Politics and Perception

by David W. Andersen

Someone once told me that 'Perception is Reality', in other words if I perceive you to be a certain way then my thoughts will go that way and ultimately my opinion becomes that way. My reality, as flawed as it may be, is definitely formed from my perceptions.

Don't confuse perception with judgement. Judgement 'uses' perception to categorize people and apply your principles to their perceived behavior, to form an unrealistic case for or against them. This is probably why Jesus told us not to judge one another.

So I was listening to a real Democrat (the kind of Democrat that was around in my parents day) on television tonight. He made a real good point. That it's not about winning or losing in party politics, rather it's about a kind of iron-sharpening-iron effect that leads to good pragmatic laws being past with the public interest always at the forefront. He was lamenting that this has not been the case with the Obama administration or the Pelosi/Reid Congress. He also blames Republicans and I must say I agree.

I remembered how I felt post 9-11 when both parties worked together to make sense of the attack on the Towers in NYC. I remember how no one was 'grabbing' the lime light and trying to paint the other party in a negative light or minimize their accomplishments. I remember seeing CSPAN coverage of debates and hearing both sides making sensible arguments.. I remember thinking how glad I was that we had such good people in our government.

...and then about 18 months away from 2004 elections, in a concerted Democrat and Media effort, I remember how shocked I was to hear those same democrats say the opposite of what they had been saying 2 years prior. It made me feel sick. I realized that this is what elections had come down to. The Republicans responded in like manner along with Sean Hannity and others.. nit picking, mis-characterizing and again it came down to who was right and who would win.

Then I look at the Tea Party movement in our country. Whether you like it or not, it is a large population of our country that is unhappy with our representation. This group alone is controversial because they don't reflect the sentiments of everyone, or are 'perceived' and 'Judged' to be a certain type of people. But the worst thing is that those in 'Power', i.e. our elected officials want to cast them as fringe kooks carrying silly signs that can't be taken seriously. Why? Because they are wanting our nation to go back to its roots and core beliefs of the constitution. Our Government officials enjoy way more power than the constitution affords and ultimately when another conservative is back in office, government will shrink, mandates and entitlements at taxpayers expense will cease, and we will get back to the work of rebuilding the greatest nation ever conceived on this planet and in Human History.

This Government spending and takeover of companies and health care has sparked alot of debate and it has unintentionally done something that neither party is thrilled about.. It has exposed and awakened a large population of 'regular citizens' to the corruptions and elitism that exists in our congress. This is bad for every sitting congress person and senator because the over reaction in 2010 is to vote them all out. That would be unfortunate, but the lesson here to all public officials is this: "You must govern in a transparent way that represents those you represent or you will have a very short political life"

Having said all of this, I believe that the reason no other nation affords it's citizens the rights we enjoy is that they don't 'trust' the people to do the right thing. This is universally true, mob rule gave us lynchings and the like.. bad mob. But no other nation has a revered document that restrains both the people and the politicians like the Constitution of these United States. The elitist progressives say "hey we are arrogant to think that such a young country could have gotten right, we need to take our cues from European nations:" But let's not forget that those who formed this document took into account the thousands of years of abuse and failure that led to the conditions in England and other European countries, to be the way they were.

In effect, we were the beneficiaries of thousands of years of trying different methods. Bottom line, without the Constitution and 3 pronged government, we would have fallen long ago. So it is my perception today that we need to all agree on this document, try not to radically change or abolish it, and look for ways we can work together to make our government spend less and work better for it's Citizens.

What do you think?

Free Speech

It is truly amazing, but not shocking, that Democrats are now making up allegations of protester racism and the news arms of the DNC are now openly wondering if Republican Congressman are culpable for the violence and racial slurs?

Wow, protesters in Ottawa managed to become so violent that Ann Coulter was advised not to proceed with attending her invited scheduled debate on campus." Francois Houle, vice-president academic and provost of the University of Ottawa, sent Coulter a preemptive email the day before her scheduled debate.

In Houle’s e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by the National Post, the administrator urges Coulter to weigh her words with “respect and civility in mind” when she speaks at the University of Ottawa campus Tuesday.

“Our domestic laws, both provincial and federal, delineate freedom of expression (or ‘free speech’) in a manner that is somewhat different than the approach taken in the United States. I therefore encourage you to educate yourself, if need be, as to what is acceptable in Canada and to do so before your planned visit here.”

Houle goes on: “Promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges.”

