The Dbottino Weblog

Identity theft has become an increasing trend and a lot of people are getting victimized, even former soldiers and other military personnel. When news broke out that the identity and vital private information of retired US military personnel were vulnerable to identity theft, information commerce leader Intellius, together with its CEO Naveen Jain, set out to provide adequate protection for less than half the price. Around 26.5 million veterans of the United States Armed Forces were affected by the threat, but with the entry of Intelius to alleviate the situation, a lot of the US military retirees were relieved. Known for providing clients with reliable access to information vital to business growth, Intelius has dedicated significant time, effort, and financial means to a technology that would counter the threat of identity theft long before it happens. The product, IDWatch, alerts customers of possible fraudulent activities that involve their identities in real time through email. IDWatch has proven to be successful in deterring instances of identity theft, and for the veterans of the US Armed Forces, this service is made available for $19.95 a year, a far cry from the original price of an annual rate of $100. For Naveen Jain, this step is his and the company’s way of saluting the brave men and women who have served the country and risked their lives in the process. He added in an interview that upon hearing the news of veterans’ identities being fully exposed to any attacks from identity fraudsters, his immediate reaction was to find a way to help. For his quick action on the matter, Naveen Jain received several commendations from a lot of organizations and people, most of whom were former men and women in uniform.

This is the first of a series of four articles where my uncle, the late Mr Gordon Bessant is talking to Mr Joe Hieatt-Smith about life during the war years. They taped these recollections in 1996.

What did you do during the war Gordon?

From the time I was 14 to the time I was 19 I worked mostly on armaments, the Spitfire, Bristol Bombers – the engines and fuselage components for the Spitfire and the Western Lysander. At the very beginning of the war itself – it was on a Sunday morning the 3rd of September 1939.

I was at Testwood Church, because I sang in the choir. Everybody in the church as they came in were all saying “Do you think there’ll be a war?” Of course I was only fourteen years of age and I’d just finished school. There was none of this going on to extended school like there is today. It was basically compulsory that you left school at 14. I’d left school in the August, 1939.

It was our summer holidays and my father was negotiating with a company that was working for the repairs and maintenance at the Sunderland flying boats (and the flying boats flew into Southampton Water). They were docked and stationed at Hythe on the west bank of the river Test opposite Southampton docks itself. There’s a company there that was manufacturing exhaust equipment and all manner of ancillary equipment for the flying boats.

Anyway I got a job with them as an apprentice in sheet metal working and general engineering. I was 14 and my rate of pay was 10 shillings a week. (That’s 50 pence in modern money, less than a dollar, a week!) Out of that we paid fourpence for our stamps for National Health and Unemployment. We had the princely sum of nine and eight a week for the first 12 months. At that time there wasn’t an awful lot of work in the area, not for children, boys, of 14, so you more of less got a job where you could. Much the same as it is today really. Only because of the war you went into production mode and everybody was working for peace and the defence of the country so you really got a job whether it was an apprenticeship or not. I was fortunate my father had been negotiating with the employment of myself in the industry and of course I naturally got a job.

How did life change when the war started?

The first thing was everybody was telling everybody it would all be over by Christmas, that was in September, we got the idea it wouldn’t last long. My father who had been in the Royal Navy in the first world war, he wasn’t fooled too easily by others, and he said it would take them some time to even catch up with what the Germans had developed in armaments and war material. Of course the Germans had tried out all their weapons – you’ve probably heard of the Spanish civil war they had in 1937,38 when the Germans had a fighter bomber called the Stuka. They tested that on the Spanish in Spain during the civil war, and other armaments they had developed, so they knew that they operated much more efficiently than our own.

We were still relying on the Enfield rifle that was built and designed way back before the first world war in 1910,1911 and the Germans were using more sophisticated equipment. What else did they have? They had a very good size of navy and exceptionally well developed air force – so the Spitfire, R H Mitchell I think it was, the designer of the Spitfire and he had designed it more or less as an aircraft for winning the Schneider trophy (which is the air speed record). It was flown from Calshot round the Isle of Wight and the Schneider trophy was won by the SR6 which was based in Southampton (at the aviation museum, have you seen it?). That was the aircraft before the war which they developed basically the Spitfire from, with a Rolls Royce Merlin engine.

Lots of things changed then. The towns had to be blacked out at night because of showing up any industry. The German bombers would come over so there had to be no lights showing. We had to black out in the evening. Everything had to be on a war footing. There had to be very little light showing on cars. There was a clamp down on petrol, and food rationing started, because most of our food, as you well know, is imported. We are not sufficiently big enough to support ourselves. Lots of areas in the New Forest around here were ploughed up and put to corn and wheat and maize and potatoes.

The ground in the New Forest needed more nutrients and more fertilizer because it was very poor ground. The crops did not prove very successful. There are places in the New Forest now even here around Sway, where the ground was ploughed up. It was planted with mostly potato crops. You know where, along Slade Bottom, Horseshoe Common, by the Marlpit crossroads, you know there’s open stretches of land there where the cattle now graze, there’s hardly any fern or any gorse bushes, they are all cleared out. It was all ploughed up during the war and planted with crops, but it was a token effort because the ground didn’t produce very good crops at all so they left it and after that they decided they’d only plough it and plant a potato crop, a root crop, because the ground was a bit sour, had too much acid I think.

