War II -1945- and ran the numbers. The results were surprising.

Year Raw Growth (-) Inflation (=) Real Economic Growth

**The numbers are separated by slashes (/) because I cannot format them**

1945 1.5 / 2.27 / -.77
1946 -.4 / 8.56 / -9.0
1947 9.8 / 14.33 / -4.53
1948 10.3 / 7.79 / 2.51
1949 -.7 / -.96 / .26
1950 9.9 / .96 / 8.94
1951 15.5 / 7.89 / 7.61
1952 5.6 / 2.19 / 3.41
1953 5.9 / .75 / 5.15
1954 .3 / .49 / -.19
1955 9.0 / -.37 / 9.37
1956 5.5 / 1.49 / 4.01
1957 5.4 / 3.57 / 1.83
1958 1.3 / 2.74 / -1.44
1959 8.4 / .83 / 7.57
1960 3.9 / 1.58 / 2.32
1961 3.5 / 1.01 / 2.49
1962 7.5 / 1.14 / 6.36
1963 5.5 / 1.19 / 4.31
1964 7.4 / 1.34 / 6.06
1965 8.4 / 1.71 / 6.69
1966 9.5 / 2.85 / 6.65
1967 5.7 / 2.9 / 2.8
1968 9.3 / 4.19 / 5.11
1969 8.2 / 5.37 / 2.38
1970 5.5 / 5.92 / -.42
1971 8.5 / 4.3 / 4.2
1972 9.9 / 3.31 / 6.59
1973 11.7 / 6.21 / 5.49
1974 8.5 / 10.89 / -2.48
1975 9.2 / 9.14 / .06
1976 11.4 / 5.76 / 5.64
1977 11.3 / 6.45 / 4.85
1978 13.0 / 7.61 / 5.39
1979 11.7 / 11.27 / .43
1980 8.8 / 13.52 / -4.72
1981 12.1 / 10.38 / 1.72
1982 4.0 / 6.13 / -2.13
1983 8.7 / 3.21 / 5.49
1984 11.2 / 4.32 / 6.88
1985 7.3 / 3.56 / 3.74
1986 5.8 / 1.86 / 3.94
1987 6.2 / 3.65 / 2.55
1988 7.7 / 4.14 / 3.56
1989 7.5 / 4.82 / 2.68
1990 5.8 / 5.4 / .4
1991 3.3 / 4.21 / -.91
1992 5.8 / 3.01 / 2.79
1993 5.1 / 2.99 / 2.11
1994 6.3 / 2.56 / 3.74
1995 4.7 / 2.83 / 1.87
1996 5.7 / 2.95 / 2.75
1997 6.3 / 2.29 / 4.01
1998 5.5 / 1.56 / 3.94
1999 6.4 / 2.21 / 4.19
2000 6.4 / 3.36 / 3.04
2001 3.4 / 2.85 / .55
2002 3.5 / 1.58 / 1.92
2003 4.7 / 2.28 / 2.42
2004 6.5 / 2.66 / 3.84
2005 6.5 / 3.39 / 3.11
2006 6.0 / 3.23 / 2.77
2007 5.1 / 2.85 / 2.25
2008 2.6 / 3.84 / -1.24

Then, I broke this down by President, starting with the EVEN year after they were elected and going to the ODD year when the next President took power because the odd number year budget was completed the previous September. I added the numbers up and divided by the number of years the person was in office. Here are the results:


Truman 1945-53 -D
6.377 / 4.86 / 1.513

Eisenhower -R
4.6625 / 1.4175 / 3.245

Kennedy 1961-63 (all three years) -D
6.8 / 1.22 / 5.577

Johnson 1963-69 -D
8.08 / 3.06 / 5.02

Nixon 1969-74 (all five years) -R
8.88 / 6.64 / 2.236

Ford 1974-77 (last three years) -R
11.35 / 6.105 / 5.245

Carter 1977-81 -D
11.4 / 10.695 / .705

Reagan 1981-89 -R
7.3 / 3.9575 / 3.3425

Bush, H. 1989-93 -R
5.0 / 3.9025 / 1.0975

Clinton 1993-2001 -D
5.5875 / 2.57625 / 3.01125

Bush 2001-2008 (last year not available yet) -R
4.9857 / 2.833 / 2.1528

So if you add all the real economic growth numbers for the Democrat presidents together and divide by the number of Democratic presidents and then do the same for the Republicans, you get the following results for Real Economic Growth by Presidential Party:

Democrat: 3.16525
Republican: 2.8865

The differences are negligible. But how we got there are not. In the next blog, I will explain how the numbers became so equal. Then, in a third blog, I will explain what it all means.

