Obama gave a speech today touting a “new beginning” (I don’t even want to know what that means) to the Muslim World.  It was, as usual, a great speech.  Understanding.  Mutual respect.  Freedom of religion.  Women’s rights.  Good stuff.  I was fine until this part: “Summit on Entrepreneurship.”  That’s where my eyeballs started to bleed. I began to wonder why Obama is such a fan of Entrepreneurship in the Muslim world.  Maybe he believes it’s a uniquely Muslim phenomenon.

Make no mistake.  The Government has staged a hostile takeover of three major facets of our nation’s economy:

First, our financial sector is already firmly in Government’s hands.

Second, our manufacturing and energy sector is on its way.  How?  Let me connect the dots:

• Government Bails out GM and Chrysler.–CHECK
• Government asks GM CEO (employee of GM for 30 years) to step down.–CHECK
• Government converts its GM and Chrysler assets into Preferred Stock (which means it has voting rights…it didn’t have to do that, it could have just issued bonds)–CHECK
• Government owns over half the voting rights of GM and Chrysler–CHECK
• THEN the Government send them into Bankruptcy (couldn’t have done that BEFORE owning them, that would be CRAZY).
• Government creates a brand new division of GM to build little munchkin cars that noone (currently) wants to buy.–CHECK
• Government Motors then decides to spin off Hummer, the most gas-guzzling of the gas guzzling cars to another company–in China–for a profit–CHECK.
• Government then begins pushing HARD an “energy” plan which would (by Obama’s own admission) drive gas prices WAY up–COMING SOON
• The people of the United States like good citizens are then encouraged even more (through EXTRA tax incentives on top of the ones that are already in place) to buy the little piece of junk munchkin cars–call it “The People’s Car”–because they can’t afford a gallon of fricking gasoline–GOD HELP US ALL.

Result? Federal Government has taken over the energy industry and a huge chunk of the manufacturing sector–which narrows down further the ability for anyone to compete with the Government, therefore ENTREPRENEURSHIP in the energy and manufacturing sector goes away.  Noone can find a decent job that doesn’t involve dealing with the Federal Government.  And guess what…at the Government’s OWN admission, carbon emissions planet-wide doesn’t go down ONE BIT for decades…DECADES.

Next is Health Care:

• Government spends $19 billion on creating a system where doctors (many who are entrepreneurs) are bribed into putting their patients’ medical information on a DHHS managed database.–CHECK
• Government creates a “Nationwide Exchange” where people can compare plans…all of which will be forced to accept pre-existing conditions without exclusions.
• The private plans on the “Exchange” become too expensive, because (as happened in NY and other states) guaranteed issue results in noone buying insurance until they desperately need it…for a “pre-existing” condition.
• Government steps in to fix this “crisis” by creating a “Public Option” where tax-subsidized plan options are made available to compete with private plans…Those who can’t afford it are given a “hardship exemption” so they get it for free. (OH, and by they way, now it’s against the law NOT to get ANY coverage)
• Doctors (small business owners) who have stopped accepting coverage from Medicare and Medicaid will now be forced by law to do so, along with accepting “Public Option” patients.
• Finally, it becomes against the law to pay cash for medical treatment, because the DHHS can’t control it, so for “safety reasons” all transactions will be made through Government insurance coverage or maybe one or two (”bailed out”) insurance companies who will provide benefits to a few Government-owned companies in the Financial, Manufacturing, or Energy/Utilities sectors.

The result? The Federal Government has destroyed any aspect of Entrepreneurship in the Health Care sector and instead has full operational and informational control over your health care through the handy dandy DHHS database.  So whether you’re covered by a DHHS “public option” or benefits through a company (which will likely be owned by the Federal Government), your health care will be finely controlled by Bureaucrats in the Department of Labor and the DHHS.

Why am I telling you all of this?  What can we do?  They ignored us on the Financial sector, they’ve been ignoring and are continuing to ignore us on Manufacturing and Energy.  They will ignore us on Health Care as well.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that the only option left is for 37 states to call for another Constitutional Convention to create an amendment to clarify the tenth one.

But if that seems to extreme, at least understand this.  If we don’t act locally, starting RIGHT NOW…

Next is housing and education.  Then it’s all over…

Although I have forsaken cable tv (a life-changing event) and am by no means a big CNN fan, I’ll have to say that I’d be very interested to see the CNN documentary series “God’s Warriors” that is airing this week. The series is composed of three two-hour shows, as follows:

Tuesday, 9 PM: God’s Jewish Warriors
Wednesday, 9 PM: God’s Muslim Warriors
Thursday, 9 PM: God’s Christian Warriors

The series focuses on each religion’s role as a cultural and political force and discusses the dissatisfaction of each with the pervading secular/materialistic nature of modern society. The series was compiled by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

God’s Warriors

Here’s an interesting story about possible parallels between the Jewish Emancipation in Napoleonic France and the status of modern French Muslims. The former event just celebrated its bicentennial. The article focuses on one component of that particular period:

To find out if there was something in Jewish law and custom preventing integration, Napoleon summoned a council of Jewish leaders and put to them 12 questions about Jewish laws and customs…[T}he more important questions related to the transition a marginalized people were making to a new idea of citizenship: Jews born in France were treated by the law as citizens, did they regard France as their country? Did they feel they had an obligation to defend it?

The Jewish leaders came to the conclusion that there was nothing in their dogma which would preclude them from integrating into society and being good patriots. So the author asks this pertinent question:

Could one imagine a ceremony at the Hotel de Ville in 200 years where the Muslim community reaffirms its commitment to French definitions of secularism, integration, faith and patriotism?

Very good question.

International Herald Tribune

Posted at 12:17 pm by Johnny B

Apparently mosques are being attacked, too.

Police detained 206 people during the night, during which youngsters attacked a primary school in Savigny-Le-Temple southeast of Paris and destroyed its creche.

Two shops were destroyed in Rambouillet, southwest of Paris, and a person on a scooter threw two fire bombs at a mosque and in the southern town of Carpentras before fleeing.

There was no major damage and no one was hurt but Chirac, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFSM) swiftly condemned the attack.

(Nice to know what these guys priorities are! JIB)

“We firmly ask the authorities in particular to protect our mosques, which seem to be becoming the target of violent demonstrations and provocations,” the CFSM said.

Wikipedia has a good table and graphic on the extent of the damage. Troublemakers in Greece, Spain, Belgium. Apparently there is a big plan to riot in Brussels as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_civil_unrest_in_France

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Posted at 10:19 pm by Johnny B

	Posted by BP @ 11/09/2005 10:54 PM PST
	this is indeed just the beginning. I’m torn, though. I can’t decide whether to feel sorry for the French for having an unruly populace, and hence feel a little proud that even with our problems we don’t let these sort of things get so bad. OR…do I say to hell with France and it’s tyrannical UN buddies for daring to pose as authorities on human rights.

	Posted by JohnnyB @ 11/10/2005 09:20 AM PST
	I wouldn’t be so quick to pat ourselves on the back…the Rodney King riots were just over 10 years ago. I will say our immigration problems are not nearly as bad as those in the EU, however. Check out “Songs from the Second Floor” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120263/ a movie recommended by none other than Rothell, which gives clues as to why European youths are so depressed.