Monday, October 7, 2013


A Matter of Fact Not Opinion
 [NOTE: Someone called me a liar a couple of days ago –– oh not in so many words, of course  –– but that was the thrust of the orotund phraseology with which I was attacked.  My critic was obviously filled with tremendous rage that I had dared to say something that contradicted his own bitter, cynical, haughty, puffed up, mean-spirited, profoundly ungrateful view of life. Because my story was incongruent with his way of approaching things, I simply had to be both a liar and a fool. Since an entire blog post was made of his libelous critique of my autobiographical remarks, I think it proper to restate what I said in a blog post of my own in hopes of freeing my reputation from the grip of his slimy tentacles. What you want to make of it is entirely up to you.]

I do know what I'm talking about, because I'm describing my own REAL LIFE experiences -– not quoting statistics from a liberal or conservative propaganda mill to bolster a preconceived point of view drilled into my skull by an educational system bent on killing individualism and replacing it with a society made up of obedient, quasi-robotic automata.

This Parallel Universe phenomenon never ceases to amaze me. How "my" world could be so different from "your" world and vice versa strains the bonds of credulity. Yet, I am sure that neither side is actually lying.

I am in my seventies, lived most of my life from my twenties through my fifties in "statistical poverty," yet I never FELT poor, and always managed to live well, because I believe I was blest with good parents who instilled good values in me, and I have known instinctively how to prioritize the activities in which I've participated, and to be realistic about what I could and could not afford.

When I say "statistically poor," I mean I was making between eight and twelve thousand a year.

I got caught without health insurance when I moved to another state and stupidly didn't realize I wouldn't be permitted to take my Blue-Cross, Blue Shield with me.

I'd had a couple of frightening experiences with panic attacks that led me to the ER where I was diagnosed with irregular heartbeats. It was not a serious problem, and was quickly resolved once I understood what it was, but it was enough to disqualify me from getting Blue Cross when I moved from one state to another. As it turned out, I had to wait three years before I could get health insurance again.

Nevertheless, I always managed to keep my head above water, and never failed to pay the ever-increasing rates for health insurance once I regained it, because IT got top priority along with the monthly mortgage payment.

I always ate well, enjoyed the company of any number of friends, but "wine women and song" stayed last on the list, which was why I was able to manage so well.

People today seem to resent even the merest HINT that they ought to restrain their impulses, exert discipline on themselves and adopt a policy of voluntary austerity to combat the high cost of living.

I guess we're all living in "Wonderland" these days. Common Sense has been virtually forgotten, and everyone seems to think he has a "right" to have everything handed to him on a silver platter simply because he is alive.

I come from a family of immigrants on one side who were very poor when they arrived in the USA –– theirs was the stereotypical immigrant saga –– and a hardscrabble Yankee working class existence on the other.

Everyone did very well by working very hard on his own. No government assistance was available, and if it had been, the family would have been much too proud to take it. They were active in the Church, and derived much benefit from that in myriad ways.

There was no income tax and no capital gains tax in those days either, which meant that if you were smart, robust, ambitious, worked hard, saved money, bought property and invested judiciously in the stock market, you could do astonishingly well.

All the male members of my mother's family graduated from college –– practically unheard of a hundred years ago –– and within the span of one generation the family had an aggregate net worth of several million dollars.

That kind of unprecedented opportunity was the main reason so many millions participated in The Great Migration from Europe in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth.

This ruinous notion that putting ourselves in the power of an almighty kleptocratic government that systematically robs us of our money so it can "give" us the things IT believes we need most, and deprive us of the things IT believe we ought NOT to have is in my mind the absolute ANTITHESIS of the radical libertarian ideals on which this country was founded.

We have becomes a nation filled with weaklings, crybabies, arrogant beggars and militant morons as a result of liberal-progressivism. The WORST part of it is that the more we GET from government, the more we DEMAND, and the ANGRIER, more SELFISH, more SULLEN more UNSOCIABLE and more IRRESPONSIBLE we become.

The poor people of my grandparents and parents generation were good humored good sports for the most part, and they knew how to have FUN. I saw it and experienced it, myself. They enjoyed each other's company, shared modest pleasures freely, and managed to live much better than people with a great deal more disposable income than THEY ever had do today.

Despite all its challenges and difficulties, life was more enjoyable and more rewarding before collectivist thinking started to dominate the nation.

That's not an OPINION it's a FACT.


