Alright. So over the weekend, the Obama campaign released an ad titled “The Future Children Project” where children (surprise!) sing the story of what will happen should Romney be elected…it basically details a dark and dreary life of oil-filled seas, vicious homophobia, a lack of educational spending and a place where the uninsured die.
Some of the lyrics are bit difficult to understand so they are below, however, I’d like to note that this is one of the sickest ads that I have seen in a long time. First and foremost, I find it disturbing that people actually believe Barack Obama, or any human, is the all-encompassing solution to these issues (of course, liberals will just say “4 years wasn’t enough time!– boo hoo hoo). But I’m also disturbed by the unity and the obvious indoctrination of children in an attempt to tug at the heart strings of undecided voters. Can you think of other instances of young indoctrination? Maybe a dictatorship, as in, the Nazi regime? Or maybe the photos we see from North Korea? I also can’t grasp how any ‘forward-thinking’ parent would justify this against their own values. I thought liberals were about ‘free-thinking’? For once, I’m at a loss for words…
Imagine an America
Where strip mines are fun and free
Where gays can be fixed
And sick people just die
And oil fills the sea
We don’t have to pay for freeways!
Our schools are good enough
Give us endless wars
On foreign shores
And lots of Chinese stuff
We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And we’re kinda blaming you
We haven’t killed all the polar bears
But it’s not for lack of trying
The Earth is cracked
Big Bird is sacked
And the atmosphere is frying
Congress went home early
They did their best we know
You can’t cut spending
With elections pending
Unless it’s welfare dough
We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And we’re kinda blaming you
Find a park that is still open
And take a breath of poison air
They foreclosed your place
To build a weapon in space
But you can write off your au pair
It’s a little awkward to tell you
But you left us holding the bag
When we look around
The place is all dumbed down
And the long term’s kind of a drag
We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And yeah, we’re blaming you
So…some parents in San Diego are considering legal action because of free yoga classes offered by the school in San Diego. They are claiming two things: 1) that public resources shouldn’t be used for yoga classes and 2) that yoga is a practice of Hinduism and therefore, they are teaching religion in schools.
I will give you #1. Yoga classes are probably not the best use of public education funds when the education system is failing, we can’t afford adequate teachers and California is broke. And I am usually the first one to point out ridiculousness in the classroom and obnoxious abuses of power on behalf of teachers and school districts alike, but this one is just off the wall.
“The lessons are funded by a $533,000, three-year grant from the Jois Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes Ashtanga yoga. Some schools began classes last month and others will begin holding them in January, at which point roughly 5,456 students will be participating.” according to The Blaze. I researched Ashtanga yoga. While it does have an Indian origin, it’s main focus is on breathing techniques and body alignments with emphasis on concentration. The school made sure to eliminate all religious forms and phrases from the class as well. This is California we’re talking about. Land of the hippies. Of course they want everyone to breathe deeply (and think slowly). This is a state full of proponents of alternative approaches to health. It’s not that outlandish.
Plenty of people practice yoga and it has nothing to do with any religious practice. Even Christians. I’ve been to plenty of yoga classes where they don’t say a word the entire class, with the exception of hello & goodbye (This is mainly because it was a hot yoga class and the temperature was roughly ~110 degrees and everyone was mostly focusing on breathing without dying).
However, the Encinitas Union School District is not attempting to brainwash your children through yoga. I NEVER give people the benefit of the doubt, but even I, as cynical as a I am, know that indoctrination is not what is happening here. Also, you ave the option to remove your child from the class. So if you don’t like it, don’t have your child participate. Fight for appropriate use of your tax dollars on the basis of tax dollars, not indoctrination.
Someone recently told my mom that I am that way I am because she brainwashed me while she was raising me. My lovely mother, who has received criticism about my politicking on more than one occasion :-), laughed it off…as did I since I tend to be even more ‘right-leaning’ than she is. Said person who described my childhood of going to church to learn moral values as ‘brainwashing’ is of course a liberal, and one lacking any faith as well.
