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True
North Archives - October 27, 2009
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Featured
Articles
Sustainability:
The New Gay Cowboy
By James Ehlers
Fortunately, a new year is
on the horizon, an election year no less, and if we are serious about practicing
what we preach, we will resist fads, and return to only truly sustainable
ethics: hard work, sacrifice, and frugality. A generation or more spent
fawning over the odd, the whimsical, the self-centered, and the impractical
has left us and our children in a precarious position.
 Governing
by "the Ends Justifies the Means"
By Mark Shepard
When Peter Welch ran for
Congress he campaigned against Congress ignoring or disrespecting the Constitution.
Yet now that he is in Congress, he has taken on the same disregard for
our Constitution that he campaigned against.
We
Are (NOT) All Keynesians Now
By Martin Harris
 Shortly
after I read about the supposed "stimulus" effect of the money spent to
re-build the Middlebury Post Office mini-plaza, I read a persuasive (for
me, anyway) argument against such tax- or borrow-and-spend government initiatives
in the pages of The Intercollegiate Review. In the current issue, author/historian/amateur-economist
Thomas Woods uses "The Forgotten Depression of 1920" to prove his thesis,
that Keynesian/Obamian deficit/stimulus spending prolongs and worsens depressions/recessions,
exactly contrary to what the government-spending proponents promise. The
1920 Depression was swift and deep; there was no government intervention
(in fact, government cut taxes sharply and spending even more sharply,
leaving more disposable income (and spending/saving/investment options)
in private hands, and within a year it was all over, except in agriculture,
where chronic commodity over-production caused by continuous productivity
advance without supply management has plagued the industry while pleasing
urban consumers for most of the last century.
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Quotable
"That brings
us to Cap and Trade. Never in the history of humanity has a more idiotic
plan been put forward and sold with bigger lies."
-- Stanislav Mishin
is a Russian student of the decline of great nations and this quote appeared
in the online
English edition of Pravda Ru in an article on how America is following
the old Soviet Union on a path towards decline.
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Vermont
Weekly News Round-Up
Quick
Guide to Burlington Telecom Controversy
By Shay Totten, Seven Days,
October 22, 2009
Here is a quick recap of
the BT controversy, along with links to past articles and blog posts tracking
this unfolding story.
War
Between The Generations
From Vermont Tiger, October
23, 2009
There were once, no doubt,
plenty of elderly people who didn't have enough to live on. But those
days are gone. As a class, old people are doing just fine. Better,
in fact, than their kids or grandkids who will, by the way, be paying off
the deficits Washington is so blithely running up. The cruise ship
business would go bust if old people suddenly decided to stay on dry ground.
They're partying while their kids are working two jobs.
Charter
School Laws Across the States
From The Center for Education
Reform
Charter laws have been passed
by 40 states and the District of Columbia. Not in Vermont.
Getting
It Right; Getting It Wrong
From Vermont Tiger, October
22, 2009
Some great reporting by Sue
Allen of the Times Argus and John Briggs of the Burlington Free Press deserves
special recognition.
Douglas
Welcomes Bio-Tech Development
Caledonia Record Editorial,
October 24, 2009
Vermont Gov. James Douglas
and a South Korean bio-tech company completed a plan Friday to bring hundreds
of new jobs to Orleans County.
The deal in Seoul makes official
the effort by Jay Peak Resort President Bill Stenger and his partners to
open a $50 million bio-tech facility in or near Newport City in two years.
Wrong
Headline?
From Vermont Times, October
21, 2009
The media are full of stories
about how amazing it is that the state received a lot more proposals for
alternative energy than it had anticipated. ...
It's kind of like a reverse
stimulus program: Take money out of people's pockets and give it
to a favored group of businesses. Some Vermont politicians would call that
"corporate welfare." But not in this case.
