In 1758, Samuel Johnson wrote the following:<\/p>\n
Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n [The Idler<\/em> 11 November 1758]<\/p>\n It is vital to recognize the truth about health care reform.\u00a0 The goal of Pelosi, Obama and Reid (\u201cPOR\u201d) is get everyone to accept this bill as reality and only discuss making some minor changes to \u201cimprove\u201d the bill.\u00a0 POR was desperate to get this bill passed regardless of political consequences.\u00a0 The bill is over 2,400 pages long, and no one even pretends to understand all of its provisions.\u00a0 So, one must ask, \u201cwhy the rush?\u201d\u00a0 The reason is that this was never just about health care reform.\u00a0\u00a0 It is about changing America into a socialist country.\u00a0 Health care reform is just the first in a series of proposals by POR that are designed to completely transform this country.\u00a0 Even if this bill is changed significantly to make it more acceptable, it will ultimately facilitate a transition to nationalized health care.<\/p>\n Hidden within this bill was the complete federal takeover of the student loan program.\u00a0 Anyone who needs to borrow money to get a college education in the future will have to apply to the federal government.\u00a0 \u00a0If you are concerned about political correctness now, just hang on to your seat because we are in for a wild ride.\u00a0\u00a0 POR is saying that everyone has a right to an education.\u00a0 But the question that must be asked is \u201cWhat kind of education?\u201d\u00a0 There are already proposals that people who seek government careers will not have to pay back their student loans.\u00a0 I am absolutely certain that progressives are literally salivating over how they will be able to use student loan guidelines to transform our entire educational system.<\/p>\n There are other great ideas just over the horizon.\u00a0 POR is going to try and push through cap and trade legislation, while they still have momentum.\u00a0 Even though the most noticeable impact of this legislation will be increased energy costs and enormous damage to our economy, the real problem is down the road.\u00a0 This cap and trade legislation will give the federal government almost unlimited power with regard to regulating personal behavior.\u00a0 There will be more and more regulations regarding how we live our daily lives.\u00a0 I can hardly wait to hear the new proposals from the people who are proposing a ban on \u201cHappy Meals\u201d while legalizing marijuana.<\/p>\n All of this will allegedly be done in order to make the system fairer.\u00a0 They may or may not use the term \u201csocial justice,\u201d but whatever it is called, the end result will be the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fredrick A. Hayek once wrote:<\/p>\n I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as striving after this mirage of social justice<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n [Economic Freedom and Representative Government \u2013 1973]<\/p>\n Dr. Hayek personally experienced the rise of National Socialism in Germany.\u00a0 He wrote the following in 1944, in England:\u00a0<\/p>\n I, the Author have spent about half my adult life in my native Austria, in close touch with German thought, and the other half in the United States and England. In the latter period I have become increasingly convinced that some of the forces which destroyed freedom in Germany are also at work here. The very magnitude of the outrages committed by the National Socialists has strengthened the assurance that a totalitarian system cannot happen here. But let us remember that 15 years ago the possibility of such a thing happening in Germany would have appeared just as fantastic not only to nine tenths of the Germans themselves but also to the most hostile foreign observer. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n [The Road to Serfdom \u2013 1944]<\/p>\n (I have provided the following link for anyone who wants to read the Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em> condensed version of his book, published in 1945:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.barefootsworld.net\/serfdom.html<\/a>)<\/p>\n The AP published an article proclaiming three major victories for Obama:\u00a0 the passage of health care reform, the agreement with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons and the takeover of all student loans by the federal government.<\/p>\n http:\/\/hosted.ap.org\/dynamic\/stories\/U\/US_OBAMA_STUDENT_LOANS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-03-27-10-52-17<\/a><\/p>\n But, Dr. Hayek\u2019s words should be considered a somber warning:\u00a0<\/p>\n In Germany it was largely people of good will, whose socialist beliefs prepared the way for the forces which stand for everything they detest. Few recognize that the rise of fascism and Nazism was not a reaction against socialism but a necessary (and inevitable) outcome of the trend towards socialism.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n [Ibid]<\/p>\n The good people of Germany lost their freedom, with tragic consequences for the entire world, because they did not recognize the inherent danger from socialism.\u00a0 \u00a0Dr. Hayek explains how dangerous socialism is to our core values:<\/p>\n But when economic power is centralized as an instrument of political power it creates a degree of dependence scarcely distinguishable from slavery. It has been well said that, in a country where the sole employer is the state, opposition means death by slow starvation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n [Ibid]<\/p>\n Ultimately, it doesn\u2019t matter very much whether the people passing this legislation think they are doing the right thing.\u00a0 What really matters is that they are destroying the very fabric of our freedom by substituting government control for the free market system.<\/p>\n This decision was not made consciously by the American people, after a reasonable debate.\u00a0 There actually was very little debate at all.\u00a0 Instead, it was passed in the dead of night through a series of bribes, threats and secret deals.<\/p>\n A lot of people ask me what needs to be done.\u00a0 We need to start by recognizing the truth.\u00a0 This is not about health care reform; this is about the survival<\/em> of this country.<\/p>\n Abraham Lincoln began the Gettysburg Address with the following words:<\/p>\n Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.\u00a0 Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Once again, we face a test that will determine whether this nation \u201cso conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Liberty and socialism are mutually exclusive.\u00a0 Where the government controls every aspect of our life, liberty is less than an illusion.<\/p>\n TDM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1758, Samuel Johnson wrote the following: Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages. [The Idler 11 November 1758] It is vital … Continue reading