Putin would applaud the way America is going - and a tale about the joys of equality

While you were out celebrating, the fires of liberty were being extinguished, no doubt on the principle of "yes we can".

The U.S. Congress, abetted by Obama, has passed a Bill that means you can be arrested, thrown in jail, "questioned" for any reason or no reason at all. You don't have to be charged with anything. Don't waste time asking for your lawyer - or anyone else. They don't have to allow it, any more than they need read you your rights or provide any evidence.

And I might add that they also feel they have the right to do much the same thing anywhere in the world - to you or me. All this brings to mind nothing so much as the Spanish Inquisition, Stalin's Purges and Hitler's Germany.

 *** 

 My friend Andy Owen sent me a parable which may be made up to attack Obama on the laughable grounds that he is socialist - but which bears thinking about.

 Allegedly an economics professor at a local college announced that although he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class.

The class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

 The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment on this". Everyone agreed.

"All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade, so no one will fail and no one will receive an A:.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset. The students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little, had studied even less. And the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so reduced their efforts too. The second test average was a D.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased, as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings - and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail, because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

From, this the following was concluded

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for, without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work, because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

I do not think Obama is a socialist. I think he is, like almost all politicians, something of a shit. Recently, in an effort to curry favour with the right, he has backtracked on his promise to introduce a more humane immigration plicy.

In fact more people are being deported and families being torn apart under his legislation than were under Bush.