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Freedom
Under Fire:
The
Global War on Terrorism
The
American Self Immolation, Truly a Sight to See
By Stanislav Mishin, Pravda
Ru, October 19, 2009
It can be safely said, that
the last time a great nation destroyed itself through its own hubris and
economic folly was the early Soviet Union (though in the end the late Soviet
Union still died by the economic hand). Now we get the opportunity to watch
the Americans do the exact same thing to themselves. The most amazing thing
of course, is that they are just repeating the failed mistakes of the past.
One would expect their fellow travelers in suicide, the British, to have
spoken up by now, but unfortunately for the British, their education system
is now even more of a joke than that of the Americans.
While taking a small breather
from mouthing the never ending propaganda of recovery, never mind that
every real indicator is pointing to death and destruction, the American
Marxists have noticed that the French and Germans are out of recession
and that Russia and Italy are heading out at a good clip themselves. Of
course these facts have been wrapped up into their mind boggling non stop
chant of "recovery" and hope-change-zombification. What is ignored, of
course, is that we and the other three great nations all cut our taxes,
cut our spending, made life easy for small business...in
other words: the exact opposite of the Anglo-Sphere.
Dickering
Over Uranium
Tehran should love
the U.S. offer on enrichment.
The Wall Street Journal
Editorial, October 24, 2009
One sign that an adversary
isn't serious about negotiating is when it rejects even your concessions.
That seemed to be the case yesterday when Iran gave signs it may turn down
an offer from Russia, Europe and the U.S. to let Tehran enrich its uranium
under foreign supervision outside the country. The mullahs so far won't
take yes for an answer.
The
War in Afghanistan Is Winnable
By Michael Yon, National
Review, October 19, 2009
To be clear, I have developed
a strong belief that the war is winnable, though on current trends we will
lose. Filkins seemed to present a similar argument. In my view, we need
more troops and effort in Afghanistan — now — and our commitment must be
intergenerational.
Destroying
America from Within
By Frank Gaffney, Jr., Family
Security Matters, October 15, 2009
Toward that end, Muslim
Mafia shows how CAIR has assiduously sought to penetrate U.S. decision-making
circles, mounting successful influence operations against the executive,
congressional and judicial branches. Its agents have been: included in
official outreach efforts to the Muslim American community; selected by
the State Department to represent the United States to foreign Muslim populations
through government –underwritten speakers programs overseas; tapped to
provide "sensitivity training" to the FBI and other law enforcement organizations;
and prominently involved in legal proceedings advancing Shariah's supremacist
program.
China,
India Cancel Out Copenhagen
From Investor’s Business
Daily, October 23, 2009
With less than two months
to go before the big Copenhagen Conference on global warming, two major
nations have said "no thanks" to the no-growth agenda. For that reason
alone, so should we.
Following a deal signed late
Thursday between China and India, anything we might agree to do in Copenhagen
is likely moot anyway. The two mega-nations — which together account for
nearly a third of the world's population — said they won't go along with
a new climate treaty being drafted in Copenhagen to replace the Kyoto Protocol
that expires in 2012.
The
Clash of Un-Civilizations
By Melanie Phillips, Family
Security Matters October 23, 2009
By fixating on the "far right"
as the supremely evil force in British public life, the mainstream political
class has failed to grasp that a half-baked neo-Nazi rabble is not the
main issue. There is another more lethal type of fascism on the march in
the form of Islamic supremacism.
The Islamists, or jihadis,
are intent upon snuffing out individual freedom and imposing a totalitarian
regime of submission to religious dogma which erodes and then replaces
British and Western values. Now these two types of fascism are doing battle
with each other – and with the white working class and lower-middle classes
caught between them.
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From
Elsewhere
America’s
Uncontrolled Debt and Spending is the Real ‘Waterloo’
By Ray Nothstine, Acton
Institute for Religion and Liberty, October 21, 2009
Religious left icon Jim Wallis
has popularized the maxim, "budgets are moral documents." Yet the often
repeated declaration is true in a way Wallis hasn’t envisioned, signaling
bad news for Washington’s big spenders and those stuck footing the bill.
Currently this country is facing no greater crisis than out of control
spending and a mounting federal debt—a moral problem of prodigious proportions.
