Speak out 2/18/09

GOP purge?

JUST for the record, it is a conservative Republican, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said recently that nationalization of banks is an idea that must be on the table. I agree with Senator Graham, but my main concern is whether or not Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh will purge him from the Republican Party.

Top quote of 2008

THE editor of the prestigious Yale Book of Quotations has picked the top 10 quotes of 2008. In first place was a quote made by a politician and followed up on by a comedian. It was, "I can see Russia from my house."

Look who's paying

I always have a chuckle when someone says, "The government should pay for that." The next time you encounter that phrase, mentally replace it with "The taxpayer should pay for that plus an additional 20 percent to make up for government inefficiencies." That will allow you to easily see the fallacy of having the government pay for everything.

Lincoln history

EVERY American, especially high school students, should read the book "The Real Lincoln" by Thomas J. Dilorenzo, with a foreword by Walter E. Williams.

End of the republic?

MARK your calendars, all good conservatives. Remember where you were Feb. 13. This is the day a rotting corpse of a socialist spending bill was passed by Congress. In the name of economic recovery a salvo of grapeshot was fired toward the heart of capitalism. This bloated monstrosity has the potential to marginalize the Constitution and destroy the republic. History tells us most plainly that republics are temporary and exhaustible. Most last about 200 years. Does that mean we are overdue? What does history tell us replaces them? Not democracies. Historically their replacements are dictatorships. So ask yourselves who the dictator will be, what will he want to achieve, where will the country end up, how will he go about forcing his goals, how soon and why will patriotic Americans put up with this? The seriousness of this event to the future of the United States cannot be underestimated.

Emotion over reason

MOST politicians cannot provide a coherent explanation for the purpose of an economy, how capitalism works or how free markets function. As Speak Out comments daily demonstrate, most voters don't care so long as they are inspired, because it is much easier to feel than to think. That, more than anything, explains why the last presidential election was a triumph of emotion over reason and why America will continue its slow downward spiral. Intellectual laziness has a price. We are paying it.

Leading the charge

DON'T think for a minute that if the current crop of Republicans held the majority in Congress and we had a Republican president that they wouldn't be leading to charge to further feed at the federal trough, a phenomenon beginning in gargantuan proportions under President George W. Bush.