Having said that, the food rationing was felt really badly in 1941,42,and 43 because the Germans had tremendous strength in their submarines (U-Boats as they called them) and our shipping coming across from America and Canada, Australia, and South Africa, when our boats were coming in, they would follow the convoys.

The boats would be in convoys because convoys could be protected by the Royal Navy and part of our Air Force, but they could only be protected for so many miles out and it’s the areas where they couldn’t be protected where they were most vulnerable, so the food had to go on rationing because of the supply.

I didn’t realise till after the war that Germany had the same trouble. They were in a worse position than we were, but because their propaganda was so good we believed that they were really living in the lap of luxury and it was only Britain that was suffering. It wasn’t so. The continent was very short of food too. They used lots and lots of alternatives, they even made coffee from acorns. They ground acorns to make a drink, but we didn’t have to go that far.

We did have with the aid of the Americans, powdered eggs, and spam which is a well known meat compound put in tins and sent across to us. There were lots and lots of other food supplies coming in which was all a new type of thing to us . We had “K Rations” they called it, which was an American way of sending out a complete meal in a box.

Something similar to the rations you get on an aircraft when you fly on holiday – they put it on your lap in front of you. It’s a made up meal which is supposed to contain enough proteins and sugar, all that you require all in one package. But with the British, whilst the Americans had a lot of tinned food we still had the old corned beef as we call it, with bread which was quite good really considering the problems we had getting flour.

The second article in this series is entitled “War Time Britain & Things Look Bleak”. Look out for it if you are interested in the events of the 1940’s.

Copyright David Carter 2005, reproduced with permission.

In between writing David Carter runs a holiday cottage website http://www.pebblebeachmedia.co.uk where you can browse through over 7,000 holiday cottages, villas and apartments worldwide. His latest book is SPLAM. Successful Property Letting And Management, 240 plus pages and you can find more details of that at http://www.splam.co.uk. You can contact David on any matter at supalife@aol.com

“‘Removing settlers from Gaza policy.’ Painful but necessary,” chants Peter Sain ley Berry in “Are we heading for a second war in the middle east?” (The European Observer), perpetuating the BIG LIE that “land for peace” has worked, which it clearly hasn’t. Why insanely continue such a demonstrably failed policy of appeasement and expect different results? Why reward terrorism? Israel has a lot less land and isn’t an inch closer to peace.

Another BIG LIE repeated is that the “Palestinian” problem is the root of all Arab evils. That has been disproven time and again, for those interested in the facts. As Genesis 16: 12 accurately profiled – “He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” The Arabs have fought against each other and among each other long before the fictitious “Palestinian” people were forged as a political ploy that has duped the willing world that hates Jews, whether they express it diplomatically or engage in terrorism against innocent men, women, children and babies.

Every one of Israel’s “peace partners” still call for Israel’s destruction and do nothing to silence those among them who loudly call for genocide against the Jews, as is documented in their charters and covenants of death for all to see. Yet the world continues to hide its head in the sands of delusion and shamefully looks the other way. The Nazi-Muslims, like Hitler, have unapologetically made known their intentions. Why ignore or downplay them? It will not make them go away.

It’s past time Israel enforce peace through strength, remove sworn Arab enemies and squatters from the Jewish homeland, as former Israeli Parliament Member Meir Kahane logically called for and Israel foolishly refused to do, and now – like some twisted tale from the Twilight Zone – the Israelis are expelling innocent Jews! At least Israel has proven that expulsions are possible, at least of Jews since such a Judenrein policy was undertaken without a cry of protest from the world. Where was the UN? Regardless, Israel must give Arabs for peace. Painful but necessary. Let the Arabs make concessions for peace. Let them feel the “pain” that Israel has too long endured.

“When Israel – the right of whose people to live in security and at peace within internationally recognised borders is absolute – is able, with the backing of the United States, to flout UN Resolutions with impunity, the whole system of international security is thrown into disrepute. “

Such an oxymoronic statement by Peter Sain ley Berry belies the harsh reality that Israel’s right to live in security and peace is definitely not absolute to many in the hypocritical UN, as is proven by the continual bombardment of one-sided UN resolutions that would threaten Israeli security and peace if not ignored. When the UN engages in such bombastic resolutions against Israel, time and again, that the United States sees through and therefore wisely resists, the whole system of international security is violated by those of ill repute, degenerating the UN into a bully body of international thugs.

Israel, unlike Iran, has proven their remarkable restraint over the years, since they haven’t used their nuclear weapons against those nations that have menaced the Jewish homeland. Israel’s unheard of restraint is to a fault, since if they had removed the threat others pose against them, as they removed the pagan Osirak (Iraq’s nuclear reactor) with a preemptive strike, the world would be a much safer place today.