This got me thinking. How do parental political beliefs relate to those of their children? Naturally, I took to Facebook and asked 50 of my friends the following questions (49 people across different age groups answered, 35 conservatives or libertarians and 14 liberals (simply because I have more conservative friends!) 1) Are your parents affiliated with the same political party as you? 42 of 49 friends say they vote the same way their parents vote. 2) Would you say that your parents influenced your direction in the political arena? Very influential? Moderately? Not at all/established your own opinion with no influence at all. 36 of 49 friends said their parents influenced their direction in the political arena and added comments to their response (see below) 3) If you’re a parent, what are your plans with your own children? Force it down their throats…moderate direction based on other values…no help at all? 35 of 49 do, or plan to discuss political choices with their children. Please include any other pertinent comments.
A few notes about my friendly experiment: Almost everyone who answered that their parents had influence on their political choice was a conservative. But they all included notes like “It tied into my upbringing with religion and morals” or “Politics was never forced, but understood because I was raised in a family of ‘you make it for yourself”.
Some other more extensive comments included: “I am a parent. My goal is to provide teaching moments. I want my child, a gifted child… to think . . . for himself.” (conservative) “We don’t tell them how to vote, but we certainly let them know how we vote. We try to instill strongly the importance of voting in EVERY election, primaries and general. I sit here trying to say “I don’t care if they vote for Obama and the Democrats, as long as they vote.” But the truth is I would care. I’m not sure I would try to talk them out of it, but I’d be thinking “Sheesh, where did I go wrong with you people?” (conservative)
and my favorite: “No kids {yet}, but my kids will be brought up to interact with the world in a way similar to my interactions with it. I’ll teach them about grace, love, and peace. I’ll teach them about prioritizing simple reliance on Christ and prioritizing the well-being of the tired, poor, and hungry, especially children. I’ll teach them about the work ethic espoused in the new testament. I’ll teach them about love. I guess that aligns with moderate direction based on other values. That’s how I arrived at my particular set of conservative values.”
Now back to my mom. I tried to think of one instance where she told me something about politics, something about how the world should be, ANYTHING about a social or fiscal issue and how that “has to be”. I could think of none. (I did, however, recall my 3rd grade vote for Ross Perot in our mock-presidential election. I was the only one who voted for him and THAT was absolutely 100% from the chatter I heard at home :-)) But when I think about my upbringing, I think about going to church and learning about God, CHARITY, tithing, hard work, prayer and faith. I think about my single mom who worked her ass off to take care of me with no help from anyone and I remember being able to recognize her hard work, even as a little girl. That’s just how it was and you didn’t take help from anyone, especially not the government. Heck, I didn’t even know the government offered ‘help’! I remember learning what a tax was and knowing, without being told, that it was not a good thing.
So you see, conservatives don’t brainwash their children. They teach them about morals, ethics, faith and freedom. They lead their day to day activities with conviction and faith, so it comes naturally. My mom didn’t force any beliefs on me. She never sat me down and said ‘Our family votes Republican and so will you!” The Bible taught me to be pro-life. The Bible taught me about loving my neighbor and respecting others. The Constitution taught me to respect a whole other set of beliefs and guidelines. But these are legitimate morals that dictate our daily actions. I took a lot of heat when I posted Paul Ryan’s quote about his faith driving his every action. By who, you ask? Take a guess. But it’s true. Faith and morals drive us and if we aren’t raised with any, we end up as grumpy, system-draining redistributionists with no drive. Assess your liberal friends, if you have any left.
And a simple note, the ‘official’ definition of brainwashing is “(verb) To make (someone) adopt radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible pressure”. Seems to me the only place this is taking place is in the classroom.
In between giggling and snickering, Vice President Biden managed to get a few memorable one-liners in:
“That’s a bunch of malarkey!”
“I don’t understand what my friend is saying!”
“We did not know they wanted more security”
“Incredible!”
“It’s not my position to reveal classified information but we are confident we could deal a serious blow to the Iranians” (no pun intended?)
“This is a bunch of stuff!!”
“FACTS MATTER!”
