Why I Lean Right of Centre

[The Old Fogducker]

Here's what I think is an excellent article descibing what is frustrating about the values of socialists and underachievers who have a misplaced sense of entitlement.


"I'm 63 and I am Tired"
by Robert A. Hall


I'm 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force, if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it. I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But, if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money.

I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for Christian people of Iran and the freedom of speech of Venezuela.

I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor”;
of Muslims rioting over some slight offense;
of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers";
of Muslims burning schools for girls;
of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery";
of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls - all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.

I'm tired of being told that “race doesn't matter” in the post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.

I think it's very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government.

I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever.

Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004. I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America, while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance.

I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and, if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough.

I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana.

I'm tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime. What's next? Calling drug dealers “Undocumented Pharmacists?” And, no, I'm not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military. Those are the citizens we need.
I'm tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here's the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the “humiliation and abuse" that was "heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we'll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.
I'm tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the ”llinois Combine” of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet.

I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about “innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes”, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor. Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were “ poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing. I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems.

Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter.

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate.

[Sasquash]

A+, Sir.

Always a threat to watch people in position of authority, taking a stand and calling it like it is. There is too much political correctness in both United States and Canada and too often, a person is precluded from really speaking their mind for fear or reprisal.

[The Old Fogducker]

Sasquash:

I'm confident there will be reprisal for posting it here ... "Watch this space."

The Old Fogducker

[AMM]

Yeah, having so many hates and people to despise can be tiring.

[Nark]

Semper Fi!!!

[Siddley Hawker]

Way to go Foggy!

[iflyforpie]

Leaning Right of Center? Don't fall over!

Why does everything have to be in absolutes? Why can't people see past the White Elephant or the Jackass?

I agree with 90% of what is written; and though I usually go right down the dotted line, I tend to hog the right side a bit.

But GWB was a dimwit who had 6 years to do something about the overheating economy (we'll leave the two wars out of this). Kerry served in Vietnam, Bush was the 'fortunate son' who went AWOL on the Home Front. John McCain (who is actually personal hero of mine for what he endured on the USS Forrestal and in Vietnam, and for his non-conventional political stances) was too old, too frail, too hindered by the failing popularity of the Republican Party, and wasn't helped by Palin who spoke herself into idiocy that even her tits couldn't save.

[Go Guns]

I'm sorry, the world is far to complicated a place for me to claim that I'm left or right of center.

I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor”;
of Muslims rioting over some slight offense;
of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers";
of Muslims burning schools for girls;
of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery";
of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls - all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to.

I would sure like for this gentleman to define for me a "Religion of Peace". I'll bet we have differing opinions.

[cdnpilot77]

Why didn't he run for president!? Best letter ever! 100% on the mark!

[Moose47]

I'm sick and tired of people calling Obama a black president. He's half white, how come we don't hear about that in the lame stream media?

[JakeYYZ]

Yeah, having so many hates and people to despise can be tiring.

Now that's the kind of phrase-coining that keeps me coming back here... that and my lack of life skills, but mostly the skills thing.

[bmc]

Robert Hall may be 63, but he whines like a 10 year old.

I do agree with a lot of it. Canada is golden example of socialism and I believe right of center in Canada is left of center elsewhere. I still maintain that in Canada, it's more important to be polite than to stand up and say no. (An DJ at local radio station, on Canada Day, on air said "How do you get 23 Canadians out of a pool? Say "I'm sorry, but could you please get out of the pool?")

I have and always will have a problem with absolutes and racial profiling and intolerance, primarily based on Fox News. The world isn't that simple. It's naive to believe that it can be.

[AMM]

Well Jake, if you like the phrase then you'll just love the album.

[. ._]

[flyinthebug]

Thank you for your years of public service Mr. Hall. Your letter was incredibly well written and I agree with everything you said 100%. Thanks for posting OFD. If we had MORE people like this man, who is not afraid to tell it like it is...We may one day get the country back that our grandfathers envisioned. Bravo!

[bezerker]

If you like the letter and want more, Robert A. Hall has a blog (which is where this letter originated, 19 Feb. 2009)

http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/

[bmc]

I re read that post and I wonder if Hitler wasn't onto something, you know. Sure he was a bit harsh, but the idea of a pure white christian English nation holds some appeal, doesn't it?