Iran has gotten away with murder with their shrill calls for the elimination of Israel off the map (Psalms 83:4). Could you imagine Israel saying such a thing and not being expelled from the UN? However, Europe will soon force belligerent Iran to comply or die: Iran must cease and desist from their nuclear threat or Europe will strike terror in Tehran!

If Iran persists in their proud and stubborn ways, if they harden their heart against all reason, Iran will provoke the EU to contain the situation to keep Israel restrained. The EU rapid response to Iran’s nuclear jihad will be a new crusade.

As the United States called upon Israel to become their virtual protectorate during Operation Desert Storm, the European Union will offer Israel guarantees of peace and security. Europe, not the overextended and highly inflated United States, will take out Iran.

However, even as the United States later pressured Israel to go to murderous Madrid as repayment and begin the lying “peace process,” the European Union will expect to deploy “peacekeeping” troops in and around Jerusalem as a buffer zone and enforce the accursed UN Resolution 181.

Jerusalem is in danger of becoming the capital of Europe’s Crusader Kingdom. The German-Jesuit EU will defeat Iran for Jerusalem. Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the City where David dwelt!

David Ben-Ariel, a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe’s Rise and Fall, shares a special focus on the Middle East, reflected in hard-hitting articles that help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out Beyond Babylon.

A War on Terrorism? Conventional war being brought on an unconventional enemy is ineffective out of date. Building these countries up to a certain level of stability, and allowing them to take over and govern themselves is part of the Presidents plan. If we think the need help getting to build a stable and profitable country in the world market, than let’s say what we mean and just do it. Weapons of mass destruction if we had enough evidence to invade Iraq we should have hit those sights first and had those weapons in the first days. Oh, they must have hidden them, well how did we know about them in the first place. It has been more than two years since the bold and terrible attack on the World Trade Towers, and we are chasing shadows here and there. The American Military, the greatest fighting force on the planet, can only find a couple of the main targets. We cannot win a war like this. The US Navy, Marines, Air Force and Army are the best trained and most well equipped fighting force in the world. But for all of their advanced weaponry and the technological advantage they have; they still seem like a lumbering giant searching for the little Indian jumping from tree to tree. Just to use an analogy, I am not prejudice let’s get that out of the way right now so I don’t have to apologize to every race I may happen to mention. The subject of prejudice would take a whole paper of its own. So let’s get back to the subject at hand. How can we stop Terror?

The suicide bombings keep coming. Why do these people hate or fear us so much? I believe that the root cause is a combination of jealousy and a lack of education. Most of our terrorist threats come from impoverished nations that are jealous of the standard of living in America. The lack of education comes into play because it is easy to manipulate uneducated minds. When the majority of citizens in a country cannot even read and the best way to spread news is by recorded messages you can fill people’s minds with all manner of things. This lack of education contributes directly to their country’s stagnant economy. They do not have sufficient numbers of the skilled people necessary to build and run factories, powerplants, water treatment, tourist industries, etc. Some of the things that we take for granted and yet that are so necessary to the economic success of this country. We fight to win a war indeed, but the military aspect is only the beginning.

To win this war we must take a look at our history and what made this country great. How did we become the nation we are today? This country’s roots are founded in education, industry and innovation. Innovation brought industry and industry brought financial wealth providing for widespread education. The well-educated mind in turn spurs on industry with yet further innovation. To win this war we must teach those countries less fortunate than us, help them to develop systems that will lead them to the national prosperity that the US, Britain and most of the rest of Europe enjoy. We give billions a year away in foreign aid. Why not build some schools, hire some teachers, open some trade schools, teach them how to build a nation, and help them do it. Showing these nations the tools to build better governmental, educational and economic systems will enrich and add value and meaning to the lives of their people. It will then not be so easy for some “militant wacko” to persuade followers to give up their lives to kill the evil Americans. They will be able to better care for their families; dying in the name of Allah will no longer be the best way to assure their family will be cared for. If they have no way to read and study their religion for themselves then they must rely on the Spoken words of others. The power of religion to motivate is amazing, and a topic that could take it’s own paper entirely. So again I will get back to the topic at hand. Stabilizing these countries, means to bring them into the world market, I believe that in the big picture this will be the most efficient way to fight terror. Show them the dream that has lit fire in the eyes of a nation for generations leading America to where it is today. Everyone is born with the potential to change the world.

This will not have the lightning fast results that our country demand after the catastrophic loss of life in the World Trade Towers. Nor will it have the shock and awe we all witnessed on TV to beginning with Iraq. This proposal will take time and resources. Time and resources we have already committed. Let the military continue rooting out the elements that will undermine a happy and peaceful society. The president has already told us that this will take years. So let us use these years. At the same time how long does it take to educate a child to change the next generation? I am not proposing a quick fix to these problems, but I we must begin now, with the knowledge and faith that our action now will mean that the 5 year old looking at our soldiers in confusion will not grow to become the man or woman that flying a plane into what will be the work places of our nations children.