32 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Careful of those Imperious Squids. They get testy when their leftwing doctrine is challenged. They are known for pissing out noxious ink to stink up the dialog when losing an argument (which they often do).

    When their argument finally collapses from the weight of accumulated shibboleths, dogma and half-truths, they will fall back on the civility argument.

    This attack is particularly rich, since the Imperious Squid can frequently be spotted reclining in ultra-liberal salons dilating upon the stupidity of everyone to her right, and jollily calling them names.

    This passive-aggressive trait makes the Imperious Squid exceedingly slippery.

    Contact with this creature is not dangerous, but will indeed prove fruitless, as her eyes cannot see anything outside the red spectrum and her ears are tuned only to high-pitched whines of leftwing outlets like msnbc, New York Times, and Salon.

    -- Ernest Merman

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  3. DIMOCRAPS LIE, IT'S WHAT THEY DO.

    I don't know who they think they're fooling. Themselves? The chronically stupid (same thing)?

    Certainly not anybody with an above-room-temperature IQ.
    All Boehner and Republican Leadership are asking for is to sit down and have a good-faith negotiation on the implementation of the ACA and the debt ceiling.

    The longer this plays out, the more tyrannical dimocrap scum look. Which they are anyway -- Tyrannical I mean. Something I've always tried to tell people
    Look at their actions...... Barricading WWII Memorials and the Vietnam Veterans Wall for NO reason. Kicking people out of their own homes, closing OCEANS.....
    the DISGUSTING FILTH in the LSM can only get away with covering for the Stuttering Clusterfuck Of A Miserable Failure for so long -- Then the shit's gonna hit the fan.
    Obama knows the MSM isńt going to fact check his ridiculous assertions and not enough people see the red mediás rebuttals to his claims.The MSM is perfectly happy ignoring Obama being a serial liar and misleader.
    It́s just like this latest lie making he rounds that Obamacare glitchs are caused by overload,no matter what time of day or night people try to apply.And how can all the state websites be screwed up at the same time?

    Another political activist portrayed by the DISGUSTING FILTH in the LSM as an ordinary Citizen accomplishing extraordinary things because of their LORD GOD OBAMA.
    We (Patriotic Americans) busted them, of course.
    DIMOCRAPS LIE. IT'S WHAT THEY DO. IT'S ALL THEY DO.
    Being stupid, it's all they CAN do

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  4. Exceedingly well said, Mr. FreeThinke.

    Anyone possessed of common sense would understand what you are saying and agree with it!

    Human beings are by nature power hungry and venal.

    Why would anyone suspend rational thinking and believe that the caliginous collection of politicians, bureaucrats and the permanent cloud of rent-seekers that continually swarm about them are any different?

    Progressive statists are naive and foolish, and that makes them ultimately dangerous, especially when they get their gnarled claws upon the levers of power.

    -- Miniver Cheevy

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  5. In the words pf the immortal Bill Clinton. "Big Government is dead!"

    And in the words of a certain Pet Shop owner, it was "only resting."

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  6. In the words pf the immortal Bill Clinton. "Big Government is dead!"

    And in the words of a certain Pet Shop owner, it was "only resting."

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  8. Hi FT,
    I shall take the factual elements of your autobiography at face value. Even so, the experiences you relate are yours and yours alone, and I hope historians and politicians who wish to learn from history neither discount nor invest too heavily in the biography of one man.

    Anecdotes are not useless.

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  9. Joe: The squid we're referring to is much too bitter.

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  10. People today seem to resent even the merest HINT that they ought to restrain their impulses, exert discipline on themselves and adopt a policy of voluntary austerity to combat the high cost of living.

    -------
    A favorite meme.

    Not only have people been austere but the excesses of Kapital, the true unrestrained greedsters, have FORCED them in austerity.

    However, since it is not a government compulsion you ignore it. I assume because you feel the market operates according to biblical ethics and truth. No other way for me to make sense of this.

    By the way, FT. We all have a story. Hopefully we know our roots.

    I remember, my great aunt in Merrimac in the early 60's didn't have indoor plumbing. Social Security was a blessing to her.
    That was on my mother's side. They were wusses compared to the Ukies.

    I understand restraint.

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  11. Thank you for that much, Jez, but the story isn't strictly mine, it's about my parents, my grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins by blood and marriage, my parents' friends, our fellow parishioners at church, my teachers, and the people I knew in our community.

    My family history may not be The Story of Everyman, but it certainly was typical of a very large segment of middle-class American society between 1880 and 1960.