“Let’s take a look at the facts. Lets’ look where we were in office. …$1.6 trillion in wealth lost. WE knew we had to rescue the middle class, we rescued GM, we moved in and helped people refinance their homes”
“I’ve had it up to HERE with this notion that 47%…its about time they took some responsibility”
“Just get out of the way!”
”Any letter you send me, I’ll entertain”
“We saved $716 billion dollars”
“Who do you believe?!”
“That’s not what they said!!”
“LOOK!”
“Use your common sense. Who do you trust?!”
“We want to extend the tax cut for…permanently!”
“They’re holding hostage the middle class tax cut”
“Just let taxes expire!”
“97% of small businesses make less than $250,000/year”
NEXT Sentence
“96% of small businesses make less than $250,000/year”
“We don’t cut it.” (The American people agree.)
“Let me tell you what my friend said…”
“I’ve been through the whole country- mostly in a helicopter”
“We are leaving!”
“You are in a country that is heavily populated” (Are there countries that are not?)
“None has to pay for contraception”
“Keep an eye on the Supreme Court”
“I hope I’ll get equal time”
“My whole life has been dedicated to leveling the playing field”
“We inherited a God-awful circumstance. People are in trouble.”
“Honey, it’s gonna be okay!”
——————————————————————————————————
If something happens to Obama, this is what you’re left with.
Have you ever thought about how incredibly exhausting it is to argue with a liberal? Besides the name-calling and the lack of logical reasoning, sometimes their irrationality can make it feel like you are the crazy one. But that’s simply not true. First, you have to strike the word ‘liberal’. The official definition of liberal is “Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded, lacking moral restraint.” While the ‘lacking moral restraint’ is correct, a more appropriate term is ‘progressive‘ (a very thorough definition). So, here are a few reasons why just listening to a progressive will make you go cuckoo.
10. They will tell you that everyone should be more tolerant, just not of God or Christianity.
Tolerance is defined as ‘a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one’s own.’ Ever been called a racist (see #7) or a bigot by a progressive? Their mantra is ‘tolerance with exceptions’. If you’re white or male or Christian, you are scum. In the 1960s, the atheists and the ACLU combined to convince the Supreme Court to ban both formal prayer and Bible reading from the public education process, then they took the 10 Commandments out of Courthouses while attacking the US Dollar and the Pledge of Allegiance. War on Women? How about the War on God.
9. They will tell you that you should join a union.
Yes, we see how well that worked out for GM, Chrysler, the Chicago Public School Children and Wisconsin. John Hawkins outlines why unions are bad for America here but he says they damage entire industries (true), they ruin public education (double-true), unions cost taxpayers billions (yes, also true), they are anti-democratic (couldn’t be truer) and they are bankrupting cities and states (yep, true too). Some also say that unions lead to unemployment. Instead of demanding collective bargaining rights, why don’t you try working hard, receiving raises and promotions because you earned them and have some personal responsibility. You may find out that you’re more reliable anyways.
8. They will tell you that corporations aren’t people.
And that is true. But who creates a corporation? Who runs a corporation? Who invests in a corporation? Who PROFITS from a corporation? Who gets in trouble when something goes wrong? That’s right, people do all of those things! So why should you tax a group of people different than one individual person? Please distinguish, my progressive counterparts. Back. Up. Your. Statements.
7. They will tell you that the Republican party is only rich, old, white men.
Allen West, Marco Rubio, Sarah Palin, Artur Davis, Nikki Haley, Clarence Thomas, Renee Armore, Janice Rogers Brown, Keith Butler, Jan Brewer, Herman Cain, Michele Bachman, James Weldon Johnson, Martin Luther King, Sr., Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Susanna Martinez, Mary Fallin, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowksi, Olympia Snowe. Shall I continue on?
How can progressives claim this is so when they are represented by people like Harry Reid, (formerly) TED KENNEDY, Bill Clinton, Mike Beebe, Jerry Brown and Andrew Cuomo (to name a few)? Instead of r-i-c-h, o-l-d, w-h-i-t-e, it should say h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e!