Changing education and life on a global scale is a grand and hugely overwhelming proposition, bordering insanity but what marvelous insanity to know that you did something to change the world for the better. People dream of world peace, I know I do. Peace begins with mutual respect for all mankind. Toleration and love for all people together regard for race religion or appearance. All of these qualities are found in this country, the news concentrates on the bad because it sells, but by and large the majority in this nation live in harmony. I envision a world where all nations have equal standing and the betterment of the global quality of life becomes the driving force of every nation. Think of the potential for innovation in medicine, technology, space travel, food production, and use of natural resources we have not even discovered. When we increase the population of educated minds in the world we unlock the potential for genius.

About The Author

I am employed as a line cook at a resort and am studying to become a paralegal on my way to becoming a lawyer. I believe strongly in what I have written and will be writting more.

crbranam@yahoo.com

Heaven, Hell, or some sort of Purgatory.

I cannot seem to make it to either of the extreme political sides and being a moderate definitely leaves me at least in purgatory if not a perpetual limbo.

It is all of the words and actions that really get to me. Just when I think I have found it, someone does something to make me wonder again. They push the button and the followers follow, I am with them. They push another button and the followers are outraged, again, I find myself with them. They push a button and change the subject so they do not have to do anything about or talk about what was popular yesterday. I wonder why did they give up, forget so easily, what was so important yesterday that means nothing today.

The media is left wing liberal. Talk Radio is right wing conservative. There is no middle. The only middle is the two fighting over all of it and shooting at each other over my head.

Our leaders in the congress and the senate leave a lot to be desired and now I know why I was uninformed and uninterested for the longest time as I tried to find my way in the world. The confusion they generate is so extensive the average person avoids it. When a person is working for food, as many Americans do, there is no interest in politics.

The little guy who is just making it, the middle class American, is content to settle at least temporarily with where they are and what they have is just enough to allow them to find time to dig through all of the, hip to neck deep garbage, being thrown around.

The popularity of talk radio is one source of information and it has taken hold on a great portion of American society.

It all started for me while I was being held hostage in traffic on the way to work. I just had to have something to do. So traffic must be one reason Talk Radio has become so popular. As a rule, I seldom listen to Talk Radio unless I am in my car, but as soon as I start the car, the channel I listen to is there and if something else takes over I am scanning the airwaves for something, anything that can take its place temporarily.

Throughout the United States, where ever we moved, I would find the talk radio shows I found the most entertaining.

Although music is fine for passing some time or staying awake on a long drive it can be annoying while sitting still in traffic. At times, I wonder if the music playing in some cars may have caused accidents because someone tapped their foot on a gas pedal. I know I tend to pick up speed if the music playing is the right kind.

Taking sides, “thinking” for a cause can pass the time while stuck in traffic. Radio personalities like Sean Hannity who will tell a person calling the show they “Are a Great American”, can become the words that person needs to hear in order to identify themselves, what they need to hear in order to define what they are. To give them a meaning in life other than going to work and going home at the end of the day. It’s that little extra. The pat on the back kind of acceptance that is almost part of a faith, religion or cult and makes one feel they belong to something bigger and better.

They feel great, because they spend, “three hours a day” listening to someone tell them what they should think about any given subject. It is easy to agree with them because after all they have all of the real information, the truth, and are sharing all of the information with us. Because they believe in their hero, they are having their buttons pushed and the radio button is stuck on that station…I know mine is.

It’s not a bad thing…there I go again…I’ll never make it to heaven!

It is important to take only one side, why I have no idea. If you do something that a liberal would normally do, it is fine if for some reason they don’t do it. If you do something a conservative would do, it is fine if for some reason they don’t do it. Just make sure you tear them up about it along the way and constantly question all of it and why this time, they are not living up to their usual way of promoting and defending their causes.

Rush Limbaugh came along at a time in my life when I thought the liberals running the congress and senate could do no wrong. I heard him talk as I was being held hostage in my car trying to run a small business in three different locations. I listened as I went about getting the college education I had to put aside when things were rough. I wrote an English essay on “The Myth of the Campaign Promise” because I just knew President Clinton was not holding “America Hostage” as Rush would say.

I listened and listened. I started to write a book because I thought Limbaugh was crazy and the “ditto heads” were trying to take over the government and the country.

I was sure the man was anti-American and for the life of me could not come to grips with the fact that he just knew what buttons to push at any given point.

As I write now and reflect on all of it, I can understand so much of it is about pushing buttons. It is entertainment.

Still…do all extremists go to heaven?

I imagine if you die and go somewhere due to the way you look at life I should be able to escape Hell but I doubt I will make it to Heaven.

Seriously, I want to take sides. I think anyone that has any idea of what is going on would like to. The problem is the “extreme”.

Talk is cheap. Who said that?

Talk isn’t cheap anymore. Talk is running wild and although it is a good way to bring issues that need to be looked at by all to the fore front, expectations fall short in the end and at times, the extremists fail to be very extreme.

Hot Subjects are the rule of the day when it comes to the media and if they run out of Hot Topics, they use a fill in that makes a person wonder why?

National news can be as important as an Associated Press article about an Ex Walmart Associate that kills a cat. But corporate lies and greed can be by-passed even if the documentation is better than the sources the reporters at Newsweek have.

A sincere sounding, I still would like to know why, can be forgotten in a couple of weeks and if someone remembers, oh well, maybe someday.