    Without going into any detail I assure you we had probably more than our fair share of illness, tragedy, crisis, hardship and grief. The point I am trying so hard to make is that the coping mechanisms available to everyone in those days were sufficient -- as long as one had a good, strong foundation in moral education, a sense of gratitude, duty, conscience, patience , fortitude and great strength of character.

    One of the great things about those "good, old days" was the way they frowned on waste.

    "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" was a popular motto even by the time I came along.

    I doubt very much if anyone is encouraged to practice THRIFT and FRUGALITY anymore, and society is much the poorer for it.

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  12. We all have our genealogies and histories and I find them quite interesting. (I even have one!)
    But, FT, my comment here involves the nuts & bolts of things, in this case the illustrative giant squid paintings. Neat. So I looked them up: the one from a place called "The Boogieman is a..SQUID"
    and the second, a painting named
    'The Belly's Dream 12 x 14 watercolor at "Deep Sea News".
    IMO, clever choices in illustration
    help to draw attention to the subject at hand,(except for we
    wandering minds) and I almost expected a squid poem!

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  13. No one in my family had indoor plumbing in my great grandparents' and grandparent's day either, Ducky. Neither did they have electricity. They did have gaslight in the city, but used kerosene lamps in their country houses.

    What my family, apparently, did not have was deep seated anger, bitter resentment, lack of faith, boundless cynicism, and a marked tendency to blame "the rich" or "the boss" or "their source of income" for everything they did not yet enjoy and possess for themselves.

    Your depressing worldview is hideous, Ducky. Apparently, you have no gratitude -- a failing typical of every liberal-progressive I've ever known.

    Everyone may have had to endure the same or similar unpleasant, undesirable experiences and challenges, but it is the ATTITUDE with which they met these things that determined the success or failure of their lives.

    PLEASE let's not get into one of those tedious, utterly pointless "My grief has been SO much greater than YOUR grief exchanges."

    I thank God for the wonderful sanguine WASP temperament that has buoyed and strengthened me throughout a life you couldn't possibly imagine.

    Competitive Suffering is a Waste of Time.

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  14. Thank you, BB. I wonder how you found out things about the illustrations I didn't know, myself?

    As you may have noticed, I take a great deal of care in selecting the illustrations for this blog. Sometimes, I spend more time searching for those than I do in the actual writing of the text.

    Most of the time the significance should be clear. Today, I chose to be a bit cryptic -- call it having my own little private joke, if you wish.

    The object of my derision will no have trouble identifying himself, should he visit here, but I've been tactful enough to spare him the indignity of identifying him sufficiently well to cause him the pain of embarrassment.

    Of course, I do regard Marxism and its host of dreary derivatives as a kind of "Bogeyman," though I'd never thought to put it in quite those terms before. Apparently, the subconscious knows a great deal more than we give it credit for. ;-)

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  15. FT, an interesting story that shows a particular difference between two groups of people evidenced today. One group that keeps focused on improving their life through their own effort through hard work and self-reliance. Contrast this group with another entitled group that expects the necessities of life to be provided (a greedy and grasping mentality that inverts the moral ethic of the first group, holds out their hand for something they don't have while expecting it to be provided just because they "need" it). And if it's not handed out, they would point a gun to your head and steal your lunch because they don't have lunch.

    Adding the power of the state to impose "moral authority" only compounds the problem.

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  16. I have gratitude, Ft and enough education to know enough to thank liberal policies, now being destroyed by the Tea Bagger Visigoths, for advancing the country.

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  17. I've seen enough political arguments around to recognize the topic, FT..actually as soon as I saw the pictures. A marine biologist might quibble a bit over species type, but yep, I am
    familiar with the topic. BTW, I often seek the identity of photos/paintings by
    scanning through google 'images' under the appropriate topic: seems
    to work efficiently about 75-80% of the time.

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  18. Ducky must be kidding.

    Our education system has been destroyed by the teacher's syndicates and the nest feathering bureaucrats. "The Children" are the last thing on their minds.

    Progressives are the ones who have brought us to this parlous state.

    -- Wilhelm Stern

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  19. You worship Satan, Ducky, and mistake him for Christ. That is what ALL liberals do. Upside down, inside out, and backward is your view of Existence.

    You may have more specific information a your fingertips than I, but I am better EDUCATED than you. You have been INDOCTRINATED while you were being informed. A pity because at root you do have a good mind, and a good heart.

