It’s been a while…

I’ve been having difficulties with my internet.  It seems every thing is worked out now.  I hope to resume a regular posting schedule this week.  I plan to use a guest post tomorrow night from a regular reader here with another post by the end of the week.

Book Review: How Do You Kill 11 Million People?

“The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.”

-Plato

I heard about this book while I was on vacation, and had to run out and pick it up.  It’s a small book, and can be read in one setting.  I hope you read this review and run out and grab your own copy.

“How Do You Kill 11 Million People?” by Andy Andrews looks at the importance of politicians telling the truth.  Some of the recent discussions on here have turned to questions of truth and politicians. I thought this also made it an interesting subject since we are going through a presidential election right now.   Mr. Andrews looks at why its’ important for us to keep our elected officials honest.  He does this with a case study:  How was Hitler able to kill 11 million people inside of Germany without its people rising up against him?

Hitler started with a small lie.  The Nazi’s would go to a community and start erecting fencing and barbed wire around it.  They would warn the community that the Russians were on their way and the fencing was for the protection of the community.  The community accepted it because, after all, the government was only trying to protect them.  At some point, officials from the government would show up to meet with the community.  According to Andrews, an official would say something similar to this:

Jews:  At last, it can be reported to you that the Russians are advancing on our eastern front.  I apologize for the hasty way we brought you into our protection.  Unfortunately, there was little time to explain.  You have nothing to worry about.  We want only the best for you.  You will leave here shortly and be sent to very fine places indeed.  You will work there, your wives will state at home, and your children will go to school.  You will have wonderful lives.  We will all be terribly crowded on the trains, but the journey is short.  Men?  Please keep your families together and board the railcars in an orderly manner.  Quickly now, my friends, we must hurry!

There are two reasons why we should all pay close attention to Mr. Andrews books.  First, he isn’t arguing from a Republican / Conservative or Democrat / Liberal point of view.  Instead, he is only trying to point out what can happen when we don’t hold our elected officials accountable.  Second, he isn’t arguing that anyone currently in government is going to start killing people in our communities.  However, unchecked, they might someday.

One way Mr. Andrews suggests keeping our elected officials honest:  verify what they say.  With the advent of the internet, youtube, and blogs like this one, it’s easy to verify what any candidate or activist says.  Voting records of most elected officials are public record.  Most people believe politicians are dishonest, but how many times have you actually fact checked anything a politician said to you?

This should apply to politicians we disagree with AND agree with.  While everyone wants Congress and the Senate kicked out of office, most people would like to keep their representative. Yet, how many of us believe our own representatives are honest with us?  How much dishonesty are we willing to accept from a candidate?

How Do You Kill 11 Million People?  is a very quick read, but is very powerful.  Mr. Andrews says in his book that:

I wrote this book for you to use as a tool.  I wrote it for you to give away.  I wrote it for you to discuss and preach about and read to your children.  I believe that now, more than ever, America needs to be challenged and inspired to participate.

I challenge you to check up on your own favorite candidate and on the President during this election cycle.

The Republican Base has had it!

I don’t like to repost articles or long quotes on this site.  However, occasionally I come across something that I think is worth sharing.  Rush Limbaugh opened his show after the South Carolina primary with a few incredibly insightful comments.  I found myself agreeing with everything he said.  I wanted to post it here to get everyone else’s take on it.  Rush started talking about this when trying to explain Newt Gingrich’s success in the South Carolina primary.   He starts by arguing that the questions about Newt’s former wife weren’t what catapulted him into the lead in South Carolina. From the Rush Limbaugh Show:

Why did those questions tee Newt up, and why did Newt know what to do with them?  Very simple. I’ve been doing this show for 23 years, and one of my themes from the beginning, from 1988, has been that the American conservative middle class are the ones playing by the rules.  They are the ones that obey the law to the best of their ability.  They raise their kids.  They try to shield their kids from cultural rot and depravity. They try to keep them off drugs. They try to get them into college. They follow as best they can all the rules and they’re laughed at and made fun of and they are impugned everywhere they look.  They go to the movies, they’re mocked and made fun of.  They turn on the radio, listen to music, they’re laughed at, mocked, and made fun of.  They turn on television, watch an average television show, they are laughed at, mocked and made fun of.  They open the newspaper, same thing.  They’ve had it. They’ve been dealing with this for over 20 years, and nobody’s fought back for ‘em. Not one person ever has fought back for ‘em.

The last time somebody actually spoke up in this large a forum, a presidential forum, would have to be Reagan; and Reagan did it not so much by what he said (although he had his moments). He did it by winning. He did it by skunking these people! Since then, the Republican leadership has not seemed focused so much on winning and they sit there and they take it. Whenever their own voters are insulted — when their own voters are laughed at and impugned and called racists, sexist, bigot homophobes — the Republicans don’t defend them nor themselves because they’re scared to death the independents are gonna be upset, or the media is gonna be upset.

So the base of the Republican Party, the voters, have been bottling up for 25 years, a resentment — an anger, if you will — that their own party won’t fight for them, won’t fight for itself, won’t fight for what’s right. So when Newt gets teed up with these questions from Juan Williams and John King and whoever else and simply says what they’ve been thinking for 25 years, they say, “Finally!” What they want right now is fight-back, what they want is push-back, what they want is kick-back, what they want is smack-down! What they want is for these people who have been laughing at them and mocking them and impugning them, put in their place.

They’re tired of the cultural rot taking place in the country. They’re tired of the incessant growth of government and spending. They’re tired of it, and they’re frustrated as they can be that members of their own party who get elected can’t seem to articulate their own passions. Politics is about passion, and the Republican Party doesn’t seem to have it! There’s always fear of somebody. Fear of the media, fear of Democrats. Well, Newt doesn’t act like he’s got any fear. So how many wives does he got? “I don’t care!” What did he do for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac? “I don’t care.” What are his national disapproval ratings?

“I don’t care! Finally somebody’s telling the bad guys who they are, what to do and that we’re not gonna take it anymore — or that we don’t want to take it anymore.” Now, you can sit there and you can say that that’s cockeyed, that elections aren’t won that way. Uhhhh, they aren’t? Who just won? Who’s already leading in the polls in Florida? George Will had a fascinating statistic over the weekend. Mitt Romney — Mr. Electability, according to the Republican establishment; Mr. The Only Guy That Can Give Us the Senate — is 9-and-16 in his election career. He’s won nine and lost 16. He’s nine out of 25. That, they tell us, is Mr. Electability — and they’re sitting around, the base is, and they’re saying, “We don’t care about this traditional stuff that you care about that’s kept you in second place all these years.”