There were a few of weeks on the case of Terri Schivago that took center stage on The Sean Hannity Radio Show and Hannity and Colmes. Sean really wanted answers, until it was over and something more important took over. “Men in Black”, The Nuclear Option and the Filibuster.

There was a sense of loss and a sense of well if no one else is going to push the button, why should I? It’s gone now unless there is a reason to use it in an attempt to push a button.

Any way, my book on Rush died on a disk that went through packing numerous times as my husband was transferred to different states while in the US Air Force and eventually died do to the heat of Florida and the fact that I had no idea it would happen to the disks if I left it in a box in that kind of heat.

That first computer was something and the chat rooms were alive especially when it came to Rush Limbaugh and the Ditto heads during the nineties. The newest computer makes me crazy at times and the web blogs are endless and only a product of someone who has what they want and can donate their time for everyone to read the most insignificant things that have nothing to do with everyday life for the average, American.

I must have too much time on my hands because right now I am not in my car listening to talk radio. I am looking for the streaming audio on Sean Hannity’s web site. One way or another I cannot get to the point of being extreme and will not make it to heaven if I don’t choose.

Okay so Sean is following in Rush’s foot steps. It is good entertainment if you like to listen to a tear’m up type of comedy and are willing to pay for it. I am fairly sure that eventually people will pay for Sean the same way they pay for Rush. You pay to be an insider. I would rather be a hostage in my car and listen for free. If I miss something, someone will bring it up again soon or one of the celebrity blogs will post it.

Sorry Sean, I just can’t make it to Six Flags in Jackson, New Jersey, to be one of the groupies there for your voice…I know you aren’t singing. I wouldn’t go even if Old Blue Eyes came back to life.

Basically I am cheap….Hey! Cheap Thrills…that must be it!!!

Someone to love. Someone to hate. Someone to dissect.

Al Franken…Michael Moore…Robert Greenwald and Lou Dobbs…Where are you? Someone help me through to the side that will take me to heaven! Someone show me the light at the end of the tunnel!

About the Author

Julie Pierce has worked in the retail sector for more than thirty years.
She has been a union member of the UCFW Union and the afl-cio more than once and has worked for more than one large retailer during the course of her career.
She attended Gulf Coast Community College, Panama City Beach, Florida, in the nineties in the pursuit of a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications.

Some of her work has been published during the eighties and nineties in various editorial pages of newspapers in the state of New Jersey and Florida. She also did some work as a community reporter for a weekly newspaper in Panama City Florida.
Other work includes an article in the Gulls Cry, the Gulf Coast Community College newspaper.
She is the wife of TSgt William F. Pierce Jr. (retired) USAF and the mother of three children and one grandchild.

La Paz – the capital of Bolivia – is about four thousand kilometre above sea level. The President of this country, Morales, must have a good overview from this height. Still we all should wonder whether his vision point in a comfortable direction.

First his friends, the president of Venezuela – who is just reported amongst the hundred most influencing people “who are shaping our world,” according to Time (http://www.time.com/time/2006/time100/). His other companion is Fidel Castro. He is not on the same list and that seems reasonable, because after more than forty years in Cuba his Time is ending.

Nationalizing the gas and oil companies – the issue that is currently at stake – will leave this president with a lot more than two enemies. The companies were given an ultimatum to increase the contributions with about 400 million dollar (if I’m not mistaken).

Only a few months ago, when receiving his presidency, the world could observe the new president of Bolivia wearing a sweater instead of a suit. That might have been a signal – it was a collared sweater. Showing the cameras “this is only the beginning.”

Bolivia wants a change. And they may not at all be wrong. Argentina – its’ neighbouring country – sold its petrol industry for a much too low price and it is wise to learn from mistakes that others have made.

But will Bolivia be able to stand up against the world, against the rules of finance and investment? The European assembly wondered why this president didn’t consult them before taking this extreme action. This could be interpreted as an impulsive and unprepared operation. A step that is easily taken, but difficult to depart from to further negotiating steps.

Presenting conflicts is easy, solving or preventing them and in the mean time negotiating a change is world class. Before showing up in the next Time 100 of most influencing people, President Morales will find some challenges on his way.

© 2006 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days.
You can apply for a free demo account.

Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels is often cited to have proclaimed that if a lie is repeated often enough, people will believe it. Whether the citation is accurate is beside the point. The gist of the statement is true.

Face it. Most people, including Christians, are unaware of what is truly going on in politics and the world. Ask a room full of people whether the United States Constitution established a democracy. Most, if not all, will answer in the affirmative, and they would all be wrong. The Constitution guarantees a republican form of government, not a democratic one. The democratic lie has been repeated so often and so much, even by the media and the socialist government-controlled school system, that Americans literally have become brainwashed as to its “truth”.