    I am humbly grateful to have been brought up to recognize and appreciate the difference between the beauty of true benevolence and the hideousness of its malignant counterfeit.

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  20. Links between socialism, Zionism and Satanism:

    "Uncomfortable and compromising strings connect Karl Marx – the German-Jewish philosopher and economist, founder of the so-called scientific Socialism – to Satanism. Since the left is not interested in publicizing this relation, it is treated as nothing more than a transitory and immature phase of Marx’s life before he reached his intellectual peak. Notwithstanding, this connection existed and marked his whole life. Further, he never recanted his pact with the Devil. On the contrary, because of it, he conceived the most perverse ideology in History that is responsible for the death of more than 100 million people."

    "The relationship between Marx and his teacher, the Jewish writer Moses Hess, also considered the father of Socialist Zionism, was quite mysterious. In Hess’ mentality and philosophy there is a curious superposition of three ideological layers: Socialism, Zionism and Satanism. On the one hand, Hess was the mentor of both Marx and Engels and one of the founders of Socialism; on the other hand, he was the precursor of Zionism, even before Theodor Herzl. He was also the one who initiated Marx and Engels into Satanism.

    In 1862 Hess published his book Rome and Jerusalem - The Last National Question, where he proposed the foundation of a Jewish nation in Palestine. He also proposed that the Jews establish a socialist agrarian system there that would allow them to find “redemption through the land.”

    "Bakunin, one of Marx’ socialist colleagues, a Satanist like Marx, preached the destruction of the State and promoted anarchy: “Our mission is to destroy, not to build. The passion to destroy is a creative passion.” Marx also testified to his destructive intent when, in March 1850, he wrote with Engels a “plan of action against democracy.” In it, he drafted a terrorist program that included killing the kings and destroying the public monuments. It was along these lines that he proposed an alliance between the proletariat and the small bourgeoisie.

    It should come as no surprise, therefore, that in Marx’ funeral speech, his friend Friedrich Engels praised him for his destructive wrath: “For Marx was before all else a revolutionary. His real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or another, to the overthrow of capitalist society and of the state institutions which it had brought into being, to contribute to the liberation of the modern proletariat, which he was the first to make conscious of its own position and its needs, conscious of the conditions of its emancipation. Fighting was his element. And he fought with a passion, a tenacity and a success such as few could rival.”

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  21. Well, Waylon in the past before PC took over, the Intellectual Aggressors we call Marxists, Socialists, Fabians, Liberals, Progressives, Fascists, Statists today were often referred to as demonically clever.

    And so they have been -- and remain. Like the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, however, they have become increasingly "subtile," and therefore, even harder to combat than when they were noisy, quarrelsome, bearded, unwashed, and rudely confrontational -- although many of them still are that.

    I do wish you had included links to material that supports your positin. It does sound rather wild without any footnotes -- or even with them. These days people just don't want to believe this sort of thing, which of course gives greater power than ever before to these diabolists.

    If you have sources, please share them with us.

    My instincts tell me this is altogether plausible, but we would need much more than that to build any sort of convincing case.

    Thank you.

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  22. The coping mechanisms which were sufficient in your family would have been reduced or entirely unavailable to eg. the estranged or the orphaned. We can witness today the amish who live in a marvellously harmonious community such as you describe, except when they choose to ostracise someone for whatever reason.

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  23. Here's the link to the above quoted material.

    http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/G_007_MarxSatanism.html

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  24. Good morning, Jez,

    All I can say is "Wherever you find two or three human beings gathered together for any purpose whatsoever you will find faults, problems, failings, dissent. treachery and cruelty." It's simply in the nature of the beast.

    However, I will loosely paraphrase Winston Churchill, the Savior of Great Britain, whom you, unfortunately, have been conditioned to look on with a weather eye, and say that Western Christian Civilization, as it evolved in Europe, Great Britain, the United States and Canada, is the worst Civilization earth has ever known --- except for all the others. ;-)

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  25. One of the perils of conservatism, I suppose, is complacency. I think it is as valuable to soberly reflect on the deficiencies of our traditions as it is to preserve their strengths. To that end, I would hope to be able to discover a bit more detail than is captured by your shrugged "c'est la vie".

    I don't say that expecting you to disagree, by the way. I hope this is common ground.

    My opinion of Churchill is not the product of conditioning. You would be pleased with the way Churchill is deified in our popular culture as the uncomplicated hero of the western world. As of course he was -- along with a lot of other things, historical revisionist among them.

