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Basic Health Care a Right for All

Posted by Mike on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 1:13:52 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
Opposition to reasonable health care reform and support for legalized abortion are really two sides of the same coin. They both reject human solidarity. They both view life as a zero-sum game.

There can be no solidarity without deference to subsidiarity. All persons in society have a basic right to health care as a matter of social justice, which includes the corresponding responsibility of all to contribute in some way to the common good. Basic medical care should be provided first at the local level, and only receiving state assistance when the standard of care falls below normal. Capitalism tends to exalt personal choice above the common good, which is a form of libertarianism and leads to a decrease in the overall standard of care.

In actuality, there are two rights which are the subject of the debate. The first is the right to life, without which no other rights can be realized. This means that abortion is not legitimate health care because it denies human beings the fundamental right to life. Abortion and legitimate health care are polar opposites.

The second right that must be secured is the right of all to basic health care. Each individual who actively participates as a member of society has this right. This also includes immigrants here legally, but not immigrants here through subterfuge. Of course, local governments may nonetheless require that emergency services be provided even to those here through subterfuge for the common good of all.

These two fundamental rights are not opposed to each other. There is no reason why the Senate and House cannot together pass legislation that protects the life of the unborn and at the same time makes sure that the right to basic health care is insured where necessary.

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Basic Health Care a Right for All

Posted by Mike on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 1:13:33 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
Opposition to reasonable health care reform and support for legalized abortion are really two sides of the same coin. They both reject human solidarity. They both view life as a zero-sum game.

There can be no solidarity without deference to subsidiarity. All persons in society have a basic right to health care as a matter of social justice, which includes the corresponding responsibility of all to contribute in some way to the common good. Basic medical care should be provided first at the local level, and only receiving state assistance when the standard of care falls below normal. Capitalism tends to exalt personal choice above the common good, which is a form of libertarianism and leads to a decrease in the overall standard of care.

In actuality, there are two rights which are the subject of the debate. The first is the right to life, without which no other rights can be realized. This means that abortion is not legitimate health care because it denies human beings the fundamental right to life. Abortion and legitimate health care are polar opposites.

The second right that must be secured is the right of all to basic health care. Each individual who actively participates as a member of society has this right. This also includes immigrants here legally, but not immigrants here through subterfuge. Of course, local governments may nonetheless require that emergency services be provided even to those here through subterfuge for the common good of all.

These two fundamental rights are not opposed to each other. There is no reason why the Senate and House cannot together pass legislation that protects the life of the unborn and at the same time makes sure that the right to basic health care is insured where necessary.

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Is America Worth Saving?

Posted by Mike on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 3:09:41 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
Austria, although suffering the ravages of Allied bombardment, was spared the degradation of communism because of the Austrians strictly adhering to their Christian traditions. The German speaking peoples of central and eastern Europe were forcibly expelled and many suffered death as well as losing their homes and possessions, and many also were given a new lease on life in free Europe and other countries of the world.

Will Americans and Europeans be so lucky if the trend toward Islamicization continues in the West as it has over the last decade?

Quibbling about whether Hasan, the Fort Hood killer, just went over the top, or was engaging in jihad, does nothing to fix the problem. Then there is the D.C. sniper, also a Muslim, who is scheduled for execution tonight. Prisoner abuse by our enlisted soldiers is a sign of declining military discipline and morale. In sacrificing our cherished traditions on the altar of capitalism, we as a nation risk destruction.

At some point, it becomes too late to change a culture save by miraculous intervention. Has America reached that point yet? Have the envious cynics already won the culture war?

The strength of Islamic extremism is that it holds a trump card. Either do what they want or get blown up. When Christians become so lukewarm in their faith that tolerance is exalted above objective truth, then the Muslim moral absolutes, no matter how flawed, prevail, just as communism once did.
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Bush Doctrine on Target

Posted by Mike on Sunday, November 08, 2009 1:23:42 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
Capitalism contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction.

Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were primarily responsible for financing the terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Other than training the hijackers, they had little to do with the actual attack on 9/11. Today, Osama is either dead or incapacitated.

The real culprits of 9/11 were the same crowd who tried to blow up the WTO in 1993, attempted to assassinate the pope and stage airplane hijackings from the Philippines in January 1995, and masterminded the Oklahoma City bombing in April of that year. The leaders of this gang of thugs were Ramsey Yousef and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, both with ties to Iraq and possibly receiving financial aid from bin Laden and his family. This is also corroborated by bin Laden's own statement in 2001 that those responsible for 9/11 acted as free independent agents.

The administration of George W. Bush did not want to implicate Iraq because that would have shown how stupid it really was to attack Saddam's forces after the Kuwait invasion in 1991. Still, there remains a clear trail of blood leading out of Iraq between 1991 and 2001.