6. They will tell you that we should just open the borders and welcome everyone with open arms and a smile.
Please tell me what happens when you illegally cross the border of another country? Israel, Mexico, Iran? Russia? Canada? Shall we revisit the case of the hikers in Iran? Give me a break. Our current debt is over $16 trillion. Do we need to be responsible for more handout recipients? The short answer is ‘no’. If it’s that important to come to the United States, do so legally. There is not a valid argument that states otherwise.
5. They will tell you that there is a War on Women.
Abortion. Equal pay. Working outside the home. Progressives will try anything to say the GOP tactic is to keep women barefoot in the kitchen with a baby and a submissive attitude. Think again. Republican women are powerful, too. They just don’t wear pant suits.
4. They will tell you that gun control will make our communities safer. First things first: there should be NO restrictions on a 2nd amendment right guaranteed by the Constitution. But, since our government seems to be hell bent on ensuring we have as few rights as possible, let’s review why gun control won’t help. If someone shoots at me, I’m shooting back. If ‘legal’ gun owners are forced to surrender their guns, they will be sitting ducks for the ‘illegal’ gun owners. There will still be a black market for guns. It’s very simple and people have the right to protect themselves. Progressives just don’t think so. Georgia Tech campus ring a bell?
3. They will tell you that we can tax our way out of debt…and we must tax the rich the most!
They’ve got to share! Correct? NO. According to Mary Katherine Ham’s article in the Daily Caller, “The grand total of the combined net worth of every single one of America’s billionaires is roughly $1.3 trillion. It does indeed sound like a “ton of cash” until one considers that the 2011 deficit alone is $1.6 trillion. So, if the government were to simply confiscate the entire net worth of all of America’s billionaires, we’d still be $300 billion short of making up this year’s deficit.” And what about the notion that 60% of collected taxes come from the top 5%? This goes back to number 8. Yes, it’s true that some wealthy people are taxed at a lower rate, but they also pay taxes as a corporation, on investments and other earnings. They contribute significantly to our economy and the government black hole. Paul Ryan told Hardball in 2011, ‘several small businesses file as individuals. Small businesses are the largest source of employment in our country. If we taxed the “wealthy” any more, these companies would have to lay more people off and stop hiring. This would be disastrous for the middle class in our country.’ Need I say more?
2. They will tell you that Obamacare is not a tax increase.
This one is my favorite. Especially since the Supreme Court just ruled in June that it is, in fact, a tax. Oopsie daisy…now what do they say? It’ll save money in the long run. Everyone needs health care. WAKE UP, FOLKS. Healthcare and health insurance are two very different things. No one is owed anything in this world. All of this is besides the point because this is something people are being forced to pay in an effort to redistribute to those in need. That is a tax. (a tax is a sum of money demanded by a government for its support or for specific facilities or services, levied upon incomes, property, sales, etc.) Ding ding. We have a winner. $788 billion isn’t going to just ‘appear’.
Another fun point to this argument is the notion that insurance companies support Obamacare. How about this whistle blower illustrating how much was spent lobbying AGAINST the healthcare bill. No private company wants this. Consider today’s news with Darden and employee hour cutbacks.
And the number one reason you can’t talk to a liberal… 1. They will tell you that George W. Bush is responsible for everything wrong in the world.
I will call a spade a spade. George W. did a lot of things wrong. A lot. I won’t get into specifics because this blog isn’t about him. It’s about what he didn’t do. He did not create the housing crisis single-handedly, he did not ring up more debt than all other previous presidents combined, he didn’t kill our soldiers and for the-love-of-pete, he did not make Hurricane Katrina happen.
So there you have it. Anytime you hear any of the above 10 phrases, it’s best to just walk away. Because you won’t win.
You can listen to the mom’s of the world who say “If a friendship can be undone, it was never really a friendship.”
You can listen to the hippies of the world who say “Can’t we all just get along?”
But is politics reason enough to drop a friend?
The current situation is very sick and twisted. Long passed are the days of keeping mum on politics and religion. Our country is so divided, so separated, so broken.
I’ve lost a few Facebook friends because of politics (Heaven forbid!) and I’ve seen family members take “time-outs” over disagreements over politics. But I recently lost a really close friend because of political beliefs and it made me question where politics falls in our daily lives.
