The Islamists….Part Two.

 

Okay, back to the Islamists and for a Solution.

Let’s begin this segment by being honest, the Arab Spring has really turned into the Arab Winter and things will get worse.  Simply stated, the Extreme Muslims hate the West and everything for which we stand and that will not change.

And the Extremists are consolidating their control throughout the Muslim World. 

Let me also say here, that I believe things will eventually improve but it will take Ordinary Muslims to see that happen and that will likely take upwards of 50 years or more to achieve. Modern Communications will greatly help to ensure this. But what is important to realize is that it cannot be imposed from the outside; it must happen from within. 

But in the meantime, what do we in the West do?  Stand idly by?

No, because we will continually see our collective noses bloodied.

So what’s to be done?

First things first.

We need to stop Iran cold in its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.  Indeed, I honestly believe they have them now – they are merely perfecting their delivery systems especially as it relates to their plan to completely destroy nearby Israel.  Obama’s reluctance to do anything is at best due to a desire to see no action taken until after November’s Election; and at worst, it means he is prepared to sit back until it is too late – as was the case for Pakistan and North Korea under previous administrations.  But neither of those countries have sworn to annihilate Israel as their first order of business.

So that must be done first and the sooner the better.

Next, the West must work closely with our few allies left in the Middle East – most especially Saudi Arabia.  Again, bluntly speaking, we need their oil.

As a corollary to that, we need to become energy self sufficient a.s.a.p. – and thankfully we have the energy source to do just that and no Dalton, it is neither wind nor solar.  It is Natural Gas; there is hundreds’ of years supply.

Concurrently,  we need to rope off our Islamist Enemies – no two way intercourse whatsoever: no trade; no investment; no travel / tourism; no contact by air / sea; no immigration etc.

Pretty harsh stuff, but we are at war with these folks and extreme measures are the only ones that will work.  And dear reader, they will work.

Finally, I would establish the Coalition of Democratic States (CDS).  Membership open to only those countries engaged in True Democracy – i.e. those with a robust System of the Rule of Law – along with the Islamist Nations, countries such as Russia and China need not apply.

Part of the Mandate of the CDS would be to nurture potential members.  Should Moderate Muslims rise up against their Islamist Masters, CDS would be there to help guide them toward eventual full CDS Membership.

An isolated Islam, living back in the Middle Ages as they are, would be rendered totally unable to continue their terroristic war on the West.

Threats that may arise within their boundaries (e.g. future attempts to develop nuclear weapons) would be easily negated by Western Attack from the Air.

Let them come to us, we’ll no longer be going to them.  We have finally learned our lesson.

As I see it…

‘K. D. Galagher’

 

MITT MITT MITT

 

What were thinking?

Telling Americans that 47% of their numbers are on the take, so to speak.  Readers of my Blog will realize this 47% number actually understates the extent of the problem – but even so Mitt, do you have a death wish.

Readers will also know that I have a way of knowing when a politician tells a lie – ‘he or she opens her mouth and speaks’ but here we have the contestant for the highest political office in the world and – brace yourself –  telling the true.

Whatever was he thinking?

My own feeling is that he stated it awkwardly but he did state accurately the fact that the United States is split politically right down the middle and I have made the same point on numerous occasions. 

I would have worded it differently – something along the following lines: ‘this Election represents a watershed in the history of this great country not only in regard to our out of control debt, but also due to the fact that too many of our citizens have opted out – opted out of the work force, opted out of society, opted out of their civic duty and so on’. I would then go on to say that for the health of our country we need to get this ever growing portion of society reinvigorated and back into productive contribution ‘since we as Americans need all hands on deck if we are going to preserve our place in history.

But as I have also said before – this election will not be decided by the 47% that support Obama nor even the 47% that support Romney; rather it will be decided by the small % in between who are not allied with either major party.

In that regard, I am still hopeful that this small % will see Romney’s comments for what they are – the truth and a realistic assessment of how bad things have become.  The supporters of either candidate can rant and rail all they like – but it is with the middle, that the November Election will be lost or won.

Should the day after the Election show that Obama has won – I will be surprised and of course very disappointed for America itself, but I will have a bit of that ‘Dalton McGuinty’ feeling – i.e. Obama will have to live with the consequences of his winning and it will not be pretty.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

p.s. part 2 of ‘What to do with the Islamists’ got bumped given the above. G 

 

THE ISLAMISTS’

 

How Did We Get To Where We Are ?…

But More Importantly, How Do We Get Away From There?