Don J. Grundmann, Doctor of Chiropractic and 2006 Senatorial candidate of the American Independent Party of California (affiliate of the national Constitution Party), labels this phenomenon as “The Matrix”, a concept borrowed from the same-named blockbuster motion picture starring Keanu Reaves. On his unique educational campaign website at TruthUSA.org, Grundmann refers to “two outstanding and current problems” regarding The Matrix: “that [the powers that be] can, right in front of the American people, lie about, and cover up the true facts about, a major event in the history of the United States and get away with such lying virtually without challenge of any type; and the weakness of the general public who can be lied to and will accept those lies without challenge of any type.”

Name-calling and mean-spirited smears operate the same way. Those who employ such tactics take advantage of the weakness of the general public. They abandon acceptable means of parlance in favor of demonization, usually against Christians.

Rule Number One when you’re losing a political debate: demonize your opponent.

Most people will be persuaded by epithets to some degree or another so that, at least subconsciously, they will form an opinion about someone without ever having met or given that person the time of day. It is no wonder that negative campaign ads work so effectively. Candidates know this, and they exploit them.

It is quite easy to poison a person’s reputation. This is precisely why tyrants love this tactic so much. Never mind that it is a sheer violation of the Ninth Commandment against bearing false witness.

In 2000, I traveled from California to Georgia in an emergency push to help collect signatures to get Pat Buchanan on the ballot as an independent for President. I discovered that most voters were willing to sign the petition until they learned exactly who it was they were signing for. “Pat Buchanan, the racist?” some would ask with a furrowed brow. Having supported Buchanan faithfully since 1992 and knowing full well that Buchanan was anything but a racist, I found myself having to explain repeatedly that it was the media that have wrongfully repeated this racist lie so frequently that people had actually become misled into a false belief.

It is unfortunate to witness good people stand up for righteousness and get smeared with hate.

For example, those who support the concept of Equal Rights for All, Special Privilege for None, get viciously smeared anyway. Therefore, those who oppose the concept of Affirmative Action in the hiring of racial minorities, will inevitably be branded as a “racist”.

The same is true for Christians who oppose the abominable homosexual movement and its quest to codify homosexual “marriages”. Regardless of the biblical and political reasoning which form the basis of their beliefs, Christians will quickly be smeared as “homophobes” and “hate-mongers” without delay.

Those who stand up for the Right to Life with regard to the abortion issue are likewise targets. Dare to speak out on behalf of the precious unborn, prepare to be smeared as a “sexist”. How dare you even think about opposing a woman’s “right to choose”?

What is even more shameful is when supposed conservatives in the “conservative” Republican Party lash out at their own party members with the same sort of disdain. You would think that the Republican Party would be free of such hijinks. Not true. In fact, such derogatory and mean-spirited quips played a major factor in pushing this writer into bolting that party.

It is likewise distressing, and even more so, when good, faithful pro-life Christians in the biblically-based Constitution Party are attacked, not just by those on the outside of the party, but by those from within. Speak out loudly enough on behalf of all unborn babies without exception, one would find himself wrongfully demonized as a “kook”, “fanatic”, and “bigot”, guaranteed. Even Constitution Party presidential nominee Michael Peroutka, a faithful Christian and man of God, was a recent target by an intraparty colleague for his unwavering and unabashed stand for life, among other things.

This should not surprise anyone. Truth slices through butter like a hot knife. It necessarily divides.

Jesus Christ is truth personified. Throw Christ into the mix, and all political forces – even those normally at odds with each other – will quickly unite against the Crown Rights of Jesus Christ and those who advance His cause. They will quickly whip out and unleash the Goebbels tactic without batting an eyelash, and without remorse.

Unbeknownst to most who have been constantly misled by the media and mainstream “Christian” churches, Christ preached, “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (Matt. 10:34) Those who remain faithful to Christ in all aspects of life, including law and politics, should always be prepared to be a target of the Goebbels tactic.

It goes with the territory, so get used to it.

© AD 2006 The Heustis Update

Reed R. Heustis, Jr. is a licensed attorney in Los Angeles County; an activist with the American Independent Party (California affiliate of Constitution Party); and editor of The Heustis Update, which features politics from a Christian Constitutionalist perspective.

August 11, 1971

The last skirmish in Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty has ended in defeat, and nobody has any suggestions for new forays.

For the first time in many a moon, both liberals and conservatives are stymied for solutions to what many have come to regard as the number-one problem of our age.

“Every man according to need” has a noble ring, but three decades of heavy spending has failed to change our poverty patterns one iota.

“You can’t bribe poverty to go away, you have to work it to death” sounds so very logical, but make-work projects have failed miserably.

About all we have discovered so far is the astronomical scope of the problem.

Latest trigger of pessimism is the radical cut-back of the Work Incentive budget by Congress. Only lack of a better idea saved it from the ax.

Work Incentive – WIN in federalese – was one of the few Johnson programs that had full support of all shades of political opinion. It was started in 1967 to provide educational and job training opportunities for those on welfare.

Expectations of success were high.

Now, four years and many millions of dollars later, the program has proven useless. In Cleveland, for example, 2,094 welfare recipients enrolled for training. Slightly more than 500 dropped out. Only 420 – or 20 percent of the total – completed their classes and got jobs, but half of these are back on welfare.