Please feel free to check my math. But I ran these twice, and as far as I can tell, these are just the facts.

From here, we will add the story, because it is the story behind the numbers that matter.

From 9/11 to 9/12

Liberal theology has always had a glaring weakness of not accounting for unexpected consequences. When Lyndon Johnson started the "Great Society" domestic programs, no one saw that providing unending welfare would eventually lead to a culture of dependency that would shackle the poor and minorities to the government.

What we saw today in the March on DC was the same kind of unexpected consequence typical of leftist programs. Today, it was the average American who have spoken up and said "enough"

For 8 years, leftists have beaten the public over the head with 9/11; if you did not agree with them, you were a thief, bloodthirsty, hate-mongering, evil. In the hands of the left, 9/11 was transformed into a blunt instrument used to bloody everyday people. They smeared Christianity, Bush, morality, and every other idea and policy they disagreed with.

They thought they could beat the American people down verbally to the point that we would accept the creeping socialism they offered. They thought union thugs could intimidate everyday people into sitting down and shutting up. Obama was offered as the panacea to all our problems. If we would just obey.

But it didn't work out that way; the more the left attempted to oppress, the more angry people become. They more the leftists leaders like Nance Pelosi tried to smear concerned Americans as fascists, the more vocal they became. And now, the day after the eighth anniversary of 9/11, the Americans in DC showed up in numbers to let the leftists know that their oppressions are no longer acceptable.

Today might have very well been a tipping point; Americans are fed up with the propaganda. 9/11 was a long time ago, and the country has spiraled off track in the ensuing years, and no amount of mudslinging or pretty speeches will hide that fact. As I have said before, eventually the public will demand results from their representatives. That is exactly what the American public did today.

The left has made a living off the shadow of 9/11 for a long time. Today, we took the first step towards moving from a 9/11 world to a 9/12 world, and it will be hard to stop that momentum. For those on the left, this spells the end of their propaganda-base ascendancy.

And not a moment too soon.

Now do you get it?

http://www.tcotreport.com/

By now, I am sure you can find may sites that have news stories just like the ones on the TCOT Report homepage. Our challenge made to our representatives concerning the takeover of American health care has been met by violence perpetrated by the leftist shock troops of SEIU and Acorn. This is a dangerous place for government officials to tread, and against one of the most sacred ideas of American society.

Healthcare means everything to the socialist left in America. It is one of the brass rings they plan on using to create a permanent majority in America. Not only will they use the lure of free health care to ensure continuing loyalty among majoritites, but the ensuing bureaucracy will be one of the largest single employers in the world--just as it is in Britain, where the government bureau overseeing health care is the third largest employer in the world.

It is so important in fact, that the socialist left has decided to be willing to crack a few skulls to supress dissent. They have basically called out the American version of the Basij to tamp down dissent, and there is no indication the troops of the left will not do so with gusto. This is a life or death battle, not for the future of health care but for the permanent establishment of the socialist left as our rulers.

These people are not playing, and there is no room for compromise. Several leftist representatives of the House have sworn they will not support a watered-down version of the bill that does not include government-based health care. They want power, and they want it NOW. In doing so, not only do they reveal their real intentions, but they break on of the basic political taboos of America.

Of all the things that led to the American revolution, none was more distasteful than the housing of British troops in the homes of the colonists. This heinous practice meant that the American colonists were forced to pay for troops that were supressing their freedom. This was so despised by the Founders of the nation, not only did they mention it in the Declaration of Independence as one of the reasons for breaking away from Britain, but also put it in the Constitution, to ensure that Americans would be free from the practice forever.

These leftist pigs running our country today may have forgotten, but in America, you do not use jckbooted thugs to oppress the people, especially those that are paid for by the American people. This prohibition is one of the behaviors that we have always frowned upon, and during the civil rights struggles of the 1960's they were harsly and rightly condemned by the very leftists that now are practicing them. There is no difference between a black man asaulted by a southern Sheriff during a civil-rights demonstration and a black man assaulted in 2009 trying to keep those hard-won rights. We still frown on this activity, and it is still just as wrong.

Make no mistake about it; we are dealing with the same kind of club-welding Chicago politics that has made the leaders of that city almost universally despised and acknowledged as corrupt. They have always dealt with opponents through brass knuckles and lead pipes, and they are not backing down now that their goal is almost within reach. The question is, how much will we take before we say enough?

Now do you get it?