AND..this is how liberals around the world conduct themselves toward any adversary. If you speak the truth you are a 'hater' and use 'hate speech', if someone completely trashes a conservative? well, no one complains.

IN other news, Santa Clara California City Council, though they are facing a $250 million dollar budget deficit, have decided to use their resources to take on the task of 'forcing' McDonald's to remove their children's toys from 'Happy Meals'. They claim they have the authority to do so because the toys cause children to gravitate toward these high fat, high sugar food choices and after all, it is a health care issue so we are empowered to 'control' private citizens and private industry. (after all Washington just opened that door).

Meanwhile, New home sales are the lowest on record, liberal papers and magazines have seen advertising drop to 1987 levels, true unemployment is 17% (because they don't count people that stop trying to find work), Healthcare companies as well as many states claim that bankruptcy is only a few years away due to the new health care legislation and liberals are now saying that the public is angry but that it will improve now that Obama care has passed into law. They claim the 'anger' was NOT due to the bill itself, but rather that it took too long to get it passed.. but that's all over now.

Welcome to the USSA (United Socialist States of America). This is a world where now you will start seeing taxes and undue controls on every aspect of your life. Here are just a few:

1. Healthcare taxes on menu items at your local restaurant to help cover the cost of providing full healthcare benefits to all those part-time bus boys and food servers.
2. Taxes on Soda Pop
3. Taxes on Tanning Booths and plastic surgery (Don't worry Nancy, Botox wasn't taxed)
4. Taxes on Cadillac Healthcare Plans, or as we like to call it Pre-Obama level health care. (a punishment for being the exception)

Coming Soon...

1. Taxes for parking on the public street in front of your house. (you know the street you pay for with your tax dollars)
2. Taxes for Home Schooling your children (Because they don't attend the public school your property taxes already go to)
3. Taxes for owning a boat, RV or other recreational vehicle (you should be ashamed)
4. Taxes for paying dues to an organized group (NRA dues and your church tithe will fall into this category but unions will be exempt of course)
5. Taxes for having more than 500 sq ft per person in your household so if you have 2000 sq ft but only 3 people.. Kaching! (you can thank the census for this one)
6. Taxes on all food items unless you buy with food stamps or WIC (because that helps to redistribute the wealth)

Final note: The worst of the Healthcare mandates will hit us (and I mean all of us) in 2014. Also the insurance industry doesn't calculate for the immediate provisions until after the 2010 elections. When health care premiums triple in 2011, because they have now no choice to stay in business, do you think the Dem's might then say "Oh those greedy insurance companies! We need to pass a bill to get rid of the insurance companies and go to a single payer healthcare plan."? Watch for it, be vigilant, be prayerful, God is still on the throne (but don't tell Obama or he might try to eliminate the competition).

- by Kitty Werthman
I am an eyewitness to history. I can tell you that Hitler did not take Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide - 98% of the vote. I've never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.
In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates. Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn't want to work; there simply weren't any jobs. My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people - about 30 daily.
The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other. Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna, Linz, and Graz were destroyed. The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted.
We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933. We had been told that they didn't have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group - Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back. Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany.
We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.
After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.
Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn't support his family.

Hitler Targets Education-Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children:
Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler's picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn't pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang "Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles," and had physical education.
Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail. The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free. We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.
My mother was very unhappy. When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn't do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun - no sports, and no political indoctrination. I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing. Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler. It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn't exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

Equal Rights Hits Home
In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn't work, you didn't get a ration card, and if you didn't have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn't have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.
Soon after this, the draft was implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps. During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys. They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines. When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat. Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare:
When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers. You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government. The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.
Health Care and Small Business choked by Government Controls:
Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna ... After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full. If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.
As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families. All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.
We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables. Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn't meet all the demands. Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.
We had consumer protection. We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

"Mercy Killing" Redefined:
In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps . The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated. So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work. I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van. I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months. They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.
As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

The Final Steps - Gun Laws:
Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.
No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.
Totalitarianism didn't come quickly; it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.
After World War II, Russian troops occupied Austria. Women were raped, preteen to elderly. The press never wrote about this either. When the Soviets left in 1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the process. They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what they couldn't destroy, they burned. We called it "The Burned Earth." Most of the population barricaded themselves in their houses. Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized. Those who couldn't; paid the price. There is a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who were massacred by the Russians. This is an eye witness account.
It's true. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. America Truly is the greatest country in the world. Don't let freedom slip away.
After America, there is no place else to go!