In short, it cost the taxpayers approximately $12,000 each for those ten percent rehabilitated into steady jobs. At this rate of expenditure there isn’t enough gold in Fort Knox to solve the poverty problem.

The really sad thing is the 1,450 persons who completed the training, got their hopes up, and were unable to find employment.

Chicago officials in 1968 placed 11 of the city’s “toughest” poverty families in a single apartment building to see what intensive casework and material aid would accomplish. Involved were 11 families totaling 13 adults and 79 children.

Fifty social workers from 12 agencies provided food, clothing, money, medical care, and training for a full year. One welfare worker lived in the building to provide around-the-clock counseling.

At the end of the year, caseworkers found a majority of the 11 families had improved in some respects. Apartments were clean more often, children were better-dressed and school attendance was improved.

In the major problem areas, however, no change was visible!

No new persons had found employment. Heavy drinking – particularly on the days welfare checks were received – was still prevalent. Six boys were caught in a burglary. Mothers still failed to keep medical appointments for themselves or their children. The resident welfare worker was frequently threatened with violence.

Said one caseworker in despair, “We figure it would take at least $300,000 a year to adequately care for just these 11 families. And there are about 4,000 hard-care welfare families just like them here in Chicago alone. Who knows how many there are in the whole country?”

The dismaying conclusion to this experiment was that motivation to better their situation just does not exist among many poor people and cannot be instilled by material aid or effort by social workers.

What can we possibly do, therefore, for the 14 million people now on relief at a cost of 18 billion tax dollars per year?

In the period between the Civil War and World War I there were a large number of low-paying, unskilled jobs that provided the first step upward for poor and illiterate immigrants. Today, automation, restrictive labor union rules and a constantly increasing minimum wage floor has frozen out the poorly trained, culturally disadvantaged persons. And this group gets larger, proportionately, every year!

Some relaxation of the unrealistic objectives of federal labor laws may be in order. It should be made easier to hire high-school-age youth for part time jobs, to put poorly educated and poorly motivated adults in non-critical work such as domestic help, janitors, and ditch-diggers.

Perhaps the time has come for the federal government to become the “employer of last resort” guaranteeing a job – not a handout – to anyone who wants one. The WPA and CCC camps of Great Depression days were really worthwhile.

It seems that we must get to the children, somehow, if we are to break apart a “welfare culture.” Separation of children from their inadequate families is unthinkable, so more reliance on day-care centers may be worth intensive trial. The bussing of school children to integrated areas attempts to break into their self-defeating pattern, but results so far are inconclusive.

Finally, after honest and extensive effort, we must accept the reality that “tough” poverty is relative. Some of it will be with us always. It is unrealistic to attempt to end all poverty.

Sincere people must provide abundant opportunity to rise above class, and give generously to charity. Beyond this we can do little more.

To reach even this limited objective, new ideas must be generated and a new willingness to try again must be sparked.

For those who care the time has come to discard old ways and re-think the problem.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at: LinWms@earthlink.net LinWms@lindseywilliams.org Website: http://www.lindseywilliams.org with several hundred of Lin’s Editorial & At Large articles written over 40 years. Also featured in its entirety is Lin’s groundbreaking book “Boldly Onward,” that critically analyzes and develops theories about the original Spanish explorers of America. (fully indexed/searchable)

What depth of blind insanity has inflicted itself upon Israel’s politicians, and such as George W. Bush and Condoleeza Rice?!!??

So, in order to bring about disarray within the ranks of those opposing the Disengagement, a specially trained “Gestapo/KGB type” unit is to be deployed a week before the Withdrawal begins, to totally disarm the “settlers,” and to drag protest leaders from their beds in the middle of the night.. It would appear then, that the authorities have identified who the protest leaders are, where they reside, and the magnitude of their “threat” to the Withdrawal! Obviously, they expect a great deal of resistance!

I hope their prediction is accurate! The resistance must become even more organized, so that everyone knows what they must do, regardless of whether the protest leaders are incarcerated or not! What they fail to comprehend, is that those apprehended will in fact become hero’s, strengthening the resolve and bravery of the anti-withdrawal folk.

But what is worrisome, is the fact that police and military heavy-handed tactics are being proposed at all! Ariel Sharon obviously feels the residents of Gush Katif and the Shomron are now to be considered enemies of Israel, and are to be treated as such! But while he gives orders to incarcerate peaceful Israeli citizens who love the Land, guns are being awarded to the enemy PA, to “encourage them.” Disarm and incarcerate law-abiding, loyal citizens, and arm their enemies!! Did Sharon and his henchmen have an identity swap while they were sleeping one dark night? Have they been switched to become “Palestinians?” Or is it perhaps what they have been eating for breakfast?

How does one win, or avert, a war? Apparently, the strategy is to disarm your own citizens who have indicated by both word and action that they will not resort to violence against their own officials, to make certain they cannot defend themselves, even against true enemies such as hostile terrorist Palestinians, who everyone now agrees may use the Withdrawal proceedings to stage attacks. Terrorize innocent families in the middle of the night. And, at the same time, “encourage” the real enemies by arming them! Now, that’s a novel way to defeat one’s enemies!! After all, enemies need all the “encouragement” they can get!! Right?