[Icebound]

...

I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore,

.....


I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever.

Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News?

I think I know why.... its because those people are afraid that there may be a grain of truth in what Moore and the other media is saying, and they want to hide their heads in the comfortable sand... someone like Fox, who tells them what they want to hear whether it resembles the truth or not.

That's a lot simpler than exploring the complete breadth of the issues.

By the way, the media was not as obsessed with Bush's exercise regimen, as it was with his 77 trips to Crawford, of approximately 490 days. Thats about 2 months per year.

We will see if Obama's holiday schedule matches that.

...

[Expat]

The least we can say, is that history repeats itself. And countries that cannot swing freely from left to right and vice-versa are headed for failure.
The leftists USSR, and the rightist USA (were) are headed for the same demise.
The world is full of ruins of great empires, that did not survive...

[The Old Fogducker]

Because we have a significant number of Politically Correct Socialist types on this forum, I found this article interesting.


Hate-speech laws are themselves hateful

They are a windfall to the politically correct who wish to censor other views

By Lorne Gunter, edmontonjournal.com

Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Hat ... z0sk967VAz



What the Anne Coulter controversy points out is how insidious are Canada's hate-speech laws.

They permit censorious activists to attempt to shut up those with whom they disagree while in the same breath claiming to be defenders of free speech, themselves.

Hate speech laws offer cover for the politically correct. The laws help PC activists enforce a narrow view of what is and isn't acceptable to say about immigration, religion, sexual equality, gay rights and ideology while at the same time insisting they fully support the Charter's freedom of expression.

How convenient.

Supporting free speech can be tough if you have to stomach views with which you vehemently disagree. But if you can successfully label your opponents' views as hateful, you can place their words beyond constitutional protections, which permits you to have them censored while still insisting you are a defender of full, robust debate.

Last March, when the outrageous American conservative columnist Anne Coulter proposed to speak on the campus of the University of Ottawa, university administrators attempted to "chill" her remarks by warning her to watch her tongue even before she had arrived in Canada.

Vice-president and provost Francois Houle sneered in an e-mail that Coulter should "educate" herself about what kinds of speech are and are not acceptable in Canada "before your planned visit here." Canada draws a line between hate speech and free speech he scoffed. If Ms. Coulter was not careful, she could find herself facing a human rights complaint, lawsuit or even criminal charges.

That's just smug and patronizing. The idea a country may draw a distinction between free speech and hate speech is both self-contradictory and self-delusional. By definition, if a country rules numerous forms of speech off-limits, it has not found some unique, new characteristic of free expression, it has merely put a false front on its instincts for censorship -- a false front designed to conceal from itself, as much as from the outside world, the true nature of its feelings toward free speech.

It turns out the real censor at the U of O was not Houle, though, but rather his boss Allan Rock, the former Liberal justice minister who now serves as the university's president. According to access-to-information documents obtained by the Canadian Press, Rock -- who presided over the introduction of the gun registry -- wrote to Houle the day before Houle wrote to Coulter instructing his vice-president to inform her of the potential consequences should she go ahead with her speech.

He added, gratuitously, that "Coulter is a mean-spirited, small-minded, foul-mouthed poltroon." (Who still uses the word poltroon?) "She is an ill-informed and deeply offensive shill for a profoundly shallow and ignorant view of the world. She is a malignancy on the body politic. She is a disgrace to the broadcasting industry and a leading example of the dramatic decline in the quality of public discourse in recent times."

Funny, there are lots of gun owners and divorced dads who hold much the same opinion about Rock. (In addition to imposing intrusive controls on law-abiding gun owners, Rock also changed the country's divorce laws so fathers paying child support have to pay the income taxes owing on those payments, too, rather than having them paid by their ex-wives, who are the recipients of the financial benefit.)

Admittedly, Rock and Houle are not the only Canadians who have sought to stifle the words of those with whom they disagree. The Conservative government has kept out of the country the controversial pro-Palestinian British MP George Galloway and Muslim televangelist Zakir Naik, who lives in Mumbai, India.

Naik, who has made many hateful remarks about Jews, gays and the West, nonetheless spoke by teleconference link to the conference to which he had been invited in Toronto. Galloway made similar arrangements to have his remarks heard by Canadians audiences. So their words got through the Tories' ban, even if they did not.