When you think about it, our political views are based on core beliefs, religion, morals, and ethics (or the lack of all of the above for some). Are these things we can sacrifice for friendship? Or are we sacrificing friendships for politics?
A study was released in March by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that 18% of people have defriended or blocked someone on Facebook because of political postings. Another 28% said they counter with rebuttal or competing post.
As a blogger, I’m certainly not one to stand down from my views or keep my mouth shut on an issue. But throughout my life, I’ve surrounded myself with people who live life like me…my friends have a faith of some type, work hard for their earnings and are good people. Can I spend time with someone who doesn’t believe in working hard for things that they want? Do I want to go shopping with someone who is still living off Mommy & Daddy at 25? Can I discuss relationship issues with someone who thinks my tax dollars should pay for their abortion or birth control? The answer is no.
Let’s not get it twisted. I won’t break off a friendship because someone supports a different primary candidate than me or thinks we should give foreign aid to Israel but not Peru. It’s more about the rhetoric and tone BECAUSE of the great divide. Republicans are called bigots, racists, women-haters while Democrats are labeled system-milking, abortion-getting liberal swine sluts. Whether the names are true or not, the dialogue is no longer respectful-from either side. Our discussion of politics has become immensely PERSONAL. I can hardly stand the sight of someone who supports ObamaCare because of 1) how its going to affect me and 2) because of their lack of understanding of actual issues. So when it comes to a morale-based talking point, where do you draw the line?
You can certainly choose not to discuss politics with your friends, but I would argue that there is a growing trend of politics bleeding into every day life. Political views are now like a fashion accessory. And with the ever-evolving policy changes we are seeing, it may become more and more difficult not to resent someone who supports a policy that will negatively affect your personal and financial freedom.
Because I am tired, speechless from stupidity and unable to translate this evenings debate into words, I have decided to publish my notes from the debate ‘in the raw’. We’ll see how this turns out. I have edited down from the 4 original pages to some highlights from our dear leader.
Notes in ‘regular font’ are things the candidate said (indicated by their name)
Notes in ‘bold’ are my own thoughts
Whenever you see lines resembling “jfkdlhflksdhfjksdhf”, you can insert your own expletive.
9:00pm Gosh I hate how Obama walks. He is so pompous.
O: Michelle, next year we won’t be celebrating our anniversary in front of 40 million people…exactly. Cause you’ll be back in Chicago. O: The auto industry has come roaring back (lie), the housing market is has begun to rise (lie) I wish he would keep his hands down. It’s so distracting
R: Romney: 5 basic parts to encourage growth: energy independent, open up more trade, make sure people have skills need to succeed, balance the budget, champion small business . Small businesses are at a 30-year low.(WHY AREN’T YOU MENTIONING OBAMACARE!!!!!)
Obama: Trickledown- Improve education. Made enormous progression drawing ideas. Race to the Top (YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT!) Hire 100,000 teachers? (WHOS GONNA PAY FOR THAT?)How do we deal with our tax code? How do we have enough revenue to pay for that? How can you call it addition to the deficit when the money is never pulled or supposed to be pulled from the people? Cuts aren’t spending! They are opposites!
Obama: I cut taxes for middle class families by $3,600. We do best when the middle class is doing well
(Uhh What did Joe Biden just say yesterday? Middle class has been Barry’ed?) They can now buy a computer for their kid going to college, helps business. (LOL!)
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9:28 pm– first mention of Blame it on Bush.
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Obama: go back to bill Clinton tax era. Encourage job growth and make investments in education and energy (HOW?) 97% of small business would not see increase. Millionaires and billionaires are not small business (DEFINITION OF SMALL BUSINESS…make sure to look it up …………………)
For the record, folks, the definition of a small business is “A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales”
Obama: Cut those things that aren’t efficient…77 gov programs. aircrafts that the air force order, 18 education programs that weren’t helping kids learn, Medicaid/medicare fraud, cut $1 trillion out of discretionary budget,
$4 trillion deficit proposal: Its on the website…$2.50 for every cut, we ask for an additional $1 (WTF? I don’t know what you are saying. And I thought many of your constituents were at a disadvantage by not having internet. Now you tell us to visit your website so we can “see what’s in it”?) Quit smirking.