First off, for the record, let’s be clear here; Islamists are all Muslim but the majority of Muslims are not Islamists.  So that’s my politically correct statement; but the fact is, it is true.

Muslims date their religious beliefs back to their Founder, Muhammad (born around 570 A.D.).  Islamists are the Minority of Muslims who distort the Muslim Religion to justify their sadistic ways.  Moreover, most of their victims are fellow Muslims.  That said, Islamists have an especial hate for Jews /Israel and to a lesser extent, the United States of America.  But all Western Society is held in distain.

Islamists live in the past – the far past dating back to the Middle Ages.  It was then that Christians fought the Muslims in numerous Crusades between the 11th and 13th Centuries.  Christians were endeavouring to retake the Holy Lands which were lost when Rome declined over the latter part of the 1st Millennia. Christians have moved on from those distant years, but Islamists are still mired in the distant past.

So that’s where the Anti-Social Proclivities of Islamists began and today it runs rampant throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa. And even though in the minority, they are well organized zealots who succeed over the indifference of the majority. (Sadly, this apathy is prevalent here in the West as well).

After the Crusades, the West’s attention turned to matters of exploration, trade, industrialization so the goings on of the Arab World became of little interest; until of course the discovery of their vast reserves of oil.  But I am getting a little ahead of myself.

World War I came along an represented another watershed in the souring of relationships between Europe and Arabia.  The Arabs fought with the British in that War to get themselves out from under Rule by Turkey. These were the days of Lawrence of Arabia.  After the War, the Brits promised the Palestinians their own lands which was great save for the fact that they made the same promise to the Jews.  This led to fighting against the British by Jews and Arabs alike, ending in 1948 with the formation of Israel which angered the Arabs / Palestinians. They felt, for good reason, betrayed by the West.

When I say that, I am not diminishing in any way the Jews right to Israel I am merely pointing out that two very distinct cultures have legitimate claims to live in the Middle East. The Jews claim, like that of the Arabs, goes back thousands of years.

But it is these events of the last century and back to the middle ages, which fuels the current animosity between West and Middle East and the violence we are witnessing today has spawned from that. 

Since then, to keep the peace in this volatile mixture, the West has supported a number of strongmen – Dictators if you will – to keep the lid on hostilities. And just as importantly – or perhaps more importantly, to ensure Western access to Middle East Oil.

Some of these Dictators were benevolent; the Shaw of Iran, King Hussein of Jordan,  Anwar Sadat,  and Hosni Mubarak.  Some were bad; Gamal Nasser, Hafez and Bashar al Assad.  One was a clown – Muammar Gaddafi. One was bad – Iraq’s Saddam Hussein - but acted as a great barrier to the aspirations of Iran and  One was really bad – Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamenei.

It is of more than of passing interest to note that when the Great Shaw of Iran fell and when the Ayatollah was allowed to enter Iran, it was Jimmy Carter who occupied the White House and when Hosni Mubarak fell it was Barack Obama who called that place Home. 

One can criticize the Dictators all he or she wants, but the fact remains, none of these countries were then or are today ready for the implementation of Democracy and the Rule of Law.

And with the Dictators gone, along came the Arab Spring which I have consistently referred to as the Arab Winter.  It is but a vehicle to allow the Islamists to take control of Muslim Government and Society.  Violence as we have seen recently will become the norm.

The greatest threat though will remain the danger that Iran will acquire Nuclear Weapons.  They most likely have them now and are just refining their delivery.  Obama, like Carter in the 70s, prefers accommodation over confrontation and if he continues to stick to this it will force Israel to strike Iran by air in an attempt to knock out their nuclear potential.   And if that occurs, as it most likely will – all Hell will break out in the Middle East.  It could very well end in the total destruction of Israel but then again, Israel is damned either way and better to go down fighting for their rights.

So that’s where we are – my next Blog will deal with how best to get out from under all this.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

 

AND THE BEST ANSWER IS …

 

But before I get to that I want to say a few words about the killing of the US Ambassador in Libya and the storming of their Embassy in Egypt.

You will know that I never bought into Barack Obama’s Arab Spring crap – labelling it instead – the Arab Winter and this week’s terrorist activity by the Islamists confirms that.  I am saddened by it but to expect anything else was mere wishful thinking.

That said, I hope to do one or two blogs revisiting this, beginning with how we have ended up where we are now.  So…stay tuned.

Now for the Answer to yesterday’s Multiple Choice Question:

To spare you the suspense, the answer of course is e) slash government spending and dramatically increase income taxes.