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  26. Philippians 4:8

    King James Version

    " ... Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

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  27. Isn’t it humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things about which we will not come to Jesus Christ.

    If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words— “Come to Me . . . .”

    In every dimension in which you are not real, you will argue or evade the issue altogether rather than come; you will go through sorrow rather than come; and you will do anything rather than come the last lap of the race of seemingly unspeakable foolishness and say, “Just as I am, I come.”

    As long as you have even the least bit of spiritual disrespect, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do something very big, and yet all He is telling you to do is to “Come . . . .”

    “Come to Me . . . .” When you hear those words, you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, and it will involve anything that will uproot whatever is preventing you from getting through to Jesus.

    And you will never get any farther until you are willing to do that very thing. The Holy Spirit will search out that one immovable stronghold within you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him do so.

    How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away thinking, “I’ve really received what I wanted this time!” And yet you go away with nothing, while all the time God has stood with His hands outstretched not only to take you but also for you to take Him. Just think of the invincible, unconquerable, and untiring patience of Jesus, who lovingly says, “Come to Me. . . .”

    ~ Oswald Chambers from My Utmost for His Highest

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  28. Very profound post. You are in my parents age group and it is your generation that is referred to as the greatest generation that ever lived and contributed to the United States. I firmly believe that from how I was raised and a lot of what you write resonates with me as my parents went through similar experiences.

    I empathize with you having panic attacks and am glad that they were not of a serious nature. I have suffered with them since I was 28 years old, so it will be almost thirty years soon that I have dealt with that and agoraphobia. So unlike your panic attacks being due to a heart issues that was not serious, mine were due to I suppose for a lack of better terms, a weak constitution and a faulty nervous system. At least that is how Dr. Abraham Low explained it. He was the father of "self-help" groups. He wrote a book called Mental Health Through Will Training. I won't go into particulars but it helped me until recently when I was almost raped by a cab driver in 2008. Since that time I have been back on meds and had a lot of panic attacks but they have dissipated. I was 20 years free of those horrid things, I hope to be free of them the rest of my life. I still get nervous in crowds of people though. I am sorry, I am so off topic, forgive me, but when you mention this in your posting I could identify with you, but our reasons for having them certainly are unrelated.

    I have read your postings on many of my friends blogs. You are extremely intelligent and I admire you. I apologize for any shortcomings I have. I do not mean to be brash or offend.

    My problem is that I become to passionate about something and my mouth gets away from me. I believe that your generation did not have that problem if I am not mistaken. My parents always tell me never to tell people my business, not to get involved with neighbors, mind my own business, never tell anyone how much money I earn and never talk about religion or politics. I listened for all except the later two. :)

    I know you were over at the Jack's and I wanted to apologize but all I keep saying is wrong and no one wants to accept my apology then I get more upset, so, since you were there if I offended you I hope you will except my humble apology. I really just need to keep my mouth shut on some subjects that are not my business.

    Anyhow, thank you for the interesting posting and looking forward to reading your posts around my friends blogs and if it is okay with you, as my elder I would hope it is okay if I drop in sometimes. I do love to read things that I will learn from. You have lived longer than me....I am never too big or haughty to learn or to admit I was wrong and stupid.

    Humbly,
    Elizabeth (I was so embarrassed I changed my full name to my nickname)

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  29. There is no need for you to apologize, Izzie, -- certainly not to me.

    Some very old advice makes a good rule of thumb, I think:

    NEVER COMPLAIN. NEVER EXPLAIN. NEVER APOLOGIZE and NEVER VOLUNTEER. ;-)

    I thank you for your good opinion, and hope you will visit here again. I think tomorrow's post might interest you.

    I'm so used to people either ignoring me completely or telling me I'm stupid, conceited, overbearing, pretentious, downright evil and a general all around SOB, it's rather nice to have someone say I'm intelligent.

    Thank you for that.

    Be of good cheer.

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  30. Thank you sir. I will most certainly visit tomorrow! Oh, and I will heed your wise advise. "Never Complain. Never Explain. Never Apologize and Never Volunteer!"

    Very sound indeed.

    You too be of good cheer and looking forward to your post tomorrow! :)

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  31. That advice did not originate with me, Izzie. It's a time-worn, time-honored classic. That, of course, makes it all the more valuable.

    I have found over the years the less I say about myself and my personal fears and problems, the better I tend to be received.

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