And since it is these gentlemen's words that censors fear, the government's actions had no impact other than to deny the pair the ability to come here personally.

At least Coulter made it here. The University of Ottawa lacked the power of the federal government to deny her entry to the country. It ultimately cancelled her appearance on campus, giving into the risk of violence posed by an outraged mob outside her venue -- the lawless were permitted to dictate the actions of the law-abiding.

Libs want it both ways

But the point is, the instinct to shut up one's opponents is not unique to the Canadian liberal-left, even if they and the human rights commissions they defend are currently the biggest threats to free expression.

I sense that were family traditionalists or social conservatives in control of our political, culture and media elites, they would claim to be defenders of free speech while similarly indulging in efforts to define away the views of those whose opinions angered them.

It's simply far too easy to see one's own views as perfectly reasonable and fact-based, while dismissing one's opponents' as prejudiced and misinformed.

lgunter@shaw.ca

Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Hat ... z0sk8o3FBo

[Icebound]

Because we have a significant number of Politically Correct Socialist types on this forum, I found this article interesting.


....


What the Anne Coulter controversy points out is how insidious are Canada's hate-speech laws.

Personally, I am not a great fan of certain Commissions that get involved in these sort of "human rights" and "hate speech" issues. I would have like the kids to have heard her rant... it would have given them a good laugh....

However, the Coulter fiasco in Ottawa has nothing to do with hate speech or free speech.... It has to do with reasonable debate and good manners. The kids in Ottawa did not shut her down because they disagreed with her.... they shut her down because they hated her personal attacks, her arrogance, her public demeanour over time. They were insulted by that.

This was a school-yard scrap.... she insults them, they gave her a black eye.... We can try to spin it into something else, but had Coulter, over the years, presented her arguments instead of her arrogance, I predict the Ottawa speech would have come off as advertised.... to loud cat-calls perhaps.....


...

[Hedley]

The kids in Ottawa did not shut her down because they disagreed with her

Allan Rock certainly personally disagreed with her opinions. Read his emails. He did everything he could to muzzle her.

Censorship. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck ...

Personally, I don't find left-wing censorship any more palatable than right-wing censorship.

Canada is golden example of socialism and I believe right of center in Canada is left of center elsewhere

Indeed. And on that subject, my favorite quote:

If you're young and right-wing, you have no heart. But if you're old and left-wing, you have no brains

[Dash-Ate]

FREEDOM is taken away with the stroke of a pen these days.


troops are busy with guarding of oil wells, mineral deposits, and drug trade routes in dozens of counrties around the world. Yes we torture and do A LOT of it. blood spattered CIA and mossad rooms all over the place.

USA border is open and the country is overrun with illegal mexican immigrants. Divide and conquer the country.


Later this year every country will have to pay carbon taxes...with the stroke of a pen. No debate, no democracy.
90% of international news on TV is a lie.



Our kids have their spirits broken, they are drugged up with legal and illegal drugs, and they are shown violence and emotional porn all day on TV.
Robots.

Who is the enemy? Communists and possibly zionists.

If a teacher tells a young girl that maybe she would behappier at home raising her kids, this teacher and school would be sued out of school for "opressing her" by ACLU and Southern Poverty LAw centre.
Try and display a nativity scene or 10 Commandments? the same howl from the same people will occur. PSSST the people taking away our freedom are not muslims in oil rich countries on the other side of the world...

But if this girl wishes to dress like a hooker at age 17 (see: Miley Cyrus,Brittney, and so on) well it's seen as ok.

Who owns our media and law and hollywood...is it muslims? Irish? Bulgarians? Or a group of communists? IF you DARE to criticize them by name you'll lose your job and possibly go to jail

[niss]

...We may one day get the country back that our grandfathers envisioned. Bravo!

The one where blacks would never stop picking their Mastas cotton, never mind be president?

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" Unless they were black, Irish, native, chinese, etc. etc.

[2R]

The wearing of the Kilt has many advantages,not just for speed of attack in battle or catching Haggis.But you do not need to worry if your tailor allowed enough room for comfort to dress left or right.You can let the wedding tackle swing freely in the breeze and let it fall or stand left right or center
As for those who politics takes them to the extremes of the political spectrum,i cannot tell the difference between an extreme right winger and a left winger ,although some of the right wingers have better fashion sense.Just make sure you have a ticket out of dodge when they wear new silly hats.