The Party's Over

writes Pat Buchanan at Yahoo News. Below are a few excerpts from his excellent article - well worth reading.

"The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.

The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America. The "Omnipower" and "Indispensable Nation" we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history...

..."Government must save us!" cries the left, as ever. Yet, who got us into this mess if not the government — the Fed with its easy money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the drunken orgy?...

...Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come. Barack Obama will give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2 percent of the nation that already carries 50 percent of the federal income tax load.

John McCain is going to cut taxes, expand the military, move NATO into Georgia and Ukraine, confront Russia and force Iran to stop enriching uranium or "bomb, bomb, bomb," with Joe Lieberman as wartime consigliere.

Who are we kidding?

What we are witnessing today is how empires end."

Lollies: Not Our Future

The Government has been running the Not Our Future campaign since 2006. It is a campaign especially targetted at youth, which stars celebrities giving youth good reasons why they should stop smoking - or never start. It consists of bus-stop adverts and... yes, you guessed it, another expensive-looking Flash website. I haven't been able to dig up any information regarding how much the Government is spending on this campaign, but it must be well into the millions of tax-payer's dollars.

Just like drinking coffee, sniffing glue and eating lollies, smoking - as we all know, is damaging to our health. Do we need the Govenment to spend our money to tell us this? All of the things I've just mentioned can be used in moderation and for their intended purpose, with minimal detriment to one's health. Staying up late at night can also be harmful to your health. Perhaps the Government should introduce legislation on when we sleep, and for how long. Exemptions could be made for people working night-shifts, but there would be monthly checks done to make sure that people were not taking advantage of this clause.

They seem to have a problem with cigarettes being sold next to the lollies (sweets). But where's the concern about lollies being sold next to the cigarettes?

This is a post I've had in the pipeline for a while. I could rave on for ages, but who likes to read long, drawn-out raves on random people's blogs? Not me!

The Harsh Truth About Public Schools

Bruce Shortt has written a book entitled "The Harsh Truth About Public Schools," presents myriad reasons why government institutions are failing America's children and thumbing their noses at parents with a religious worldview. In this, he writes from a biblical perspective, presenting rigorous research about the agenda and effect of government schooling on the nation's young people. I am keen to get my hands on a copy of this book, which was published three years ago. Below are a few excerpts from WorldNetDaily's article on the book.

"Contrary to what many Christians have been led to believe, there is no such thing as a 'neutral' education," Shortt writes. "All education is religious and conveys a worldview, and there is no more important decision that we make as parents than how we educate our children."...

...In the book, Shortt documents the pitfalls of public schools, saying the anti-Christian thrust of the governmental school system produces inevitable results: "moral relativism (no fixed standards), academic dumbing down, far-left programs, near absence of discipline and the persistent but pitiable rationalizations offered by government education professionals."...

...Shortt makes his argument by citing a school district in Texas. "There is no public school district in the country that has more Christians in the community or in the schools than that of Plano, Texas," he said. "In fact, the largest and most powerful church in the state of Texas, Prestonwood Baptist, is located in Plano. Yet, it took a court order to force the Plano schools to allow Christian school children to privately give classmates Christmas gifts that had a Christian message. Moreover, the school district had even prohibited schoolchildren from bringing red and green napkins to the school 'holiday' parties for fear the colors might remind someone of Christmas.

I completely agree with Bruce. It never ceases to amaze me at how desperate parents are to surrender the minds of their children to the State. "They've got to face it at some time in their lives", they tell me. Absolutely, at some stage we all need to let go of the apron-strings. But handing your children to State institutions from the age of three is just wrong. And let's just not talk about the fact that these institutions are entirely tax-payer funded. Brrrrrrr! Amazon.com has got a copy for $11.