God Gave Rock and Roll to You

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/03/090803fa_fact_sanneh

http://www.parcbench.com/

There are a lot of reason why conservatives find themselves on the defensive these days. We can point to schools that have been taken over by old communists, judges that think it is their job to legislate from the bench, and even Hollywood stars that belch views that are considerably to the left of Stalin. But there is one reason that we do not pay near enough attention to: culture.

The part of culture that we ignore the most is the part where the arts are used to convey a core set of beliefs to the person who engages it. I say we overlook the power of this because it has recently been shoved into our faces through the New Yorker profile of Michael Savage, and the growth of the Parcbench blog.

Oh sure, we conservatives howl and beat our chests and hold the arts in disdain every time some snot-nosed wannabe artist drops a crucifix into a glass of urine, but far too often that is the extent of our engagement. And that is where we are losing the battle. That is simply not enough.

So let me begin by telling you the very first reason why I am a Christian: I see myself in the Bible. But that is not the only place I see a sliver of the truth about myself. I also see a little of myself in the Greek mythology and classical writings and even some works of art. In these things I find beauty and truth. And because others do as well, I now have a place of connection with them from which I can expand and flesh out my understanding of the world as a conservative.

But for many conservatives, that is not true. We on the right are excellent historians; but we have surrendered the arts to those who major in pottery live in communes somewhere in backwoods California. Our biggest failure is our unwillingness to pick up a guitar, especially an acoustic.

Yet if you read a recent article on Parcbench, you would realize that one of the biggest cultural influences that kept America from becoming a socialist nation in the late sixties and early seventies were bands like the Beatles and the Who. Today, we have surrendered even pop music to the musical offspring of Madonna - sorry, Esther - and the conservative voices in these areas no longer exist.

We do celebrate when a Mandy Moore comes along, or a movie like Passion of the Christ, but we do not value them as we should. The phenomenon of having a conservative voice in the culture is far too often used as an opportunity for propaganda rather than a chance to connect with people. The whole point of art is simply to remind us that we all share a common understanding of the universe that really is universal. We all understand joy and anger and fear and beauty, even if we have different tastes. Our opponents have used this connection to promote uniformity to their masters, but we need to use this connection to spread the ideals of individuality and responsibility.

A good conservative has read the Iliad and the Aenid and Machiavelli and Marx. A good conservative understands Baroque painting and at least one instrument. A good conservative has seen the Nutcracker and Highlander. More importantly, a good conservative can use these things to connect with others and express the values that make us conservative. Instead, we stick to quoting Benjamin Franklin, because it is easy and makes us look smart without a lot of work. It is also a dead-end road that leaves us isolated from public society.

God gave rock and roll to you. And art and music and some great literature. It is time we make proper use of his good gifts for a change.

The Challenge

I spend nearly every day on the internet. I have a blog, a radio program, I spend time on twitter and constantly share information on Facebook. I took part in both of the local Tea Parties. I am about to finish my third book (within the week, I hope). I sacrifice a lot of time and energy to the cause I believe in.

As our country spirals towards socialism, it is easy to feel out of control and powerless. Nevertheless, the Tea Parties have struck a deep nerve in the American people, but many people who have never been involved before are beginning to ask "what now?" The answer to that can be as easy as attending a Tea Party-if you let it.

In fact I want to challenge you to get involved, and I have a plan I believe will help us to reclaim America from the forces of socialism. I call it the 5/1 challenge, and it is very simple. All you do is give $5 dollars or 1 hour a month to the conservative charities of your choice. You don't even have to volunteer for the same thing all the time-just as long as you give it to a worthy cause, that's OK.

It is easy to find places to volunteer or donate; follow me on twitter as Ritalynman, and look through my friend list. Add me on facebook, at www.facebook.com/tspriggs and look through my feed and my friends. Find the other bloggers and groups I am connected to and you will find plenty of places to volunteer.

Think about it; how much more could we have advertised the Tea Parties if we had all taken a single hour and printed out a single sign and posted it on a telephone pole or at a laundromat or the grocery store? How many more people could we reach if a few of us would pool our money and rent a single billboard? Or bought advertising for an online blogger?

And it is only $5 or one hour--if you volunteer for someone that turns out not to be legit, you are not out much, so it's a learning experience and not a major loss.

If only 1,000,000 people would accept this challenge, and half gave money and half volunteered, at the end of the year consevative groups would blossom to the tune of $30 million and 6 million hours of volunteer time. All for $5 or 1 hour a month.

Will YOU take the challenge? Join us on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=105835308404

Let's stand up for America together.