If you gave this as your answer – give yourself 100%.

So why is this the preferred answer?

Because the USA is in such a bad financial state, slash and burn is simply not enough.  Taxes will need to be raised as well. One reader wrote in to say, “with less than 1% of all Americans paying 60% of all income taxes they should not be expected to pay even more” and I fully agree with that.  The other 99+ % must start contributing – as much as they possibly can – for two reasons; first the money is desperately needed to pay down the debt and second, more citizens need to have ‘their skin in the game’ so to speak since it is so easy to demand the spending of other people’s money.

So let’s now look at the other possible choices:

If you chose a) do nothing be happy - you of course failed miserably, but you are entitled from here-on-in to call yourself an Honourary Member of the Democratic Party.  For what that is worth.

If you chose b) spend more in a bid to enrich the have-nots - you get the worst mark possible – an F minus – but you are now entitled to call yourself an Honourary ‘Barack Obama’.  As consolation for this, your new name sake has a good chance of being re-elected.

If you chose c) try to reduce government spending – you get a C and the right to call yourself an Honourary Republican.

If you chose d) slash government spending – you get a B and the right to call yourself an Honourary Tea Partyer.

And finally, if you picked e) slash plus tax  - as noted above, you receive full marks – 100% plus the right to call yourself a realist as well as a realconservative.

In regard to the comments section some very good ones were made and there are extra points for the following:

• “Galagher you did not mention the farm income numbers in your employment”. numbers. Comment:  You are correct – there are 30 million listed as working in the Farm Sector but good stats on income / taxes were difficult for me to find but this does mitigate a little the stark numbers I provided to you in yesterday’s Blog.  If you identified this as being missing – add 20 points to your total.
• “You did not mention Corporate Taxes in your list of Stats”.  Comment: You too are correct and again this omission does mitigate things a little bit further.  Add 15 points to your total.
• “The USA needs to impose a Value Added Tax and it needs to be substantial (i.e. similar to Canada’s HST)  Comment:  You are bang on and when I say more income tax is needed – HST could be imposed instead.  This would get all Americans paying some tax – the income is needed to help pay down the debt and this would insure all have some ‘skin in the game’.  Give yourself an additional 25 points.

As I see it ..

‘K. D. Galagher’

 

THERE WILL BE A TEST ...

 

At the end of this Blog…

Well at least there will be a Multiple Choice Question.

But first, to assist you in your upcoming deliberation, some more interesting statistics:

• America’s Population is 330 million;
• America’s Debt now equals the total sum of all of its Annual Domestic Production (GDP) some $16 Trillion Dollars, while its annual deficit runs over $1 Trillion (move over Greece);
• Over 100 million Americans are in receipt of Government Assistance, that’s about 1 in 3;
• Over 50 million receive food stamps. that’s 1 in 6;
• Over 30 million receive welfare, that’s close to 10% of all Americans;
• 155 million American workers make-up its civilian workforce i.e. private and public workers, that’s about 50% of America’s total population;
• Of that number, 43 million work only part-time, that’s totals about 30% of all workers;
•  
• That leaves a full time civilian workforce of 112m or about 70% of all workers;
•  
• 19 million full timers work work for government, about 17%;
• That leaves 93 million full time workers in the private sector, less than 1 in 3 Americans;
• Of that number, 46 million (49%) of the private sector pay no federal income taxes;
• That leaves 48 million (51%) of the private sector paying federal income tax - (so every 1 taxpayer is supporting 6 fellow Americans);
• Of this number, the top 1% (480,000) pay nearly two fifths of all income taxes, while the top 5% (2.4 million) pay three fifths.  That leaves 95% (45.6 million) paying the remaining two fifths).
• Another way of saying this is that less than 1% of Taxpayers (2.4 million) out of 330 million Americans, pay nearly 60% of all income taxes collected.

  Now For Your Multiple Test Question:

After carefully considering the above-noted statistics, should you be Elected President this coming November 6, 2012, what would you be inclined to do during your 4 year term?

a)  Do nothing…be happy;  or,

b)  Spend more in a bid to enrich the have-nots at the expense of the rich;  or,

c)  Try to reduce government spending in a bid to balance the budget;  or,

d)  Slash government spending in order to balance government budgets;  or,

e)  Slash government spending and dramatically increase income taxes to ensure balanced government budgets.

For Your Comment:  this space is to allow each of you to write 2 – 3 sentences on any comments you may have in regard to the above assumptions. Remember to keep your comments clean.