Obama: Governor has ruled out revenue to address the deficit. (DUH! That’s what he just said you ding dong!)
Obama: Social Security is structurally sound. (Sir, get a grip.) The mere concept is ludicrous.
Obama: 4 years when I ran for office, I had same conversations. Small business couldn’t get affordable costs. Biggest driver of federal deficit…THEN WHY THE DSHDKASHDKASHDKSAH WOULD U MAKE IT A GOVERNMENT THING? People cannot get coverage. Insurance companies impose limits. (Aren’t there limits in car insurance too? You have to protect private companies at some point)
UGH!
Obama: This was a Republican idea. When he talks about this unelected board, group of healthcare experts to figure out how we can reduce the cost of care in the system overall. 2 ways to deal 1)leave a whole bunch of people uninsured. 2)how do we make the cost of care more effective. When completely implemented. Healthcare premiums have gone up but slower than 50 years. That’s like already getting a rebate (No words, just sweat and headaches)
Obama Race to the Top: we will give you more money if you initiate reforms. Lets’ hire 100,00 math and science teachers. Hard pressed states can’t do that. 100,000s of teachers laid off over the last few years. Government can’t do it all. We will have a better trained workforce. (Please tell me…if you couldn’t afford to pay them then, and they’re still broke, how can you pay them now? We’re looking for money in all the wrong places. Where’s waldo? Lets put wood on a burning fire when we should be looking for water to solve the problem and then find new, better materials to make for a sturdier system).
obama: significant program. Race to the top…budget reflect choices. Making college affordable…we were sending $60 billion as middle men. So they cut the middle man. Keep low interest rates. (these things are not related! you are off your rocker. Student debt is at an all time high…over $1 trillion!!!! why are you encouraging this!!!!!!)
10:29pm
I’ve had enough. Exhaustion sets in. And it’s over. But never too exhausted to argue with people on Facebook about their own commentary throughout the debate. Thank you and good night.
No really, they are. Okay, not ‘ugly’. Less feminine. Last week, UCLA released a study showing that the GOP has a more feminine face. Their findings seemed significant: “Female politicians with stereotypically feminine facial features are more likely to be Republican than Democrat, and the correlation increases the more conservative the lawmaker’s voting record,” said lead author Colleen M. Carpinella, a UCLA graduate student in psychology.
Did we really need a study to tell us that conservatives tend to be a bit more on the feminine side?
So why is this so? Upon my immediate desire to research this further, I was impressed by the plethora of results already on Google regarding this topic. Things like ‘Ugly Comments by Ugly Liberals, LiberalsAreHypocrites.com, and ‘Why are Liberals So Butt- Ugly?’ But I wanted to stick to liberal and conservative politicians and figureheads, not people who mouth off to stir controversy. Some people said it was because ‘conservatives have more wealth’. I thought that was funny. I had no idea Hilary and Bill were scraping for groceries or that Elena Kagan was receiving WIC benefits. Another ‘reasoner’ stated that liberals look the way they do to appeal to the people they want to vote for them. What? There really isn’t a ‘reason’ except that ‘people think so’. But that’s reason enough for me.
I’m going to go ahead and make my own associations here: class & femininity. I’ll also fully disclose that I am a bit old-fashioned. I like long hair, skirts and dresses and looking like a woman. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t spent any time around men who said “Man, did you see how good that chick looked in her pant suit?” Love ’em or hate ’em, you cannot deny the class that conservative women exude.
But you can’t tell me that you have to have a pixie hair cut, wear a pant suit and a pinkie ring to be powerful and successful. It sometimes seems like liberals get so hell-bent on being pro-choice, pro-equal pay, pro-free-birth-control, anti-objectivity feminists, that they forget to be feminine. They forget that they are actually women.
Would it kill you to put on a skirt or a shift dress? Would using a hair dryer and a curling iron mean you no longer believe in equality? A little blush? I don’t think so.
The Perspicacious Conservative 