Oh yes!! Inform everyone that the PA has become peaceful in intent, because the atrocities have “slowed-down,” even though they have still not taken decisive steps to permanently disarm the terrorists. Even one rocket attack, one bombing attempt, one suicide mission plot, is still an act of terror! Since the so-called cease-fire agreement of Sharm el Sheik, the attacks have continued! Would someone like to please enlighten us as to what constitutes a cease-fire?

Yup!! The Palestinian terrorists have certainly reformed! They have cut back on the number of terror attacks, not stopped them, so we are told, and we are to congratulate them! I guess showering rockets at Israeli communities constitutes a cease-fire. Apparently so does blinding a soldier, etc, etc. Palestinian officials won’t even promise disarmament as long as Jews occupy “any Land in Palestine!” Translation? Disarmament of Jews and terror by Palestinians are legitimate in the opinion of the Palestinians, and their hand-shakes, smiles, and agreements mean they intend to make sure such continues, while hoodwinking Israel and the West! Their strategy is obviously working! They are being funded, and armed, while they continue to
terrorize! I guess a cease-fire takes various forms, at least when dealing with the ‘peaceful’ Palestinians!

Has Condoleeza Rice been given blinders to don, and earplugs to wear, while on her current foray through the Middle East? We cannot let her know that on the very day she is conducting peaceful negotiations, terrorists are making a public display of their expertise! The Withdrawal charade must be brought to an abrupt halt! And, Ariel Sharon’s covert buddies have provided the scenario to do so. I trust there is a loud public outcry demanding an investigation into the allegations that the Withdrawal Plan was hatched to divert attention away from the Greek Island Scandal, in order to save Sharon’s skin! Both those for, and those against the Withdrawal, ought to be demanding a formal non-partisan inquiery commission be struck, and all plans put on
hold until the truth is made public. Ariel Sharon, and all who may be viewed to have had a part, ought to step down while this investigation takes place, in order to preserve integrity in Israel’s government.

Because, no Israeli, no matter who they are, or where they live, should be used as a pawn in any game of corruption!

Marilynn Dawson on behalf of Maureen Metcalf who is author of “The Final Schedule Revealed: In the Fall Feasts and Festivals”
http://teshuvatrumpet.org

I don’t think that you would find too many people that will argue the fact that conservatism is cool. Even many of my conservative colleagues would have to agree with me on that one. That being said, do you ever wonder why being a conservative isn’t “cool”? I have pondered the question and have come up with some possible reasons.

To be cool you have to be part of the crowd, following blindly the one’s who tell you that you are cool. This fits squarely into the liberal frame of mind. Don’t ask what we are about; just know that you need us. A recent fad in this country is what I like to call “Power by Committee”. It is a way in which liberals who were not trusted enough to be elected, are now trying to grab power by forming committees for everything from monitoring hospitals to telling you how you can donate your money to a candidate of your choice. The come on is always the same. Find an issue in which you can exploit the poor and uneducated. Use race to split people into groups and let them feel victimized by the situation. There is only one problem with this plan voters don’t usually buy it. Thank goodness for that, if not we may have to have committees to oversee the committees and waste even more tax dollars.

Speaking of waste that brings me to my next point. To be cool you have to offer something. In liberals case it is welfare and lots of it. The welfare decline of the Clinton years led to the Disability Social Security boom of the Clinton years. Many people got off welfare just in time to get their disability checks. They simply switched entitlements. Here is an entitlement I’ll bet you never hear anything about on the evening news. It is a backdoor entitlement called Head of Household and Earned Income Credit. Of course you know these terms from our tax code. It is a way in which people who make a small income are rewarded with a large tax return. I have never had a problem with low-income workers getting a full refund if their income falls below a certain mark. With that being said it makes no sense to give a person that paid in $1500.00 in taxes a $6000.00 check.

It’s cool to be the “man”. Unfortunately for people like John Kerry and several of his other cronies, the electorate doesn’t want them to be the man. At the risk of offending some of my fellow Republicans, I would throw John McCain into that category also. Every Senator and Representative is now demanding that the President do what he or she wants. The last time I checked the President was elected to make decisions that affect things like the war in Iraq and the economy. I don’t recall when the minority party of the Congress and its leaders were granted that right. Liberals are having a hard time not being the “man”.

So what is cool about being a conservative? How about pride in the fact that you have worked and gained things by honest means and not government handouts. Could be that you feel a great deal of gratitude to the ladies and gentlemen who pay the price of our freedom every time they put on their uniform. I think that it is cool that we don’t have to fool people into joining us in our ideas. We are what we are and we know what we are, no flip-flopping here. Possibly the coolest thing about being a conservative is that it isn’t cool, we face opposition 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Yet we stay focused on the things that make us true conservatives and not the politics that preoccupy our liberal antagonists.

© copyright 2005 glwhite op/eds

Gavin White’s Op/Ed pieces have appeared in several newspapers and on numerous websites. He has a background in Political Science and has worked on both local and national political campaigns. Mr. White’s hobbies include writing and the outdoors.