America has clearly stopped terrorism in its tracks. All that is left to do now is orderly withdrawals of US and NATO forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Both Wars Stink

Posted by Mike on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 9:59:45 AM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
While the MSM has predictably jumped on the Obama bandwagon in distinguishing between the Iraq war as a war of choice as opposed to the Afghanistan war of necessity, the fact remains that both wars together have taken a huge toll in terms of American lives, economic resources, and world recognition. The criticism leveled against Bush 43 for leading American forces into Iraq is not altogether justified. There had to be some strong military response after 9/11. To blame everything on Al Qaeda, and the Afghan Taliban for harboring Al Qaeda, seems simplistic at best. Saddam's regime was far more brutal and dictatorial than that of the Taliban, and was responsible for some of the terrorist violence preceding 9/11.

Unfortunately, America's war crimes, particularly those directed against detainees many of whom were demonstrably innocent, more than offset any rational justification for war at this point. Capitalism breeds vindictiveness. The legitimate goal of interrogation gave way to the temptation to exact vengeance and to dehumanize and ridicule.

Obama's exit strategy is the beginning of our economic recovery. Iraq and Afghanistan will never become like us. The sooner we realize this, the better.

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Wealth Inequality Affecting Social Policy in America

Posted by Mike on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 8:30:17 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
Several decades ago, Ferdinand Lundberg completed a monumental study of the rich and the super-rich. He identified the primary dynastic families at that time as being Du Pont, Mellon, Rockefeller, Ford, and to a lesser extent Pew. Since that time, new wealth has been amassed by other families including those of Walton, Buffett and Gates.

What effect does exorbitant wealth have on the formation of social policy?

The super-rich exert tremendous control over the media and the government, which has the effect of slowing down the process of democratization in society whether at home or abroad. Capitalism is basically a given at this stage of history. Most social injustices are caused by the wealthy wanting to keep control. Wealthy family foundations fund anti-life, anti-family programs such as Planned Parenthood, and are large contributors to liberal candidates for government offices, judgeships, and causes. Of course there are exceptions such as Richard Scaife a scion of the Mellon Dynasty, and the Pew Research Center which conducts research into religious strengths and weaknesses.

Capitalism obviously is not going to go away overnight. It is therefore the duty of responsible citizens to work for justice within these limitations.
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The Great Demise

Posted by Mike on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 12:36:19 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
Capitalism is poised to topple under its own weight within this century. What should be done to prepare for the coming financial storm?

The key element is uncertainty. Capitalism has created a compartmentalized society of competing interests. After the great worldwide collapse, society will no longer be held together by economic self-interest.

Today it is necessary to build bridges of solidarity with our neighbors. We can act now to prevent our nation from becoming socialistic. The choice is ours.
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Fast Food Government

Posted by Mike on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 12:46:33 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
In a capitalistic, individualistic society, government oversimplifies everything to a question of dollars and cents. This is because people become isolated and alienated from each other. This type of a bean counter mentality results in gross injustices such as when judges who are charged with protecting human life become instead the agents of destroying life.

World capitalism will destroy itself and collapse in our lifetime. The only question is whether we will organize society rationally and civilly preserving the benefits of a free market economy, or will we fall into tyrannical dictatorship of socialism?

The sensible way to prepare for the coming disaster is not to try and protect your assets, because money itself will become almost worthless, as happened with the collapse of communism in Russia, Eastern and Central Europe. We should follow the example of their recovery by expanding the marketplace to include more people.

The choice will be between the centralization of socialism in which direction we are already headed, or a decentralized distributive system which represents the Third Way option. Most likely, we will end up with something in between.

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Government's Role in Fixing the Economy

Posted by Mike on Saturday, May 16, 2009 12:20:59 AM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
To fix the economy, step number one is to change the tax structure. This will mean revising the tax code to tax individual wealth rather than individual or corporate income, and abolishing the death tax. Taxes on individual wealth, or net worth, are justified because the wealthy benefit more from basic government services such as police and fire protection and health care.

My proposal is to tax individual wealth above the 90 percentile range at a rate of 95%, and above the 95 percentile range at a rate of 99%. There would be no tax on income which destroys the incentive to earn. Additional tax revenues would be generated through sales, excise and tariff taxes as needed pursuant to the Fair-Tax Plan championed by Alan Keyes.

Capitalism is, along with socialism, an outgrowth of the 18th Century French Revolution, and is inherently unjust because it reduces the human person to a mere instrument of production and consumption. Government's legitimate role is to promote justice by promoting entrepreneurship and giving tax credits to new businesses just starting up. Small businesses employ most of the American workforce outside of government including the military branches.

Distributivism is a Third Way of economic organization. The goal should be to promote independent, eco-friendly ways of producing things with the workers themselves having some ownership interest through tax incentives, and a more equitable corporate ownership to include the workers themselves. Just as in home equity, people act more responsibly when there is a more widely held ownership interest in businesses.

Subsidiarity must be respected, so that higher levels of government do not usurp the roles of lower levels, or infringe upon the responsibilities of business, community or family organizations.