The Office of Management
and Budget is projecting $9 trillion in deficits over the next ten years.
Washington’s leaders have long paid lip service to the crisis, but their
actions betray their words. The national debt is closing in on $12 trillion
and unfunded liabilities like Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement
programs total $60 trillion. The looming budget and debt crisis transcend
all current problems, and the crisis is visibly evident in the sliding
value of the dollar. Former U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker has
warned that the country could go bankrupt in one generation. The poor and
middle class will be affected most.
Service.gov
And Its Soviet Similarities
By Svetlana
Kunin, Investor’s Business Daily, October 21, 2009
As a former citizen of the
USSR, I heard and experienced all of this before. I listen to the speeches
by the president asking people to sacrifice and serve. So what are we to
sacrifice? For what? And to whom? I think I get it now.
Citizens of America, sacrifice
your elders and forget your selfish aspirations of prosperity for yourself
and your family! Sign onto Service.gov and serve your government!
Palin
Strikes Back
With her decision
to endorse Doug Hoffman in NY-23, the former Alaska governor sends the
GOP establishment a clear message.
By Melissa
Clouthier, Pajamas Media, October 24, 2009
Second, Sarah Palin has a
massive army fundraising for her. It has been interesting to contemplate
how she’s going to use that power. The GOP power brokers have certainly
seemed disinterested in having her run for president, but they are very
interested in her money and endorsements. The only problem is that they
have, to use a vulgar turn of phrase, pissed in their Cheerios. They underestimated
her star power. They misjudged her almost as badly as the left did; they
thought she was just some feather-headed lightweight who would be nice
arm candy for John McCain. She’d win the women vote because women are so
stupid; ovaries are enough to win them over was the idea. Turns out that
Sarah Palin was formidable because of the strength of her ideals, not just
because of the strength of her beauty. And don’t forget the strength of
her spine. This gross miscalculation has put the Republican Party at odds
with their one star candidate.
Is
President Obama a Socialist?
From the Bluegrass Pundit,
October 18, 2009
President Obama was born
of and raised by leftist, socialists and/or communists. His actions as
President indicate the apple has not fallen far from the tree.
A
Power Grab Called 'Net Neutrality'
From Investor’s Business
Daily, October 21, 2009
First Amendment: Diversity
czar Mark Lloyd's FCC votes Thursday on the issue of net neutrality. Advertised
as providing access to all, it will do to the information superhighway
what Lloyd proposed for talk radio.
White
House Attacks Worry Moderate Democrats
By Jonathan
Allen, Politico, October 23, 2009
A White
House effort to undermine
conservative critics is generating a backlash on Capitol Hill — and
not just from Republicans.
"It’s a mistake," said Rep.
Jason Altmire, a moderate Democrat
from western Pennsylvania. "I think it’s beneath the White House to get
into a tit for tat with news organizations."
The
Kitty-Cat Who Roared
By Victor Davis Hanson,
The Patriot Post, October 22, 2009
Obama ran on the accusation
that Bush missed promised targets and deadlines. Yet when the loud reformer
Obama himself proves even emptier in his promises than Bush, he suffers
an additional wage of theatrical hypocrisy.
Related: Welcome
to the P.T. Barnum Administration
Nadler's
ACORN Ethics
By Matthew Vadum, The American
Spectator, October 26 2009
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.),
who heads a congressional subcommittee that may be investigating ACORN
in the not-too-distant future, has been providing advice to ACORN's lawyer,
according to a new report. Nadler, a longtime ACORN ally, is chairman of
the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution, civil
rights, and civil liberties.
CBO
Underestimates Benefits of Malpractice Reform
By Lawrence McQuillan, The
Wall Street Journal, October 23 2009
Earlier this month, the Congressional
Budget Office (CBO) said medical-liability reforms could save about $11
billion annually. This assessment is a gross underestimate of the potential
benefits of reform and was intended to give cover to congressional Democrats
who say malpractice-liability costs are trifling. But a full accounting
shows the benefits would be a hefty $242 billion a year, more than 10 percent
of America's health expenditures.
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