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Your mark will be available in tomorrow’s Blog.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

Mea Culpa…

 

I goofed in my Blog earlier today when I stated that 100 million Americans are on Food Stamps – or 1 out of every 3 Americans.

The figure is actually 50 million or 1 out of 5.  Still pathetic, but only half as bad as my initial number suggested.

I found this out this evening when watching Sun News at 6 p.m. – by happenstance, they had an article on the 8.1% interest rate and said much of what I had pointed out in my earlier Blog.  Great Minds Think Alike?

Who knows, but they another figure for me as well – the official Participation Rate – aka – the Employment Rate.  The Sun News’ number was 63% which is even lower than the number I worked out in my Blog.  This 63% they said, is “the lowest participation rate” in decades. 

Moreover, Sun pointed out that the number currently working is the same as it was in year 2000 – despite today’s larger population some 12 years later.

So on balance, everything is as serious as I intimated in my morning’s Blog.

Sorry about that % error though and just so you know, I plan to follow-up with some related Blogs, which I think will continue to shock.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’

 

8.1% Isn’t What It Seems To Be…

 

As In America’s Official Unemployment Rate.

This past Friday, the US announced its official Unemployment Rate to be 8.1%, down .02% from 8.3%. On its face, the rate is not all that bad since Canada’s is only slightly better at 7.3% and we are seen as having the best economy amongst all of the G-8 Nations.

But I have to tell you, both numbers are wrong since they grossly understate the true number of unemployed. If you do not believe that, I have the proverbial Florida Swamp to sell you; but I must warn you, swamp land there is quickly being bought up by those who still take comfort in the Official Consumer Price Indices.  But that is a story for another time.

But today, I would like to focus on the US number since it is engaged in a critical Election with the main issue being its perceived high unemployment rate – or at least, this should be their Main Election Issue.

America has 240 million Persons of Working Age and of that number some 100 million are not working.  Indeed, many of whom have no interest whatsoever in the concept of work.

So in reality, their Unemployment Rate stands at some 41.7% (100 divided by 240 x 100).  The 8.1 number is correct only as it pertains to those few who are actively looking for work (i.e. want work).

“Okay Galagher, we get your drift but what about those millions of disabled who are in the workers’ age category but for reasons of mental and physical disability, cannot work.  It is not fair to cast them as being employable. And what about Homemakers – they perform a most valuable role, they should be excluded from those deemed unemployed”.

You are absolutely correct, so I looked up the number of disabled Americans and it totals 10% of those of working age or 24 million persons.  Moreover, Stats show that 90 million Americans, of working age, can be classified as ‘homemakers’.  Of that number 71% are working, leaving 29% in the “homemaker” category – or some 26.1 million people.

So let’s add the two groups up:  24 million disabled + 26.1 million homemakers = 50.1 million whom, although of working age, are not part of the outside workforce for hopefully legitimate reasons.  (I must confess to you that I harbour some suspicion in regard to this high number but for the purposes of this Blog, let’s say it is accurate).  

That still leaves nearly half – some 49.9 million people of working age but not working.  So by deleting the 50.1 million homemakers and disabled from the 240 million of working age, the available workforce is reduced down to 189.9 million.

So let’s do the math one more time.

49.9 million non working Americans represents an Unemployment Rate of 26.30%. Or a better way of saying it, the USA has an Employment Rate of  73.70% (i.e. 140.1 Americans are currently working out of an available working age population of 189.9 million). There a term for this – the participation rate.

I personally would like to see the employment / participation rate used rather than the unemployment rate if for no other reason than it is fully understandable – everyone knows what is included in the number – that is to say – that at the point of time the survey was conducted x% of working age folks were in fact working.  With the unemployment rate one is never sure if it includes those actively looking for work, those who have given up looking because there are no jobs or those who look at ‘work’ as an activity beneath them.

There is another important benefit I believe would come out of employment rate, it would force governments to examine more closely why some 49.9 million folks are not participating and would cause them to explore more closely why not.  They would be prodded to do so by those 73.70% who are working and would naturally wonder ‘why should I be working to support such a high number of able bodied slackers’.

So to sum up; currently, the USA has nearly 1 out of every 4 its workers not working and with that, I will leave you with one more very interesting statistic – some 100 million Americans are in receipt of food stamps.  That means 1 in 3 Americans are on the dole or in receipt of welfare. How can a society retain its economic health in the face of these numbers with so many of its able bodied workers – not working; many intentionally.

It can’t; if you get my drift.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’