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Affirmative Action Out the Window

Posted by Mike on Friday, May 08, 2009 10:41:10 AM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
The controversy over hiring practices by the City of New Haven resolves around one issue, and only one. Do the taxpaying citizens have a right to hire Lieutenant Sharp rather than Lieutenant Dumbo for their police and fire departments?

Most local revenue is generated by property tax and sales tax of local businesses. The people who pay these taxes have an expectation to receive the best service for their buck.

The real losers from Affirmative Action are the taxpaying citizens, the mothers and children who will die in fires that could have been prevented or put down, the victims of gang related shootings and other crimes.

Capitalism is unjust because it is based on the idea that some may reap the rewards of other people's labor by hook or crook. No economic system is perfect. In today's world, the two competing systems are capitalism and socialism. It is the responsibility of citizens and government leaders to make justice happen in America. This we can expect from our courts, but the wheels of justice turn very slowly. Besides, there are other injustices including racial prejudice that must be overcome.

Our courts will go a long way when they start punishing politicians and judges responsible for killing our citizens by abortion, and legally disenfranchising white fathers. While it is true that some fathers want their children aborted and pay for abortions, and that many fathers who lose their children through abortion are non-white, the Supreme Court's rationalization for abortion in the 1973 cases was clearly an attempt to hold back the younger generation of white males, just as the related legal injustice from Affirmative Action during the same time period.
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Beyond Capitalism

Posted by Mike on Saturday, March 28, 2009 1:24:18 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
All government decisions must always be informed by moral considerations.  Life in society is conditioned according to whether or not our laws are based upon moral truth, or are instead used solely to generate revenue for the greedy in society.  Our nation's forefathers understood that to govern wisely, the members of society must adhere to moral principles.  Since morality is based upon truth, religion plays a key role in forming consciences as a safeguard of the truth.  Not all religions are equal.  There can be only one true religion since God is One, not many.  To the extent that society bases its laws on the truth which is preserved for each generation in the Christian religion, only to that extent will a nation be governed well and justly in our time.

Capitalism as an economic system has evolved over time.  It is a mistake to look back nostalgically to bygone days and defend capitalism on that basis.  Capitalism exists where society values and protects property.  However, when laws do not conform to objective reality, then the safeguards for protection of property fall apart.  Individuals lose their security of person and property.

In moving beyond the capitalistic economic model, we must be careful to always adhere to truth.  This means conformity with the Divine Person of Christ. 

Society can be fooled into following one mortal man which would create a form of fascism.  Our people must be on guard against this pitfall of power.  Rather we must strive to always move forward under the banner of Christ.  We should work to remove the inequalities of wealth distribution through solidarity with the poor in America and particularly in the Western Hemisphere.  We can also learn from the countries of the world that have gone before us through the errors of central planning, particularly the lessons from Germany and the nations of central and eastern Europe formerly under communist domination.

Read more at link above...

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Designer America

Posted by Mike on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 1:14:17 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
How will post-capitalist America deal with multiculturalism?

Today everyone has an agenda. Homosexuals want to abolish traditional marriage. Minorities demand special treatment for their own types. Animal protectionists want to do away with pet ownership. The list goes on and on.

Liberals are destroying America by appeasing these special interests. At the same time, foreign banks and governments including that of Israel are looting America of trillions of dollars in tax money or loan commitments which are mortgaging the future of generations to come.

Capitalism and democracy have become irreconcilable. No society can exist as amoral. Morality must always be the determining factor in government decision making. It is too late to change our government through the electoral process. What we need now is action and not more high sounding rhetoric.
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USA Indian Giver

Posted by Mike on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 8:02:14 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
Our government obviously does not comprehend how capitalism works.

By encouraging sub-prime lending to get more housing for their minority constituents, the Congress led by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd brought about the housing bubble leading to the financial crisis and drop in securities values.  In deregulating Wall Street, what did they expect the brokers were going to do, not make more money in a competitive market?  Selling derivatives was an easy if unethical way to make money.

So what should be done with AIG?  As a cousin of mine in the DC area has suggested, let them keep the bonuses but in AIG stock rather than in cash.  And if I might add, at the market value of the company stock at the time the contract bonuses were negotiated over a year ago.
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Now Watch Oprah and the Greedy Teleopportunists...

Posted by Mike on Saturday, February 07, 2009 10:39:30 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
What was that woman thinking?

Capitalism has reached a point of destroying society by giving people material incentives to engage in antisocial behavior.  Whether it is the proverbial fifteen minutes of fame, the million dollar book deal, or the money paid for tabloid interviews and TV guest appearances, the more bizarre and destructive doings the greater the rewards. . . at least in material terms.

We will never know what motivated the divorced mom of six children, all conceived artificially, to bring eight more babies into the world through the same extraordinary and unnatural process.  Did she do it to become wealthy or famous?  If so, the TV slobs share the responsibility for rewarding people for doing stupid things.

Obama would do a lot more good using the Fairness Doctrine to get these boobs off the air for good.
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